Undaunted: Normandy Review with Sam Healey

[@manolios]

i have already bought and play the game sometimes, and the system is so immersive, clean, easy and robust, that can be used for a new type of more approachable wargames! something like version 1.0 of something much bigger in the future, making use of the deckbuilding mechanism. cudos to the designer!

[@gadushholl3469]

I just ordered a second copy. Just to be save. A must have for anyone who likes games like Memoir44 oder even Conflict of Heroes. Sam gives the designer not the respect he should receive just because of his own personal reservations . If you look at the mechanic … it just works flawless!

[@Cloudman572]

A number of scenarios are very unbalanced (to the point of un-winnable if played to the strengths of the setup) and the luck involved is way to high for even a light weight game.

[@aceshelman]

Scouts and Riflemen don't have the Suppress (X) keyword, so I am pretty sure you can't just choose to suppress with those units.

[@ArtursKalinins]

Yes, you are right. -First, he had to check his hand (German) and remove the "Scout B" card from the game. -If no any "Scout B" card in hands, he had to check his (German) discard pile and remove any 'Scout B" from the game. -If no any "Scout B" in the discard pile, he had to check his (German) deck and remove "Scout B" from the game. Shuffle the deck after. -If no any "Scout B" in the deck, remove the "Scout B" token from the map (field). Only machine gunners have the Suppress action.

[@chadvader974]

Sam your reviews have come on so much since the inception of your channel. Production quality and your overall eloquence and presentation you should be proud.

[@gadushholl3469]

Got mine and I love it. Please let this be just a start. Great System. Easy to Setup, easy to teach, …. just great.

[@vinceA3748]

Great review. I have to say, I LOVE this game. This might be the best deck building system I have seen yet. It really works. I love how the cards are individual soldiers, with names. You end up caring about your troops as you play. I love it.

[@viktorkm]

I read that some people think this can be the new Commands & Colors ish game. Where you have almost unlimited ammount of expandable content to a core game system. More, scenarios Different ww2 theatres such as North Africa, Asia, Eastfront, Finnish-russian. And other wars aswell. Vietnam, Korea, Modern warfare,

[@Cloudman572]

Yes, all of which play identical with a theme pasted over the top to fool people.

[@MattWhiteWargames]

Played this game with my kids and we love it (we also play a lot of Memoir!) Great decision making mechanics and card drafting is a lot of fun. Solos really well too.

[@jakersni9499]

How do you solo it?

[@theearlyresetband]

Man- I love this game- so fun!!

[@Vor1954]

Thank you, Mr. Healy, for a concise, positive review. Along with similar reviews from Marcogamer and others, this old-school board wargamer is interested in this new type of wargame.

[@garrettpotvin1522]

No LOS does not bother me at this scale. You have to think about being on an 80-100 acre farm/battlefield. You can see almost everything on a geography of that size. So he is using a silo for cover, he still pops his head out occasionally, just hard to hit. They always have the woods on the edge of the battlefield, think seeing into ,not through. I was skeptical about LOS before I played, but have no concerns after....love it!

[@TheLimestoneCowboy]

It’s really cool to see your review skills and confidence grow over the years. Excellent review Sam

[@warpaint9385]

Just ordered this. Great game.

[@hewieedacat6375]

Don't agree with this review much at all and think the point in the game is missed somewhat. Wonder how many scenarios Sam played before doing his review. This game is so much less luck based then say memoir 44. Each card has various actions to choose from so your always scratching your head wondering if the decision you just made was the right one. Do you play this card to attack, move or get rid of a pesky fog of war card as you have to many? In addition to this there is more skill to be found in the deck building itself. Knowing which units cards to add to your deck at the right time and which to hunker down requires skill. These two things make for real difficult card play decisions. The initiative mechanic is amazing too. Do you keep a high initiative value card for its abilities or use it for initiative to go first this turn? The game drives you to make painstaking choices. These choices mean that even if you lose, your always wondering if you brought the right cards, played the right actions or played high and low initiative cards at the right time etc? This is opposed to memoir 44 where you just so happen to pull the "barrage" card and your opponent didn't or you just so happen to pull a "order 3 units in centre section" card at the right time just when you need it and moments later your opponent pulls a unwanted "dig in" card. Despite this I am a huge memoir 44 fan and have most expansions including out of print items such as the campaign bag and campaign books to name a few, but undaunted Normandy has blown me and my friend away and fixed all our issues with memoir 44 (despite still loving it). Couldn't have designed it better ourselves. Don't get me started on how much better 10 sided numerical die are compared to d6 with unit symbols. Reduces lucky or unlucky die rolls significantly and when you do roll lucky, you made your own luck to a degree by having the audacity to try it. Simply amazing and so excited for expansions already. This game is the game I could only dream of designing. So elegant and simple yet so much depth and fun to be had. 10/10 for me. Memoir can make me feel really sour after a loss and left feeling like the game (order cards are pulled and die rolls) cost me the game. Undaunted Normandy makes me think I should have built my deck better, played my cards (actions/initiative better) and strategised better (Normandy focuses more on objectives and less on you and your opponent trying to kill as much of each other as possible). Simply incredible. The production is beautiful too. And oh yeah, it's almost half the price of memoir 44. £21 in the UK is a steal. 10/10 for sure.

[@hewieedacat6375]

A long wholehearted passionate review and all you comment is on paragraphs? Bet your fun in bed 😂 Paragraphs added!

[@lastburning]

@@hewieedacat6375 Nobody likes to read a wall of text without paragraphs. Learn to take criticism.

