Historic Legion Composition

[alexCURSE]

Are there definative armies that represent historical legions in EB? I want to play historically in my current Romani campaign so I want to know what comprises a Camillan, Polybian, Marian and Augustan Legion because I have no idea.

[MSB]

Are there definative armies that represent historical legions in EB? I want to play historically in my current Romani campaign so I want to know what comprises a Camillan, Polybian, Marian and Augustan Legion because I have no idea.

Early pattern Roman legion (Camillan):

• 5 maniples (600 men) of Trarii. They fight at the rear of the army as reserves.
• 10 maniples (1200 men) of Principles. They fight in the middle of the army and fight when the Hastati are too tired to carry on.
• 10 maniples (1200 men) of Hastai. They fight in the front line of the main Roman formation (also known as the quincunx).
• A few maniples of Accensi to act as reserves behind the Trarii.
• A couple of maniples of Rorii to act as reserve skirmishers behind the Trarii.
• Some slaves that were called up in emergencies.

As you cannot have that many units in an army you have to scale down. Treat one unit as a maniple and compose your armies of:

• 3 units of Triarii
• 5 units of Principles
• 5 units of Hastai
• 2 units of Rorii
• 2 units of Accensi
• 1 unit of levies
• 1 general
• 1 cavalry unit

Early pattern Roman legion (this applies for Polybian):

• 5 maniples (600 men) of Trarii. They fight at the rear of the army as reserves.
• 10 maniples (1200 men) of Principles. They fight in the middle of the army and fight when the Hastati are too tired to carry on.
• 10 maniples (1200 men) of Hastai. They fight in the front line of the main Roman formation (also known as the quincunx).
• 10 maniples (1200 men) of Velites. They fight separate from the main formation as skirmishers.
• Some Accensi to fight behind the Trarii.
• And in emergencies a couple of maniples of slaves

As you cannot have 35 units in an army you have to scale down. Treat one unit as a maniple and compose your armies of:

• 2 units of Triarii
• 5 units of Principles
• 5 units of Hastati
• 5 units of Velites
• 1 unit of Accensi
• 1 general
• 1 cavalry unit

Marian Roman Legion (I only know small amounts about this legion type):

• 9 Cohorts of Standard Legionaries
• One First Cohort
• A number of cavalry men/auxillaries

As you can have up to twenty units in an army you can group your soilders like this:

• 14 units of Cohors Reformata
• 2 units of (cavalry) auxilia of any type
• 2 units of Antesignani
• 2 units of Cohors Evocata (pretend that these units have an eagle with them)

[NeoSpartan]

wow.... man its scarry the lack of cavalry the Romans employed. And still they managed to kick ass.

[Atilius]

Early pattern Roman legion (this applies for Polybian):

• 5 maniples (600 men) of Trarii. They fight at the rear of the army as reserves.
• 10 maniples (1200 men) of Principles. They fight in the middle of the army and fight when the Hastati are too tired to carry on.
• 10 maniples (1200 men) of Hastai. They fight in the front line of the main Roman formation (also known as the quincunx).
• 10 maniples (1200 men) of Velites. They fight separate from the main formation as skirmishers.
• Some Accensi to fight behind the Trarii.

o Triarii were also organised into 10 maniples which were of 60 men each (2 30-man centuries).

o Polybius never mentions Accensi.

o There were usually 300 Equites attached to a legion, divided into 10 turmae of 30 horsemen each, though Polybius mentions a case in which there are only 200.

wow.... man its scarry the lack of cavalry the Romans employed. And still they managed to kick ass

Polybius also says that legions of the Italian allies had 3 times as many horsemen as the citizen legions. In later periods, the Romans relied on auxilia to provide almost all its cavalry.

[MSB]

I am sorry to say that I have not read Polybius so I would not know. I got my sources from an embarrassingly childish book:
Usborne Illustrated World History: The Romans

I do not own it. I borrowed it off the school history department. It may be childish, but it tells you alot about the Romans. Do not comment on this.

I got the information about the Accensi from the EB website. That is why I have not precisely stated any number.

[Geoffrey S]

Don't forget the allies, Aulus Britannicus. For a good example of Roman legion composition in EB, check the battle of Magnesia topic.

[Tellos Athenaios]

wow.... man its scarry the lack of cavalry the Romans employed. And still they managed to kick ass.

As you'll know the Romans organised their legions in tactically flex armies (too bad their generals usually were utterly conservative in their deployment), and the lot's of light/medium infantry allow the Romans to deploy less cavalry while maintaining the same level of being secure from flankers.

EDIT: I should have added to that, that cavalry is rather expensive and therefore the Romans probably would have limitted their use for as much as possible anyway. A bit like: why waste your money on slightly more cavalry per legion, if you can have one legion more? Remember that at the peak of the Roman power they had only 30 legions, guarding a frontier stretching from Scotland to Armenia, and from Iraq to the Sahara desert...

[MSB]

Don't forget the allies, Aulus Britannicus

No I shouldn't have, you can explain all that as I only know a small amount about classical military history. I am no expert.

[NeoSpartan]

Hum... I guess I should go to the Roman Army Talk forums to get more detailed info about this. (except for a translation into EB gameplay)

[Dayve]

I find that in every mod i have to half the number of triarii units to get an accurate-ish Roman legion, from 80 to 40, or from 60 to 30, whatever the mods numbers are.

2 units of hastati (80 men each) principes (80 men each) and 2 triarii (40 men each), then add the allied units... 2 on the first line, 2 on the second and 2 more on the third. Add your cavalry, skirmishers and general and you can get away with an army of 16 units, which makes the game more of a challenge. My Roman legions have always had 16 units, never 20.

[-Praetor-]

I find that in every mod i have to half the number of triarii units to get an accurate-ish Roman legion, from 80 to 40, or from 60 to 30, whatever the mods numbers are.

2 units of hastati (80 men each) principes (80 men each) and 2 triarii (40 men each), then add the allied units... 2 on the first line, 2 on the second and 2 more on the third. Add your cavalry, skirmishers and general and you can get away with an army of 16 units, which makes the game more of a challenge. My Roman legions have always had 16 units, never 20.

but why not using just one triarii unit of 80? You could save one unit slot for the auxilia...

Or is it because you want more tactical flexibility by using 2 units of 40 instead of 1 of 80?