Historical Roman Legion Through Time

Just as preperation for a histoircally based Roman AAR on these forums, I was wondering exactly what a historical Roman Legion consisted of. So far this is what I have determined:

Just so you know 1 legion would be 10 units IMO, and 2 Legions would be 20 units, so that consular legions can be made.

Camillian
1 Legion
1 General (Deployed to right of the army. Representes the Equites Romani)
1 Leves
1 Hastati
1 Principes
1 Triarii
1 Rorarii
1 Acensii
1 Allied Cavalry (On Left hand side)
2 Allied Infantry

2 Legions

1 General
1 Tribunis Militum (Or 1 Equites Romani)
2 Hastati
2 Principes
2 Triarii
2 Rorarii
2 Acensii
1 Leves
1 Allied Cavalry
6 Allied Infantry

Polybian
1 Legion
1 General
1 Allied Cavalry
1 Velites
2 Hastati
2 Principes
1 Triarii (Seeing as there are half the number)
2 Allied Infantry

2 Legions
1 General
1 Tribunis Militum (Or 1 Equites Romani)
3 Hastati
3 Principes
3 Triarii
2 Velites
1 Allied Cavalry
6 Allied Infantry

Marian
1 Legion
1 General
4 Cohorts
2 Allied Cavalry
2 Other Allies
1 First Cohort

2 Legions
1 General
1 Tribunis Militum
2 First Cohorts
8 Cohorts
2 Allied Cavalry
6 Other Allies



So how close am I?

Didn't Roman legions also drag around some ballistae with them?

I have been playing with a legion being:

1 general
1 equites romani
2 triarii
3 principes
3 hastati
3 balearic slingers or 3 cretan archers
2 scutari or 2 peltastai
and then whatever mercs I deem neccessary for the job, usually cavalry.

The exact composition depends on where the legion is based. I have one in Emporion, one in Lepki, one in Segestica and one in Demetrias. The western legions have balearic slingers and scutari and the eastern legions have cretan archers and peltastai.

This is what i use for my eb 0.81 game:

Camillan:

1 General
2 Hastati
2 Principes
1 Triarii
1 Rorarii (+ 1 when i am siegeing a city for garrisoning)
1 Leves
1 Accensi
1 Equites
1 Aux Skir (Akontistai/Peltastai/Cretans/Gallic slingers or archers)
2 Aux Spearmen (or any spearmen that fit)
2 Aux Swordsmen (or any swordsmen that fit)

Polybian:

1 General
2 Velites
2 Hastati
2 Principes
1 Triarii
2 Aux Skirmishers
2 Aux Spearmen
2 Aux Swords
1 Aux Cavalry
(+1 rorarii when sieging for garrisoning)


For both configurations I use the classic manipular, triple line formation. Roman troops deploy in the center and allies in the flanks.

Good luck on the AAR, CountArach, I'm looking forward to it!

For th Camillianlegions, I just went with what EB gave us by default. There are I believe two of these legions at the start.

1 General
1 Equites
1 Hastati
1 Principes
1 Triarii
1 Rorarii
1 Accesii
1 Leves

This seems like a perfect legion for the early game. Keeps things interesting as it's only 8 units

Once we progress to the Polybian era, I change it up to something similar to Quintus' guide for RTR.

1 General
1 Allied cavalry or another general acting as Tribune
1 Hastati
1 Principes
1 Triarii
1 Velites
3 Allied infantry
1 Allied skirmisher

Works as another nice legion, limited to 10 units in the stack.

To make these perfect though, you would need to edit the Triarii unit to be half the size and cost. However, I'm not exactly sure how to do this. Could someone who does let us know please?

Really though, no matter how much I wanted to play with 10 unit legions...

They never (almost) get the job done.

Dont be ashamed to double the number of your cavalry or princapes...

