Chip Theory Games to Deliver More Exciting Gladiatorial Combat with Hoplomachus: Victorum

It has already been an exciting year on the Chip Theory Games front with new expansions and content for Too Many Bones (Splice & Dice, Dart, Lab Rats) and Cloudspire (Horizon's Wrath, The Uprising), yet Chip Theory continues to bring the hype announcing Hoplomachus: Victorum, a new solitaire standalone addition to the Hoplomachus family coming to Kickstarter in 2021:

Quote:

The year is AD 79. Seers have learned of the imminent eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and those versed in the mystic arts have made invocations to stop the calamity from claiming thousands of lives. However, these actions have angered Pluto, god of the underworld, who vows to usher in even greater destruction unless the earth's strongest champions accomplish a series of tasks in a realm of grueling combat.

Not necessarily the final cover

Hoplomachus: Victorum uses the acclaimed combat system from the Hoplomachus games, adding new twists with a focus on heroes and campaign play. Victorum is a solo-only experience, offering an in-depth, rewarding adventure with deep strategic decisions and exciting combat. Set in a more epic and mythical world, this title will pair the combat mechanisms fans know and love with beautiful updated lore, art, and design.

For those unfamiliar with this line, Hoplomachus is a series of hex-based tactical board games about gladiatorial combat during the Roman Empire designed by Adam Carlson and Josh J. Carlson. Compared to Chip Theory Games' more recently prominent series, Too Many Bones and Cloudspire, the Hoplomachus games have simpler rules and set-up and are much quicker to play, yet are packed with deep tactical choices.

In Hoplomachus: Origins, for example — the only one in the series I've played so far — players draft a team of gladiators (represented by premium, heavy-weighted plastic chips) which they then deploy in one of three different arenas (neoprene mats) and use to combat enemies primarily by rolling custom dice to attack. The components really enhance the gameplay and create a wonderful tactile experience.

The core mechanisms and game flow are easy to learn, again especially compared to Too Many Bones and Cloudspire. Each turn, you 1) Deploy a gladiator, tactic or one of each, 2) Move all eligible gladiators, and 3) Attack with all eligible gladiators. Each of the gladiators have their own stats, abilities, and innate skills, and when combined as different teams using different tactics, there's a wealth of strategic and tactical options, which adds a lot of flavor to the game — not to mention the fact that most Hoplo games can be played 30 minutes or less!

While Hoplomachus games can be played in different modes such as player vs. player, co-op, and even 2 vs. 2 when combining both The Lost Cities and Rise of Rome, the Hoplo series has a tremendous reputation for having excellent solo modes. It hits a nice sweet spot of being challenging and having great AI systems, which lends itself to smooth and satisfying solo play. In fact, there seems to be a large audience that plays Hoplomachus games strictly solo, which is probably part of the reason Chip Theory opted to make Hoplomachus: Victorum the first solo-only game in the series.

Board Game: Hoplomachus: The Lost Cities

In addition to Hoplomachus: Victorum, CTG will release a remastered edition of existing Hoplomachus content that will "streamline the best content from the original base games and expansions into a single box" simply dubbed "Hoplomachus". Their goal with the new remastered Hoplomachus big box is to include a great majority of the content from the existing Hoplo games and expansions, but in a streamlined way, providing a more accessible and cohesive experience for jumping into various modes of gameplay. It sounds like this remastered Hoplomachus will be an excellent way to get more folks into the Hoplo series.

Plus, knowing Chip Theory Games, the quality will be beyond top notch for both Hoplomachus: Victorum and the remastered Hoplomachus big box. I'm stoked to hear more updates on both of these upcoming releases!