Undaunted: Reinforcements - Discussion

0:09 some viewers may find the following video disturbing viewer discretion is advised hey everyone welcome to the discussion for undaunted reinforcements specifically the uh solo variant is what I'm going to primarily be focusing on um but for those of you who have watched the channel for some significant amount of time and have seen like our top 100s or I've actually done a review and playthrough of undaunted I think it's still up on the channel uh you'll know that I'm not a fan of this game uh really in any in any sense but my theory was that oh because it's a 1V one I know I think you can play in teams with the reinforcement stuff but it's a 1 V one Skirmish game that that might be my my reason because it relies on dice so maybe playing solo this wouldn't be that bad and while I do think that is the case I still cannot stand this game and it blows my mind that that people kind of Praise this because on paper even in the solo variant how if you succeed or fail still revolves around Dice and I hate that and I'm not saying hate as i a like a hyperbole I hate that in these kinds of skirmish games cuz as you saw if you watch the run through like yeah

1:41 there might be some strategy uh things that could have been better I mean looking back that's the silver lining of I look it's like you know I know I put my Scout ahead they I knew they had a sniper that could potentially hit um but it's pretty much right at Max so for what they're trying to aim for so maybe they won't hit um so yeah maybe I could have scouted a little bit to get my tank out in the open a little bit more but the entire playthrough they did not miss what do you do around that hell I've played games of undaunted even the undaunted Kalisto where I swear and Brad who's this is his copy I didn't go and buy this for this run through um he's a guy I do top 10 with and and my he's in other other videos he can test to this that in in Kalisto I moved out like once and then I did not move and I just rolled cuz oh look a 10 a 10 oh I need a nine look at that a nine that is the most lazy way of Designing a skirmish game that I I can think of and so even in the solo variant it's like okay like yeah I just I pretty much just felt like I wasted 40 minutes because what do you do around that even it's like okay I'll move my Gunner and that's all I can do because their sniper is shooting at me or their Scout is shooting oh he needs to get a nine to be able to hit my Gunner and look at that he did like they it was

3:14 non-stop just anti-tank rolling and getting every result that they need their sniper getting every result that they need their engineer getting every result that they need so it's like well I'm clearly not winning so what's the point uh and then on top of that it still revolves around the randomness of your deck it's like boy I have one shot to be able to uh stop them from at least blowing up that that base or that area now maybe I'll maybe I'll draw my Riflemen and look at that I didn't it's in the deck but didn't didn't get it um or oh yes I did get my Rifleman I'm going to play him to attack oh he attacks with a one I need a five and there's a two okay well that was a wasted turn and oh look at that the engineer gets to roll three dice he needs a six or higher so NDS are not necessarily in his favor and oh look it's a 10 and a nine and a six so he blows it up it's it's so so frustrating but I will say if you like undaunted if the dice and the deck do not bother you then this is an excellent solo variant um the reason why I was B bitching at the beginning was mainly because I was hoping that cuz on paper this game this game can be fun whenever I was testing out the solar variant to begin with I was playing like the Dunkirk you know soundtrack and I was like this is amazing um no it was

4:45 actually the 1917 soundtrack and I'm like this is amazing you can really get into the theme um the vehicles are cool and I mean I know positioning can kind of matter not really because you could always just roll a 10 um which I know is a one in 10 chance but it's the fact that it can happen and it's like I didn't really do anything I just rolled where's my incentive I I'll just roll and hope I hit oh look I did but I was really hoping that this this solo variant would be like okay all right this is really good uh so the way that it actually works is so clean I really really like how cuz you I mean it is kind of annoying that that you have to go out and buy either the North Africa or the Normandy box and then you have to buy the reinforcement box which if you really like undaunted you'll probably get both anyway and then this reinforcement box just stores everything in there which would assume that they're done making content which is kind of a shame because I feel like there's a lot more areas and scenarios they could make for it but you you just pick one of those box is pick a scenario and which side you want to play as and then the way you set up for for the uh for the bot is again very clean they just have it where it's all numbers on What scenario are you on for okay find every card that they have in

6:15 their deck and then at the top for their for their solo bot cards you just find where it says for and then those are the ones you're you're running so even though you might have a warrant officer that's good for scenario one are those literally the same thing they are so I don't know why it's different it's stupid um but hey this is for two through this one's for two through four and seven and eight and the other side which is for the which is the exact same actions is for one scenario one but either way you you just find those and they're really clean you're like oh who's going oh the engineer's going find his card and see if the first statement's true demolition he's not on a spot to do that so we just ignore that oh he's not on an objective which his objective is to blow up one of the structures so he's not on it then he's just going to move to one that's closer that's scouted then you get weird things where it's like if it's not scouted then I mean final thing he's just going to attack and attacking is super straightforward you're they're going to shoot the one that's easiest to hit uh which makes sense so the only thing you have to kind of deal with is there their deck which is random but it's really not that bad it kind of still mimics that if you're uh like your opponent you don't know what cards are in their hand and you can look through their discard pile and see

