Unit numbers question

[geala]

Depends on the time frame. The classical legion, described by Polybios, consisted of about 4500 men, 1200 velites, 1200 hastati, 1200 principes, 600 triarii and 300 equites. That is theory, in the field numbers were possibly always different. Sometimes the maniples of the hastati and principes could be raised up to about 160 instead of 120.

To the legion was always added a roughly similar number of allies (with more cavalry normally), forming the ala (wing). A normal two legion consular army consisted so of about 20000 men and formed battle order with the two legions in the centre and the two alae on the sides/wings.

The RTW/EB stacks are not made to simulate a legion or a consular army in numbers of men. No problem, use the adequate number of units.

In the second Punic war, the Romans did not raise 4 legions but different number over the years, for example about 25 legions for the year 211 BC.

[Blazing141]

So basically, when we play RTW/EB, we are getting nowhere near the size of the units reported in history?

Is that correct? And if so, is that because of technological limitations (i.e. pc''s can't render that effectively yet) or because the game is hardcoded with certain limits?

[Blazing141]

Also, is this addressable in future versions of EB? Would EB 2.0 be able to correctly render the number of units in a Legion?

[blacksnail]

So basically, when we play RTW/EB, we are getting nowhere near the size of the units reported in history?

Is that correct? And if so, is that because of technological limitations (i.e. pc''s can't render that effectively yet) or because the game is hardcoded with certain limits?

Partially hardcoded, partially for gameplay reasons. Computers at the time of RTW's release could not handle the amount of men required to represent accurate numbers, and beyond that there is no way the player could control 20,000 men at once without severe micromanagement.

Incidentally, the hardcoding is why you only get the "reinforcements delayed?" message if your computer can't handled all those additional units appearing on screen at once. Internally the game refers to that message as "computer_too_weak" or something like that.

[Tellos Athenaios]

That and when you would have more than 20 units in the commanded army. (If you choose your re-inforcements to be drip-fed, on a unit by unit basis.)

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

We've just been doing internal work on this for the Polybian era.

A Consular army can be represented thus:

4 Velites

4 Hastati

4 Princepes

2 Triarii

1 Pedites Extraordinarii

3 Equites

1 Equites Extraordinarii

1 General.

That's proportianally correct, more or less.

[Centurion Crastinus]

To accurately represent each one of my polybian legions, I use the following structure:

3 Velites
5 Hastati
5 Principes
3 Triarii
2 Pedites Extroidinarii
1 Equites
1 Itallic Cavalry


I only use three units of Velites because since they are in 200 man units, it gives a total of 600 men which is fairly close to the abount of Hastati and Principes fielded (810 Hastati/Principes versus 600 Velites)

For me, it seems the best way to represent a polybian legion while dealing with the constraints of the TW engine.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

There were the same number of velites in a legion as Hastati or Princepes.