This might just be my inner Dune nerd speaking, but I think a Dune-themed second edition of this would be amazing. The desert aesthetic would lend itself to cleaner art, and "scrappy highly-mobile faction of people who lived here before and prefer fighting in melee range" sounds extremely Fremen. The moment I saw that Drill, I wanted a little cardboard sandworm standee. Holding out for Un-Dune-ted in 2025.
I was about to comment basically the same thing, Harkonnen vs Fremen but could be expanded including other factions depending on era. They could even go War vs the Machines !
The fact that he struggled so hard between recommending and not recommending speaks volumes on the bar they set for the SUSD Recommends badge. Good video!
I appreciate this. I mean, you have money - and there are a LOT of games to buy, plus some juggernauts like War of the Ring (if just looking at 2 player games) in the corner. Older games like Kemet/Cyclades if you want to just bash armies at each other for JUST a little more money. The bar has to be set high.
"Like a jelly fish through a sling shot!" 🤣 A Matt Lees classic, up there with, "One part scary and one part sweet, like a vampire dipped in chocolate".
Thanks, you addressed several aspects of the game other reviewers passed over. Rather than a gateway game this is more like Stalingrad, great but not if you are just starting..
I agree with a lot of the praise and criticism made in this video. Having played Undaunted before, I just read the part in the manual about "what's different this time" and checked the 4 player rules (I've had one or two sessions playing 4 player with Reinforcements before). I agree the manual is a pain for searching and parsing through. And some of the icons on the board were also a pain. The sci-fi binocular scout icons on the board don't (exactly) match the tokens?! And it wasn't super clear whether we were supposed to start with Mechs in the first scenario. (I'm sure with hindsight it would be, but the rules book certainly didn't make it easy for us. We even considered reading the story/flavour text to see if it mentioned LFA having Mechs😅. Which to be honest, I love the addition of narrative adding immersion, but this gaming group did not care for it at all ha). But my mid-comment pivot comes in the form of disagreeing the scale of the problems. I agree that finding which units are needed can be a pain - with a solution perhaps showing all available units and then greying out the ones not in play that scenario could help set-up. And a box design that can split each units for quicker selection and setup would be nice. But it's not *that* bad. Sure, the game isn't as quick to set-up as something like, say, Sea, Salt and Paper (what is!) but *if* you organise your cards in the order they appear in the selection list (e.g. in original undaunted, have your captain/commander and similar units without tokens first, then scouts, riflemen, gunners - the core deck in Stalingrad then additional ones after, it's not *too* tricky). Though I appreciate that this means being disciplined with tidying away the game. And I've only played the first 2 scenarios of Callisto, as LFA. And possibly noted that Breakers have 2 "different kinds of scouts" and so the idea of a "core deck" may go out the window a bit with the breadth of units added to the game. I don't know... I guess my main feeling is that the pros far outweigh the cons. I think for sure, the setup could put off some players, and it's good for these people to know this going into it, when there are so many games to play; limited time and money etc. etc. and there's no need for everyone to play and love the same games I do 😅 But I'd say if you're a keen/enthusiastic gamer and like the sound of this game, then the issues with rulebook and setup should not put you off of getting the game. (Though again, agree why this makes it hard to give it the SU+SD recommended badge)
100% agree. I've played this game through and the setup is a teensy bit annoying, but there are so many other games that are so much worse. It's like Matt took what should have been a nit and made it into a core criticism of the game. Doesn't match my experience.
Matt, fantastic review!! So well thought out and scripted. Ultimately you made me not want to buy it, but to definitely want to play if, but maybe not buy it...? But definitely play it! Lol
7:45 in the military we talk about the "3-legged stool: move, shoot, communicate", meaning any unit that loses the ability to perform any of those is useless, so thinking about a mech that can either not move or not communicate....yup, it's dead.
We're but two iterations away from Undaunted reverse engineering the ASL half map tiles as a middle ground between fiddly individual tiles and boards that only work for one scenario.
Thanks for sharing. I have the game on the way, mainly due to the Undaunted aspect. Glad I can set the game up and leave it, given the set up time. Hopefully I'll get to the know it, know it level of the rules and be able to soar!
The cross-referencing session before starting a scenario is probably the main reason my old copy of north Africa doesn't hit the table as much. I'm happy someone pointed it out - the narrative around undaunted is usually very positive (and rightfully so), but setup is a major pain.