I usually play with a twenty unit per legion strategy.
4 Hastati
4 Pricepes
2 Triarii
plus auxilias

I find the game gets to be pretty boring with anything over 10 units, let alone a full stack. This way you're on your toes. You still rarely lose, but it's a lot more possible at least. This is on Medium battle difficulty btw. Also, you get to have 2 legions for every 1 you would have otherwise, as far as upkeep goes. It's nice to have 4-6 active legions in the field and garrisons than to have 2-3 armies. Of course, you could always add a few more units and make it a full fledged Consular army, with about 15 units. But I haven't resorted to that yet.

Wonderland, out of interest, do you disband a legion after 16 years of service? Also, do you only use Consular legions for Consuls or pro-Consuls?

These are the things I'm using in my upcoming AAR :P

Nope, I don't disband because there's no clear way of determining when a legion started. This is because I don't retrain, instead sending in fresh troops to merge with the depleted ones so there are constantly new men being brought in. Although I guess I could set a certain date when the legion officially is born and stick with that...... I'll think about that further.

And as far as Consular legions, I don't use them in EB because the trait system doesn't allow for Consuls too often. And when you do get them the Consulship is very short lived. I know it goes by historical amounts of years and all that, just doesn't make it very practical to have a Consular army. I did use them with RTR and the system that was implemented whereby there was a progression in the military career represented by ancillaries. I don't think it was native to RTR though, it was something added by an awesome modder. I really liked that system, miss it in EB.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to your AAR! I love RP things like that, I hope you have some other similar ideas up your sleeve. :2thumbsup:

A new legion should be created for every 3 provinces you controll. I tried that and "I gots da cash and da army":shame: ....sry....

That should be implemented.

also dont get uptight with rules, or else you'll get frustrated keeping up with everything.

Nah, I love complexity. It just gives me a more 'there' feel.

Heh, me too. Differn't strokes, differn't folks!

should allies be in muiltipals and if they are is it for all periods of EB

I follow CountArach format but alter auxiliaries/allies based on the region the legion is based and/or needs of the army.

Kushan

WAIT! It'd be so much better for Marian legions to have 9 cohorts, 1 first cohort, and two generals (general and tribune) with a cavalry wing.

less than 10 cohorts is what got me:inquisitive:

I like to go:
1 General
2 Hasati
2 Princepes (sp?)
1 Triarrii
1 Equitzs (or something like that)
1 Leves
1 Rorarii
1 Auxiliarry

I know roman legions used more auxiliarries but this allows me to keep triarrii smaller then the hasati/princepes, plus there easier to deploy on the map, I'l probably replace cavalry/missiles with auxilary units later on. (pentasi and some good calvary comming from my Illyrian provinces :yes: )

I have tried playing with 10 unit legions, and palying on VH/H I simply find it to hard to achieve a significant win. So I'm usually fighing with a full stack.

Yea I see what you mean, Usually I keep them seperated but times like in my current Romani campaign were the First Legion had its commander slain (by a volcano O.o) sometimes they join up with the second for specific purposes, but after thta purpose in complete they are seperated again to prevent the selfish pleb leading the second to get the idea into his head that he can take power over the senate.

:smash:
My Camillian legion:

-1 General (if avaiable; -1 Equites Romani instead)

Melee infantry:
-5 Hastati
-4 Principes
-3 Triarii

Support infantry:
-1 Rorarii
-1 Leves
-1 Accensi

16 units in total; this allows me to perform a perfect quincux army formation in battle.

Auxiliary Extras:
-1 Samnite spearmen, always recruit from Capua or Arpi attached for each legion
-1 Equites romani, for provide cav support in flanks or reserve
-2 local area levies (gauls in north or greeks in south) or mercenary units

Very expensive full stack army, but truly effective in invading.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CNM

I have tried playing with 10 unit legions, and palying on VH/H I simply find it to hard to achieve a significant win. So I'm usually fighing with a full stack.

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No, no. You mustn't play with on H battle difficulty, only M. Then the 10 stack serves its purpose and battles are fun.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wonderland

To make these perfect though, you would need to edit the Triarii unit to be half the size and cost. However, I'm not exactly sure how to do this. Could someone who does let us know please?

