Dauntless (game)

When Battleline released the Dauntless Expansion Kit in 1978, Avalon Hill immediately bought it and republished it.

[1] Part of Zucker's revision was to replace the numerical data on the airplane cards with colored diagrams.

In Issue 38 of Moves, David Bieksza and Karl Wiegers agreed that "the outcome of any particular matchup in a dogfight is always very much in question, as it takes a skilled player to properly exploit the strengths of his own aircraft and the weakness of his opponent."

They concluded, "The diversity of scenarios, both solitaire and competition, and the virtually limitless possible combination of fighters in dogfights ensures that it will provide many hours of enjoyment, as well as a deeper understanding of tactics in the air in World War II.

To go through all the necessary plotting, moving, checking, die-rolling, cross-indexing, bookkeeping, etc., and be sure not to forget any modifier or prohibitions takes quite a bit of time, and today that puts Dauntless at a disadvantage compared with computer games that can do the same thing much faster.

It remains the most comprehensive tactical treatment of Pacific Theater air warfare found in a boardgame.