About game:

Race to Berlin: Second Edition – the first wargame published by Portal Games – is a two-player title designed by Krzysztof Dytczak, covering the last months of the war in Europe, from December 1944 to May 1945. The first edition appeared back in 2015; a decade later we are getting not a reprint but a genuinely new edition, with reworked components, a rewritten rulebook, several rule adjustments, and a set of scenarios and variants that were never there before.


The central idea is the one that makes this design special. Each player commands one of the Allied forces – the Western Allies or the Red Army – but also controls the German armies standing in front of their opponent. The Western Allied player moves the Germans on the Eastern Front; the Soviet player moves the Germans in the West. So you are simultaneously pushing your own spearheads forward and doing everything you can to slow the colleague sitting opposite you. It is a beautifully uncomfortable position to be in.


The game runs for three rounds, each covering roughly two months, and each round has three phases. In the logistics phase both sides place their logistic blocks – valued from two to five – face down next to their units, hiding both the strength and the intent. In the action phase you activate those blocks by spending action cubes to attack, move, or clean up. In the strategic movement phase you can redeploy one of your own units and one of your Germans across friendly territory.


Combat is resolved by comparing strengths – unit values, terrain, rivers, fortifications and supporting logistic blocks – after which both sides may play one of their special cards and each rolls two dice. The clever part: you do not add the dice, you take the difference between them. A result of zero to five, added to a carefully accumulated strength total, keeps the swing meaningful without ever making preparation pointless.


Victory comes in three flavors: reach the center of Berlin first, reduce your opponent to zero action cubes, or – if neither happens by the end of round three – hold more victory point locations. The Soviets are counting Konigsberg, Breslau, Vienna and Budapest; the Western Allies want Milano, Stuttgart, Essen and Hamburg. And if it ends level, both sides share the victory, which I rather like: in the end it was supposed to be an alliance 🙂

So, will you follow history and let the Red Army into Berlin – or rewrite it and catch your ally off guard?

Number of players:

This is a dedicated two-player design and the whole tension of the game comes from the rivalry across the table. What is new in this edition, and genuinely useful, are the four scenarios. Two of them – the Siegfried Line and the Vistula-Oder offensive – use only one Allied side against a pre-set German deployment, including a suggested first German move, which makes them very playable solitaire. Treat them as training exercises rather than a full solo mode and you will get a lot out of them.

Playing time:

The box quotes 120 to 150 minutes and that is honest for the full game once both players know what they are doing. Setup is a non-issue – everything is pre-printed on the map and you will be ready in about three minutes. The shorter scenarios run a single round and can be finished in well under an hour, which makes them a good way into the system.

Complexity:

The rulebook is 36 pages, but roughly half of that is illustrations, examples, a designer’s journal, strategy notes and a playbook of correct and incorrect moves. The actual rules take about 18 pages and are low to medium complexity. This is the borderline territory between a Euro and a wargame – there is real optimization here, and there are also fronts, armies, fortifications and supply. Both audiences can enjoy it.

What I like:
  • The front line markers – you physically push the front across the map as you take ground. And with only 25 of them, a narrow salient will leave you short, quietly forcing you to advance on a broad front just as the real commanders had to.
  • Commanding your opponents opposition – every German block you place in front of your ally is a block you are not using to advance yourself. That tension between offense and obstruction is the heart of the design.
  • Hidden logistic blocks – you commit your whole round face down, bluffing with a value two blocks where they expect a strong five value. The plan is made before a single shot is fired.
  • Combat by dice difference – taking the difference instead of the sum limits the luck, so the strength you carefully assembled is what actually decides the battle.
What I do not like or would like to see in the game:
  • Expect to lose your first game to the markers – the front line economy bites retroactively. My Americans overextended, the British made a lovely run at Vienna, and only afterwards did I find I had nothing left to push where it mattered. A good rule, but it takes a play to internalize.

  • Three rounds is not a lot of room – a badly spent opening is hard to repair, and only the Germans have reduction steps, so Allied units are never permanently lost. Both choices keep the game fast and fit 1945 very well, but hex-and-counter veterans will need a moment to accept them.
For whom?

This is one of the few titles I would put in front of either audience without hesitation. For a Euro player it is an approachable entry into wargaming, with hidden planning, action economy and a clean combat procedure. For a wargamer it is a genuine operational contest with fronts, supply, fortifications and terrain – just delivered in two hours instead of two days. If you have a regular two-player partner and a shelf that is short on WWII titles that actually get played, this is the one.

More about the game:





And now let us have a look at the components and materials – all pictures and videos taken during my own plays:

The final production copy – components, game overview and what was added versus the first edition
A full example of play, recorded on the prototype – the sequence of play and combat in action
Freshly opened game with main components presented.
Mid-game situation – look at all those front markers moving around!

VERDICT:

Before anything else, a word of appreciation. This campaign launched in April 2025, right in the middle of the tariff turmoil between China and the United States, which hit it hard. It funded anyway, and it was delivered within six months exactly as promised, in time for Essen 2025. Congratulations are due to both the designer and the publisher – that is not a small achievement in the current climate.

As for the game itself: what stays with me after every session is the double focus – kind of schizophrenia you need to play with 🙂 You want to reach Berlin, but you also spend half your attention deciding how much German steel to throw in front of your ally, and every block spent on obstruction is a block not spent on your own advance. Very few designs manage to make cooperation and competition sit in the same decision, and this one does it without a single special rule to force it.

Add hidden logistic planning, a combat system where preparation genuinely outweighs luck, and the simple physical pleasure of pushing that front line across the map, and you get a game that plays in two hours and leaves you talking about it for longer. The new scenarios, variants and playbook mean this edition also gives you somewhere to go after the first few sessions. It is not a simulation and it is not trying to be one – it is a superb, tense, historically grounded contest.

And I am delighted that Portal Games decided to step into wargaming with a title of this quality. I am told there will be more games in this system. I am already waiting.

Recommended!