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Triumph!

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vtsaogames02 Dec 2016 9:54 a.m. PST

The Corlears Hook Fencibles tested the new ancient/medieval rules "Triumph!" last night. If you don't like DBA you won't like Triumph! It is a similar game, same small armies, same fast play.

I rules-meistered the first game. Ken was Harold Godwinson while Rick was William the Bastard. Ken rolled high, Rick rolled low and the Anglo-Danes invaded Normandy, a pre-emptive strike, no doubt. This led to jokes about the amount of mead that Harold had the other night.

I had picked the armies ahead of time. The Anglo-Danes had 3 elite infantry (Huscarls), 8 heavy foot (Fyrd), 2 skirmishers and 2 horde (Great Fyrd). That made 15 units at 48 points. The Normans had 4 knights, 2 Breton cavalry (Javelin cavalry), 2 levy bows, 4 elite foot and 2 horde, for 14 units at 48 points. Rick could have traded his pair of horde units for a single skirmisher, which would have been 13 units at 47 points.

Ken is our relatively new guy and we all haven't played DBA in a couple years.

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Rick's deployment was a single line.
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Both sides slowly advanced at the speed of the slowest troops. In time Ken pulled his skirmishers back and sent them to his left flank, a wooded hill. Rick's tight flank slogged across a steep hill, slowly. His main line advanced at a slow pace.
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The lines got close enough for bow fire. Ken rolled low, Rick rolled high.
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Ken pulled his flanking unit back and Rick charged along most of the line. In the open, knights merely need to edge the foot to ride them down.
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It went from bad to worse for the Anglo-Danes.
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Soon they were over their breakpoint and the Normans celebrated. It had been a one-sided victory. We broke for dinner.

Afterwards Harold had a personality transplant as I inhabited his soul. And apparently more mead because Harold invaded again, provoking more levity. There were three terrain pieces, a gentle hill, a woods and a village. The first two ended up on the Norman side of the table. With only the village and having seen the results of a general clash the previous game, I decided to base my defense on skirmishers in the village and refuse the right flank. I should have placed some reserves behind my left center. 20/20 hindsight is always good,
Rick deployed in one long line again and came on. The Bretons and the hordes attacked the village. The skirmishers facing the Bretons fell back while those facing the hordes sprinted back at some speed.

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A unit of Huscarls got into the village pushed the horde back. The skirmisher who had fled got back into the village on my left, facing Breton horse. My middle skirmisher was chased out of the village. Rolling low again to Rick's good roll, the skirmishers were ridden down in the open.

The Bretons went on to strike the flank of my main line. Harold was cut down with his bodyguard because there was no place for him to retreat. As far as I can see, there are no extra points awarded for felling the enemy general/king, so I was still in the game. But I now had to use an extra pip for every action, making for sluggish command. A knight rode in and trampled another Huscarl unit. I hit the knight front and flank, wiping it out. The Huscarl in the village cut down one Horde and survived being struck in the flank by the other horde. The Breton back in the village was taken out by a flank attack. The Breton that was rolling up my line was taken front and rear, just managing a tie. Rick moved William and his bodyguard to be able to flank the remaining Huscarls in the village. At the same time, the surrounded Bretons went down fighting.

It was knife's edge now, the next kill would decide the game. My remaining huscarls were already in combat with the last Norman horde. My skirmishers, fresh from the defeat of the Bretons and on the horde's flank, fell on them. The horde was beaten, could not retreat and I pulled out a victory.

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Many Normans were in a long line that wheeled very slowly, with levy bow on the flank moving slowest of all and never got into the fight. Both sides had many units that never fought.
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The Normans lost 16 points (just enough to break them) while my losses were 13. And then there was the little fact that Harold was dead and the search for his successor was on. The first game took a little over an hour. Even with my looking at the rules from time to time, it took that long because the lads were mighty reticent to start. The second game took about 45 minutes. I figure as we get used to the rules the games should go faster. There are more troop types than in DBA. As you can see, armies are not all 12 elements.

One thing I really like: you cannot flank a unit unless you start off behind a line extending from their front edge. Fast units can't just move up and flank units right away.
We will be playing more of this. The terrain system is fast. There are chances for flank marches, though neither of our early medieval armies managed that.

