Historical Roman Legion Through Time

[CountArach]

Just as preperation for a histoircally based Roman AAR on these forums, I was wondering exactly what a historical Roman Legion consisted of. So far this is what I have determined:

Just so you know 1 legion would be 10 units IMO, and 2 Legions would be 20 units, so that consular legions can be made.

Camillian
1 Legion
1 General (Deployed to right of the army. Representes the Equites Romani)
1 Leves
1 Hastati
1 Principes
1 Triarii
1 Rorarii
1 Acensii
1 Allied Cavalry (On Left hand side)
2 Allied Infantry

2 Legions

1 General
1 Tribunis Militum (Or 1 Equites Romani)
2 Hastati
2 Principes
2 Triarii
2 Rorarii
2 Acensii
1 Leves
1 Allied Cavalry
6 Allied Infantry

Polybian
1 Legion
1 General
1 Allied Cavalry
1 Velites
2 Hastati
2 Principes
1 Triarii (Seeing as there are half the number)
2 Allied Infantry

2 Legions
1 General
1 Tribunis Militum (Or 1 Equites Romani)
3 Hastati
3 Principes
3 Triarii
2 Velites
1 Allied Cavalry
6 Allied Infantry

Marian
1 Legion
1 General
4 Cohorts
2 Allied Cavalry
2 Other Allies
1 First Cohort

2 Legions
1 General
1 Tribunis Militum
2 First Cohorts
8 Cohorts
2 Allied Cavalry
6 Other Allies



So how close am I?

[antisocialmunky]

Didn't Roman legions also drag around some ballistae with them?

[Kugutsu]

I have been playing with a legion being:

1 general
1 equites romani
2 triarii
3 principes
3 hastati
3 balearic slingers or 3 cretan archers
2 scutari or 2 peltastai
and then whatever mercs I deem neccessary for the job, usually cavalry.

The exact composition depends on where the legion is based. I have one in Emporion, one in Lepki, one in Segestica and one in Demetrias. The western legions have balearic slingers and scutari and the eastern legions have cretan archers and peltastai.

[Cataphract_Of_The_City]

This is what i use for my eb 0.81 game:

Camillan:

1 General
2 Hastati
2 Principes
1 Triarii
1 Rorarii (+ 1 when i am siegeing a city for garrisoning)
1 Leves
1 Accensi
1 Equites
1 Aux Skir (Akontistai/Peltastai/Cretans/Gallic slingers or archers)
2 Aux Spearmen (or any spearmen that fit)
2 Aux Swordsmen (or any swordsmen that fit)

Polybian:

1 General
2 Velites
2 Hastati
2 Principes
1 Triarii
2 Aux Skirmishers
2 Aux Spearmen
2 Aux Swords
1 Aux Cavalry
(+1 rorarii when sieging for garrisoning)


For both configurations I use the classic manipular, triple line formation. Roman troops deploy in the center and allies in the flanks.

[CaesarAugustus]

Good luck on the AAR, CountArach, I'm looking forward to it!

[Dooz]

For th Camillianlegions, I just went with what EB gave us by default. There are I believe two of these legions at the start.

1 General
1 Equites
1 Hastati
1 Principes
1 Triarii
1 Rorarii
1 Accesii
1 Leves

This seems like a perfect legion for the early game. Keeps things interesting as it's only 8 units

Once we progress to the Polybian era, I change it up to something similar to Quintus' guide for RTR.

1 General
1 Allied cavalry or another general acting as Tribune
1 Hastati
1 Principes
1 Triarii
1 Velites
3 Allied infantry
1 Allied skirmisher

Works as another nice legion, limited to 10 units in the stack.

To make these perfect though, you would need to edit the Triarii unit to be half the size and cost. However, I'm not exactly sure how to do this. Could someone who does let us know please?

[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.