I watched ‘Kelly’s Heroes’ with my son recently. Very entertaining. Clint Eastwood and chums decide to rob a bank behind enemy lines and inadvertently win World War Two. True story. Me watching the film with Peter, obviously, not the bank heist-US win the war thing.
As a result I was inspired to breakout some squad level WWII games. Undaunted: Normandy and Memoir ‘44, two of the best selling titles in the genre, hit the table. So, let’s fight it out:
Ladeees and gentlemennn, please take your seats for this most anticipated lightweight contest between…
in the blue corner, introducing the contender, from the Osprey Games publishing house, authored by designers Trevor Benjamin and David Thompson, weighing in at around £23, with a Golden Geek award and tens of thousands of copies sold, Undauuunted: Norrrmaaandaaayyyyyy!
And in the red corner, from the Days of Wonder stable, authored by award winning designer Richard Borg, weighing in at around £45, the current champion, with over 140,000 copies sold worldwide and sporting a number of games awards, Memoiiirrrr Forty Fooouuurrrr.
Ding, dundauntee ing round 1: Memoir is the pretty boy in this contest. It looks great on the table, with Toy Story soldiers, tanks, artillery, even barbed wire strewn across graphically pleasing battle boards. However, I have niggles- the card art isn’t great; occasionally I’m dragged out of the moment playing German section cards with ‘US’ art on them and so on. Undaunted’s tiles look great but again, the card and counter art, although functional, is equally uninspiring. Memoir’s plastic tanks though?…broom broom…
Ding, ding, round 2: Memoir ‘44 ‘brings it’ with a focus on sleek and seam free gameplay. Memoir’s rules set is five out of five. You will refer to terrain effects on occasion or rules exceptions for special units but everything is coherent, accessible, easy to teach and readily remembered.
Undaunted is a slightly different beast. The rule set and concepts are slightly more … ‘daunting’ (pun intended). The rulebook is functional and accessible, but not nearly as sleek. In saying that, it’s still pretty straightforward.
Ding, ding, round 3: Regarding gameplay, I’d describe Memoir as agile. Play (or discard) one card and do what it allows you to do. Roll for combat results. There are some decision points: build a hand of cards to launch sustained attacks or counter attacks on the enemy, consider how to combine arms to best effect, use terrain effectively to protect your squads. So far so ‘war gamey’.
However, the decision space is definitely safe for cats. I’m often compelled to make sub-optimal moves due to lack of actionable cards. From time to time discarding in lieu of a turn is the best option. I imagine some patronising neek saying, in a whiney voice, “The designer is paying homage to von Moltke’s maxim that no plan survives first contact with the enemy”. Yes. But we didn’t come here for a game of Snakes and Ladders, did we! OK, I’m exaggerating somewhat, but I like a little less chaos and a little more agency in my games. Anyway, I prefer Mike Tyson’s take on it; “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”, which is what I want to do to Rick when he whinges on and on relentlessly about his bad luck then wipes out my whole squad in a single dice roll and claims it was down to his superior tactical nouse.
Undaunted is less fleet of foot but there is a little more going on. On your turn, you will use your cards to move, recruit, scout, secure locations and fire at the enemy. Character cards present three or four actions to choose from, offering players the opportunity to ‘combo’ actions and pull off daring raids into enemy territory. Fog of war cards quickly clog up your deck reducing the effectiveness of your fighting force. You can forgo actions to rid your deck of these cards or even add more to your opponent’s deck, which always elicits a charming remark. Bidding for initiative at the start of each round adds a further teaspoonful of decision making to the mix and inspires some brinksmanship. You may generate unlikely results of course, but Undaunted offers a touch more in the way of opportunities to mitigate luck.
On the other hand, turns take a little longer as the choices presented in Undaunted demand a bit more processing time, the downside of creating a larger decision space (cats are a few degrees less safe). Also, there is a little arithmetic involved in resolving battles, which Memoir deftly sidesteps by simply adding or removing dice from your combat rolls.
Ding ding, final round: As the Memoir dice fall from sweaty hand and clatter on the table top you are as likely to hear ‘Yessssss, suck that Churchill/Hitler/whoever’ as you will ‘Oh balls, you jammy @€!%&’ etc. And if you’re playing with Rumsey his foul language will usually be accompanied by semi-masticated peanuts being sprayed across the game board. This is my kind of fun-well, maybe not the peanuts!
Undaunted is fun too but in a more measured way. Perhaps it’s because it’s a bit more ‘thinky’ or the turns take just a touch longer? Or because Giles and Dave are slightly more mature (only very slightly) in their responses as opposed to Rick or Rumsey, who are a bit bonkers. You may feel mild relief or slight disappointment as you watch the ten sided dice roll to a halt, but no tables are likely to be flipped playing Undaunted.
So, after four rounds the judge’s have decided that the winner, by the narrowest margin ….. and still the reigning champion- is Memoiiirrrr Forty Fooouuurrrr.
However, I’m going to hang on to Undaunted. I think it’s a better game than Memoir, and I might call for a rematch after I’ve played throughout the Stalingrad expansion. Ah, Stalingrad…now you’re talking.