[@Cloudman572]

i am unusual i like good comments with reasoning and the length to explain over comments which add no thought out views regardless of which one has the best punctuation or paragraphing so thanks hewiee i am sure though that younger folk will prefer packaging over content

[@teflonravager]

@@Cloudman572 Old folk prefer reasonable punctuation and paragraphing too!

[@meathir4921]

Heikai He uh.... added them. He was just laughing at the fact that that was the reaction.

[@phillopez4477]

great description and review. Sam you are awesome - thank you. This looks like a great gateway war game.

[@civrn368]

I love this game, me and my husband play a couple times a week. I also bought South Africa and the expansion.

[@ThymeKeeper]

This reminds me so much of a game called Panzer General: Allied Assault that I had to check if it had the same designer. I hope it's better than that game, which I somewhat enjoy even though it's not objectively very good.

[@charlesrowan1978]

we'll ease you up to Conflict of Heroes and soon ASL. :)))))

[@danacoleman4007]

Well done, Sam. Hope you are doing well, wherever you are!😊

[@jaslygod]

Russian edition coming, so I decided to watch some reviews. Thanks, Sam, looks like a decent game to play with my eldest son.

[@alexan07]

Just plaid this for the first time last night. Super fun. Any one near Miami want to play?

[@bergfald]

Nice presentation and review! The game looks fun:-)

[@christaggart5687]

What’s better? This, or memoir 44?

[@tbsmith918]

The "Suppress" action is only available for cards that have the "Suppress" keyword... and it's a four dice action. Riflemen and Scouts do not have this ability. They do have the ability to execute an "Attack" action. You implied that the attack action has a suppress option... it does not. Attack and suppress are two different actions and each require the keyword to be present on the card.

[@cmelo4757]

Thank you.

[@robertmoffitt1336]

Great review Sam!

[@stormy7722]

Im glad i wasnt playing a drinking game where "Scenario" was the key word.

[@ThymeKeeper]

I think the reason why deck building may feel more lucky is that with dice you have a relatively limited number of possibilities that can come up at any time, based on probability. So you're not going to roll...whatever is a good roll in a given game...every time, but you always have that chance. With cards, you have more distinct outcomes and a deck is....I don't know how to word it. Continuous? A card is drawn and that card is not redrawn until the deck is shuffled or a card is sitting on the bottom of the deck and you will never draw that card until it comes up. Of course you don't KNOW where the cards are, but your outcome is somewhat predetermined based on the construction of the deck.

[@sigururkristmundsson479]

Sam has been catching some mad sun. Lookin good man!

[@ericfolsom4495]

Honest question as someone who is really thinking of buying this. When you feel like a WW2 skirmish 2 player game, what makes you choose Memoir over Undaunted or vise versa? Example: When I want a light hearted fast game, I choose X.

[@Nagi2100]

Eric Folsom Undaunted is faster, easier to setup, and probably the most important part, simpler than ‘44. Undaunted plays in about 45 minutes and is not too heavy to pull out with people who might balk at a large strategy game. It’s more like a gateway tactical game to deeper things like ‘44 or Combat Commander, although I play ASL and I still love this game so maybe gateway is the wrong term.

[@ericfolsom4495]

@@Nagi2100 I think that puts it into perspective perfectly! I think that fits enough for me to get then :) thank you!

[@meathir4921]

Time and Money I disagree, I think the deck building aspect makes Memoir simpler.

[@anthonyswindall5752]

This reminds me a lot of the Company of Heroes” PC RTS games.

[@TheMalimica]

Best game ever ! But there is company of herois board game comming out

[@pokefrosch617]

Arnt there any LOS rules? I love deckbuilding, and we need easy entrygames in the hobby, but LOS is is a must.

[@smurfodeth]

That is abstracted by the defense value of each tile.

[@pokefrosch617]

@@smurfodeth LOS means that you can see someone. Not how much cover you have. Sorry but thats like abstracting movement with your combat value. This game a is clear pass for me.

[@smurfodeth]

The system is low granularity, so if you desire simulation, it is in fact likely not a game for you.

[@pokefrosch617]

I guess when I encouter a light wargame I expect the complicated minutia of a simulation to be stripped down or abstacted alot, not one of the most intuitive aspects. I just shouldnt be able to shoot though a stone wall. Just getting a negative modifier for completely ignoring the simplest of physical principles every toddler understands is hardly low gradularity. Its lazy design.

[@smurfodeth]

Not everyone enjoys fussing with drawing lines to see if they can actually shoot someone. If range+area defense creates an unhittable number, then the same effect has been achieved, without needing to grab the tape measure. If you are unsatisfied with that, cool, plenty of consims cater to other tastes; I'll be over here, having the wrong kind of fun. ✌

[@charlesrowan1978]

Almost a war game did you get lost in the wrong room :)))

[@jigmelingpa]

Nicely done overall, but often repetitive at points (the reviewer says the same points 2 or 3 or even 4 times throughout the review). Also, claiming that deck building is more random than dice rolling is like saying you won’t get as wet in a swimming pool as you would in a river.

[@Dalmatinac3]

They should just stop making these war games with a goal to reenact history, and just make it even. We as players, we shall rewrite history.

[@aceshelman]

The amount of asymmetry changes in each scenario. If you want to set up a fight that is 100% evenly matched, you can easily do so. The unit cards and capabilities are mirrored, so you can include exactly even teams. There are enough tiles to choose from you can easily build a map that is balanced for both sides.

[@varovaro1967]

I dont think you understood the idea of the game much less explained anything in a correct way.... But thank you anyway.