by W. Eric Martin

Polish publisher Portal Games has announced its 2025 line-up, which consists of titles both familiar and new. Here's what's coming:


▪️ In October 2025, Portal will release a twentieth anniversary edition of Michał Oracz' Neuroshima Hex, a 2-4 player conflict game in which each player controls a unique army of hex tiles that enter play bit by bit to try to eliminate opposing headquarters or have the least damaged HQ when the game ends.


▪️ That title will be preceded in June 2025 by Neuroshima Hex: Battle, a smaller two-player only version of Neuroshima Hex that features the previously released expansion armies Beasts from designer Joanna Kijanka and Steel Police from Oracz.

This is a less expensive "taster" version of Neuroshima Hex for those who are curious about the game, but don't yet want to dive in. If they do so later, then they can pick up the base game to have six armies from which to choose, or they can add additional army packs to have variety for their two-player experience.

Non-final front cover
▪️ Speaking of expansion armies, October 2025 will also see the release of Neuroshima Hex: Wiremen from designer Piotr Lubecki. Here's the origin story for this expansion army:
Deep beneath the ruins of Seattle, a hidden civilization thrives in defiance of Moloch's oppressive grasp, a society forged in secrecy that unites rebellious cyborgs, escaped mutants, and the descendants of atomic researchers. With cutting-edge cybernetic implants and stolen Moloch technologies, they wage a relentless war to survive. But at what cost? As humanity and machine merge, the line between ally and enemy blurs.

Neuroshima Hex: Wiremen introduces exciting new gameplay mechanisms, including innovative technology tokens. Designed as a flexible and aggressive army with straightforward rules, Wiremen adds a bold new layer of strategy and decision-making to Neuroshima Hex.

▪️ Moving from fictional battles to historical ones, we have a second edition of Krzysztof Dytczak's Race to Berlin, which debuted in 2015 from Leonardo Games.

Here's an overview of the game's setting and what's changed:
Race to Berlin is a game portraying the last months of World War II in Europe as Western Allied armies cross the borders of the Reich after forging the Rhine and the mighty Red Army prepares for its final offensive toward Berlin.

Players take on the roles of Soviet and Allied commanders, competing to capture strategic regions of Germany and ultimately claim the capital of the Third Reich. This Portal Games' edition features significantly improved components, a revised rulebook, and some rule adjustments based on experience with the first edition.
This second edition of Race to Berlin will be crowdfunded on Gamefound for release in Q4 2025.


▪️ Another revised edition on the Portal Games roster is Age of Galaxy, a new version of Jeffrey CCH's 2022 game released in 2022 by Hong Kong design studio ICE Makes:
Age of Galaxy is a strategic 4X game that places you in control of an interstellar alliance consisting of three factions with unique powers. You can explore systems, colonize planets, research technologies, build galactic cruisers, and much more. You have many potential paths to victory based on how your factions work together and the main ideology of your alliance. The five ideologies:

• Supporters of Science commit themselves to lifelong research on new technologies, convinced that knowledge is the only way forward.
• Upholders of Militarism are merciless aggressors who conquer by might, regarding wars as a means to an end.
• Keen adopters of Diplomacy prioritize relations between factions, acting tactfully while competing to become the head of the Congress.
• Factions that value Industrialism undertake ambitious construction schemes to turn planets into highly-developed cities and industrial complexes.
• As for factions that advocate Culturalism, they take pride in cultivating spiritual and cultural growth, always curious about the insights the mysterious "relics" might offer.

The originalFaction cards can be played in multiple ways, with players either integrating them into their empire or sacrificing them for one-time benefits through agreements. More than thirty factions are included in the game.

This second edition of Age of Galaxy from Portal Games introduces an enhanced solo mode, new graphic design, and improved components to enrich the gameplay experience.
When describing this game, Portal highlighted the similarity of its multi-use cards to those in Portal's own Imperial Settlers from Ignacy Trzewiczek, which gives it a two-fer connection to the Portal DNA combined with the unique factions.

Portal's edition of Age of Galaxy is due out in August 2025, presumably debuting at Gen Con 2025.


▪️ Finally, we come to the "Wait, that's a Portal release?" section of the line-up, with Bohemians being a 1-4 player game from newcomer Jasper de Lange:
In Bohemians, players take on the roles of artists wandering the streets of Paris at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, striving to create masterpieces while facing the challenges of daily life. Bohemians is a card-driven game in which players collect cards to find inspiration, seek muses, and manage everyday necessary tasks.

In each round, players must plan that day's routine and decide whether they will go on a date, participate in a social event, meet their muse, create new art, or...go to work. Each card offers them various bonuses and inspiration, so carefully managing your card supply and the order in which they're played is crucial to getting the most inspiration. Players then spend their inspiration to purchase cards and build their deck with new habits, inspiring muses, or new achievements in their career. The artist who acquires the most achievements from the achievements deck wins.
Perhaps a thematic equivalent to this design in the Portal catalog is Legacy: The Testament of Duke de Crecy, something historically based, but more about the "combat" of human life than actual combat.

Portal Games notes that the prototype of Bohemians won three nominations and one award (Best Presentation, Best Innovation, Best Game) at Fastaval, Denmark's largest convention for board games and roleplaying games.

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