In “A play-test using Triumph rules : Italian Condotta vs. Medieval Germans”, George Arnold provides a detailed overview of the Triumph rules for Ancient and Medieval wargaming, from game setup to conclusion.
It’s this month’s sample article from a previous issue of Lone Warrior and is available on the Sample Articles page.
Have to say that I found George Arnold’s article on the Triumph rules intriguing. I cut my teeth on Ancients wargaming with DBA, and whilst I enjoyed the games for what they were, fast play rules, I also had similar issues with the rules as described by George. I also struggled with that higher form of English known as ‘Barkerese’, and discovered usages of punctuation and sentence construction that I would never have dreamed of (more likely would have had nightmares about!!). Hence why Triumph sounds so appealing!
So that’s one more set of rules to add to the ‘try out’ queue!!
Cheers
G
Like George B. I’ve added these to my queue to try (and more literally, added them to my shopping cart on Wargame Vault). I’m not an Ancients gamer, but I use Ancients rules to play low-magic fantasy. Hordes of the Things (DBA variant) would be a good choice but give me a headache when I read them. So, I was excited to see the Triumph people have a fantasy variant in beta as well (also added to my shopping cart!).
The Triumph! authors were, I believe, significant play-testers during the change from DBA version 2.2 to version 3, the current one (before there was a major split between the DBA author and some disgruntled testers among them).
They had also written a ‘translation’ from Barkerese into plain language for DBA 2.2, called the WADBAG guide (as they were Washington Area DBA Gamers, I think…), which was an excellent user guide to the rules. I have yet to see the Triumph! rules, but with the pedigree it has it will probably be a big improvement in layout/format. Unfortunate that the two ‘sides’ couldn’t agree, while seeking the elusive ‘Holy Grail’ of the ‘perfect’ set.