Portal Games recently hosted
PortalCon 11 in Gliwice, Poland, where they celebrated 20 years of the Board Games that tell stories. At the celebration, owner and Portal head honcho
Ignacy Trzewiczek announced several new games and expansions coming from this amazing company in 2019. There are a ton of new announcements, all of which can be read in the
press release from Portal, or seen live in the
Keynote Address given at PortalCon.
Several new games set in the
Imperial Settlers (
BGG #145) universe were announced. First on the list is
Empires of the North, a standalone card game designed by
Ignacy, featuring Scotsman, Inuit and Vikings. Each faction comes with 2 unique card decks allowing a variety of game play styles. 2-4 players can each try to lead their faction to victory by dominating the opposition, developing their economy or defending their land. Also from the
big man is
Imperial Settlers Roll and Write. Just as the name implies, this new roll and write game takes place in the empire building world of
Imperial Settlers, and focuses heavily on engine building, with each big move giving bonuses towards the next. The game includes two modes, one a traditional 2-4 player competitive point scoring challenge, while the second is a new adventure mode. This single player game comes with a pad of 48 unique challenge sheets to complete, each with its own starting points and goals. And just to round out the
Imperial Settlers fervor, Portal Games has announced the Imperial Settlers Big Box, a 5 year anniversary of this award winning game, complete with all of the factions and expansions. The Big Box will be exclusively available direct from Portal Games, and includes a plastic insert to hold everything, new commemorative anniversary cards, as well as oft requested single piece faction boards for the
Amazons,
Aztecs and
Atlanteans.
Also coming from the
President of Polish Play is a reprint of
Prêt-à-Porter, the 2-4 player surprisingly brutal fashion industry board game. Players take turns hiring new employees, gaining managers, designers and models, all in an effort to destroy the competition. This third edition is coming to Kickstarter in 2019, and features new art from acclaimed illustrator
Kwanchai Moriya (
Dinosaur Island,
Catacombs).
Portal also announced new armies for their arena combat board games
Neuroshima Hex and
Monolith Arena, both from designer
Michał Oracz.
The Sand Runners are the latest army to dominate the world of
Neuroshima Hex, and are a "specialized army of veteran warriors who clashed with the Moloch in the early days of the war". The Sand Runners feature a double sided HQ tile for versatility, and come with a new Sand Storm tile type. The new army for
Monolith Arena are the
Academics, focusing on runes, upgrades, and the ability to dramatically weaken their enemy - in fact, their banner directly slows enemy tiles. The Academics armies are few in number, but devastating in ability.
One of the biggest hits
Portal and
Ignacy had in the past year was the web-integrated
Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, and the first campaign expansion,
Detective: L.A. Crimes, is coming soon.
Detective is one of the most engrossing, slowly enfolding, experiential crime story games made, and
L.A. Crimes promises to bring more real life sleuthing, this time in the drug infused world of 1980's Los Angeles. L.A. Crimes is due to be in stores March 2019, with the new mechanics of Stakeouts and Observation, 5 new characters, and 3 new cases. Also announced was Detective: Alexa Edition, wherein players can complete the
6th case in Detective, all narrated and run by the
Amazon Alexa. Portal games has stated the Alexa edition is "part of an effort to bring board games to new players", making the experience akin to an interactive radio drama. Finally, the world of Detective will be expanded even further by the Detective Signature Series.
Portal Games has invited celebrated designers to use the framework of the Detective board game to create their own narratives. The first two master designers picked to frolic in the gritty world of suburban crime are
Rob Daviau (
Pandemic: Legacy,
Betrayal at House on the Hill) and
Mike Selinker (
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game,
Lords of Vegas,
Betrayal at House on the Hill), both masters of story telling in their own rights.