@@RobOngrui yes, the digital board game market is smaller than the normal video game market, but they aren't always quite direct conpetitors. At least, no more than how there are hundreds and thousands of games and new games all the time. Root, Scythe, Undaunted Normandy, Dune Imperium, Terraforming Mars, Wingspan, and plenty of others have all seen success. That's aside from Tabletop Simulator which is it's own semi-popular/known thing. Then for extremely niche but fun, you have stuff like the Vassal Engine. The Dune board game also has a free online version online, there's a Fortress America website from an old Yahoo Group that just started back playing games, and other random things too. I also just remembered a Java Runtime program which people play War of The Ring. I got it running years ago but have never played with anyone, and it would be daunting to do that having never played the physical version.
❤ Great review, thanks Matt! Look forward to giving this a try if someone else has a copy, already got North Africa, Normandy and Reinforcements to finish off.
I really like the modular board nature of the old games and was excited when you said it was heavier than it deserved to be, expecting it to be full of board pieces. Turns out it was full of board pieces, except they are premade boards. Hard pass because of that unfortunately for me. Perhaps each mission is better but it really cuts back on being able to play it after the fact however you like. Plus it reeks of cashgrab via expansions.
As always, a fascinating and insightful look at this. This would have absolutely been an impulse buy for me, what with the Undaunted system, the sci fi theme, and anti-capitalist leanings, but it's good to see a complex look at a game that is so fantastic, while also being hard to parse and, in some ways, a little frustrating. You're awesome! Can't wait for the next one!
I've only played the original Undaunted a few times because I loathe setting it up - the map tiles, the player decks, organizing the control and fog of war tokens. This looked to me like an immediate improvement because of the map boards - one fewer thing to set up! But sounds like it's still a pain.
It's honestly not very much of a pain. This was an odd one to me because so many of the games that SUSD does recommend have way worse setup. The setup isn't a big deal and having played this game a bunch (got it at GenCon), it just felt like Matt was hunting for a criticism.
Well, now this will be out of stock everywhere by the end of the day and I have already blown my budget for the month. Oh well, I guess I'll buy it sometime next year whenever it gets reprinted
I'm surprised you had such an issue with the setup for this game. The new boards make it much easier to set up than any Undaunted I have played before.
I haven't played Stalingrad yet despite it sitting on my shelf for months. I love Undaunted. I'm a WWII nut and it's right up my street. Just need to get Normandy and then North Africa played first then can open that big box of delights.
I'm sorry so many designers still don't consider this. It's really inexcusable in 2024. My brother is RG blind and some games he has to ask for help. Some designers are doing great though - thinking of Rio Grande and Fun Forge.
As someone with enough family history to make WW2 stuff really uncomfortable this space version means I might actually get to play an undaunted game at some point, which is great
I think the long set up time is overstated in this review, I’d class it as being about average in terms of set up times for modern board games. The fact that each scenario has it’s own board and the starting tokens and cards are printed on the board actually make it quicker to set up than other games in the series. I’d agree that it isn’t necessarily the best jumping in point for the Undaunted series though, the simplicity of Normandy still makes that the best one to start with.
Robbie MacNiven, eh? He did some Warhammer novels I quite enjoyed, and has also written some Descent (the board game) novels that I still need to check out.
Yeah, I did have a good time with Undaunted Normandy, and the tiles being modular meant you could come up with your own maps. I think that should be retained. I know space = hexagons is super cliché, but it seems like the logical next step. With the 8 maps, it feels like a game with a limited lifespan that didn't have to be limited. Some font work on the cards, adjust the art to have that TF2 silhouette effect (seems like LESS detail would go a long way here. Not minimalism, but N64 or gamecube level), and I think this would have been an easy buy. From what I've seen, I'm not so sure about this one. The little annoyances add up. That said, the new mechanics sound like a lot of fun and really add a twist to tactical decisions.
Great review and quite funny, reminded me a bit more of the old styles of SUSD. I personally disagree with a couple of points made though. Setup is really quick for me, maybe 5 minutes? (although I do agree the insert could have been a touch better). I also think the difficulty in finding cards was a tad overexaggerated, perhaps the old undaunted's cards were visually slightly easier (can't say since I've never played them) but the font is chunky and easy to read, so can't say I've experienced that problem. Also the comment on how the foundation is perhaps unstable, that's very much from the point of view of a previous undaunted player. Interference is just as recognisable a term as fog of war (perhaps even more so for new players not as accustomed to war games). Found it very funny that in a video on a war game there was less political/social commentary than have been in the last few SUSD videos, hope we get videos like this more often in the future.
