A campaign game in space! - Undaunted 2200: Revolution Board Game Review
Transcript
Hello everyone. This is Johannes
and this is Cinema
and you are watching Board Gaming Ramblings
and today we are taking a look at Undaunted 2200 Revolution.
We are. This is the newest and maybe lost Undaunted game. We don't know because Osprey Games is stopping publishing board games. So we don't know if there's going to be more Undaunted game. But we're not going to talk about that today. We're going to talk about Undaunted 2200 Revolution. But before that, if you're going to spiel, we hope to see you there because we will be there. We'll be there every day of the week. Not like Monday. We won't be there Monday, but we will be there the days that there are spiel. If you see us walking around, please give us the secret sign. We would love to see that. And if you want to come by and say hello because we like to speak to you. And we're going to be at the Alliance booth Saturday afternoon from like 2, I think, until the end of the day. Uh, and Sunday from 10 to 2, I'm pretty sure. Yeah.
So, hope to see you around there as well. If you want to make sure that to find us, then we will be there. With that said, let's talk about Undaunted. We are not going to go into detail about Undaunted as a system. We will talk a bit about like the base system in the review, but this is Undaunted as like a mini campaign. So, it's not going to be a long branching, not going to be like a long campaign game. You're going to play three or four scenarios and the scenarios are going to branch depending on things. We're not going to go deeply into it, but so far it's about who's winning and who's losing, what is going to happen. The base systems are pretty similar. The things that are new, we are going to talk about in the review. So, I'm not going to spend a lot of time just going to go. If you don't know anything about Undaunted, it is a multi-player. There's a four-player variant as a teams player game where you will be using a deck of cards that you can build to you play cards to use units to move those units to attack the other players units and to in this game get victory points by either controlling or destroying the other players um units.
If you attack somebody and you hit them, which you will do by rolling dice, then they have to discard cards of that unit out of the game. And if they don't have any cards of that unit in their deck, then that that unit is going to be in this game rooted, which you can fix by getting a new card and be able to play it. And that's also going to be a victory point for the other players. And that is basically what you're doing in the game. There are some special cards that let you draw new cards to play more cards or the biggest thing is to get more cards into your deck. That strategic deck building is the core of the game. Let's talk about this game.
Mhm. I'm just gonna note that the base system of Undaunted is really good.
It's solid.
Yeah. I just gonna touch on that because like the deck building with with the cards that you are using for the action of the unit is also that unit's life. It's it's so clever. So I might be like, "Oh, I think that unit is really vulnerable. I'm going to stack up on cards." But then those cards come into my hand. It's like, "Oh, I don't have anything else to do right now. just going to move that unit a lot. And in this game, you also have the difference between the aerial combat and the ground unit. So that's really interesting.
That is the biggest I would say. Like we're not undaunted specialist. So we might not be, but I'm pretty sure this is the first one where there is both aerial and ground combat at the same time. There has been aerial combat, there has been ground combat, but I think this is the first one where it is at the same time. And it comes with a few very interesting things. The main interesting thing I would say which also frustrating and hard but also very thematic is that the air units can can't basically stand still in the air
because they are moving because like it's if it's a tank like this ground shot here they can just stop. This bomber can't just stop. So of course theatically it's not like moving a real time but when I play a card let's say for example I play a transport B card which is my transport. I'm going to talk about the transport soon. Transport B is over here. So when I play it it has a forced movement. So I have it can move up to two but I have to move it at least one. And when it moves it moves towards the way that it is is pointing. So I can't just choose to change the order whenever I want. But if I choose a maneuver action, which means it's won't do to anything else. I can after each movement, I can change it one way or the other. Also, the transports are transporting the ground units. So, at the beginning of scenarios, you might not have many ground units. So, these might like come in and they might they're like drop ships. You will drop them in and then then you can play those cards to go in and for example control this, which is another way to get a victory point. And if you play one of the cards that has this a unit that is on the transport, then you can also do I you can only do a pilot which is to move and turn or you can disembark which is to go out of the unit. So especially these faster the fighters and the bombers are kind of annoying because you set yourself in a position like oh that's pretty good but then you move away from me and I'm like oh I wanted to attack you now and also they can only shoot in this directions. So let's say
for example the bomber wanted to bomb this sky shot. Right now it wouldn't be a problem because the bomber could then move a force movement of one stop and then shoot this sky shot. But you could be in other positions where you are for example here. I want to shoot that but I have to move there. And now there's nobody I can shoot.