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If you use RTW 1.2 patched to 1.5 for your installation then go into my computer C:\Program Files\Activison\Rome - Total war\EB\Data. If you started on barbarian invasion then the path will be C:\Program Files\The Creative Assembly\Rome - Total War\EB\Data. Once in the Data folder find the file called export_descr_unit. Open this up in a text editor and then search for triarii and you will be taken to this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

type roman infantry polybian triarii
dictionary roman_infantry_polybian_triarii ; Triarii
category infantry
class spearmen
voice_type General_1
soldier roman_infantry_triarii, 40, 0, 1
officer officer_roman_early_centurion
officer officer_roman_early_standard
mount_effect horse +2, camel +2
attributes sea_faring,hide_forest,can_sap
formation 1, 1, 2, 2, 6,square,
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 11,2, no, 0, 0, melee, simple, piercing, spear, 0, 0.125
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec 0,0, no, 0, 0, no, no, no, none, 0, 0.1
stat_sec_attr no
stat_pri_armour 12, 9, 4, metal
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 4
stat_ground 0, 0, -2, -2
stat_mental 15,disciplined,highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 1843, 461, 30, 40, 1843
ownership seleucid, slave

This is the file for polybian triarii (as I'm sure you can see:laugh4: ).
Near the top you will see

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

soldier roman_infantry_triarii, 40, 0, 1

This indicates which skeleton and skin the game should use for the unit but the 40 is the relevant number indicating the number of men in the unit. You can change this to whatever you like (I don't know the limits) but it is probably best to keep this to one of the standard values for infantry 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60. Keep in mind that the values shown are for normal unit size so if you want triarii on half the standard for classical hoplite like units then the value would be 20.
Near the bottom you will see

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

stat_cost 1, 1843, 461, 30, 40, 1843

The 1 denotes time to recruit, 1843 denotes cost to recruit and the 461 denotes upkeep. (per turn) The next two figures represent cost to upgrade weapons and armour respectively and the last the cost to recruit in custom battles. Just remember to keep these values proportional to the unit size (half, the unit size, half the upkeep ect.) or make up your own values if you consider them inappropriate. (:oops: Nobody tell EB team:embarassed: )

If you then search again for triarii you will be taken to the entry for camilain triarii, thus:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

type roman infantry triarii early
dictionary roman_infantry_triarii_early ; Triarii
category infantry
class spearmen
voice_type General_1
soldier roman_infantry_triariiearly, 40, 0, 1
officer officer_roman_early_centurion
officer officer_roman_early_standard
mount_effect elephant -1, horse +2, camel +2
attributes sea_faring,hide_forest,can_sap
formation 0.9, 1.1, 2, 2.4, 4,square,
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 11,6, no, 0, 0, melee, simple, piercing, spear, 0, 0.13
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec 0,0, no, 0, 0, no, no, no, none, 0, 0.1
stat_sec_attr no
stat_pri_armour 12, 9, 3, metal
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 4
stat_ground 0, 0, -3, -2
stat_mental 12,disciplined,highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 1578, 374, 50, 697, 1578
ownership seleucid, slave

Again if you follow the pattern of above then you can half the unit size and costs and make your perfect legion. :2thumbsup: :2thumbsup:

(I have tried to give you a "vanilla" 0.81 EB export_descr_unit but as i have modded my files somewhat please ignore any inconstancies).

Don't forget to back up though!

Good luck!
Wolfe.

Oh wow, thanks a lot Wolfe, much appreciated. ~:)

How about your allies ... does anyone else have a problem with making mortal enemies of Rome such as the Samnites etc. as your allied armies? I prefer not to use them ... and the few allies you get as you up your barracks are very expensive. So I usually just play Roman armies ... witht the idea that many of the allied states largely copied Rome's armies anyway!

Insight from our historians would be appreciated!

At the early stages of the republic (camillan) allied armies were equiped in there native fasion.

Later allies started looking like the Romans and finnaly Marian comes in and you know...

