"Space Between Centuries" Topic

Hi folks,

I feel a bit silly bringing every little question I have to these forums, but I already made the account so I might as well use it. I've been screwing around with a Roman legion using Irregular's 2mm line, and just when I decided on a basing system, I discovered Mighty Armies and decided to put all my guys on 50mmx25mm bases. For the normal cohorts it works fine, I just put three centuries on each base, and two bases makes a cohort. Spacing and depth seems to look fine.

However, I've hit a snag with the First Cohort. I wanted to put each double-strength century on its own base by putting a block of 8 strips (4 rows of 2 strips) in the center of the base. But this leaves so much space on the edges that when put together there are gaps between the centuries almost as big as the centuries themselves. Each strip is 14mm long, so I can't fit 2 rows of 4 on a 50mm base. I've considered making two rows of three strips and putting the extra two either in front of or behind the others, but this seems weird to me.

In short, should I worry about the large gaps between the centuries, and if so what can I do about it?

One of the perennial debates about the Roman army, especially the Republican army but it applies to the early Empire as well (I presume your legion is EIR since the enlarged First Cohort is usually thought to be a Flavian innovation), is the question of whether there were spaces between centuries, or maniples, or cohorts; and if so, how big the spaces were. There is some discussion at link

So on historical grounds, I wouldn't worry aboout large gaps: they might be correct, they might not. It seems to me that the only real issue is how it looks, especially compared to the other cohorts. I quite like your 3:3:2 suggestion; think of the line of 2 as being the escort for the Eagle.

My army is for Caesar's conquest of Gaul. Unless I've been misinformed, the enlarged first cohort was in place by his time, no?

Thanks very much for the advice, and the link.

Everything that I have read on the subject indicates what Duncan said, that the 'double size' first cohort was developed in the mid-first century AD, during the Flavian dynasty.

Somebody has to say it, might as well be me. Either 100 years or 1 second depending on how you look at it.

Major difference in shield shape between the Early Imperial and Caesar's time. Large ovals for Caesar and curved rectangular for EIR. The Marian reforms only combined the maniples into cohorts, but did not change their strength or increase the number of those in the first cohort.

My goodness, I'm glad I haven't glued anything down yet! This whole time I've been taking it as a given that the first cohort was double strength; I must've misread something along the line and it stuck. Thanks very much guys, that actually makes the whole thing much simpler.

And yeah Dynaman, it was the first thing I thought immediately after posting, lol.