Oh you can shoot him.
The bomber I don't think can shoot the the I can only shoot on the on the ground.
It actually says here I was going to talk about that anyways where it can shoot. So these arrows tells you if the unit can shoot only on the ground or in the air. So yeah, we've been in that situation multiple times. I'm shooting you and you like you can't,
but this is better at bombing things on the ground because bombing things in the air is not as easy.
Yeah. So as it says on the card, we don't have it to show it, right? Well, you can show it. Yes. Uh it the the attack in the air is worse for the bomber than on the ground. So attacking there one dice and attacking the on the ground four dice which is better.
Just really quickly like if you don't know anything of the combat the combat is super simple in this game. It is basically what is the defense? Let's say now this bomber is attacking this uh well let's just do this. This bomber is attacking this sky shot.
So this sky shot has a defense of four. Yeah.
And then you basically just add the distance. So it's one two three which means now it has defense of seven. And I am rolling four dice. I roll those. If one of them is a seven or higher, I hit.
That's the system. Then they have this.
Super simple.
I really enjoy that.
So smooth
because we're not heavy into wargaming. Yep. So I think this is this is a war game, but I really think that the simpleness of that makes it more approachable.
Mhm. It's not a war. Yeah. It's we're not heavy into war games, but if I would play a war game and don't this up there,
um I'm just going to touch briefly on the on the movement, the force movement on of the
of the air units. Uh well, it tracks for the ground units also, but especially the air units, you have to be a little careful not to fly too far away from your transport. Oh yes, because if you do an action with someone out of range, which the range is two, then you will get some discord into your deck, which is basically just like empty cards that clog up your deck. So, I think that's an interesting new addition to this game as well. Last time I played, I had 10 of them, which is the maximum amount, which if you have played any deck builder, you know, having 10 curse cards in your deck is not a good thing. This game does come with multiple maps.
Yes,
it comes with multiple scenarios. It comes with different units. It comes with different things. I feel like the variability feels like it's going to be high.
Yeah, we have set up the just like basic scenario zero. Um, so I felt like this was just like to ease us into the rule set and the concepts, but then the other map that we played um has been like very very different.
Yes. Which is good. I feel like like the branching, this is not a spoiler, but basically there is one scenario 07 zero one scenario zero then there is two scenario ones which means those are splitting again. So there's four scenario twos and those are splitting. So there are eight scenario trees which means there are 15 scenarios but it also means that it's going to be whenever you play a campaign I don't think you have to play zero but one is going to be only one of two.
Yeah.
And then depending on who wins or what happens there then two is going to be one of four but then like if you play the same one and the same thing happens again you're going to play the same one each time. So it's not going to be it's not going to be like different every time but there is a lot of variability in the different scenarios that you will play.
I want to talk about one thing.
Yeah.
And that is the look of this game.
Yes.
Because undaunted uh Kalisto but also that was also inside. So you had more like the because this is not very interesting looking. That is my bottom line. This is black and this is gray. it's moon or it's asteroids which makes sense but then they have made these way more stylistic than there was before in the other games at least the ones we have played there have been like more character artwork and more artwork on these pieces and I understand they couldn't be much bigger because you're going to have two maybe three pieces on one one area or one space but I don't think it's very inspiring to look at this board it looks like a it looks like a boring war game.
Mhm.
To me,
uh I I think that we might have done made that choice to make it clearer to because there's a lot of hap things happening here potentially. But even so, I kind of sometimes forget which transport is which and if it's a sky shot or a or a ground shot, they they look different but also pretty similar.
And the background color is basically A or B. So that's not a way to see it either. Like if you have both your ground shot and your
sky sky shot, look at this.
They're just like a little symbol and the name is different.
I I had to look at them for a few seconds to see like, oh, they are actually different.