Indeed, I don't understand why he said that about the foundation, it's literally what we've seen in Undaunted with some additional minor rules (which I love) on top of it to give more detail to altitude differences instead of just being a 3/1 defense tile. The vehicles are a mix of what was seen in North Africa and Stalingrad/Normandy's Reinforcements. A bit more complex than Normandy for sure, but it's not like the base of the game is buried deep in new content. Just my 2 cents.
We played 2 rounds yesterday and we loved it. But... we also stumbled exactly over the same criticisms as you did.... The Artwork and Design is neat, but its a pain in the a** to look and differentiate the cards/units. Setup is so annoying and tedious. The Art in the WW2 games was so much more eye friendly and accessible. Anyway, I love the system and I love Callisto just as much as I loved the other games.
Never played Undaunted due to the theme not really catching my interest, but recently got this one. Love the 4 player mode as well, feel like it will make it easier to hit the table at my local boardgame meetup
Looks good but when will I ever feel like putting this on the table? I will stick to lighter two player fare. I really need a 45 version of this from setup to fin
That's what's stopping me too. I have a hard enough time even getting something light like Roll for the Galaxy to the table. My group is half teenagers and half sleep-deprived parents of teenagers 😂 A heavy wargame with long setup and very feelsbad for the loser is gonna be no-go.
I have 3 x 2 business card holders and place each squad in a row with their id letter in front, cards leaving the game are put backside up behind the available cards. 100% agree on V vs Y. No issues with map or iconography but some rules require a double take. Storage works but use baggies. I think its 8 out of 10 gameplay, 9/10 art, 10/10 narrative thatvemerges and should be enjoyed not rushed.
What if I'm an experienced boardgamer (TI4, Brass, Nemesis, etc) and I haven't play any Undaunted and I really like the aspect of this one? Would this be recomended to me?
Not being totally hyped about this game only shows how high the quality of board games in general has become. The game is so good, and even a solid step above Normandy, which was already hyped. V and Y not clearly visible? Oh, come on :) I think it's the best of the series. And SU&SD is of course by far the best UA-cam channel :) But even during the TI4 expansion review, I couldn't quite connect with it internally :)
"Okay, we've been tasked with quelling the miners rebelling on one of the most rugged environments we've seen. We should send in the glass mechs and lots of troops to babysit them." Matt made the mechs seem quite vulnerable which makes no sense to me.
Strong things can be brittle... Think of a sword where, if you don't cut correctly and accidentally apply your force to the flat, it will snap in half rather than hurt the enemy.
@@nfinn42 the armour a knight wears is designed to withstand attacks and not be brittle. Likewise, modern tanks are known as "armour" for the same reasons. A mech is a lot like a cross between a knight and a tank. Why would they be building brittle mechs?
Knight's armor couldn't stop bullets (yes knights in the renaissance had guns) or bodkin arrows (sometimes). Tanks today are death traps without infantry support. If you use tanks without support a single man with a rocket will put the tank out of action with a rocket or missile. It's why tanks are awful in urban combat. Way too easy to disable from close up. Basically tanks and knights are not and never were meant to act alone and are surprisingly weak when attacked in the right situations or with the right weapons. Russia loses tanks to $250 drones in Ukraine. They are not unstoppable machines.
It's very similar to armour in the Second World War. Very powerful, but not very agile and impossible to see much out of, so it's easy to be ambushed. So the best practice was to move the tanks with the infantry. The tanks would protect the infantry by destroying bunkers and laying down suppressing fire, and the infantry would be the eyes for the tanks and stop anyone sneaking up on them. This sounds like it is mirroring that symbiotic relationship and sounds quite cool to me. If mecha were just "infantry, but better", it would be less interesting.
I mean, it costs $85 USD, so I think even if it was pretty much the same as Normandy or North Africa, just with a Sci-Fi paint, it would make a pretty bad first entry into the series, considering both of those are only $48 USD (buying straight from Osprey on their website). I think Normandy is the best entry into the series, since it’s at a larger scale than North Africa and is just infantry, no vehicles to learn as well. I think the vehicle system in North Africa is a little complex for people new to the series.
