Roman troops (suggestion question)

[Spoofa]

I've read, that the roman's cycled their men, first line goes to the back 2nd line fights, 2nd line goes to the back 3rd line fights, while the current line is fighting the rest of the men rest, preparing for their turn, allowing the romans to outlast their opponents in battle, why is this not shown in the roman's troops having superior stamina since i realize there is hardly a very good way to repressent this? or am i wrong?

comments requested.

[CaesarAugustus]

Yes I saw that on HBO's Rome, I've always been curious if they really did this..... If so I guess improved stamina might be one way to represent it. Although (except for phalanx) the units in RTW don't really hold a formation like that.....

[Spoofa]

Yeah i saw it on Rome too (been watching recently, awsome show. simply fantastic.) And read it on wiki (yes unreliable source but.... ) I think it may be feasible.

[Fondor_Yards]

As I understood it, the greek hoplites would do the same thing, or at least plan too. Personal, I doubt they would be able to rotate their lines in the middle of combat. Anyways, I don't see how that would make them more fit, since all units only have 1 line fighting at a time, so everyone has most of their men resting to some degree.

[Spoofa]

I hope a Romani historian would comment on this because i am quite curious...... (also my hastati seem to tire rather quickly, with less armor then the principes should they not at LEAST match their stamina?)

[mAIOR]

@fondor: The problem is, that when you get tired you're most likelly to get killed. That's why the cycling is important. to always have fresh men on the front. You'll end up eventually to catch tired troops.The phalanx was not the same. they behaved diferently it was more like in waves...


Cheers...

[Watchman]

As I understood it, the greek hoplites would do the same thing, or at least plan too. Personal, I doubt they would be able to rotate their lines in the middle of combat.

AFAIK they just formed the battleline and charged en masse. Of course if neither side broke they'd eventually pull back and regroup for another go, although I understand phalanx shieldwall fighting was so psychologically taxing things got normally resolved comparatively quickly. Most references I've seen mentioned about "falling back in good order" (to directly paraphrase a Warhammer Ancient Battles rule) to regroup were in the context of a superior force trying to dislodge a smaller group from an advantageous position, but I'll freely admit my reading on the topic is really rather sparse.

Anyway, the Roman manipular/cohort system differed from the rather linear hoplite tactics specifically in the emphasis on being easily able to swap the frontline units for fresh ones. Hence the characteristic "chequerboard" battle order - the maniples could simply advance and retreat past each other as needed.

[sgsandor]

Anthor mention of eb2? (drool) I dont know but i think they way it was depicyed in the first episode of Rome was pretty close.Of course things didnt always go smooth in battle and a centurian could get killed(i read somewhere their causlity rate was higher) they order of rotation could become null and void. Just a thought not that i know