"WAB early Imperial Roman Legions" Topic

How do you suggest I make WAB Legions of early Imperial Romans ? Taking in consideration I want to field 3 legions …. How many figures and how distributed over units per Legion ? Mindbender….

Normal acale 1:20 480 men per cohort= 24 figures per cohort, 30 cohorts= 720 figures.Almost Exactly what I own myself, but probably you will never get the to play with WAB..

As I'm sure was implied in the above response,720 Romans is, by most standards, as ridiculous amount of Romans…a barbarian opponent would need about 1,000+ figs to equalize you in points. And this amount is unnecessary; if one can't achieve some realistic results playing less then one is playing the wrong system. Most likely you'd want to "respresent" a legion by a number of units rather than have to count every cohort. For my republican romans, I have a battle line of six units (i.e., 6 x Hastati, Principes, etc.), and when skirmishers and cav are included, in WAB points I have about 6,000 points…enough to fill a day of gaming. I like to think that I represent 6 legions…or maybe 6 maniples…it really depends on how you want to think of them in terms of cohorts/centuries, whatever. So you'll want to take that into consideration.

Also depends on which WAB edition you play. I don't do WAB much anymore, but if you play 1.5 you need deeper units, whereas I understand that in 2.0 wider units and less ranks are more cost-beneficial to Romans. So those considerations will determine what you need.

To sum up, a lot depends on your preference and size battles you and your opponent can (and prefer) to play.

Been there. Hope this helps.

I thought Legions were always fielded in pairs in the early days?

For what it is worth, I formed two Republican legions, each one like this (one with armor, one without):
1x12 velites
2x15 Hastatti
2x15 Principe
1x15 Triarii

I also had 2x12 cav units for each flank.

I got a very good responses (and playable) for the Republican Romans. Imperial Romans are still unresolved. That is why I've put down the question. I cannot get my mind up either.

@Trotter: my understanding too. But I narrowed mine down because of points. Given the new Victrix Repo Romans, I may do the full double consular army sometime.

@ BelgianRay: For EIR here are my observations:

Unit size: WAB 1.5 you'll want some +3 rank bonus even after you lose a man or two. Units of about 20-24 were usual when we played. For WAB 2.0 I think you'll want more like 16 in 8x2. That's what I saw many people posting. Maybe someone who plays 2.0 can add in. I don't think 2.0 has a cohort relief/swap-out system so you want some staying power in each unit.

Legion representation: For reasonability, if you want three legions I'd suggest letting each cohort/unit represent several, unless you want a staggering size army that you'll rarely ever put out all at once. You could go with 3-4 units/cohorts per legion and have 12 – 16 units. Depending on how big they are that'd be 250-300 Romans – quite a lot of points. Much will depend on the size battles you play.

Don't forget auxiliaries! The legionaires rarely left home without them. They can form half or more of your army.

Thak you Mars Ultor. This gets me quite closer to what I am searching for. What about cavalry and artillery, any suggestions ? Thanks also for the info on the axiliaries. Did not know they used so many.

I use between 16-to-21,depending on which addition for 1.5 or 2.0. For 1.5 three ranks are helpful, but for 2.0, I only use two ranks. All are on single bases, I just use different size movement trays for each additions of the rules. Cavalry are either 4x2,5x2 or 6x2, for both additions. Artillery is on single bases.

May I substitute "editions" for "additions", going senile is so much fun! Also I don't fielded more than 8 cohorts per-Legion, and don't forget your Auxiliary you'll need them!

oldbob I also have mine on single bases. I have to deside what size my movement trays are going to be, hence my questions. Think I'll get them 6 figs broad (6x2cm), but not yet sure how deep (2, 3 or 4). 6 or 8 units per legion would surely be my limit. Still will have to figure out the quantity of auxilia and cav.

Making your own movement trays is not to expensive, so you can experiment with different sizes. Personally for "WAB" I never go more then three deep, even then, it's a lot of points just sitting in that back rank. Rather have those points tied up in Auxiliary or Cavalry.

Regarding auxilia and cavalry, I think the amounts of them are fluid. It was said by wiser heads than mine that auxiliaries could battle without legionaires but legionaires not so much without auxiliaires (I think Mons Graupius was an example of such a battle). I've never seen a hard and fast formula for auxiliary pedites (foot soldiers) and archers, slingers, etc. Take what you like, but auxiliaries were important and can be quite colorful on the table.

More recent views of auxiliary pedites is that in many cases they were as good and well-trained as the legionaires, and there has been some proof that their armament may not have been that different in some cases (I don't know about pila, but lorica segmentata was found in either some German or British base that was pretty much an auxiliary camp at that time). WAB 1.5 does not do a good job with auxilia troops – they are clearly inferior except using as light infantry, which it's not clear that they always were historically (especially if they were the only troops present).

Cavarly models from several companies are good – Aventine, Warlord, even Old Glory's are alright and used to be cheap. Both of the first two have nice Praetorian cav models. In that age they seem to be more thrusting or throwing spear and javelins. I don't remember WAB having a separate entry for elite cavarly – you just have to buy better foreign cav.

And don't forget, you can even have allied warbands of natives that have allied with the Romans to fight against others of their kind.

(I know people don't like to change rule systems, but Clash of Empires – a direct WAB successor – does a better job with auxiliary troops and gives them many benefits of the Legion special rules (cohort swap, better morale for supported troops, etc.) as well as letting you decide whether they are closed or open order troops. The CoE EIR army also has units such as the Equites Singulares, elite type of Roman cav representing Praetorian or some other special cav unit (versus foreign cataphracts, which you can still get). May be worth checking out one day).

Mars Ultor; Agree with you about Auxiliary and "COE". One only has to look at Trajan's Column to see how important they are during his reign.