Undaunted: Battle of Britain Review

02.08.2023 - 21:43 / boardgamequest.com

We review Undaunted: Battle of Britain, a two player skirmish game published by Osprey Games. This new installment of the award winning Undaunted Series lets players take to the skies in the Battle of Britain.

The Undaunted series continues to tackle important arenas of combat through the continued scope of the second world war. While recent release Stalingrad found players face down in the dirt and mud in one of the bloodiest battles in human history, the brand-new Battle of Britain takes a different approach. Do designer duo David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin have another standout hit on their hands? Have they been able to transition from foxholes to blue skies and provide a new perspective? Let’s fire up the planes and see if Osprey Games newest two-player release can bring glory and victory to your gaming table.

At its core, Battle of Britain is firmly a part of the Undaunted system. As a deck builder, players draw a hand of four cards each turn, using one of them for initiative, and then in initiative order play all their cards to change the state of the board. I won’t go into detail on the system, as there have been plenty of Undaunted games reviewed on the site, but what I will explain is how the system has adopted a unique aircraft-only approach to war.

In Battle of Britain, players can partake in eleven different historical battles above the English Channel. The first thing to note is the end-game situation. Typically, the game is won by either the Royal Air Force (RAF) or Luftwaffe neutralizing a certain number of aircraft. There are other end game goals that require ships to escape the board, structures to be bombed, or a combination of these. Players compete until a goal is reached, or all their aircraft are neutralized.

While the card play remains the same as previous titles, specific cards represent new thematic elements. Rather than units comprised of different individuals, one pilot is displayed on multiple cards to represent their plane’s health. There is no unit routing in Battle of Britain. If a player runs out of a certain aircraft in their deck, they do not get the option to add more later. The aircraft is neutralized instead.

The biggest change here is the map which is now comprised of a hex-grid. This design allows aircraft to maneuver by adjusting the front of their plane to a new edge of the hex. As such, turning can take some time and players must navigate to a new hex to maneuver to the next edge. And aircraft must be in constant motion, so they must move forward to a new hex before they can even maneuver in a new direction. Ace pilots are the exception to this rule. Due to their expertise, they are the only unit allowed to maneuver prior to moving forward.

Each air force