Julian: Triumph Before the Storm

About this board game

Julian: Triumph Before the Storm is an intermediate-complexity wargame for 1–2 players, with a playing time of approximately 240 minutes. Designed by Joseph Miranda, it simulates the situation across the Roman Empire during the 4th century AD.

One player commands the centralized Roman high command, while the other directs the various chaotic forces seeking to destroy the empire. The Roman objective is to reconsolidate the threatened empire and secure its frontier regions against further invasion. The Barbarian objective is to seize as much Roman territory as possible.

The Barbarian side is divided into independent forces, each representing a people or tribal coalition such as the Goths. The Persians and Armenians are commanded by the Barbarian player but are treated as civilized forces, alongside Roman and rebel units.

Each turn represents one year. Every hexagon covers 100 miles, or 162 kilometers, from side to opposite side, while each unit represents between 10,000 and 30,000 troops, camp followers, and others. The system is based on the one originally presented in the earlier They Died With Their Boots On series from Decision Games.

A broad range of rules models the pressures of imperial crisis and frontier warfare, including:

• Usurpation, political crises, taxation, and random events
• Stratagems, fog of war, pursuit, and pursuit combat
• Reinforcements, field armies, militia, supply trains, and bases
• Fortresses, naval movement, amphibious operations, and pillage
• Caesar and Augustus units, the Huns, tribal homelands, and civic works

With its opposing objectives, large-scale map, and layered treatment of military and political events, Julian: Triumph Before the Storm presents a detailed contest over the survival and fragmentation of the Roman Empire.