Each one of my armies are composed of two stacks

Camillian/Polybian Consular legion(only Recruited in Rome and Capua, other regions only build barracks, but dont recruit any hastati/princples/triarri. 'Normal' legions does not contain the second stack of allied units)

Stack 1: Roman legion
Cavalry:
1 General

Infantry
3 Hastati
2 Princeps
1 Triarri

1 Accensi
1 Rorarri
1 Leves
^^above 2 to be replaced by 2 units of Velites in Polybian era ^^

Stack 2: Allied forces
Cavalry:
1 Equites Romani(Act as the Tribune or Captain)

Infantry:
2 Semite Spearman
2 Allied Swordman
2 Allied Skimishers
2 Militia Spearman (hoplite, from Tara, if available)
2 Archers (if available, probably from Tara)



It is quite a large stack of units but they march seprately. this way only the Roman legion (1 with the general, first stack) can build Forts and the 2nd stack (allies) would only march into fort once the Roman legion have constructed them.

But as they came in 20 units in total, they fight together (most of the time when map permits) under command of 1 General.

in my campign the darn greeks/macedonians tend to come to be with full stacks of Phalanxes so it took me 3 consular legions (six stacks) to subjugate them... that was fun as hell as in one battle two consular armys meet with three full stacks of Macedonian army.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by K COSSACK

At the early stages of the republic (camillan) allied armies were equiped in there native fasion.

Later allies started looking like the Romans and finnaly Marian comes in and you know...

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True and false.....

Which 'Allies' are we talking about? The Latin/Socii allies or the Italian allies? It's all very confusing and to be honest alot of books about Republican Rome brush over the allies so quickly you could not be blamed for not realising they existed at all.

As Rome expanded it's influence through Italy it-

1. Gave cities full Citizenship, or
2. Gave cities Socii status ie-Citizenship 'without the vote', or
3. Gave cities Latin Rights, or
4. Entered Alliances with cities, and/or
5. Established colonies of Roman/Socii/Latin citizens.

Irrespective of what form of 'alliance' was offered/accepted, the big point was that Rome determined 'foreign policy' on their behalf. By entering an alliance with Rome, they were not permitted to enter into an alliance with anybody else (even amongst themselves). So, other than cowtowing to Rome regarding foreign policy, and providing troops upon demand, they seem to have been left to themselves :inquisitive:

So what does it all mean.....

My Opinion

1. Romans with full Citizenship formed the Legions.

2. The Latin/Socii allies (those with 'lesser citizenship') formed the Alae. They were the guys who were given a 'stake' in Romes internal/external interests by way of their 'citizenship', deficient or not. These guys would have fought just like Romans but were potentially not as well equipped due to wealth. I imagine a city was given a 'figure' of troops it would have to provide and that was that. No census of wealth to assess eligability etc.

3. The Italian allies seem to have formed 'Militias', for want of a better word, for defence in times of great need. We see evidence in this at different times-
a. The size of the armies that fought Phyrrus (well beyond Consular level) and,
b. The specifically mentioned (Polybius) Italian 'Militias' leading up to the Gallic Invasion around 226BC, to name a few.

One would imagine these guys would have fought in a more traditional manner. There is the possibility that they were called upon to provide manpower for foreign wars but I doubt it.

Anyway, enough eh.

Cheers,

Quilts

Nice post Quilts... I'm not gonna debate that one, not like on the RTR forum ~;)

ARRGGHH!!

I cant believe I forgot that only Roman citizens formed the regular troops.

Really I forgot!

I look like a novice now!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CountArach

Nice post Quilts... I'm not gonna debate that one, not like on the RTR forum ~;)

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Thanks CA! I imagine that means you 'agree' with my assumptions then......:juggle2:

Nice work on 'Roma's Bulls' by the way. Very enjoyable.

Cheers,

Quilts

My pleasure :bow:

And yes I agree with them.

