The Triumph! Gamer

Triumph! At Rubi-Con 2025

If you’re local to Philadelphia come join me for Triumph! demo games on December 6th from 12-3pm.

Lots of games to check out, among other attractions.

In the last week I rebased my Marian Romans and got my minis from Eureka to replace missing legionaries and create a mule pack camp. I’ll post pics as soon as that’s all done. On the skirmish front, I finished my 500pt retinue for Barons’ War and got in a learning game—great fun!

Deployment. We had objectives but we both just went for the throat!

Key moment when my Baron and his knights were about to get surrounded.

My sergeants saved my ass because they got pushed back far enough by bow fire to charge the enemy Baron and slay him.

We start a campaign in January using The Barons’ War, Pillage, and I’m hoping Triumph to resolve campaign battles. Will be posting here when that starts.

I’ll be hosting demos of Triumph! on December 6th at a local mini-convention as well as a Pillage scenario later in the day.

Scenario setup for Triumph! Marian Roman vs Thracian Lowland Tribes. I’ll be moving the village though, as it’s too problematic for the Romans after I played it out.

That’s it for now. Have a great holiday!

Marian Roman Rebasing

Not much new on the hobby front other than to report that I’ve been rebasing my very first DBA army which was also the army I took to my very first tournament in 2007 (and won the tournament).

The army arrayed on sheet metal bases. These were the first 15mm ancients I had ever painted.

In the pic above you’ll see my original army. All nice and gloss varnished. It’s all AB Miniatures with the exception of Essex psiloi. The AB figures are large-more like 18mm and I had difficulty basing them. In fact, they were based in a checker pattern so I could fit them on the 40mm x 15mm base. It never occurred to me to cut the puddle bases down to be able to fit them in a line on the base.

Rebasing in progress. Notice the checkered arrangement on the textured bases.

18 years later it dawned on me to cut the puddle bases down. Very happy with the results and I’ve got some fresh AB figs to replace the spear stands I’ve been running in the army to make up for two lost elements. I think it will be fun to paint some of these up again after a couple decades.

The stands have all been textured and just await some fresh paint and static grass. I’ll post pics when they are complete. I’ll be using them to run Triumph! demos at a very small con at a local store in December. The other army I’ll be using for that is Thracian Lowland Tribes. Another army I have a lot of history with and are getting some new stands to update them for Triumph!

Fall In 2025

I decided to attend the Fall In convention this year after an absence of nearly 15 years. Originally scheduled for some games of Pillage, the organizer had to drop out and it left me with an open schedule. In my stroll through all the games set up, I happened upon the Washington Grand Company and their tables for the Triumph! Set of rules.

I go back quite a bit with the guys from WGC and it was great to see old friends and players and the new folks as well.

On Friday I got in a demo game and later that evening I was graciously given a loaner army (Medieval German Princes) to play in the Baltic Powers tournament (army lists restricted to that particular conflict region).

I didn’t take detailed pics as I was getting to grips with the Triumph! Rules.

I don’t remember the army, but I believe my archers killed a general here.

I believe these are Germans as well. That’s a general being removed.

I ended up placing 4th overall in the themed tournament and had a blast playing 15mm rank and flank again. Having played DBA for years, I feel the Triumph! Rules not only fix issues from that game-set, but also provide a more historic simulation with better combat factors, more sensible troop behavior, and other things like battle cards you can purchase with your available points that add more historical flourishes.

On Saturday I brought out my Early Imperial Roman East army after a minor rebasing of my catafracts. I played in the 15mm Open Tournament and placed somewhere in the bottom third of players with a 1-4 record. My opponents were gracious and essentially treated my games a learning games offering advice throughout. What a blast!

The first time I have fielded this army, built over a decade for DBA and now upgraded to Triumph!

This convention really reminded me of how much fun it is to game with great people and how playing a simple ruleset with deep nuance can provide so many hours of entertainment. I managed to grab some extra rule books, playing mats (thanks, DK!), and a couple movement gauges (thanks, Rod!) to bring back to my local gaming group to demo.

I also managed to pick up some great scenery for Pillage and Barons’ War, in addition to some Gripping Beast Late Romans to build for Saga.

I leave you with a couple pics of some impressive tables and boards I saw at the con.

Until next week!