Triumph

Triumph
Info
Cost
Type	Event
Set	Empires
Illustrator(s)	Joshua Stewart
Event text
Gain an Estate. If you did, +1  per card you've gained this turn.

Triumph is an Event from Empires. For , it gives you an Estate and a   token for each card you've gained that turn.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• You get +1  per card you have gained, including the Estate, and any other cards bought or gained other ways; you do not get   for Events bought.
• Once the Estate pile is empty, this does nothing.

Other rules clarifications

• After gaining an Estate from this, if you gain a Curse from another player's Black Cat, that will counts as a card you've gained this turn.

Strategy

As a potentially powerful source of alt-VP, Triumph can be a centralising method of scoring given a suitable Kingdom. However, the impact of this Event is heavily dependent on the availability of gains, including sources of +Buy in particular.

The ideal scenario is to build towards a megaturn that culminates in the purchase of multiple high-scoring Triumphs, while possibly ending the game (usually by emptying three Supply piles, most likely including the Estates). This type of strategy is very likely to be viable, i.e. readily outscoring an opponent who targets Provinces instead, when you can use gainers to gain multiple cards, as this additively increases the number of   per Triumph, and have sources of +Buy to buy multiple Triumphs at once in order to multiply the amount you score. It’s also common to start the Buy phase by buying several cheap cards, often Coppers or Estates themselves in order to contest and lower the pile, before proceeding to buy as many Triumphs as you can afford. Building towards this type of turn tends to require construction of a reasonably strong engine, so that you can reliably draw your deck and play all your gainers. One advantage of building towards multiple Triumphs in this way is that each purchase of the Event during a single turn scores one more   than the previous one did.

Realistically, setting up and executing a Triumph megaturn also requires careful attention to the state of the Supply piles and your opponents’ actions. If you buy multiple Triumphs but cannot end the game, this could leave you in a particularly poor position, given that you’re likely to be in debt and to have just added a significant amount of junk to your deck. However, this consideration needs to be balanced against the fact that it may not be possible to keep building, because your ability to execute a Triumph megaturn is reliant on the state of the Estate pile. Since you can only score via Triumph while cards remain in that pile, an opponent who is alert to your strategy may be able to undercut it by buying or gaining all or most of the remaining Estates themselves; even if they score less than you would be able to, this cuts off your ability to score Triumph  . Therefore, if you’re aware that an opponent may be able to take many Estates on their next turn, this might mean it’s necessary to Triumph earlier and for fewer   than you could have built towards, or to engage in judicious lowering of the Estate pile yourself in order to outmanoeuvre your opponents.

These complications mean that Triumph often fails in practice to offer enough   to beat other high-scoring alt-VP sources, particularly those that tend to elongate the game, such as Colony and Goons. Triumph is also less attractive when your primary source of payload is cost reduction, since as an Event its price is unaffected, making it very expensive compared to the cards it’s competing with. This means there are some gainers and sources of +Buy (e.g. Inventor and Bridge) with which its synergy is relatively poor. Triumph is also unlikely to play a significant role in a Kingdom that largely or entirely lacks sources of extra gains.

Despite these drawbacks, Triumph often represents a good supplementary source of   even in a Kingdom where you don’t build towards a megaturn. When there are ample gains, an occasional Triumph can help you accumulate   throughout the game. This is particularly effective when there are non-terminal gainers such as Bandit Camp, multiple-card gainers such as Treasure Trove, and Throne Room variants that let you play your gainers multiple times; Horse-gainers such as Paddock can be especially potent, particularly if you have plenty of terminal space to play them. This approach is especially likely to be attractive if you have a good way to trash the Estates gained (e.g. immediately with Watchtower, or for some useful benefit later), or if they’re desirable cards for your deck (e.g. with Shepherd). A similar strategy can even work in certain games where gains are not generally abundant: for example, you might buy Triumph after gaining and/or spending your Wishes from Magic Lamp. Triumph’s price supports this type of sporadic scoring, if you have more than one Buy available, by allowing you to buy the cards you wanted to add to your deck on that turn before Triumphing (which further increases its   value as well), and then pay off the on your next turn.

External strategy articles

Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.

• jsh357's 2017 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Gain an Estate. If you did, +1  per card you've gained this turn.	Empires	June 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Triomf
Finnish	Voitonjuhla (lit. celebration of victory)
French	Triomphe
German	Siegeszug			Nimm ein Anwesen. Wenn du das tust: +1 -Marker pro Karte, die du in diesem Zug genommen hast.	(2016)
German	Siegeszug			Nimm ein Anwesen. Wenn du das getan hast: +1  pro Karte, die du in diesem Zug genommen hast.	2. Edition (2021)
Japanese	凱旋 (pron. gaisen, lit. triumphant return)			屋敷1枚を獲得する。獲得した場合、このターンに獲得したカード1枚につき+1 。
Polish	Triumf			Dodaj Posiadłość. Jeżeli to zrobiłeś, +1  za każdą kartę, którą dodałeś w bieżącej turze.	(2017)
Russian	Триумф (pron. triumf)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Triumph has both a cost and a   token payout. It's like a Victory card that rewards you for getting a lot of cards in one turn, and is represented in your deck with an Estate that you can maybe get rid of. The cost helps you afford it after buying other cards; and hey, if you don't think you're getting another turn, why not go out in and up a few points.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Empires Previews #5: Events

Secret History

This started out as an Action for that gave +1 Card +1 Action +, and came with +1  per card you'd gained that turn (yes, looking a bit like Emporium). It was fun going nuts with it and so I tried variations - a Woodcutter version; one that gave +1  per 2 cards gained. Then I made it a Victory card worth 1 , that gave +1  per card gained that turn. That version was nice. But some games it's just sitting out, you don't have the combos. Space was limited and it could just be an Event. So there it is.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Empires Cards

Further thoughts by Donald X.

Since Commerce needed "differently named" because of Horse gainers, Donald X. was asked if Triumph also needed it.

No, Triumph seems good. It's much less of an issue with cards not in the set; some people might just have a few expansions including Menagerie, and would see Commerce + Horses that much more often.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.