This review is for Hoplomachus Remastered, which has solo, cooperative, competitive, and team-based play in a fantasy-based ancient Rome in which various factions battle in gladiatorial arenas.
Wait, you’re probably asking yourself, didn’t Tony review that a month or so earlier? Sort of. He reviewed Homplomachus Victorum, which translates to “Heavily Armed Victors”, which is, ironically, a solo game despite the plural in the name.
Remastered is a reimplementation of Hoplomachus: Rise of Rome and plays 1 to 4 players in several different modes and, as one would expect from Chip Theory Games, features Poker-like chips.
Gameplay Overview:
There’s a lot going on in this game, but the basics are you’ll deploy a new unit, move previously placed units, and attack with those same troops. Each are represented by poker chips sitting on a stack of blue or red chips representing their health. Each troop has a few key words, and that’s what differentiates most units from each other.
In Hoplomachus Remastered, you’ll pick a faction to play that has a hero (with a thicker chip) plus a number of thinner troop chips, depending on the mode, and a number of tactic chips. These go into your camp, which is where you’ll grab units to enter the arena. When a unit first enters the arena, it’s dazed, so it can’t move or act on its first turn, unless it has a special ability that allows otherwise. I picture this being blinded by the bright sunlight or just waving to the adoring crowd during their entrance music (a la MLB relief pitchers).
Tony covered the basics in his review, so I’m going to discuss the different game play modes before answering if I was not entertained in the experience section.
Ascension is a 1-2 player cooperative mode that takes place on the Colosseum map where you’ll be fighting one of six unique titans, each having their own special rules. A big part of each battle is controlling shards that will be changing from inactive to active side and interact with each immortal differently.
Onslaught is a 1-2 cooperative mode in the Pozzuoli arena where the players take on immortals one at a time while the arena spawns its own minions, for your inconvenience. If you survive all six immortals, you win.
Skirmish is a 2-player competitive mode that can be battled on either map, where the goal is to eliminate the other faction’s primary hero. Pandemonium is a 3-4 player skirmish, while the Alliance mode is a 4 player team match that are both battled out in the Pozzuoli arena.
In all of these modes, as you gain favor with the crowd, you move up the favor track and collect bonuses that include healing units, returning discarded tactics back to your camp, making your hero active, and gaining a neutral hero to join your team.
Game Experience:
Besides making functionally waterproof games, Chip Theory Games is known for high production values and rabid fan base. I backed and enjoyed Triplock but bounced off Too Many Bones hard after trying it at Dice Tower West because it felt like there were too many rules standing between the player and the start of having fun. I’m in the minority with that hot take, but that brings us to Homplomachus Remastered.
This is a relatively simple game of exceptions. As noted earlier, troops are dazed when they enter the arena and can’t move or attack, except if they have Tactical or First Strike, which allows them to move or attack, respectively, on the turn they enter. All of the skills are covered on a player aid that you’ll be referring to a lot early on. It’s easy to forget an ability with how quickly attacks are resolved. But once you learn what each of the 31 skills means, the game is straightforward.
Except in the cooperative modes, which each have their own nuances with each Titan and Immortal. This will make the first time through each mode a little longer as you learn what chips you need, the unique rules, and the overall turn sequence.
Even so, comparatively, it’s much less complicated and arguably a far lighter experience than Too Many Bones and many other skirmish games. And it’s a lot of fun to try and puzzle out each boss with each faction.
An exception to the exception is that the factions have a lot of similar types (strategists, tank-like protectors, warriors, and ranged units), so it’s mainly about the subtle differences between similar troops and the more significant differences of the unique units. For example, the Amazons have a Venonkeeper who “controls” their giant adder has different abilities than the Leviathan controlling Depthcharger, but both are critical to the effectiveness of their respective beasts.
Even the different arenas slightly change the experience. The pedestals in the Colosseum can hold Sentinels (ranged attacking support chips), while the stone hexes in the Pozzuoli arena grant crowd favor (much like the crown spaces awarding points in Disney’s Sorcerer’s Arena) or other effects in some modes. Gaining favor unlocks perks and also gives your opponent footholds (blocking spaces that also allow you to use abilities on the spawn points) or sentinel chips, which is a nice catchup mechanic.
Besides each team having different heroes and troops with varied abilities, the tactics are like Death May Die abilities, where there’s a pool of common abilities for the first three chips, and the fourth for each faction is unique. And in a way, the mix-and-match magic of that game (or Marvel United) is also here, with each faction and boss combination offering a slightly different experience.
Even the order of the Immortals in Onslaught can have a huge effect on how that match plays out. I had a few unlucky draws of tough arena critters and a boss that wiped out multiple units to start one match, which cost me any real chance of winning. I had fun with Onslaught but didn’t enjoy that challenge mode as much as the Ascension mode.
This is a game that rewards planning ahead and leveraging your units’ abilities. With many units only moving 1-2 spaces per turn, it takes a while to get units where you want them. Learning how to use your abilities effectively will pay huge dividends. In one game, my opponent used a hook to draw my character in but was ready with multiple units to gang up on my partially surrounded warrior. Your own tactical feats and blunders will become apparent fairly quickly, which keeps this game moving along at a nice pace. But, as one should expect with a dice chucker, dice luck can play as big of a factor as good strategy. And, especially in the cooperative modes, a few unlucky rolls for your enemy can be crushing.
Lastly, the production, overall, is great with simple iconography and great art. A small complaint is that the dice symbols can be a little hard to read and/or color blind unfriendly as I sometimes had a hard time differentiating the black and Blue symbols on the chips without having to pick up and stare at the chip while the numbers that would help tell them apart, are tiny. However, as I got used to the various units, it became easier to remember.
Final Thoughts:
To Russel Crowe’s Maximus I stand with thumbs up —Yes, I was entertained. It’s a relatively easy to set up and quick-playing skirmish game once you know what you need to do. Compared to other games in this genre, Hoplomachus Remastered sets up and plays quickly. There’s nothing truly groundbreaking, but everything works really well together. I like the variability of the different factions while appreciating that they’re not that different from each other.
Final Score: 4 Stars – Hoplomachus Remastered is both a puzzly cooperative and a straightforward skirmish game allowing you fight alongside or against your friends.
Hits:
• Fast to set up and play
• The gameplay loop is straightforward, with the depth lying in the various abilities
• Great production
• Cooperative and competitive play are both fun
Misses:
• The factions are fairly similar with a few small distinctions
• Easy to forget abilities from time to time
• Some dice symbols on chips can be hard to read at a distance
