Fort Triumph Gameplay Preview – Kicking Trees and Taking Names

Fort Triumph is a pleasant amalgamation of turn based strategy combat like XCOM and an overworld interaction much similar to Heroes of Might and Magic. I had the Heroes of Might and Magic 1 & 2 combo box back in my childhood so this game brought back some fond memories. Sprinkled on top of that is a generous helping of charming and witty dialogue. You can almost hear what each character sounds like.

The combat phase has mechanics that turn based strategy veterans will be immediately familiar with. Most actions take action points. Each character starts with three action points. Moving within range costs one, moving outside that range takes two, and most attacks take two action points. Abilities have a cooldown based on a number of turns.

For Triumph, however, adds in a pretty unique mechanic. Most characters have a physics based ability that interacts with characters, enemy, and the environment. It feels a little bit similar to Disgaea, another turn based strategy game near and dear to my heart. You can lift players and objects, you can kick things across the map, or into enemies, you can cast whirlwinds to knock trees onto goblins, and you can even grapple two enemies into each other.

There is an incredible layer of depth and strategy to the way you can interact with the world and the enemies using the physics based mechanics. For example, you can have two ranged heroes standing by in overwatch. You can send your defense oriented character to kick a goblin hiding behind cover into the open and trigger both overwatch attacks. There are many more ways to use these mechanics and it opens up the combat in very interesting ways.

It’s very fun to use and feels great when you find new ways to screw over the enemy and it truly sets the game apart. Take that, villainous goblins.

The overworld map has little areas you can interact with that may grant you coins or buffs. You only have a limited amount of steps you can take every turn on the overworld map and as time progresses enemies will grow stronger so wasting time exploring the map carelessly is not recommended.

You also have a base of operations that you can upgrade with buildings, upgrade passive benefits to your characters, and hire new heroes. If your heroes die, they can be rehired, although it does get more expensive the more experience points they have. Heroes unlock new abilities as they gain experience points.

We seem to be having an influx of great turn based strategy games by indie studios and Fort Triumph is definitely one to look out for. The physics based combat mechanics keep things fresh and add in a new way outplay the enemy in combat.