The Battle of Nicaea in 28mm using Triumph! rules

 

         I have been running into Rod Cain for probably the last ten or fifteen years at various wargaming conventions. At almost every one of them he has been hosting a visually stunning game that featured the TRIUMPH! rules system. It also happened that I was also running a game at the same time as Rod's  and thus have never had the opportunity to actually play in his game or closely observe the game mechanics. His games were always packed and (from the sound of the player-participants) jolly good fun so I have to say I was rather excited when he offered to bring a demo game to Bastion.

 

 

large colorful armies are one of Rod's trademarks

 

  

excellent terrain always accompanies these armies

(his Battle of Hastings Senlac Hill is stunning)
 

 

hordes of colorfully painted troops make the game a joy to watch

 

 

as this was a demo/learning game the armies were set up in six roughly equal divisions

Seljuks on the left and Crusaders to the right, each force was about 48 points

 

 

each division contained a mix of troops 

so that the players could get a feel for how the system works

 

the Seljuk force was mostly mounted with a mix of horse-archers and heavier cavalry

supported by a smattering of foot troops

 

while the Crusaders leaned heavily on the shock value of the Norman horse

ably supported by a solid line of heavy foot

 

tucked away in that horde of Seljuk horse are three stands of cataphracts

the ancient worlds equivalent of a Tiger tank

 

each side had a base camp that had to be defended

 

both sides were confronted with the same problem;

 there was a sizeable woods in the middle of the battlefeild,

and both sides decided upon the same answer,

 hold on the right and commit the troops from the center to breaking through on the left 

this resulted in a battle that pivoted around the central woods

above we see the Crusader left sending knights out toward the flanks of the defending Turks 

while a solid line of infantry moves forward in the middle 

 

  

 as the second turn ends we find the troops nearest the city getting into charge range of one another, while in the center the Crusader cavalry start to move past the near edge of the forest with the objective of sacking the Seljuk camp, far away on the other end of the table the Normans watch the Turks advance with quiet determination

 

 

on the Seljuk left there was a bit of a traffic-jam as they maneuvered the troops into the limited battlespace, the Norman cavalry on the far right of the Crusader force rode boldly forward (ignoring the fact that they were outnumbered by the Turkish cavalry three to one) while the supporting foot advanced behind, in the center a solid line of heavy foot protected the camp

 

in the third turn the Crusaders nearest the city drove back the lighter Seljuk horse but failed to kill any

both forces were becoming fragmented, next to the woods the heavy cavalry from the center force of Normans sneaks along hoping to sack the Seljuk camp before anybody spots them

 

far off on the Seljuk left the Norman foot and Knights begin a slug-fest with the Seljuk left wing as the Turkish cataphracts slam into the solid wall of Norman heavy infantry, the stalwart resistance of the Norman heavy foot would be a deciding factor in the game

 

 

in the fourth turn both of the generals nearest the city were plagued by poor Command dice rolls and could only adjust their lines slightly

 

 

barely able to control their troops they thought hard

 about which units to prepare for the next round of combat

 

 

closer to the center the five stands of Crusader knights continued to skirt the woods 

en-route to looting the Turkish camp

 

 

while at the other end of the woods the Seljuk cataphracts slammed into the Norman foot

through three straight turns the Normans would bend but never break in this confrontation

 

 

meanwhile, things were going a bit better for the Seljuks over the rest of the half of the battlefield their preponderance of numbers allowed them to start breaking up the Crusader line and eliminating some of the Crusader units that had been overlapped

 

 

back near the town the Norman heavy foot had finally moved far enough forward to add their (considerable) weight to the fight, the Turks began to suffer considerable losses

 

 

in the center the Turks recognized the threat to their camp too late and were unable to stop the crusaders from moving to take it, they were also unable to overcome the stubborn defense of the Norman foot guarding the Crusader camp, despite facing the heaviest troops in the Seljuk army the Norman spearmen gave ground but never broke

 

 

in the distance two furious turns of combat had broken the strength of both sides

 leaving the battlefield nearly empty

       Having finally seen the game in action I promptly purchased a copy from Rod. Contrary to rumors that I had heard that TRIUMPH! was "just DBA on steroids" I found that the game provided a level of granularity that was satisfying without becoming cumbersome. The rulebook is an excellent example of what a rulebook SHOULD be. Ring bound so it can lay flat on the table during play, clearly and concisely written with simply loads of examples (rather than fifty-word run on sentences of dodgy English) and printed in a font-size that works with my aging eyes. Sure there are a bunch of the inescapable color pictures but they don't overwhelm the rules like some other rules sets. Furthermore the rules have significant online support (your questions are likely to be answered by the person that wrote the rules!) as well as an enormous and free set of army lists. I certainly plan on running this in the near future and I'm already sorting through my painted minis to see just how many different armies I can field.

 

 

and, for those of us with space/financial constraints

 you can get several 15mm armies in a single shoe-box