Hi
my legions usually consist of

1 General or extra cavalry unit
2 equites
for chasing routers and last ditch rear attacks
3 artillery
i.e. slingers/archers (you can get "bad" akontistae (?) archers in Taras pretty soon and they are better than nothing unless I can hire cretan archers)
1 triarii or other long-spear-carriers against flanking/central cavalry
8 principes 2 of those those can be replaced by heavy cavalry later on
2 heavy samnites or other heavy mercenaries on the flanks
2 skirmishers

It's a pretty effective army against most enemies i.e. enemies without archers. Than it's good to have the heavy cavalry to counter the nobles' cavalry attacks and use the equites against skirmishers and archers.
Anyway I think that a certain ratio of "bleeding" is good for the morale of units- no fallen, no rank advancements, no advancement no motivation, no motivation, no victories, lol. And it serves experience as well. E.g. when I conquer a city, after breaking the enemy' main force, I send only a small group of "commandos" into the city, with a certain edge over the enemy, but with giving them enough to do. I usually send in either the reserves of the last battle or highly experienced troops to get one more rank by conquering the plaza, and slaying the last "commander".
As with sieges, I go about it in four ways:
Either I place spies to open the gate so I can storm the city,
or, if a spy can't get in, build a ram and roll over them anyway,
or, if it's a really heavily defended (walled) city, in a territory laying next to mine, but without a noble general in it, (Sicily) simply lay siege to it with your own army without your general at all or send him back home to refill when needed and take the army over again when it's going to fall/to be stormed. Even if the besieged garrison make a sortie meanwhile, they stand against a full Roman army, evening the odds. And if the city is headed by a noble leader and this guy gets defeated by a centurio, the centurio is probably up for adoption! The general can meanwhile be used to benefit from his ancillary entourage and traits.
Or, finally, if the territory is an island, like the Baleares, or off Italy, the city gets stormed next season.
PS:
I don't like undermine the very walls I have to repair afterwards, so I usually fall on back to at least 3 rams (they can be burned!) for the gate and a 5 siege towers (two in reserve) to storm the walls, let the troopers run along them, take over the towers from within and if manageable the gates. The first time I did this, I was conquering a Carthaginian province in Spain, and the now Roman towers literally massacred the whole garrison massed alon the inner walls from above. They simply didn't expect me to do this...
I think EB is simply the most sophisticated strategy game, it's informative and highly addictive, and with a nice graphic card the battles are stunning. I'm really looking forward to the new edition!

I typically like to use for my Camillian (or however it's spelt)

1 General
2 Hastati
2 Principes
2 Triarii
2 Ascensi (or however it's spelt)
2 Rorarii
1 Eqvites

This is for when I'm campaigning near Italy. Now that I'm campaigning further afield into Africa and deeper into Gaul my armies will not be receiving significant reinforcements anytime soon so I'm using

1 General
2 Eqvites
3 Hastati
3 Principes
2 Triarii
4 Rorarii (these also serve as garrisons)
2 Ascensii

As casualties are suffered I just start merging the units as the casualties mount. As it is, both my African armies are at 50% strenght (in terms of the original Roman troops).

And no, it doesn't make it a walkover - the Aedui managed to almost totally wipe out one of my larger armies in three battles.

One smaller legion (of the first tpe I described) was besieging Massellia whilst the larger legion was pulling security to prevent the Aedui interfering. Me being me, I sent the larger legion to besiege Georgova, which had a 500 man garisson.

The next turn the Aedui sent a 1000 man army to relieve the siege. We fought, my 1100 men killing about 1000 enemy for 500 losses. Not so bad you might say, and encouraged by this I continued the siege.

Then another 1100 Aedui appeared led by an evil family member with more stars than I can shake a stick at, and he attacked, and my army was crushed, with 200 survivors. The the 200 survivors were pasted by another Aedui army the very next turn, the end result being 80 men survived out of 1100.

Well, they made the arduous trek back to Italy where they formed the core around which I built another army which is now fighting a rebel held town in Spain in preparation for my final onslaught against the Carthaginians.

Camillan legion

1 consul (general)
1 eques (nobles)
1 leves (skirmishers - spear, javelins)
1 Rorarii (slingers?)
2 hastati (in loose maniple formation, same frontage as princeps)
3 princeps (in tight square formations)
1 triarii

That's one legion, if have a 2 legion army (2 consuls) then its double.

