Today I have a great pleasure to host on The Boardgames Chronicle blog David Thompson. He will tell us about one of his latest designs – Undaunted 2200: Callisto, as well as future plans. Enjoy!

PS. If you would like to see additional materials on this great game, check below:

Michal: Hi David! As a prolific author of such great game series like Undaunted or Valiant Defense, you are probably known to most of the wargaming enthusiasts. But for those who are new to the hobby, please tell us a little about yourself. What do you do for a living? What games do you play?

David: Hi Michal, thanks so much for the opportunity to chat with you about Undaunted 2200: Callisto! For my day job, I serve as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Department of Defense. Between that and my family, I stay very busy — but gaming is my true passion, so I make sure I carve out time each day to work on game design. I don’t play games often, other than quick-playing low-complexity games with my family and the occasional meatier game with one of my daughters (she’s my main gaming partner!).

But I do usually get a game day in once every two months with a couple of buddies who live in my area. The three of us all enjoy wargames and historical games, especially those that have Eurogame influences. Some of our recent most-played games include Maria, Versailles 1919, and Land & Freedom.

Michal: Callisto is already the sixth installment designed by you in the Undaunted series. What inspired that title? Where did you get the idea? This is the first time a non-historical story has been told in the series, and we are moved two hundred years into the future.

David: Although the Undaunted series shifted to sci-fi, we still wanted to ground the game in a realistic setting. The concept for colonization of Callisto was inspired by a NASA study conducted in 2003. The study’s authors hypothesized that the moon of Callisto might act as a staging ground for the exploration of Europa and Jupiter’s other moons. This served as our thematic springboard. In addition, when we started conceptualizing Callisto back in 2021, I was in the middle of researching the West Virginia coal mine wars from the early 1900s. That difficult period of American history certainly influences the story we tell in Callisto. 

Michal: Now, as for the new mechanics and solutions in Callisto, what would be the three you would like to call out?

David: Callisto introduces a few new twists to the Undaunted series. The one that players will immediately notice is the shift from modular tiles to boards. This was done primarily to speed up setup (no more looking for 15+ double-sided tiles to construct the board!), but it had the additional benefit of allowing us to tailor scenario design for individual boards. That also allowed us to have unique, gorgeous art for each board!

In addition, this is the first Undaunted title to introduce the concept of elevation. Elevation is very simple: if a unit has an elevation advantage over another unit, they get to increase the dice they roll by one increment (from a d10 to a d12). In contrast, if a unit is attacking with an elevation disadvantage they roll d8s. This is a simple, but impactful change.

Lastly, I’ll mention the introduction of mechs. These are massive, imposing units on the battlefield, and we wanted their operation to feel special. Each mech consists of five cards: a commander, two cards for the gunners, and two cards for the navigators. This allows the players to deck-build their mech in a way that can either focus on mobility or firepower.

Michal: Now, if you would like to look at Undaunted 2200: Callisto and answer the question – what makes this game unique? What would that be?

David: I think it’s just the unique nature of the combination of deck-building (really more deck manipulation and management) with a tactical skirmish game. And that’s nothing different from the rest of the Undaunted series — that’s what has always made Undaunted stand out from other games. But in this case, with Callisto, the combination of its setting and the new mechanisms mentioned above combine for a new experience.

Michal: I admit, I played the game already and one thing which really strikes me – and I like it – are the Mechs. They are super powerful but need proper hand management to make full use of them. Can you tell us your idea behind introducing them?

David: We knew going into Callisto that we wanted to add something more than just new abilities for units. Ultimately we settled on the inclusion of the mechs for one faction and vehicles for the other. I mentioned the mechanically unique elements above for the mechs — special deck-building considerations that directly affect the tempo and health of the mech in the game.

We considered a wide-range of other ideas, drawing from the way we treated vehicles in Undaunted: North Africa, Normandy, and Stalingrad. In the end, we went with a solution that echoes each of those in some ways, but ends up as something new and different, and helps evoke the feeling of managing a mech with multiple people.

Michal: I was also looking forward to the solitaire system in Callisto. It is very elaborate and allows each battle to be played solo, either as the Corporate or Miners faction. Please tell us a little more about it and your intent when designing that mode.

David: Well to be honest, that is not our work! (Meaning the work of me and my co-design partner, Trevor Benjamin). The original Undaunted solitaire system was conceptualized by Dávid Turczi for Undaunted: Reinforcements. David Digby then took that concept and designed the solitaire system for that title. David Digby then came back and applied that same core system, with refinement and evolution, for Callisto.

Michal: The inevitable question all fans of your games – including me – would like to ask: what are David Thompson’s future design plans – both in the Undaunted series and in other fields?

David: Great question! I have quite a few projects ongoing, but many I can’t discuss yet unfortunately. First, on the topic of Undaunted — 2025 will be the first year since 2019 without a new Undaunted title. But instead, Osprey will be releasing Line of Fire: Burnt Moon. Line of Fire is a game that leverages Undaunted’s deck-building DNA and mashes it up with a “lane-battler”. It also continues the story that begins in Callisto, expanding the battle from Callisto to Io.

Also in the works from Trevor Benjamin and me is a new expansion for War Chest. The most recent expansion, Nightfall, has been well-received, and so we’re looking to expand the game once again with new units and a new twist! Liz Davidson and I continue to work on the final touches for our game, Night Witches, which is about an all-women Soviet night bomber regiment from WW2 that will be published by Fort Circle Games. Geoff Engelstein and I have also completed the design work for Zheng He, which is about the Treasure Fleet voyages during the early Mind Dynasty — and that game is being published by GMT. That’s about all I can discuss for now, but I will say that I recently started the research process for my first American Civil War game, and that has been a very interesting exploration! 

Michal: Thank you so much for the interview, David!

David: Thank you!