Hoplomachus Victorum Deep Dive Review with Board Game Co, Beyond Solitaire, and One Stop Coop Shop

[@meeple]

Deep dives are long form discussions and video segments. Feel free to skill to the video segments. The goal of these reviews it to inform you about the entire product, have a little fun, and give our opinion. Thanks for watching.

[@essdee800]

Thanks for this

[@Wealtharch]

This was awesome. 4 of my favorite reviewers. Hope you can do more of these

[@seandornan-fish7510]

This a superstar line-up for a phenomenal game! Thank you!

[@tylerrrr07]

Such a good video. Love this format and love when Mike did his with Paul. These discussions and different perspectives are just so great! Thank you for sharing!

[@duckduckgamed2565]

Great video! Great group of reviewers. Hope you do more of this!

[@meeple]

thank you

[@DumahAtreides]

1) Love the joint review, fantastic group! 2) Great production quality 3) I liked that you did a breakaway summary, starting discussion, and then a turn, discussion, repeat with different game segment, review... Wow, I want that in every video review ever! Never seen it. Great idea!

[@BeTheGuitar]

A marriage of greats: great commentators & great game! Love the collaboration.

[@meeple]

Thanks so much!

[@Mr.Bassman]

Great overview and conversation around the game, thanks for this!

[@dayoltay]

Wow all guests are my fav! This is the perfect line up

[@23101981mr]

Great video full with knowledgeable (and awesome) streamers. Has definitely helped me make a decision on the game. Thank you.

[@NotBoredGaming]

Awesome panel guys - love the format. I’m about 4 hours into my first campaign and the nuances are really coming through now. I’d echo Liz’s point that, if I wasn’t sent a review copy, I would go out and buy it. I also get Alex’s concerns over potential repetition - it’s not bothered me greatly but I can see this being a bit of an issue over a full campaign. $150 for a solo only game is steep but there is a lot of game in the box.

[@kosterix123]

You can’t buy Hoplomachus Victorum! It’s nowhere for sale.

[@jverdin]

@@kosterix123 You can pre-order in their site!

[@xradio19x]

The best team in the business!!!! I just received an update that this is shipping 3rd week in Dec for the US. I went overboard with the Hero pledge, as a solo player, that's a lot to go through considering I have yet to punch Frosthaven which was delivered last week!

[@meeple]

I truly appreciate this comment more than you know.

[@GoWtheFlow]

Great review/discussion! If we could get ricky royal on this review. It would be the perfect all-star line up of all my favorite board game youtubers.

[@ChrisRichardsonwtfgamer]

Those are pits on the chariot mat? I thought they were elevations only locals could scramble up.

[@booksbricksandboards783]

Great review. Hoplo is a personal favorite so I am glad to see it is being received so well.

[@Copterman]

Thanks for the great video Jeremy! Excited to get this game soon!

[@-Markus-]

What a cast! A-Team!

[@boardgametime3727]

Yes thank you so much for this! ❤️

[@sergiopena4895]

I think the Secutor from the New Argonauts units is a very cool tank. Having a unit with Absorb is very useful.

[@AlperAslan1980]

Awesome video ladies and gents. So much looking forward to this.

[@Tr1n1tyNZ]

I was immediately drawn to this video when I saw who the special guests were - I follow all of them. TBH I was actually less interested in the game, although I have watched some of Ricky Royal’s play through which had me intrigued. Coincidentally, at long last I have finally purchased TMB even though the weak New Zealand dollar means it’s really expensive. Looking forward to my first solo play of a Chip Theory game. 😊

[@meeple]

You will not regret your decision and please update me!

[@kosterix123]

TL;DW: wait for CTG to make HV even better. Ok fine. I’d like to know how to listen to Liz’s podcast is that an url or something? What is it?

[@Spiritoftheway333]

Thanks for this! I’m getting ready to purchase my first Chip Theory game. I was thinking Too Many Bones, but do you think this would be a better starting off point?

[@jhowd78]

If you're a solo gamer it's a tough call. TMB is in my top 5 all time. Hoplomachus is the reason I fell in love with CTG. Man that's a tough call

[@dayoltay]

Solo gamer here - As an owner of TMB, cloudspire and burncycle i would say Too many bones without a question. It's like a sweet curse, they just can't beat that level of awesomeness. Any of their games after TMB is always at least mildly overshadowed. It will always be my number 1.

[@Spiritoftheway333]

Thanks all! I was so sure I was gonna get TMB, but then this review has me questioning! I imagine I’ll end up getting both eventually, I just don’t know what the better starting point for Chip Theory is!

[@gregkleinfall1901]

@@Spiritoftheway333 Not having played Hoplo, I sense it is an easier point of entry (complexity wise) than TMB for someone new to a Chip Theory Game. That being said, TMB is among my top 3 games of all time (Gloomhaven and Mage Knight being the other 2). I have to also agree with David Alp Yoltay above that TMB is my all time favorite solo game. I also own Cloudspire and Burncycle.

[@kevinerskine3299]

Awesome stuff. I love their games so much.