You can get it a lot cheaper from an online board game store. I got mine for $58. For me, the biggest "innovation" over the prior series is the ability to play 2v2.
@@Melric74 That’s not even really an innovation tbh. Reinforcements introduced two player mode to both North Africa and Normandy. Yeah, it’s cheaper in 2200 at the price you got it and around the same if you buy it straight from Osprey (iirc, I haven’t looked at reinforcements’ price in a bit). I guess it is better if you want the convenience of a one box setup.
Bit disappointing that a sci-fi undaunted has some missteps but I was very nervous clicking on this video that I would be compelled to buy yet another undaunted game. So slightly relieved then too i suppose
"When the union's inspiration through the worker's blood shall run There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun For what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one? For the union makes us strong!"
That's funny because I could swear you said this game doesn't have modular tiles that would send its possibilities to infinity and instead a hand full of static giant boards to repeat the same missions over and over again. But I guess that was just a blooper 🤔
Made my own 3d printed insert so setup is now a breeze, but HOLY DAMN ROTTEN PEAR, having card slots in the original insert that is NO WAY ON EARTH even remotely suitable for sleeved cards... honestly, it's just cruelty.
This might just be my inner Dune nerd speaking, but I think a Dune-themed second edition of this would be amazing. The desert aesthetic would lend itself to cleaner art, and "scrappy highly-mobile faction of people who lived here before and prefer fighting in melee range" sounds extremely Fremen. The moment I saw that Drill, I wanted a little cardboard sandworm standee.
Holding out for Un-Dune-ted in 2025.
Hahahahahahahaha
Hell yeah that would be awesome
oh please don't. We have so many old trodden IPs it's so refreshing to get something new.
I was about to comment basically the same thing, Harkonnen vs Fremen but could be expanded including other factions depending on era. They could even go War vs the Machines !
@@FalkFlak greedy corp vs repressed workers isn't exactly that fresh and new of an idea, though
The fact that he struggled so hard between recommending and not recommending speaks volumes on the bar they set for the SUSD Recommends badge. Good video!
I appreciate this. I mean, you have money - and there are a LOT of games to buy, plus some juggernauts like War of the Ring (if just looking at 2 player games) in the corner. Older games like Kemet/Cyclades if you want to just bash armies at each other for JUST a little more money. The bar has to be set high.
Or the arbitrariness.
Where can I find their recommended list?
@@calebjmurray On their website. :)
@@calebjmurraytheres a playlist on the channel with all the videos
"Like a jelly fish through a sling shot!" 🤣 A Matt Lees classic, up there with, "One part scary and one part sweet, like a vampire dipped in chocolate".
The excitement over a “10” being on a d10 is so funny 😂 That’s so board games.
I almost bought the game on the strength of just that 🤣
Case of "Only a real gamer will understand"
Can you explain the joke pls, didn't get it
@@ilyabelov7626 D10's are usually marked with the digits 1-9 and then "10" represented by a "0"
Have to congratulate you on your camera work and editing. It’s really impressive and so well done to go unnoticed
Matt had 20-20-20 vision when reading the box in the open scene... :D
Had his third eye open for maximum perspicacity
Came here to find this 🙂
He had me at "it reminds me of The Expanse"
I'd watch to the end.
@@HeroOfTheWebhe had me at sci fi
@@Betito1171 I’d watch to the beginning.
Thanks, you addressed several aspects of the game other reviewers passed over. Rather than a gateway game this is more like Stalingrad, great but not if you are just starting..
I agree with a lot of the praise and criticism made in this video. Having played Undaunted before, I just read the part in the manual about "what's different this time" and checked the 4 player rules (I've had one or two sessions playing 4 player with Reinforcements before).
I agree the manual is a pain for searching and parsing through. And some of the icons on the board were also a pain. The sci-fi binocular scout icons on the board don't (exactly) match the tokens?! And it wasn't super clear whether we were supposed to start with Mechs in the first scenario. (I'm sure with hindsight it would be, but the rules book certainly didn't make it easy for us. We even considered reading the story/flavour text to see if it mentioned LFA having Mechs😅. Which to be honest, I love the addition of narrative adding immersion, but this gaming group did not care for it at all ha).