If I know the enemy i'm facing will be larger than my army, I'll call on allies to provide similar .... or in an emergency, conscript the poor into 2-3 large units of levy spearmen (Accensi?) .. (depending on your views on weaponry of the Accensi, Rorarii and leves)


R

Hi All,

My 2 cents ...

Camillian

Camillian-era legions were divided into 75 maniples. Each maniple (60 men) consisted of two 30-man centuries. It had equal numbers of hastati (900), principe (900), triarii (900), rorarii (900), accensi (900), with reduced leves (300) and cav (300) = 5100 total. Thus if you should aim for:

1 leves (120), 2 hastati (160), 2 principe (160), 2 triarii (160), 2 rorarii (240), 2 accensi (120) (11 units) as the core of your legion. The other slots should be made up of the General, and ‘up to’ 8 Italian (samnite) allies (allies MUST include one unit of pedites extraordinarii (if you can produce them) if you have 5+ allies.

I haven’t included any extra cav unit because they made up such a small part of the legion (and Roman military tactics) that the general becomes the cavalry (stick him on the right-hand side; the default position for cavalry). If you want to include another cav unit, include only equites romani, and then make the general the ‘equites extraordinarii’.

Formation arrangements consist of the usual pattern (triplex acies formation with wide gaps), with the Romans making up the centre (dependable core) and the allies guarding the flanks.

When assembling consular armies, I can take 2 horse units (gen + equites);

1 leves, 4 hastati, 4 principe, 3 triarii, 3 rorarii, 3 accensi, 1 equites, 1 gen


Polybian

Polybian-era legions were divided into 40 maniples (10 velite, 10 hastati, 10 principe, 10 triarii). Each maniple (120) consisted of two 60-man centuries (except the Triarii which had only 1 century per maniple). It had 1200 velite, 1200 hastati, 1200 principe and 600 triarii (4200 total). Thus in a ½ roman ½ allies, your army should consist of;

2 velite (200), 3 hastati (240), 3 principe (240), 3 triarii (120), (I mod the size of my Triarii units by half) as the core of your legion (11 units).

Allies MUST include one unit of pedites extraordinarii (if you can produce them) if you have 5+ allies. The rest must be ‘Italian’ allies (samnites).

When assembling consular armies, I can take 2 horse units (gen + equites);

3 velites, 5 hastati, 5 principe, 5 triarii, 1 equites, 1 general


Marian

Marian-era legions had 10 cohorts, and approx 10% antesignani. Thus in a ½ roman ½ allies, your army should consist of;

2 antesignani (120), and 10 cohorts reformata (1000) as the core of your legion (12 units).

As allies, take a bit of local ‘produce’ (gauls in Gaul, greeks in Greece) since you are fattening out your legion with locally raised troops. Use only one auxilia cavalry (applicable to the region; Gaulic, Germanic, Hispanic, Thracian).

When assembling consular armies, I can take 2 horse units (gen + aux cav);

2 antesignai, 15 cohort reformata, 1 evocata (bodyguard), 1 aux cav, 1 general


Imperial

Imperial-era legions had 10 cohorts, and approx 5% archers. Thus in a ½ roman ½ allies, your army should consist of;

10 cohorts imperatoria (1000), and 1 Eastern Archer Auxilia (80) – if operating in that area - as the core of your legion (10/11 units).

As for allies, same restrictions as per 'Marian'.

When assembling consular armies, I can take 2 horse units (gen + aux cav);

16 imperial cohorts, 1 praetorian (bodyguard), 1 archer (replace with another imp cohort if operating in the west), 1 aux cav, 1 general


These are my armies and I'm trying to be a historically accurate as possible (I even expand my empire in accordance with the Roman timeline), so if anyone spots any errors, please point them out (I've only just started playing EB - still in the first decade).

Thanks,

Andrew

Its worth noting that the allies referred to in the sources almost all 'fought in the roman manner' by 272 are best represented by hastati, princeps, triarii and eqvites with the occasional extrondarii (both foot and horse) being thrown in for good measure. More exotic allies don't fit the bill for what is being described in the sources when these things are mentioned. The more exotic allies are generally mentioned more specifically when they were present.

