Undaunted: Battle of Britain review — A brilliant dogfighting experience that soars.

My first experience with the Undaunted system came at Origins in 2023. A fellow editor and I were looking for something to play after a long day of visiting the exhibition hall and he recommended Undaunted: Normandy. After one session, I was hooked! We played through the first four or five scenarios and I immediately purchased my own copy for my wife and I to play when I got home from the con. While previous iterations stuck to ground combat in Normandy, North Africa, and Stalingrad, Undaunted: Battle of Britain takes the classic system and launches into the air in a brilliant simulation of World War II aviation combat.

Undaunted: Battle of Britain has two players taking the roles of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) or the German Luftwaffe during the summer of 1940 and the aviation battles around the English Channel during World War II. Distributed by Osprey Games and developed by David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin, Battle of Britain introduces the constant movement needed to keep planes in the air while trying to neutralize the enemy through a series of missions with different objectives. 

The Undaunted system is a basic deck building game where players start each round with four cards from their deck. The cards in their deck represent different units or structures in the battle taking place on the modular board between the two players. Each player chooses one of their four cards to play to gain or hold the initiative using the value printed on the card. The player with higher value will get to go first taking the initiative in battle and if the values are the same the player who had initiative from the last round keeps it. A turn progresses by players playing cards from their hands and manipulating their units on the board, adding more cards to their deck, or shedding cards from the game. Once both players have played their cards, they will draw back up to their hand of four and a new round will start.

The units in this game come in the form of different aircraft. When playing a unit card, players will always have to move their units forward, because stationary aircraft tend to fall out of the sky. Aircraft can also maneuver around the board throughout their movement action to help get into ideal firing positions. Different planes will have different firing lines to attack planes in the air or water/ground targets below. Command cards allow players to bolster their decks by adding duplicate cards for their aircraft units. Command cards can also help guide planes to new positions, and get rid of pesky discord cards that clog a player’s deck. Another great ability is inspiring their units to take another action after their card has already been played.

Attacking in the game is fairly simple as well. If a player has a line of sight on a target down one of their firing lines, they can attack. The closer they are to the target, the better. Each space or obstacle between the attacker and their target adds to the target’s base defence value giving the attacker a dice roll target number. The attacker will then roll a number of dice equal to their attack value, with attacks on a target's flank giving a bonus, hoping one of their dice meets or exceeds that defence number. If a hit is made, the defender must remove a card matching the damaged unit from the game. If the target doesn’t have any more cards in the deck, they are eliminated from the game.

One of the unique elements from this iteration of the game is the need to stay “in comms” throughout the game. Each aircraft has a wingman support unit matching its color and unit designation. To stay “in comms,” the two aircraft must stay within two hexes of each other. If they go outside that range, any actions from their unit’s command card will add discord cards to their decks and some actions are forbidden “when out of comms.” This adds another layer to troop movement strategy when moving around the board. 

The game comes with 11 different scenarios giving each player a different objective and arsenal of planes to work with. For example, in one scenario, the RAF needs to neutralize (shoot down) two enemy planes to win, while the Luftwaffe needs to bomb and destroy 4 enemy ships to win. In another scenario, planes may need to escape off of the edge of the map, or a player may need to score a number of points to win. Each scenario is also themed around an actual skirmish or battle that took place during the fighting and a description of the conflict is provided for context. 

Overall Thoughts

Battle of Britain is a triumph and one of my favorite entries in the Undaunted line of products. The production of the game is simple, straightforward, and versatile. Each of the map tiles is dual sided featuring unique terrain on one side and ocean on the other. In each scenario, tiles are laid out to create an intricate landscape for the skirmish to take place with leftover tiles used to fill in an ocean. To add in elements such as clouds, ships, and floating debris fields, small hex tiles can be added to the map. The simple designs of the planes make it easy to see what direction they are moving and a great top down look of the combat. Each card set features a pilot who flew in the war. The rulebook is easy to follow and the ruleset is fairly simple. The scenario book does a great job of telling what cards are needed for each session and how to lay out the board and pieces to start.

The gameplay keeps the classic Undaunted flavor while adding in the new dynamic movements of aircraft and the communication between wingmen. Players have to decide whether breaking off and pursuing an enemy is more strategic than staying in comms, whether to add more cards to the deck or press their advantage with their pilot. Gameplay sessions can get intensely heated depending on what cards you draw and whether or not you want to push for initiative and go first. My typical experience with war games is long and arduous, but the gameplay here is quick and exciting and packs a punch in about an hour or so per scenario. Each combat teeters back and forth and never feels like someone is completely out of the game or overwhelmed.

I only have a couple of drawbacks for this game. One thing I like to do with any deckbuilding game is sleeve my cards and preserve the quality with all the shuffling. Once sleeved, the included insert did not give much space for storage. I ended up ditching the insert and finding some discarded bags from other games to store everything. Also, one of the weirdest things in the game is seeing planes sit stationary in the sky waiting for a card to come out. Since one of the main mechanisms is the movement of the plane cards, it's weird to see a plane sitting idle for 3-4 rounds, but it's a small thing to look past.