WWII series Undaunted leaves Earth’s petty struggles behind, flees to Jupiter at Gen Con

Historical wargames are caught in a bit of a Catch-22 at the moment. While the mechanics of the genre, particularly in the board gaming space, continue to evolve in exciting ways, the factions on the table can be particularly off-putting for modern audiences. That’s why the designers of the acclaimed Undaunted series (Undaunted: Normandy, Undaunted: Stalingrad) have decided to leave our planet entirely. Undaunted 2200: Callisto takes place on one of Jupiter’s moons, and it debuts this week at Gen Con. Polygon had an exclusive preview earlier this summer, and we came away thrilled at the direction the series is taking — even if it’s more than half a billion miles away from home.

Of course, a change in setting of this magnitude didn’t come without careful consideration by designers David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin, as well as publisher Osprey Games.

“Undaunted 2200: Callisto is absolutely a response to significant public calls to push the system into a new theme,” the team wrote in a shared statement. “Over the years we’ve learned how to tweak and push Undaunted in many ways we never envisioned with the original Normandy design. [...] It was just a matter of building a setting that seemed consistent with what Undaunted has evolved into and mirroring it with existing and new mechanisms.”

In Undaunted 2200, one player controls the corporate security force acting on behalf of a well-funded mining conglomerate. This rigid and sterile militant faction consists of faceless grunts and support weapons that can supply a great deal of firepower and intimidation with their armored mech units. On the opposite side of the battlefield are the miners, a ragtag force wielding makeshift weaponry and adapted industrial vehicles. Their troops are given names instead of numbers, and they fight to improve their own welfare. Just as in previous iterations of the Undaunted formula, all of these combatants are represented by cards that are added to each player’s deck during the game and later played to the table to activate them. While the setting is science fiction, the situation is familiar and represents a realistic extension of the human experience.

“We knew from the start that we wanted the setting to feel grounded, to feel gritty and realistic,” the developers said during our Tabletop Simulator demo. “That approach felt much more in line with Undaunted’s historical [...] roots than a fantastic, soft sci-fi concept.”

At its core, this new title plays very much like its predecessors. The system still blends the popular card game mechanism of deckbuilding with the traditional wargame framework of moving squads across a central board. It still wraps up in a brisk 45 to 60 minutes, but it also adds plenty of new features. Like Undaunted: Normandy’s direct sequels, the changes here are more incremental than radical. Many of the maps feature a new elevation mechanism. These spaces increase the odds of hitting when attacking or suppressing enemy units from above, creating tactical focal points on the map that concentrate action and drive the conflict.

The transport vehicle rules are also simple, yet effective. Units such as the mining union’s trucks can carry ground troops with them when they move, allowing for rapidly traversing the battlefield and responding to shifts in the frontline. They also enhance the ability to capture and defend control points, a key objective in most scenarios.

The heavy mech units are one of my favorite additions. These vehicles are multi-crewed, with each operator represented by a separate card. When adding mech cards to your deck, you can choose which of the two to add and tailor your approach towards different strategic options, such as focusing on mobility or attacking. Beyond the mechanical impact, this is a very neat touch that establishes how these vehicles work and their operation. It also helps showcase their impact as they’re absolutely devastating on the battlefield and unable to be damaged without anti-armor weaponry.

When playing Undaunted 2200: Callisto, I was impressed with how smooth and seamless the game transitioned to its new fictional setting. The system’s abstraction of complex details facilitates a malleable engine that can model conflict in a myriad of situations. The core concept of human struggle fueled by a card system that captures the fog of war and logistic elements remains compelling and relevant, both socially as well as from a modern gameplay perspective. This also appears to be one of most polished entries in the series, offering team and even solitaire play straight out of the box.

A concern I had was whether this design duo could remain enthusiastic about Undaunted after working on so many titles in just a few short years. Playing this new release, as well as Benjamin’s response, dismissed this worry.

“The shift to sci-fi not only allowed us to approach the system from a fresh perspective — it required it,” the designers said. “We spent a lot of time early on in the design process discussing what it meant, thematically and mechanically, to move Undaunted to sci-fi, and those early conceptual discussions were truly exciting for us.”

Undaunted 2200: Callisto will debut at Gen Con and cost $85. A wider retail release will follow in September.