Historical Roman Legion Through Time

[Quilts]

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

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

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

Cheers,

Quilts

[CountArach]

My pleasure

And yes I agree with them.

[delablake]

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!

[Grey_Fox]

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.

[rorarii]

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

[ajdeignan]

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

[QwertyMIDX]

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.

[cunctator]

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.

[Reno Melitensis]

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.

[keravnos]

@ 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?

[Owen the Mighty]

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!

[pezhetairoi]

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.