Following the success of the Undaunted series, General Orders storms into Gen Con
David Thompson is a rising star in the world of board gaming. Together with his design partner, Trevor Benjamin, he’s helped bring the popular Undaunted series of World War II-themed strategy games to life. Beginning with Undaunted: Normandy in 2019, the duo has cleverly merged modern board game mechanics like deck building with themes most commonly found in classic hex-based wargames. Now the pair is at it again with General Orders: World War II, an elegant game with a tiny footprint that has the potential to be another bestselling hit. Polygon caught up with Thompson prior to this year’s Gen Con, where the public will see General Orders for the first time.
“I don’t play a lot of games for pleasure,” admits Thompson, whose work in military intelligence takes up a lot of his professional time. The Air Force veteran said he’s spent time at the Defense Intelligence Agency in the past, but he remains coy about the specifics of his current role with the U.S. Department of Defense. Regardless, he’s a busy guy.
“The only time I really play games is — once a month, I’ll get together with my buddies [...] or when I play with my kids,” he continues. “That’s my gaming life. And so when I get together with somebody to play a game, my favorite type of game to play is a super tense, quick-playing, rules-light kind of game. [...] I don’t play super long games or super complex games, so I’m always going to design games that are kind of like what I want to play.”
Often, he says, that means a worker placement board game.
Worker placement powers some of the most popular board games around, including modern classics like Lords of Waterdeep, Viticulture, and Everdell. These games operate by designating certain spots on the board where
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