COMPONENTS - No surprise with CTG, but the components are excellent here: the stadium holder, giant neoprene mats, chunky chips and dice, etc. My only complaints are that the lines on the world map can be a bit hard to see, and it's also sometimes tough to see hit faces on some of the dice. 0:00 - Introduction 0:31 - Heroes and Scions 1:32 - Campaign Structure 2:15 - Arena Variety 2:56 - Squad Management 3:40 - Tactical Choices 4:47 - Final Thoughts
Thanks Mike. Pretty much what I expected. Glad to hear the tactical side is great because that's the big selling point for me. A long campaign is a plus so I'm really looking forward to this.
Thanks Mike for the review, cannot wait to get these games. Victorum may be the first game to compete for my no.1 place with Too Many Bones, time will tell
Great review. Absolutely phenomenal game IMO, I've had it setup in my study for the last week and I'm getting in plays wherever I can. It feels very much like an epic video game & designed with the intent to pick up and play over time, not rush through & complete in one sitting. The only thing I would like to see addressed in an expansion or update is maybe a Scion battle at the end of each Act with a final confrontation with Pluto at the end of Act IV. The Primuses could come out immediately after an entire factions' units have been eliminated instead. This way the end of Act would feel more like a confrontation with an end of level baddie (Primuses don't feel epic enough), and it would be great if there were some other additional upgrade for end of the Act.
The main thing I'm looking for (and I think they said this is coming in the expansion) is ongoing effects from the scions, so the game feels different in each campaign based on the final boss.
You and Liz pushed me over the edge on backing this. Saw the demo copy at Gen Con, beautiful is an understatement here! As a big time solo gamer And war gamer this one checks a lot of boxes!
Thanks, Mike. Great review. Now you've got me excited for the prospect of a CTG Xcom board game with tactical combat. I guess this would work as a co-op too? Will you be reviewing Hoplomachus Remastered as well?
Mike will certainly be receiving a copy of Remastered - but review copies of Remastered won’t be going out until the boat lands in October for the most part. We air shipped in a bunch of early copies of Victorum (because production was done and we could show it at Gen Con). Trying to give Victorum the spotlight through September and then will do a second wave/push of promotion on Remastered for the holidays :-) Cheers!
Great review! Is there any dice mitigation or am I just not paying close enough attention? Everyone says its pretty thinky and tactical as far as combat goes so maybe dice mitigation doesn't matter so much in this?
Generally speaking there is no dice mitigation, which is why some rolls can make or break your battle, and that will certainly frustrate many players. But yes, tactics matter a lot, and there are a ton of rolls, so they tend to even out.
To be fair, Hoplomachus included solo/co-op in the very first release (the lost cities), and the game became well known because of Ricky Royal’s solo coverage. So it is MORE famous as a solo game series than as a 2-player arena game 🤷♂️
Oh yeah, this entire release (Victorum) is a campaign solo experience. The other simultaneous release, Hoplomachus remastered (which I covered this week) has arena competitive play
How would you say Hoplomachus Victorium compares, in term of overall gameplay, against TMB? I'm interested in buying one or the other to solo play it, and i don't mind the campaign aspect of it, but I dont know which one to prioritize (since they both look similar in many aspects).
So there are a few core differences, and they honestly don't really FEEL the same to play. Hoplo is squad management and combat, whereas TMB is 1-4 more unique characters. Hoplo is a long, multi-act campaign. TMB tends to go 1-2 hours and you are completely done (though there are campaign expansions). TMB really leans into the uniqueness of each gearloc and their abilities. Hoplo is less strong on that, but the final bosses are more unique, and the battlefields offer more consistent tactical puzzles than the more basic TMB landscapes. If it's a comparison of TMB base game to Hoplo Victorum base... I might go Hoplo, but it also costs more. TMB blows the variety up though as you buy more gearlocs and stuff... but that's a lot more money :) Not sure if that helps!
It was designed to be played one act at a time rather than all at once, so about 1h30/2h sessions from what the developers have said. All your stats are on a piece of paper so you just need to keep that and your own units that you store together in one of the chip trays.
That all depends on how you feel about the campaign-based play. That is something completely different than what original Hoplomachus offers. The closest corollary would be origins, but this is still a very different beast. For me, having played all of the other ones, this is the best version
@@OneStopCoopShop I like the idea of this game, but I Deslike the idea of always rolling a dice to determine the result of something. In this sense, I like games that are more deterministic like Mage Knight or Dungeon Alliance, that in most of the times you already know the result of a combat even before engage on it. Will I be disappointed with Hoplomachus in this case?
Asking again. Can you link where to get games you review. Cant find this on Amazon, don't want to get ripped off doing eBay or something scratchy but I think this would be fun to have.
I would honestly feel a little icky putting “where to buy” links in all my videos. I’m trying my best to be non-biased and transparent in showing games. I don’t want to ever feel like an advertising arm of publishers 😅 But that said, this is currently only available through preorder from Chip Theory Games: chiptheorygames.com
I agree, from everything that I have seen the campaign structure is kind if half baked. I wish there would be something that gives each campaign a bit of a different feel and trajectory. You highlighted that the scions don’t impact the campaign. Certainly the game would have benefited massively from something that configures the campaign or even the meaning of certain places differently. For a future expansion a map with more different locations would be great. For example there could be places that trigger story points depending on the scion
I don't agree with the "half-baked" characterization, but that's going to be subjective. It all functions very well, but like you I'd like to see more in the future.
