Undaunted: Stalingrad Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Undaunted: Stalingrad, a campaign style, deck building game published by Osprey Games. In Undaunted: Stalingrad, one player takes on the role of the soviets defending Stalingrad from the Germans.

David Thompson & Trevor Benjamin. Osprey Games. Another game in the Undaunted deck-building series. This one a significant narrative campaign. Set in Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest battles in human history.

With significant choice, heart-wrenching losses, glorious victory, and plenty of surprises, I can only ask one thing: When and where do I enlist???

Two players enter this one-versus-one campaign. Each is given a scenario book specifically for their faction (Soviets or Germans), their own card supply comprised of starting, reserve, upgrade, and locked cards. There are also faction specific tokens and 100+ location tiles that represent the city of Stalingrad.

For those who’ve not played the Undaunted series, here’s a brief overview of what you do on your turn: you play cards to send soldiers to their doom, repeatedly. That’s true, but everything is based on card play. During a turn, players draw four cards and determine one to use for initiative. Each card has an initiative value and whichever faction chooses the highest number goes first. The remaining three cards determine which units can perform a single-card action, flip from suppressed to ready, or hunker down (return to supply). The player with initiative plays all cards first, then the other player plays their cards. After this, the cycle continues with card draw and sacrificing one card to bid for initiative.

Each faction has a baseline deck that is practically the same but has a supply of available soldier and vehicle cards to add to their deck via a