[@nickgiannini8860]

Great video thanks! A question for all four of you if that's okay... when I first got core too many bones I thought it was pretty great but didnt quite understand why it was so many peoples number 1 or at least top ten game. Recently I got undertow and added all that to the core box and man it is soooo good and I understand now the super high praise as it is probably my top 5 for sure now. So my question would be when thinking about just base TMB ONLY, no extra gearlocs encounters anything, would it still eak ahead of base victorum for you?

[@jhowd78]

The base of TMB for me is a top 5 game of all time...there's your answer. This game is no freak slouch at all

[@nickgiannini8860]

thanks for your reply @@jhowd78!

[@OneStopCoopShop]

For me, I think Victorum would edge out base game TMB. All the cool options and extra gearlocs really elevate the game for me - Mike

[@nickgiannini8860]

Thanks Mike! @@OneStopCoopShop

[@jcw59able]

More excited than ever

[@arthurmensing3869]

Awesomeness! 4 of my favorite BG people. Does Hoplomachus Remastered add anything to Victorum?

[@elzheiz]

Great discussion, I think it will be even better than TMB for me somehow!

[@joncarr5545]

Great collaboration!

[@giannisc.5254]

Great video and the game looks also very good...except for the combat. Dice combat again ? I would prefer combat like Cloudspire where the units do battle with their printed on values. I understand that dice can offer excitement, because of the unsure outcome but when they don't go your way it's such a bummer and i don't think it's worth it (in general) to shoulder these in order to have fun the rest of the times.

[@michaelrodriguez3129]

I’m still halfway through video but will this be available on in retail?

[@jhowd78]

I THINK you can pre order it still

[@patrickmcgee8318]

You can definitely preorder all the bells and whistles. I preordered it a couple of weeks ago. CTGs are really great about not offering exclusives via KS and mainly allowing backers to get things a bit cheaper instead.

[@joncarr5545]

All CTG games are available oh their website exclusively.

[@michaelrodriguez3129]

@@joncarr5545 thanks everyone 🙌🏼

[@Stolovky]

What is actually the point of having a die that has all successes on it, what’s the point of having/rolling it?

[@jhowd78]

Absolutely not idea

[@ChipTheoryGames]

There are abilities/banes and such in the game that force you to lose your most powerful die. In “old” Hoplo there were units that could do one damage without rolling dice. This was a way to streamline that while also allowing for that ability to be affected by other skills in a simpler way. Also, we just kind of found it amusing. :-)

[@sirtrevis]

Hunh. I kept thinking of jiu jitsu practice during this episode. The variety - grindy - samey - topic. In jiu jitsu, there are people who get shown a new move to practice. They do it two or three times, and then they get bored and their focus falters and goes elsewhere. Other people get shown a new move, and they practice it intently for as long as the time is provided, and they wouldn't mind continuing to practice it for another 100 repetitions. Most - most - of the people I know who are really good at jiu jitsu come from the latter group. ... Interesting.

[@dwayneteamer2828]

Do this for Burncycle..ASAP

[@jhowd78]

We made a two person deep dive for that one months ago

[@dwayneteamer2828]

@@jhowd78 That, I did not realize. Thanks!

[@sirtrevis]

Good discussion. ... !!$%!. What is it? September 9th, 2022!? October, late October. Man! Too far away!

[@picklebuckeye]

Hoploooooooo!

[@DragonsRacingTeam]

Very cool group review, not helping my impatience, however

[@realdealastrology9]

I have to say that this is Chip Theory Games' worst solo offering to date. I'm a fan of the original Hoplomachus and Too Many Bones, but Victorum took quite a downturn for me. I only played through 1 full campaign, and I rage-quit during the Scion battle. For me, I don't mind the length of the game. The big problem is that the difficulty level is just *way* off. It's clear that the designers have no clue what Chosen/easy is, what normal is, what hard is, etc. etc. I was playing on Chosen, and it was FAR from easy. Seriously! They truly didn't playtest this game enough, and the trouble begins as soon as you hit Act IV. I had no problems getting through Acts I to III, but there's a very unfair and unnecessary difficulty ramp-up when you approach IV. Simply terrible. I literally had to surrender and/or avoid all events during that act, no joke, which of courses added banes to the bag. Then I had no shot on the "recommended" Scion battle with Taotie. By the way, I played with their recommended setups for Krakenlance LOL. And you're supposed to have a somewhat "easier" time with him? Total BS. I'm very happy to be selling this one off to someone who likes more sadistic gameplay. And that's another thing. I don't mind losing...as long as I have a lot of fun in the process. This is why I like Arkham Horror and Eldritch Horror. They're very tough games to win, but they're both a ton of fun, and I don't mind losing a lot when playing those games. With Victorum, however, the process of losing is unbelievably BAD and quite anger-inducing. Like I said above, once Act IV hits, things start taking a drastic turn for the worse. Maybe if they did some heavy re-thinking on the difficulty tweaks, or even shortened the game to 3 acts only, they'd have a hit on their hands. As it stands now, this game is substantially flawed. Absolutely can't wait to sell this off.