The rules say camps without garrisons defend themselves at a value of 2. With armed camp followers painted up, I figure we might as well use them for "un-garrisoned" camps.

Minor point: there are no pretentious troop type names like psiloi. Oh, how glad I am to have skirmishers. On the other hand there are rather too prosaic terms like "bad horse" and "battle taxi". Well, I can always say horse archers instead of horse bow.

Shaun Travers02 Dec 2016 2:26 p.m. PST

My friend and I played out first couple of games of Triumph! the other day and our experience matches your summary and the end of your post. I am not overly fond of DBA and my most favourite was version 1.1. We like Triumph! and we will be playing again. It also seemed easier to play.

vtsaogames02 Dec 2016 8:12 p.m. PST

Shaun, my favorite version of DBA is 3.0. But some of the Fencibles don't like the "all armies have 12 elements".

Timotheous03 Dec 2016 11:30 a.m. PST

@vtsao-having looked at the preview of the preview PDF copy of Triumph!, it looked like DBA 2.2+ with a new terrain system and a point system to allow for unequal numbers of elements. Assuming that you were familiar with DBA 2.2+, did you notice any other improvements under Triumph?

TIA

vtsaogames03 Dec 2016 1:19 p.m. PST

Was DBA 2.2+ printed in hard copy or was it an internet only version? I have the last hard copy version and the DBA 3.0 book. If it was an internet only version, I didn't follow all that fuss.

Triumph is written in fairly short, declarative sentences, no Barkerese. There are a lot more troop types. There are a couple more responses to combat, including evade and panic.

There's a light points system and a new terrain system.

The BUA and puppet regime rules are gone with the wind. The army lists are on line in the Meshwesh site meshwesh.wgcwar.com/#/home
so no further purchase is necessary. For $15 USD it seems a good deal. Folks who buy the available edition will get free copies of the final version.

Oh yeah, if you capture the enemy camp they lose 8 points + points for any garrison. The camp is removed along with the capturing unit. It doesn't count as lost but is busy looting. So no recapturing the camp.

Timotheous03 Dec 2016 7:02 p.m. PST

Thanks for the summary vtsao. DBA 2.2+ was a download only, as line edits to the official DBA rules, and a QRS. I never played it, as I was never involved in the DBA schism at the time. But I am curious to see what new ideas they have come up with, even if I will probably stick to 3.0.

Thomas Thomas13 Dec 2016 2:50 p.m. PST

Vtsaogames:

If you need a point system for DBA 3.0 (so you don't just get 12 element armies) get a copy of my D3H2 which has a point system for both historical and HOTT elements.

For an easy play learning version of DBX written in "normal" english and with a point system try my A Game of Fire and Ice available from Wargame Vault.

Thomas J. Thomas
Fame and Glory Games

coopman13 Dec 2016 5:33 p.m. PST

I am reading thru TRIUMPH right now. It is a well done rules set, IMO. Intuitive & easy to understand. I haven't read a sentence yet where I went, "Wait…what?" I just hope that they can get the late medieval/WOTR army lists done fairly soon.

Snowcat23 Dec 2016 12:02 a.m. PST

How did you find the Norman Levy Bow not having a ranged missile attack? Did they have any value besides cheap filler?

Cheers

Dave Schlanger29 Dec 2016 7:14 a.m. PST

Regarding Bow Levy in general… this is pulled from our public forum at forum.wgcwar.com

"2-4 stands of Bow Levy is really useful -- that's the perfect amount for a holding action against enemy flank attacks with mounted. Set them up on one flank and you are basically immune to enemy horsebow flanking movements, and quite resistant to flanking movements by any other mounted except Cataphracts or Elephants. And Cataphracts and Elephants are too expensive and too slow to be sent on looping flanking maneuvers, so you don't need to worry about them much either.

Skythians hate wads of Bow Levy. And chariots hate them too. At +2:+3, even with shatter results on their side, they have to kill twice as many Bow Levy as they lose Horsebow or Chariots, and that rarely happens."


DS

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