Neuroshima Hex!

2005 board game

Neuroshima Hex! is a Polish tactical board game based on the Neuroshima role playing game. It is designed by pl and published in 2005 by Portal (wydawnictwo) (Portal Publishing House), with second edition in 2008 and third in 2013. The game is set in the same post apocalyptic world as its RPG counterpart. Neuroshima Hex is essentially a much more complex version of War. In terms of strategy, Neuroshima Hex is similar to chess in that play emphasizes correct placement of pieces on the board, with occasional combat removing pieces from the board. The game is also available as a video game, with rules essentially identical to the board game, albeit with combat between tiles automated via software. It became the first Polish board game that gained international popularity and has been called the "legend" of the Polish board gaming scene. with an Android version following on 13 June 2012. The game received a third edition in 2013.

In Issue 23 of the Russian games magazine Страна игр (Games Country), Aleksandr Tishkovskiy visited the Portal game booth at Essen Game Fair 2009 and reported "This is a tactical game with original mechanics. Events unfold in the future, which is, as always, hopeless. Four factions are fighting for survival, only one will succeed." Tishkovskiy noted that there were two stand alone expansions for the game and was grateful that "it is not at all necessary to have the basic version to play. Buy a small, inexpensive add on, and then decide whether it’s worth shelling out for the original box or not. Well, for fans of the series, this is generally a long awaited gift." The staff of the Hungarian magazine GameStar voted Neuroshima Hex! one of its Top 10 favorite board games of 2012. In 2008 the second edition of the game was reviewed for the Polish board game magazine Rebel Times by Marcin Zawiślak. He noted that this edition was designed for international market, and so the component quality as well as components visual design have significantly improved since the first edition. The reviewer further noted that despite improvements to the first edition, the game components seem underwhelming, visually, to the higher quality art style seen in the Neuroshima role playing game. He said that the game is well designed both from the mechanical and the thematical perspective, giving the game 7/10 score in execution and price, and 9/10 in the coolness factor.