But my mid-comment pivot comes in the form of disagreeing the scale of the problems. I agree that finding which units are needed can be a pain - with a solution perhaps showing all available units and then greying out the ones not in play that scenario could help set-up. And a box design that can split each units for quicker selection and setup would be nice. But it's not *that* bad. Sure, the game isn't as quick to set-up as something like, say, Sea, Salt and Paper (what is!) but *if* you organise your cards in the order they appear in the selection list (e.g. in original undaunted, have your captain/commander and similar units without tokens first, then scouts, riflemen, gunners - the core deck in Stalingrad then additional ones after, it's not *too* tricky). Though I appreciate that this means being disciplined with tidying away the game. And I've only played the first 2 scenarios of Callisto, as LFA. And possibly noted that Breakers have 2 "different kinds of scouts" and so the idea of a "core deck" may go out the window a bit with the breadth of units added to the game.
I don't know... I guess my main feeling is that the pros far outweigh the cons. I think for sure, the setup could put off some players, and it's good for these people to know this going into it, when there are so many games to play; limited time and money etc. etc. and there's no need for everyone to play and love the same games I do 😅 But I'd say if you're a keen/enthusiastic gamer and like the sound of this game, then the issues with rulebook and setup should not put you off of getting the game. (Though again, agree why this makes it hard to give it the SU+SD recommended badge)
Nice to see well thought out youtube comments for once!
100% agree. I've played this game through and the setup is a teensy bit annoying, but there are so many other games that are so much worse. It's like Matt took what should have been a nit and made it into a core criticism of the game. Doesn't match my experience.
Cant agree more. Its jammern auf hohem Niveau and das Haar in der Suppe suchen as we say in Austria.
For me it is the best of the series.
I honestly think your reviews push developers into making better designed games. Thanks for all that you do
This review made me call my local game store and ask if they had it yet. Thank you SU&SD!
That jellyfish joke though!
Feels like they could have used Jaws of the Lion style spiral bound map books
OR Adventures of Red Dragon INN POSTER Maps !
Amen. That’s the future.
Matt, fantastic review!! So well thought out and scripted. Ultimately you made me not want to buy it, but to definitely want to play if, but maybe not buy it...? But definitely play it! Lol
7:45 in the military we talk about the "3-legged stool: move, shoot, communicate", meaning any unit that loses the ability to perform any of those is useless, so thinking about a mech that can either not move or not communicate....yup, it's dead.
The Swear Duck returns! Love that little illustration, glad to see it hasn’t been cooped up for good.
We're but two iterations away from Undaunted reverse engineering the ASL half map tiles as a middle ground between fiddly individual tiles and boards that only work for one scenario.
What's age-sex-locaction has to do with it?
@@faiir ASL stands for Advanced Squad Leader.
@@meathir4921 Clearly I meant American Sign Language.
Thanks for sharing. I have the game on the way, mainly due to the Undaunted aspect. Glad I can set the game up and leave it, given the set up time. Hopefully I'll get to the know it, know it level of the rules and be able to soar!
The cross-referencing session before starting a scenario is probably the main reason my old copy of north Africa doesn't hit the table as much. I'm happy someone pointed it out - the narrative around undaunted is usually very positive (and rightfully so), but setup is a major pain.
“Oh no, don’t cut off my robot legs!” 😂 love it! Great review.
This looks like it would be a blast as a digital boardgame with tool tips and pop ups rather than a physical game.
Or a hybrid?
Tabletop simulator mod is gonna be lit.
Digital boardgames have to compete with real video games and I don't see how this would win.
@@RobOngrui yes, the digital board game market is smaller than the normal video game market, but they aren't always quite direct conpetitors. At least, no more than how there are hundreds and thousands of games and new games all the time.
Root, Scythe, Undaunted Normandy, Dune Imperium, Terraforming Mars, Wingspan, and plenty of others have all seen success. That's aside from Tabletop Simulator which is it's own semi-popular/known thing. Then for extremely niche but fun, you have stuff like the Vassal Engine.
The Dune board game also has a free online version online, there's a Fortress America website from an old Yahoo Group that just started back playing games, and other random things too.
I also just remembered a Java Runtime program which people play War of The Ring. I got it running years ago but have never played with anyone, and it would be daunting to do that having never played the physical version.
West Virginia Coal Wars IN SPACE. Got it.
The d10 joke got a good laugh out of me, hahaha!
Ditto
Same!
Amos IS the best big boy
Last man standing 😏
❤ Great review, thanks Matt! Look forward to giving this a try if someone else has a copy, already got North Africa, Normandy and Reinforcements to finish off.
