Full Circle
My first tentative steps into this great hobby happen when I ventured along to a local club (oh so many years ago). Back then DBM was pretty much the only game being played on a regular basis. I remember being awe-struck by the great masses of 28mm miniatures moving about the table tops. Until then I had never seen so many miniatures on one table before. On a fundamental level, there were and still are today certain rule mechanics in that system that I really like.
I spent the next few years collecting armies and (with the help of the club members) learning the rules but, here’s the thing. I never really mastered any of the game mechanics. In fact I can honestly say after god knows how many years spent trying that I didn’t even come close to understanding all but the very basics. Unfortunately for me the rule book proved pretty much unreadable. A drab, plain book full of overly long sentences where the placement of a single comma could cause you to misinterpret the meaning of any given rule entirely.
Looking back now, one of the most frustrating things about the book (for me) was trying to check my opponents interpretation of a rule during a game. Any clarification I sort was always buried somewhere in the middle of along winded sentence. If I was lucky enough to find what I wanted to check, there was a good chance I wouldn’t understand it anyway.
Now, if this is starting to sound like a “I hate DBM” rant its certainly not meant to. As I said in the beginning there were and still are aspects of the game that really appeal to me. Game mechanic’s I’ve looked for and missed when playing other systems.
With the arrival of FoG and ADGL, the club’s core of ancient players fractured into smaller groups. All of which gravitated towards their preferred rule sets. Although all of these systems have their merits none of them captivated me. So my armies ended up in boxes for many years. That all changed when I was introduced to Impetvs. This set rekindled my love of the period. I really liked the large base sizes and found the rules to be very readable. Sadly however, it’s currently not an overly popular system in New Zealand so games tend to be few and far between.
So here we are at last, full circle with Triumph a set of rules that I discovered in the later half of 2020. To say this system is akin to DBA is somewhat true while being completely misleading at the same time. It is definitely from the same family tree, but then again so is ADLG, FoG and they are completely different beasts when compared to DBM or DBMM. I would like to stress here that I do not seek to champion one system over another. That after all, is down to one’s personal tastes. In general the rule sets I write about on this site are the systems I enjoy playing. Triumph for me, being the latest to make the cut. For those of you who are interested in taking a closer look at Triumph I have listed a few links below that should help you to do so.
A great bunch of videos covering everything from game mechanics, set up and play examples to full play by play battle reports.
655 (free) army lists split into 40 thematic categories, complete with a full points system. Definitions for all 26 troop types. Battle cards: Special rules for some troop types.
Forum, down loadable QRS play and game set up sheets. General news about the game. Draft rules for large battle Triumph
15mm big base Triumph army galleries.
All of the armies presented below were built exclusively from Forged in Battle 15mm miniatures. They are mounted on bases meant for 28mm figures instead of what is detailed for 15mm games. This was done for reasons of personal taste. It does require a lot more figures and a larger gaming space (6″/4″ instead of 3″2″). To date I have concentrated my efforts collecting troops that fought in the Thematic category of “The birth of the west”.
Some of the armies are more complete than others. None are truly finished but, then again that’s pretty much the norm for every army I’ve painted. There is always something new or extra I need to add to an army.
