UNDAUNTED: STALINGRAD
UNDER SIEGE
The next step for the Undaunted series is a big one – a huge part of World War II and a frankly huge box. Welcome to Stalingrad
Words by Christopher John Eggett
Undaunted, as a series, is expanding. Earlier this year we got the excellent Reinforcements expansion – adding more missions, a solo mode, and a nice box to put both Undaunted: Normandy and North Africa in. In some ways that expansion was completing something – and with that chapter seemingly closed, something much bigger could come next. And what’s bigger, when it comes to World War II than Russia?
Undaunted: Stalingrad is the latest game from the design duo Trevor Benjamin and David Thompson, and it’s a huge undertaking. The box is frankly massive, and the number of tiles, cards and stories to be told once you open it is truly epic in scale. We spoke to the pair about how Stalingrad came to be – from its roots as a legacy game, to the kind of personal war stories it’s going to tell.
THE LEGACY OF STALINGRAD
Benjamin and Thompson are veterans of the Cambridge game design scene. While Thompson has since returned to the US, Benjamin remains in nearby Ely. We talk a little about this scene, referred to as the ‘Cambridge Cabal’ (not by them), which included designers like Matthew Dunstan, Chris Marling and Brett J Gilbert (see p67 for our review of Village Rails). This group, now a kind of diaspora, still produces games with a similar clarity of mechanics and a heavily rooted sense of being influenced by the real world and history as it did in those earlier days. Undaunted is one of the outcroppings of that group, and this is the furthest it’s been pushed so far.
“We’re super excited about pushing the system in new places with Stalingrad,” says David Thompson.
“We’re always happy to talk about Undaunted, it’s the baby that brought us together,” adds Trevor Benjamin.
When asked what Undaunted: Stalingrad actually is, Benjamin replies, “it’s the beast. By far it’s the most ambitious thing we’ve done with Undaunted.”
The pair are quick to highlight that they’re part of a larger team bringing this mammoth project to our tabletops. Firstly there’s illustrator Roland MacDonald providing what might feel like endless variations on the cards, and secondly Robbie MacNiven – the writer who has prepared the stories (and two separate campaign books) for this huge campaign game.
The game uses the same core system as Undaunted – players draw from their deck, activate units on a modular map of a warzone, and roll a couple of dice for taking shots. Each unit’s health is represented by the number of cards in reserves and in the deck, meaning when they are weakened they’re able to take less future actions. Of course, Stalingrad comes with a few twists.