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Stephen and I played a 15mm game of Triumph! at the new game store in Fate, Texas. He brought his Spartan army and I had an old Athenian army I created 15+ years ago. The Spartans had two Elite Foot, 12 Heavy Foot, and two Horde. The Athenians had 12 Heavy Foot, two Skirmishers, one Rabble, and one Javelin Cavalry.

Stephen was the invader and had the tactical advantage.

There were only two pieces of terrain: a gentle hill and a village. Both played no part in the battle.

I set up 24 points worth of Heavy Foot in the center. Stephen set up his Spartans with Heavy Foot in the center, His Elite Foot on his right, and Horde on his left. I then placed the rest of my army, opposing his Elite Foot with two Skirmishers and his Horde with my Rabble and Javelin Cavalry:



The initial plans were:

Sparta - Advance the Heavy Foot to engage the Athenian center. Use the Elite Foot to wheel into the Athenian line and roll them up. The Horde were to delay the enemy as long as possible on the other flank.

Athens - Delay the Elite Foot with Skirmishers while the Rabble and Javelin Cavalry went after the Hordes first then turned to help in the main fight.



Stephen's very nice Old Glory brand Spartans.



Horde looking suitably chaotic!



My Old Glory/Xyston troops in battle array with their motley array of equipment and shield decorations.



Stephen's battle line approaches without delay.



Very nicely-done Lambdas on these shields.



Athenian Javelin Cavalry dart out towards the Hordes.



The Spartans advance relentlessly.



The clash of spear and shield begins.



The Skirmishers engage the Spartan general and his Elite Foot.



The Skirmishers were defeated many times by the Elite Foot, but could only be made to fall back or evade. They would then return to engage again. This prevented the Elite Foot from turning into the Athenian flank during the battle.



It is not clear from this photo, but the Javelin Cavalry were able to turn in front of the slow-moving horde and engage the end of the Spartan line. This caused the loss of two Spartan stands. The Athenian hoplites opposing them moved on to engage the Horde.



There was an exhausting back and forth in the center.



The Horde resisted to the end.



The loss of the Hordes opened the way to the Spartan camp.



The camp was captured.

The final score as 20 - 4; the Spartans lost two Heavy Foot when they were outflanked, two Hordes, and the camp. The Athenians lost a Heavy foot in the struggle in the center.

Conclusion: A great game in a new venue here in Rockwall County. Stephen is an excellent player and we had a great time discussing the tactics we were both using and exploring new ways to use the troops. Lets hope this will lead to more Triumph! games in this area!

Excellent write up! And great game.

Maybe I should have extended my line to help deal with the skirmishers on the end? Or, maybe I should have taken that 1 stand of skirmishers the Spartans have? Yeah, definitely makes me want to play it solitaire at home a few times to see what could have happened with different choices. Really good game.

Looking forward to the next one.

I have a stand of Spartan cavalry you can have!

Oh, and I will remember to bring a camp next time!

Nice write up and pics.

Skirmishers are a real asset in Triumph!. You will need to add some more light troops for the Spartans.

I’d suggest a horde on each flank with the current Spartan line up. I’ve seen that used effectively by dark age armies with a lot of heavy foot and a couple of elite foot.

We also discussed use of the Heavy Foot. Both armies got the “Hoplite Deep Formation” battle card for free. This gives a +1 combat factor for a second rank. I had twelve Heavy Foot so I double-ranked all of them. After I lost one stand from the front rank, I realized I could slide a second-rank stand over to provide support. So another option to extend your line would be maybe eight stands in the front rank with four in the second rank ready to shift over where needed.

I like both options - adding skirmishers and extending the line by thinning it a bit. But that might be an overreaction since I lost.

Also, a third option I could have made was to select a steep hill instead of a gentle hill. I was thinking a gentle hill for my helots to grab would help defend the camp, but helots just move way too slow. So, instead of having the helots on a steep hill, I could have had my hoplites use it as an anchor on one side. Well, possibly. The hill was actually a little closer to the Athenian's board edge. I would have been giving the "anchor" to the Athenians. Hmmm...decisions, decisions...

Definitely needs to be refought.

Really cool battle and report!

Maybe a minor math error -- Spartans lost two heavy foot, two horde, and a camp -- my math makes that 18, not 20? Unless the camp was defended by a 2-pt stand? Similarly, one Athenian heavy foot is 3 pts, so it looks like the final score should have been 18-3?

Wouldn't have made any difference in the game, though, as the battle was over when the camp was sacked either way.

Oops, I keep wanting to count Heavy Foot as 4 points instead of 3.