Undaunted creators wow with General Orders, a lighter style of wargame

David Thompson, a rising player in the board-gaming world. Together with his design partner, Trevor Benjamin, he’s helped bring the popular Undaunted series of World War II-themed strategy games to life. Starting with Normandy is not to be feared The duo cleverly blended modern boardgame mechanics, like deckbuilding, with themes found most often in traditional hex wargames. This time, the duo is back with General Orders World War IIIt’s an elegant, small-footprint game that could become a hit. Polygon caught up with Thompson prior to this year’s Gen Con, where the public will see General OrdersFor 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. “That’s my gaming life.” […] 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.”

He says that this is often a board game of worker placement.

Some of the most popular games, such as modern classics like Lords Of Waterdeep, ViticultureThen, Everdell. These games operate by designating certain spots on the board where workers, represented by pawns, can be stationed on a player’s turn. Players can advance their interests by placing workers on specific stations, while denying the opponent’s ability to do so. There are always a limited number of workers and stations available in each round.

Orders of General Order is Thompson’s attempt to apply worker placement mechanics to a traditional wargame, and the result is something surprisingly tiny. It is roughly the same size as two books of paper stacked on top of each other. Inside you’ll find a single, double-sided game board and a collection of wooden markers: short disks representing troops, tall cylinders representing battlefield commanders, and a few more in the shape of airplanes. There are a few cardboard tokens, a short stack of cards, and that’s about it.

Commanders are placed on the board in order to accomplish various missions — mustering more troops, advancing on the enemy, or firing artillery shells over the horizon at dug-in enemy formations, to name just a few. The commanders will be recalled every round to clear the board, leaving in their wake the aftermath from a frontline war. The result is a quick, snappy little wargame that plays out in 30 minutes — often less.

“It could have been this sprawling monstrosity that supported six players and took seven hours,” Thompson says. “Instead, [we tried]It should be an elegant, quick-playing, yet tense game from the first move to the final one. And so that’s sort of reflected in its physicality.”

The anonymity of the playable army is another benefit that the new Undaunted game offers over the other games in this series. What is the game? Stalingrad: Undaunted asked players to choose between role-playing as either Nazi Germany or Stalin’s Soviet Army, Orders of General Segregation has had all its armies’ identifying serial numbers filed off. The tiny board could have any number of nations, but its evocative challenges still feel like WWII battles.

“That was intentional,” Thompson says. “If it’s going to be a historical game, or a game based on a historical event, I’m gonna go all in [on the historical accuracy]. But if it’s going to be an abstraction of something historical, then […] let’s file it off and make it a true abstraction. Let’s not be one foot in the pool.”

General Orders World War II is expected to be available in limited numbers at this year’s Gen Con in Indianapolis. Online pre-orders for the game are $35. Retail availability is listed as October 24.

General Orders World War II Osprey Games supplied a copy of the game as a prerelease. Vox Media partners with affiliates. Vox Media earns commissions from affiliate products, although this doesn’t influence the editorial content. Find out more about affiliate links. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.