I really like the modular board nature of the old games and was excited when you said it was heavier than it deserved to be, expecting it to be full of board pieces.
Turns out it was full of board pieces, except they are premade boards.
Hard pass because of that unfortunately for me. Perhaps each mission is better but it really cuts back on being able to play it after the fact however you like. Plus it reeks of cashgrab via expansions.
As always, a fascinating and insightful look at this. This would have absolutely been an impulse buy for me, what with the Undaunted system, the sci fi theme, and anti-capitalist leanings, but it's good to see a complex look at a game that is so fantastic, while also being hard to parse and, in some ways, a little frustrating.
You're awesome! Can't wait for the next one!
Love the review, with the analogies, and pros and cons, and getting to the BOTTOM of things! Great job!
I just started watching the expanse! It's so insanely good. Love that call out 😊
Welcome back to the land of reviewing, Matt. I'm sure this is reference pear approved.
I'm sure they have a stringent pear-review process
I've only played the original Undaunted a few times because I loathe setting it up - the map tiles, the player decks, organizing the control and fog of war tokens. This looked to me like an immediate improvement because of the map boards - one fewer thing to set up! But sounds like it's still a pain.
It's honestly not very much of a pain. This was an odd one to me because so many of the games that SUSD does recommend have way worse setup. The setup isn't a big deal and having played this game a bunch (got it at GenCon), it just felt like Matt was hunting for a criticism.
Well, now this will be out of stock everywhere by the end of the day and I have already blown my budget for the month. Oh well, I guess I'll buy it sometime next year whenever it gets reprinted
My pre-order is arriving tomorrow and my hype is through the roof.
I'm surprised you had such an issue with the setup for this game. The new boards make it much easier to set up than any Undaunted I have played before.
Stalingrad was the pinnacle of Undaunted for me... I'll wait for the expansion which will almost certainly happen and see what it fixes.
I haven't played Stalingrad yet despite it sitting on my shelf for months. I love Undaunted. I'm a WWII nut and it's right up my street. Just need to get Normandy and then North Africa played first then can open that big box of delights.
Prime Inner-Child Matthew👌
Its like Red Faction the board game
Outstanding review! Love the conflicting honesty!
3:21 "Maybe both sides are bad" 😂
Being colorblind does indeed suck. There are a few games that I've made it 1 full round in before we determined that I was unable to play at all.
I'm sorry so many designers still don't consider this. It's really inexcusable in 2024. My brother is RG blind and some games he has to ask for help. Some designers are doing great though - thinking of Rio Grande and Fun Forge.
Every game of Outsmarted is 50% me asking my daughter “is that the yellow or the orange question?” 😂
They chose blue and yellow for a reason. Why would that be a problem for a colour blind person? If not Matt should have praised the designers
As someone with enough family history to make WW2 stuff really uncomfortable this space version means I might actually get to play an undaunted game at some point, which is great
I think the long set up time is overstated in this review, I’d class it as being about average in terms of set up times for modern board games. The fact that each scenario has it’s own board and the starting tokens and cards are printed on the board actually make it quicker to set up than other games in the series. I’d agree that it isn’t necessarily the best jumping in point for the Undaunted series though, the simplicity of Normandy still makes that the best one to start with.
Yeah Matt is back! :)
Sounds like a game that would be awesome on my iPad, with the app doing all that nuisance setup.
Really loved the review, very detailed, very well though out
Upset that the solo mode wasn't covered at all, the fact that there's a whole book for it got me excited. I'll have to look it up on BGG
Robbie MacNiven, eh? He did some Warhammer novels I quite enjoyed, and has also written some Descent (the board game) novels that I still need to check out.
Colorblind gamer here. It is sooo annoying, we appreciate the shout out.
Robbie MacNiven wrote a lot for warhammer too if you're into it, might remember him from the Carcharodons novel series
I've never even heard of this one and i love all of undaunted
Yeah, I did have a good time with Undaunted Normandy, and the tiles being modular meant you could come up with your own maps. I think that should be retained. I know space = hexagons is super cliché, but it seems like the logical next step. With the 8 maps, it feels like a game with a limited lifespan that didn't have to be limited. Some font work on the cards, adjust the art to have that TF2 silhouette effect (seems like LESS detail would go a long way here. Not minimalism, but N64 or gamecube level), and I think this would have been an easy buy. From what I've seen, I'm not so sure about this one. The little annoyances add up. That said, the new mechanics sound like a lot of fun and really add a twist to tactical decisions.
