Undaunted abandons WWII, heads in a ‘different direction’ with sequel

It was retail magnate Marshall Field who allegedly said we should “give the lady what she wants.” What she wants in 2023 is, ever more increasingly it would seem, to punch a large corporation in the mouth. The team at Osprey Games is happy to oblige like-minded anti-establishment types with Undaunted 2200: Callisto, coming to market some time in 2024. Gone are the heavy dad-vibes of an octogenarian’s World War II fantasy, replaced instead by a near-future conflict pitting vile corporations against their poorly treated workers.

Undaunted is a card-based wargame, one that blends classic area control mechanics (think Risk) with deck building (think Slay the Spire and Gloomhaven). So far it’s only told stories set in the 1940s, with a string of hit games including Undaunted: Normandy, Undaunted: North Africa, Undaunted: Stalingrad, and Undaunted: Battle of Britain. That changes next year, according to an announcement shared Monday, which Osprey says officially takes the franchise in a “new direction.”

“Tensions have arisen between the conglomerate of Earth’s leading corporations that funded the base, and the mining collective tasked with operating it,” reads the product description. “Protests have erupted, strikes called, and contracts broken. Private security forces have been hired, industrial mining vehicles repurposed for combat, and long-disused military mechs reawoken. The battle for Callisto is about to begin: it’s time to choose your side.”

Original designers David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin, together with (human) artist Roland MacDonald, have shared just a single frame of the game’s art. It looks like a blend between BattleTech and TitanFall 2 with just a little bit of The Expanse sprinkled in for good measure. Crucially, it’s a described as a “big box” game as well, which could mean it has some of the campaign mechanics found in Stalingrad. It’s also said to include two-player, four-player, and solo game modes.

As hot strike summer cools into cozy strike fall, Osprey announced the change to its flagship board game franchise ahead of Essen Spiel, Germany’s biggest board gaming convention. Expect to hear more as hands-on demos roll out this week.