hastati/principes and armour question!!

[rbodleyscott]

The Roman manoeuvre unit in this period was the maniple of 120 men. As heavy infantry units in the game are usually 480 men, we cannot represent individual maniples. Each hastati/principes unit therefore represents 2 maniples of hastati, and 2 maniples of principes, in chequerboard formation. Obviously we cannot represent this graphically when there are only 8 models in the unit.

Roman legionaries of this period supplied their own equipment if they were wealthy enough, ideally including a mail shirt. Those who could not afford to buy their own were issued equipment by the state, including a small square breastplate. So "Some Armour" in this case means that some men have armour sufficient to qualify as Armoured in the game, whereas others have only enough to qualify as Protected. Their armour rating is therefore half-way between the two.

Veteran hastati/principes are graded as Armoured as it is assumed that during their military career most of them will have been able to acquire armour better than the stuff issued by the state - by spending some of their booty on armour, or by looting the dead.