Slitherine

I am currently embarking on a new 28mm Late Republican Roman Army to fight in Gaul and Spain. Trouble is I can't decide on the elements for the Legionary BGs, whether to include command or not. I have three options:

A four elements of just legionaries
B three elements of legionaries and one with three legionaries and a Centurion
C two elements of legionaries, one with two legionaries, a centurion and optio and one with two legionaries, a cornicen and signifier (so that the command are front and centre when in formation)

Does anyone have any preferences of their own. At the moment I am split between B with the standards and cornicens on the commanders stands and C with just the Eagle on the generals stand.

I would try to think about what you want to represent. If those four elements will be a legion, then you should include the whole thing. If they are just a maniple from a cohort, then you should go for less "decorative" miniatures. In my 15mm armies I am trying to put a command (officers, musicians and standards) in any battle group as I want them to represent cohorts. One of the cohorts will have the eagle. In any case I would discard A: I like at least one centurion inspiring the guys. By the way, instead of what many people think, officers were most of the time placed on the extreme right of the formation in the Roman army.

I use 4 base BGs, all the same legionary body, with slightly fancier head on one figure (out of the 16 figures), or even a slightly faancier bod as well, plus a manipular or eagle standard. I find too many obvious command figures are better suited to the commander bases. I like just a bit of indication of command structure in each BG, whatever it might be representing, whether ea base a cohort or 4 bases a legion. Each BG with some standard looks good on the table. Read accounts of battles in Spain where dozens or hundreds of enemy standards were captured in individual battles. They would have been everywhere.

For MRR, I use one command base per legion. This base includes one single legionary and on the outmost right: the centurio, a signifer and a cornicen.

If you want to use an optio, make sure that he is in the rear rank, as they were in reality.

My preference for Romans is one complete command stand with centurion, cornicen, signifer and a legionary and then one stand with a single centurion and 3 legionaries. The other 6 stands get 4 legionaries each. So for every eight stands you get one complete command stand and one stand with a centurion. This allows me to field 4-6-8 stand legionariy BGs.

Mike B