Great review and quite funny, reminded me a bit more of the old styles of SUSD. I personally disagree with a couple of points made though.
Setup is really quick for me, maybe 5 minutes? (although I do agree the insert could have been a touch better). I also think the difficulty in finding cards was a tad overexaggerated, perhaps the old undaunted's cards were visually slightly easier (can't say since I've never played them) but the font is chunky and easy to read, so can't say I've experienced that problem. Also the comment on how the foundation is perhaps unstable, that's very much from the point of view of a previous undaunted player. Interference is just as recognisable a term as fog of war (perhaps even more so for new players not as accustomed to war games).
Found it very funny that in a video on a war game there was less political/social commentary than have been in the last few SUSD videos, hope we get videos like this more often in the future.
Indeed, I don't understand why he said that about the foundation, it's literally what we've seen in Undaunted with some additional minor rules (which I love) on top of it to give more detail to altitude differences instead of just being a 3/1 defense tile.
The vehicles are a mix of what was seen in North Africa and Stalingrad/Normandy's Reinforcements.
A bit more complex than Normandy for sure, but it's not like the base of the game is buried deep in new content. Just my 2 cents.
We played 2 rounds yesterday and we loved it. But... we also stumbled exactly over the same criticisms as you did.... The Artwork and Design is neat, but its a pain in the a** to look and differentiate the cards/units. Setup is so annoying and tedious.
The Art in the WW2 games was so much more eye friendly and accessible.
Anyway, I love the system and I love Callisto just as much as I loved the other games.
Awesome video Matt. Loved it
Spot on review. Completely verbalises my love/ frustration with this version of a great game/ series.
Thank you for the review
Thanks for the review!
Never played Undaunted due to the theme not really catching my interest, but recently got this one. Love the 4 player mode as well, feel like it will make it easier to hit the table at my local boardgame meetup
Can’t wait to get this to the table. Awesome commentary on the game.
The SU&SD compliment sandwich
Looks good but when will I ever feel like putting this on the table? I will stick to lighter two player fare. I really need a 45 version of this from setup to fin
That's what's stopping me too. I have a hard enough time even getting something light like Roll for the Galaxy to the table. My group is half teenagers and half sleep-deprived parents of teenagers 😂 A heavy wargame with long setup and very feelsbad for the loser is gonna be no-go.
I have 3 x 2 business card holders and place each squad in a row with their id letter in front, cards leaving the game are put backside up behind the available cards. 100% agree on V vs Y.
No issues with map or iconography but some rules require a double take. Storage works but use baggies.
I think its 8 out of 10 gameplay, 9/10 art, 10/10 narrative thatvemerges and should be enjoyed not rushed.
I dunno, I think a jellyfish would travel pretty well from a slingshot.
Remember the Cant.
looks absolutely amazing though
Seems like this game might fix the issue with undaunted where the best thing to do every turn is sit still and roll dice
What if I'm an experienced boardgamer (TI4, Brass, Nemesis, etc) and I haven't play any Undaunted and I really like the aspect of this one? Would this be recomended to me?
19:10 Matt continues his existential crisis masquerading as a board game review.
Highly recommend Combat Commander: Europe for anyone looking for a MORE juicy, more complicated system than Undaunted. I heckin LOVE that game.
people need to pay me to write their manuals. idk how to hook that up
Rock Raiders color scheme is a great choice for a Sci-fi game
Wow. I actually bought a game before SUSD reviewed it and it sold out. My life is complete.
I love the thoughts about the art of the game! Great insight.
Now hoping Undaunted gets a Pacific Expansion. My brother is a huge Pacific War portion of WWII and that would be his dream game
I’ll get it. I have undaunted and I have no problems with what he says is bad.
Reminds you of The Expanse???... As a huge fan of Undaunted and Expanse, thus is now on my wishlist
Good to know. Thank you.
he sounds just like Quinn this is crazy
That's what I was meaning to say 🎉 I wasn't looking at the screen and got soooo confused 😂
Hey, that is true!
Has anybody ever seen them in the same room at the same time?
They should have just done Undaunted Pacific and called it a wrap.
