Early Legionary Cohort (RTW Unit)

Early Legionary Cohort (RTW Unit)
Class	Heavy Infantry
Unit Size	161 men
Weaponry	Pila; Sword;
Morale	10
Melee Attack	9
Ranged Attack	13
Defence	17
Charge Bonus	3
Accuracy	N/A
Range	35
Ammunition	2 per men
Region	Global
Recruitment Cost	610
Upkeep Cost	210
Turns to Build	1
Unit Limit	Unlimited
Building Requirements	City Barracks
Technology Requirements	Marian Reforms
Attributes	Can sap; Can form testudo; Can hide in forests;

Well-armed and armoured infantrymen, who go into combat flinging heavy spears that are followed up with hand-to-hand attacks.

Overview

Roman legionaries are tough, professional troops with good armour and superb weapons. Their hallmarks are discipline, obedience and tactical flexibility. When approaching enemy fortifications, for example, they can use the turtle formation, or testudo, overlapping their shields for protection.

Every legionary’s chainmail armour, the lorica hamata, is of very good quality, as is the rest of his gear: a metal helmet and a large curved shield. They fight with two throwing spears (the pilum, plural pila) and a short stabbing sword, the gladius. Each pilum has a soft iron shaft behind the piercing head that is designed to bend as soon as it hits a target, making it impossible to pull out and throw back. Embedded in a shield a pilum hampers an enemy. Embedded in a man, it usually kills. Once the pila have been thrown, legionaries close and continue fighting with the stabbing gladius.

Historically, these legionaries only came to be after the army reforms of Gaius Marius. He abandoned property and age requirements for the legions, and made the Roman army into a professional force. No longer would a man have to provide his own war gear; he would be paid, serve a term of 25 years and then retire with enough land to give him a pension for the remainder of his days.

Details

These are the Romans’ initial, basic post-Marian legionaries, and are stronger than any unit that comes before the reforms. Early Legionary Cohorts, like the rest of Rome’s standard legionary infantry, are armed with two pila and a sword. They have decent armor, as well as a much higher attack and morale than preceding Auxilia. Although generally good on the battlefield, Early Legionary Cohorts are also the beginning of a more expensive streak of soldiers. They have good stamina, like most Legionaries.

Early Legionary Cohorts are the most inexpensive Roman unit that can form a testudo (meaning “tortoise” in Latin). In this formation soldiers form a ‘shell’ of shields around them in a sturdy, but slow and inflexible, formation practically impervious to missiles.

They are the first strong post Marian Heavy infantry, and they have reasonable building requirements, only needing a minor city. For this reason they can be very good while campaigning in barbarian lands since they can be better retrained. If is often better to have a unit that can be retrained than the very best unit. They are also tough enough to beat almost anything barbarians would throw at them. However, despite their strengths, they are not quite elite troops and have considerably less armour than the later Legions. Early Legionary Cohort should still serve as the main Roman battleline after the Marian Reforms, at least until later stronger units such as Legionary Cohort are widely available.