In imperial armies praetorian cohorts should only accompany members of the imperial family.

Also you should increase the number of cavalry in your imperial armies. Even in agustan times each legion of an army was usually supported by one ala, in the east 2. For example the Roman garrison in Egypt (Strabo Geo: 17.1.12): 3 legions, 3 alae 9 auxiliary cohorts; Varus army in Judea, 4BC to supress riots after Herods dead (JB 2.5.1): 2 legions, 4 alae + allied troops; Tiberius army in Pannonia, ca. 7-9 AD (Vallaeus 2.113): 10 legion, 10 alae, 70 auxiliary cohorts, 10000 veterans plus volunteers and allied Thracian cavalry; Varus army in Germania, 9 AD (Vallaeus 2.117): 3 legions, 3 alae 9 auxiliary cohorts or finally Germanicus army ca. 14-16 AD in Germania : 8 legions, at least 8 alae and 26 auxiliary cohorts (Tac. Ann. 1.49), in 16 AD (Ann. 2.16) he had additionaly 2 praetorian cohorts plus contigents of archers, horse archers and various additional Germanic and Gallic allies including a large Batavian contingent.

An ala had a paper strengt of ca. 500 troopers compared to the legions roughly 5000 soldiers, thus for 10 EB legionary cohorts you need 2 of our ala units to simulate one.

I too like to add something to this debate. As I too play the romani my legions generally they consist of:
A Character as general, with his Consular Guard
2 units Hastati
2 units Principes
2 units Triari
1 unit Rorarii
2 units accensi
3 to 4 levies
1 Equites
4 units Samnites as Allies.
I even used Lucanian mercs at times, because according to polybius at the
time of the Gallic invasion of 224BC they where among the people who contributed man power to the cause. When it comes to Polybian legions, I left the number of Romans unchanged, but added 3 units of Velites, instead of the Levies and Roraii and off course a unit each of Extraordinarii Pedites and Equites.
I made used of Akonsistai and Toxotai but never used Hoplites.
Allied Italian contingents faught for Rome in every major conflict, on home soil and abroad. During the Numantin War, Scipio Aemilianus had an army consisting of Roman and Italian troops plus local Iberian allies. Sadly the most used and mentioned of the Italian allies are the Campanians, Marsi and the Marruccini, which are not represented in EB. It will be very nice to have them.

Cheers.

@ adjeinan, thanks. This is what I shall have when I will start my Roma campaign. I admit I am waiting on those Familliae to re-start.

@ cunctator, translating history into EB units makes it all fit into place, doesn't it?

I go by the average legion around Trajan or Hadrian's reign:

Men---------------------------Total
6 centuries (80 in each)............480 (one cohort)
9 regular cohorts.....................4,320
1 first cohort (double size)........800

Total = 5,120 men + x number of auxiliaries

So in EB terms, I guess that would be 10 marian/imperial legionary cohorts, and then the auxiliaries could be cavalry, archers, siege equipment or mercenaries (as mentioned previously on this thread)

That's the extent of my knowledge on Roman legions. Hope you have fun making this AAR, CA!

My Roman legion consists of

4 allied cavalry (any combination so long as they're not Romani)
4 hastati
4 principes
2 triarii
6 allied infantry/ranged troops.

Currently the 6 are made of 2 Samnitici Milites, 2 hoplitai and 2 peltastai. The Allied cavalry are currently 4 equites Romani because I refuse to use Hippeis, but Equites Extraordinarii and Brihentin are coming soon.

Each fullstack, i call a 'legion' for convenience's sake. I only call up new legions when there are new fronts to guard concurrently. Something like the old limes idea except that instead of spreading them out in forts, each legion patrols its assigned border until it goes on the attack on my whim. I also use the Constantinian idea of having an elite 'reserve' army held back to reinforce any front for attack or defence. Currently I only have 1 legion because I haven't even reached the borders of Italia yet, but later there will be one more so I can expand along both coasts and get their mines.