Not being totally hyped about this game only shows how high the quality of board games in general has become. The game is so good, and even a solid step above Normandy, which was already hyped. V and Y not clearly visible? Oh, come on :) I think it's the best of the series. And SU&SD is of course by far the best UA-cam channel :) But even during the TI4 expansion review, I couldn't quite connect with it internally :)
"Okay, we've been tasked with quelling the miners rebelling on one of the most rugged environments we've seen. We should send in the glass mechs and lots of troops to babysit them."
Matt made the mechs seem quite vulnerable which makes no sense to me.
Strong things can be brittle... Think of a sword where, if you don't cut correctly and accidentally apply your force to the flat, it will snap in half rather than hurt the enemy.
@@nfinn42 the armour a knight wears is designed to withstand attacks and not be brittle. Likewise, modern tanks are known as "armour" for the same reasons. A mech is a lot like a cross between a knight and a tank. Why would they be building brittle mechs?
Knight's armor couldn't stop bullets (yes knights in the renaissance had guns) or bodkin arrows (sometimes).
Tanks today are death traps without infantry support. If you use tanks without support a single man with a rocket will put the tank out of action with a rocket or missile. It's why tanks are awful in urban combat. Way too easy to disable from close up.
Basically tanks and knights are not and never were meant to act alone and are surprisingly weak when attacked in the right situations or with the right weapons.
Russia loses tanks to $250 drones in Ukraine. They are not unstoppable machines.
It's very similar to armour in the Second World War. Very powerful, but not very agile and impossible to see much out of, so it's easy to be ambushed.
So the best practice was to move the tanks with the infantry. The tanks would protect the infantry by destroying bunkers and laying down suppressing fire, and the infantry would be the eyes for the tanks and stop anyone sneaking up on them.
This sounds like it is mirroring that symbiotic relationship and sounds quite cool to me. If mecha were just "infantry, but better", it would be less interesting.
@@David-kd4qr brilliant comment, you said it way better than I could.
Great video!
Entertaining veview as always.
":Splooooo - SHUCK"! Slingshot, jellyfish, target destroyed.
liking the video because he acknowledges that amos is a beast
Looks like a really fun game.
So, you're that guy... Who's gonna drop Amos from Expanse? Almost made me drop mah brown coat in the Babylon 5 sector , eey ye belta lowda keke
I mean, it costs $85 USD, so I think even if it was pretty much the same as Normandy or North Africa, just with a Sci-Fi paint, it would make a pretty bad first entry into the series, considering both of those are only $48 USD (buying straight from Osprey on their website). I think Normandy is the best entry into the series, since it’s at a larger scale than North Africa and is just infantry, no vehicles to learn as well. I think the vehicle system in North Africa is a little complex for people new to the series.
You can get it a lot cheaper from an online board game store. I got mine for $58. For me, the biggest "innovation" over the prior series is the ability to play 2v2.
@@Melric74 That’s not even really an innovation tbh. Reinforcements introduced two player mode to both North Africa and Normandy. Yeah, it’s cheaper in 2200 at the price you got it and around the same if you buy it straight from Osprey (iirc, I haven’t looked at reinforcements’ price in a bit). I guess it is better if you want the convenience of a one box setup.
What about City of Remnants!!! I got it based on your review and I really like it. Honestly it has a similar feel.
Bit disappointing that a sci-fi undaunted has some missteps but I was very nervous clicking on this video that I would be compelled to buy yet another undaunted game. So slightly relieved then too i suppose
3:13
The miners were being shafted… if that pun was intentional it was brilliant.
That's joke's older than the dirt they move 😂❤
"When the union's inspiration through the worker's blood shall run
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun
For what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?
For the union makes us strong!"
The comment section tells how much hype this channel creates just by making a video on it.
Watch to the end
Can't wait to try this one
The singular of dice is die, my good sir.
But what about the solo mode!!!?
Another Unduanted game I will buy! 😂🎉 (and actually play)
That's funny because I could swear you said this game doesn't have modular tiles that would send its possibilities to infinity and instead a hand full of static giant boards to repeat the same missions over and over again.
But I guess that was just a blooper 🤔
Nice, now you can play the (space) Pinkerton Agency instead of the bloody NZS. That is much better! Good on them.
Made my own 3d printed insert so setup is now a breeze, but HOLY DAMN ROTTEN PEAR, having card slots in the original insert that is NO WAY ON EARTH even remotely suitable for sleeved cards... honestly, it's just cruelty.