7:47 you know who is um who is potentially available like you could with an opponent I I think it works extremely well and it's not surprising I mean it's ospry game and they're the same ones who did the solo variant for um oh for the civilization game that I'm drawing a blank on what is that game called Imperium Imperium Classics and legends and Horizons and that game is best solo so while I do like this better solo and I know the the counter to my my dice rolling is well that could have happened for me and you're right it could have but that still doesn't mean it's a balanced fun game I've had games of unded where it is or the dice do go my way and I am bored out of my mind because it's basic resolution and it doesn't make the game any quicker I I don't think I I mean that was still a 40 minute scenario where I was just getting my ass handed to me the whole time and it's like well this isn't fun but then it's like okay well let's if this was like again and I know I'm saying 40 minutes even if it was like you took 10 or 15 minutes away from that and it was that quick I'd be a little more forgiving but it's not that quick especially when you're running everything by yourself in the solo variant where it's not both players are really Snappy and knowing exactly what they need to do and they have their dice it's like I'm going to play this I'm

9:18 attacking I need an eight okay I got an I actually got an eight okay so that's going to hit take and you're just really like like clicking like it's really working that's not really working whenever it's just you cuz you still are like okay these are the four cards okay I got I got a seven I got my ten Commander but I kind of want to use them and it's even more I think I think it's even more um kind of important whenever it comes to initiative because your opponent is rewarded for winning versus you you still lose the card you just want initiative they will now just do random four actions but if they win then they get to keep the card and I mean it's still three actions so they don't actually lose a action or a card like you do now you can play on the easier mode where they do and then they still draw their three cards um and I get why they do that I'm not really upset about how that works cuz it's still random like they can kind of get a little bit stupid where if their Scout is not if all their people are getting drawn before their Scouts doing anything then their Eng engineers and their anti-tank people and their snipers and not doing much until the Scout becomes available to do actions for but then like the the one of the games I've played the Scout was not being inspired so all he was doing he happened to be getting paired up with a fog of War so he would Recon and that was it so then

10:50 all the other people would go again and they had nowhere to move because he hadn't scouted he just Recons and gets rid of the fog of War then eventually they got going and then once they start going then they start doing pretty much what they just did in this run through I don't know like I I think I think the the Preamble of still setting it all up picking a scenario set I mean this is not the funnest game to set up of with all the tiles and stuff so doing all that maybe about 20 30 minutes of setup finding the right card shuffling getting their deck getting their bolster deck set up and then it revolving around die rolling is whether you succeed or fail I find all that work to not be worth it but like I said if you like undaunted and maybe you're a little bit like me where it's the dice are more frustrating when it's against another person because it's just more competitive that way then but you still like the game and the mechanics of the do the deck building and the the low maintenance and low cost of everything then the solo variant would probably will be for you if you if the dice are only frustrating because it's a competitive 1 V one experience well then it's just against a bot and if it does what it did then you're not really going to Care um so I which is unfortunately I've I've never really liked undaunted I've never really understood why people like it unless you're kind of a history buff and I

12:22 swear if someone says oh well in the morac Airfield the lldd RG long distance something were they LD RG is that it um LD it says yeah lrdg um well the lrdg did win in real life great I'll read a Wiki page I I don't want my games to be like historically whenever it's like well okay so it's unbalanced well it would be because they it was it was against you know the Italians weren't equipped to it's like I've never liked that never like that in my board gaming now do I think this is unbalanced no um I get it why it was paired this way I have a tank they have a way to deal with the tank but it's still a tank and they have a sniper that's kind of the the uh the the balancing tools do I think their sniper is probably op maybe but again it came down to die rolls there was a real chance that the sniper could just be and he rolls ones and twos the entire time so all my people live and I get to do whatever I want uh but that wasn't the case and that's just how how it went um yeah I I am impressed though that they were able to kind of make a skirmish game like this and make it work with a bot I think it's designed by David tury