Yeah. So So you could actually say that the simplisticness that they've used doesn't really help in differentiating the different units either. Uh but I have to say that the artwork on the cards is really well done. I really enjoy that. There is also a story here and we love stories in games. Before we go into this like because we don't we never have high hopes for stories in these kind of games.
I don't go I didn't go into this thinking oh it's going to be a really good story. But was it a really good story?
No. Well, the story is there but this is not a game that you play for the like touching or intense narrative. I would say
uh yeah, I would say
you because you said it.
I'm say I'm saying it.
I'm saying it.
Uh but but it's like more of a a context or a wrapping for Yeah. like a setting,
I would say. So, but I'm happy and I've said this in many games where like the story isn't the main part of the game that there isn't too much. Yeah.
It's not like now we have to read five pages of this fluff that doesn't really add to the scenario. It was it was more like okay this thing happened but for example when somebody lost it was like oh oh no this did happen like we have our own narrative cards and then we have like the narrative uh of the main narrative of the scenario and I would be okay that's puts me into the setting of what I'm why I'm doing what I'm doing but it's not like a very big story thing I would say with that said should we do some final thoughts
yes
do you want to begin or should I begin
oh you can begin
no you can begin or I can I'm beginning [clears throat] now.
Um,
first off, I really like the system Undaunted. The Undaunted games we played before, both the Normandy and the Kalisto, I think we played have both been great. And I think this adds something that those games doesn't, but I don't think this like is a better game. I just think it's different.
Yeah, it's a new spin on the system.
Yes, it's a new spin on the Undaunted system. So if you like Inda, I really think you will like this. And also board games, as we briefly mentioned are like it isn't the things that we enjoy the most in the board.
Board games. Yes. I thought you said board games.
Board games isn't the thing we enjoy the most.
No. Uh but it but that is Yeah. We enjoy a lot of different board games, but usually when we sit down to play a game, I'm choosing something else more euroy than a war game. So although I appreciate this system and if I were to sit down and play a war game, I will choose I think I I think the Undaunted might be my favorite actually. I think we still have Undaunted Kalisto and
I think I would choose that over this just because of like the artwork kind of presentation for me. So this is my final thought.
Oh yeah, this is my final thoughts.
So So I think you have to decide for yourself. Is this is something for you? As always, we can't decide for you anything.
I'm usually deciding.
Oh, that's true. That's true. You're deciding for people.
It's just in with this one case.
Yes, you can decide for yourself.
You can decide. But I'm going to land on the seven. I think it's a great system. It's not a game that I will reach out for, but because of who I am, but this depends on who you are.
Yeah, I I feel like the more I play Undaunted, the more I realize it's not the game for me. Mhm.
But like I agree with basically everything you said. I think the system here is really good. I love mechanically the system of this and and it's very hard because I I I have fun. But then again, there are these kind of randomness elements like the luck of the draw if I'm in. But then again, those elements add to the excitement like I really I really need to draw that card. Like yeah, I got it. I get to be able to do that. And last time we played, there was this scenario where I was like the I was like, "Oh, should I use this eight for the initiative?" And if I done that and not been like, "Oh, it doesn't really matter." Then it would have changed the game completely because having that initiative sometimes very hard to get it back. And and the dice rolls is that's not my favorite part of the game. But again, like if I try to shoot somebody that is like 1, two, three, four, five, six spaces away, I have to roll a 10.
That's my choice. I could have moved it and been able to shoot it easier. So, that makes it a better system. I think it it's a very clever system. It's a very good system. I think the bottom line is if you like and don't, you're going to like this. I don't think it's going to be like the oh I probably bought it for the great story but for the variability and if you liked and don't you're going to be refreshing with this aerial combat at the same time managing the locations and and as you said like the the the communication from the different units all of that is very very good for me personally it is going to be a seven as well it is a good game I don't think it is one that I need to play again
but it is one that I I'm happy that we played.
Yes.
And that is going to be the end. Hope to see you at Spiel. Show us the secret sign and subscribe to the channel. I'm Johannes.
I'm S.
And you've been watching Board Gaming Ramblings. And bye-bye.