Two Polybian Legions (sort of)

It took me a while to finish off the final two units due to Christmas and all, but they're done... Sort of.

As anyone who's ever modeled Republican Romans will know, for each legion there needs to be a corresponding alae. So, the "Romans" are done but I still need to do two alae. This will complete a full Polybian Consular Roman army. I like that this army can have a definite full stop. Thank you, dear Rome, for being so organised.

For those unaware, an alae is an allied contingent and each legion had a corresponding alae attached. In later years these would be known as auxiliaries. A full consular army consisted of two legions and two alae. The alae also provided the bulk of the cavalry wing (usually twice or thrice the Roman contingent).

If you've followed this blog you may remember that I originally based this army as you see above, with 4 figures to a base. I then re-based them to 3 figures per base with 4 bases to a unit. I then bought the To the Strongest rules and I really liked their take on Republican Romans. So, I re-based back again.

In TtS you can field them as a bunch of small units (basically two bases) or mix the hastati & principes maniples to create a standard unit. Most other rules do this too, but the difference is that TtS has a really good maniple swap rule. You can deploy them as a 4 base unit with the hastati in front and when you swap you can put the principes in front. Alternatively (and my preference) is to make  little maniples and place them in a realistic quincunx to resemble the triplex acies. In this way the hastati start forward an when swapped you put the principes forward. In all other ways they act as a single unit.

I really like that.

The Romans also have unattached generals so I have the Consul as the army general and a legate for each legion. The legate more or less acts as the commander for an individual command of 8 units. Each legion has 4 hastati/prinipes, 2 triarii and 2 velites. The Straddling Rule in TtS effectively allows you to guard the entire rear line with the two units of triarii.

You'll also notice that each legate has two other commander figures. TtS also has Heroes, that can give a unit a one-off bonus. The rules say to use a counter or marker but I decided that I would use left over centurions for my markers. The general/consul has two guys with trumpets. I'll use these as some sort of marker as required.

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As for allies, I'm going use Italians. If I used Latin allies they would look pretty much the same as the Romans. Italians give me the choice to add more colour and variety to the army. The only thing I'm unsure of is: Should I organize them the same as the Romans or in more of a general way? i.e: heavy infantry, light infantry, cavalry? Should I organize them into warbands?  I'm not sure at this stage.

P.S. All figures are from Xyston Miniatures.