13:53 um where is it is it is it him well it's David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin for the reinforcements but I don't know if the solo yeah SOLO mode by David tury I mean of course it's that dude is a whiz he's like the the Einstein of solo modes I don't know how he does it because I would never have begun to figure out how to make this game solo nor would I ever really try but he's he's really really good so I think for solo players of undaunted this is as as good as it can get and if you have both boxes of North Africa reinforcements also has scenarios reinforcements North Africa and Normandy you got a lot of game here especially if you're doing like a campaign where you're going from Scenario to scenario I don't know what that entails if or if it's just hey play every scenario and log when you played it it's it's pretty clean again you know you could play this and be like all right well the Italians got Mass M their sniper was the MVP now I'm going to try I want to play as the LR um DG and play against the Italians and see how they Faire with their tank and then you do it's very very clean and easy to set up I'm not saying the setup and all that is um difficult it just still takes some work and I understand why in the Kalisto thing they just went to boards instead of these tiles I think that's a very

15:24 smart move so I'm definitely uh conflicted on on this on this uh solo the solo variant on its own like I'd probably give an eight I think it is really good I you know it takes maybe the first scenario of playing it to just figure out oh this is how they work got it in terms of it it fixing or doing anything for my relationship with unded it did not it did not improve it in fact it again emphasized how frustrating it is but I guess again because you're playing solo it's like okay who really cares you just you just you table flip yeah so I'd probably still keep undaunted at a five I I don't really see anything special with it and unfortunately I don't know how you would even fix the dice um do something cool because what's also kind of weird is the tanks don't give you any defense that was kind of the whole point uh or not was the whole point but that was a benefit of why you keep you keep Squad men around the tank because one it's protection if you're being shot at and you can hide behind the tank but also you protect the tank it's a it's a a very nice relationship to have but it doesn't do that it doesn't give you any any defense I think they could have done something special like there are skirmish games that um that I've played that do have dice that I really really

16:54 like mainly Mythic battles Pantheon Ragnarok so it would have been nice if there was like a I don't know like a percentile and then because what's also frustrating is like let's say you do get shot yeah you you could just get shot especially if it's a sniper and he's really good he Wings my my Scout but then you have to rely on drawing into a card that lets you bolster and get them back I think if they wanted to keep the deck building and keep the the dice as is I think that you look through your hand you look through your discard po or look through I think it's uh I think it's hand deck discard pile and then Supply the fact that you don't pull them from your supply pile I think is actually kind of shitty so if I were to ever play this again I wonder if that's a house rule that people have done because you're still limited but it keeps them around I don't know if that would extend the game longer and but it's the fact that you still have to bolster them um would mean that if it's getting removed from your hand or your deck or your discard prob means you still don't have them but you can try and get them back you can call for reinforcements I think that that would be better because then you wouldn't because you can never lose your uh commanders or your squad leaders but let's say I ran out of Scouts and it's like well in this scenario they're the only ones that can scout so I'm now locked that's stupid so if I still have

18:26 some in my Supply pile and I have to still be lucky enough to draw them before getting shot again then yeah I think that would probably be better because then it doesn't just lock someone from being able to win and they're resorting to I guess I'll kill you because that's not what the objective was the objective was to control two points of locations so the objective isn't to kill my enemy so I don't like the fact again that you have to be like well it's all hope is lost I guess I'll kill you kill all your people it's like well if that's all is an option why not I'll just do that so let me know in the comments if that's something that that you've done if you've done that tier of of removing cards of hand deck discard pile and then Supply pile before they're actually removed from the from the from the board I'd be very curious to know uh in my head of just making that up that sounds like it would alleviate some of the randomness of the dice because at least there's a chance that I can draw draw into a commander and and bolster them into my deck and maybe get to use them get them out into you know this field up here or something that gives me two defense and then it's you know six 7 8 nine 10 and then it's like a 10 a guaranteed 10 which the fact that a 10 could still hit you is dumb but that would make me feel a little bit better so whenever they're completely wiped from your resources that's when they're removed that makes

19:57 the most sense to me it would help with the current uh way it's designed but anyway that's that's all that again eight for the solo stuff on its own five for still the rest of the game um that's I one that's my thoughts on undotted reinforcements let me know what you think of the game in the comments below other than that like comment share and subscribe and have a wonderful whatever time upd is for you hey everyone thank you for watching and I really hope that you enjoyed the video if you would like to see more of my content go ahead and click that subscribe button and the bell to be notified whenever I upload any new content if you feel like supporting the channel you can go ahead and click that patreon link to be taken to my patreon and any help is truly appreciated other than that stick around for any any other runthrough or reviews or cool top 10 or whatever I feel like putting on other than that like comment share and subscribe and have a wonderful whatever time of day is for you