Unit numbers question

[Reno Melitensis]

Its up to you to decide the size of the legions in EB, make it a 'house rule'. In the second Punic war the Roman senate raised six legions, which is quite impossible in EB to achieve, the best I can get is to raise a full Consular legion in 4 turns, thats a year in EB. If it helps you here are my house rules for the legions.

A Legion is composed of 3 Maniples of Hastati and Principe, two of Triari, 2 units velites, one Accensi and a cavalry ala, I use the Romani Equites.

A Consular army is bigger in size, we know that it was double the size of a standard legion, and that the Allies where equal or more than the Romans, so here how I solved the problem. Either raise the number of maniples of the above to 5,5,3, or add two maniples of Hastati Samnitici and two units of Samniti Milites, and take 3 manples of Triari. To them add 2 other units of Velites. That will raise the number of units to 17, the 3 free slots can be filled with cavalry. Two ale,Roman cavalry ( I am against using them against other cavalry, they are only good to pursuit), Campanian or the Extraordinarii. Don't forget the consul. Generally I take 3 characters, a Consul and two Legati, thats more fun.

I also like to substitute one Milites Samnitici unit with the Pedites Extraordinari, and when possible take a unit or two of Lucanian infantry. These lads are of great support to your cavalry against other cavalry.

Cheers.

[geala]

What Reno Melitensis says about the number of units sounds good to me. Try to imitate the proportion of different units in the legion.

But: there was nothing like a "consular legion" and a "normal legion". If an army was led by a lesser magistrate the legions were normally the same as if led by a consul.

First the "legio" was the entire army of Rome. This coincides with the fact that in this early time there was presumably only one supreme magistrate (praetor). Later, when the two consules were established, the Roman army consisted of two legions (including always the allies), each led by a consul.

Soon the two legions were no longer enough. In the 3rd c. already a normal consular army consisted of two legions (always with the allies, so two legion army = two legiones and two alae). An army led by a praetor, proconsul or propraetor or a dictator could have the same form. Sometimes the consular army consisted also of 4 legions. This was the case for example at Telamon 225 BC, where the Celts were caught between two consular armies.

In the second Punic war a lot more than 6 legions a year were raised. At Cannae both consuls were present and each consul had a 4 legion army, together about 80000 men. But also for example in Spain and Illyria Roman troops were present at this time. In some years of the war 25 legions fought in different places against the Carthaginians, Greeks, Macedonians, Celtic and Iberian people.

[Tellos Athenaios]

First of all the thechnical size of a unit in RTW is hardcoded to be 240 soldiers + officers (max 3, if you count general/captain as one IIRC) at most.

And AFAIK similar (if not harsher) constraints apply to M2TW units, so probably no luck with EB2 either.

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That said, who's saying you need to use one unit as one unit? Why not consider to group two units and let them act as one? Or the other way around: consider one unit to be actually a group of multiple ones. Remember that city-population can't be portrayed accurately either: during the time-frame Rome for instance grows well-beyond what is possible to achieve in any (R)TW setting.

[cmacq]

I use a 10:1 house rule and I think several others herein have come to the same conclusion. For every 10 men, one is represented in the game. Thus, a standard Camillan Era legion would consist of 3 units; roughly one 162 man unit of hastati, one 162 man unit of principes, and one 162 man unit of Triari.

For a consular legion add a 240 man unit of Rorarii. When using several legions in a stack add one general and one 100 man unit of Eqvites. Support troops for two or more legions can include whatever mix of slingers and/or archers and other native troops afoot and/or horse you think will do for the job at hand.

Using this math you can raise six Camillan Era legions within a year (18 units) from your five core cities. You should be able to double this output in the Polybian Era. I normally use two to three of these legions in each stack, but four or five are not out of the question. However, this is just the way I play, and of course, you'll have to find the way it works for.

[Spooky32]

From a technical point. i imagine it is hardcoded to no more than 243 men per unit as i havent seen any higher than that max. also even if it wasnt hardcoded no commercial computer could render 20000+ men. even SLI'ing two 8800 Ultras would not be enough to render so many men and the map and possibly a settlement and a forest at the same time. not to mention the cost of doing that would be too much for ordinary gamers to afford.