How Many Klickies in Your "Centuries"?

[Justindo]

I was wondering how many klickies you put in your Roman "centuries."  If I recall, Argand uses 20 men plus officers based on his pictures.  I started out with 20 as well but I purchased too many so now it's up to 25.  I'm finding it's a fine balance between having enough so that each doesn't look too small yet not so many that it takes forever to set them up.

[da Hugh]

I use 24 plus a Signifer and an Officer for a total of 26.  This is for Cohorts 2 through 10. I am using 40 klickies plus the Signifer and Officer for the Senior 1st Chort which was twice the size as the others.  The main Cohorts went in first to 'soften' up the objective and while this was going on, the 1st Cohort was the 'assault' element used to break through as soon as a weak spot was found.

I base my numbers on an old wargame ratio of 1 miniature to 20 actual men.  With this, a 4 klicky Century would equal 80 actual.  Times six Centuries would equal a Cohort of 24 (x20 = 480) or 480 actual.

Men from each Corort also manned the Bolt-throwing Scorpion, so you could have 10 of these in between each Cohort along the front line.

The other siege equipment was manned by engineers.  (Yuo could use the auxcillaries as engineers).  For Cavalry, which the Legion used as messengers, a Turnae of about 16 mounted Klickies would work.  By the way, Caeser used several units of native horsemen to actually use as a fighting arm to support his Legions.

You could also do a Cohort of slingers, or archers, and/or auxcillaries to act as skirmishers.  Plus Officers, staff, Centurians, Trubines, etc..

Add all this together for a Legion of 5,000 to 6,000 actual in strength, or just over 500 klickies.

I am about half way to getting this and for awhile I need to wait for more funds.

Let me know if this helps.

da Hugh

[GaiusIulius]

Add all this together for a Legion of 5,000 to 6,000 actual in strength, or just over 500 klickies.

'just' 500 klickies  . Dude thats the strength f my complete army...
When I started playing with playmobil I didnt have any correct numbers which I refered to. Then I decided that 6 men would create a 'unit'. (one officer, one with a flag and four soldiers) When I started collecting playmobil in a bigger scale I made a reform (just like Marius 104 B.C.  ) . I decided that for the forces like Romans, musketeers, Napoleonic forces and all units from ACW there should b no strict limit at all because unit sizes were quite different at that time. The medieval soldiers were grouped in 20.
After a while even that limit fall. Today my biggest unit (a Napoleonic British regiment) has 32 soldiers and the smallest about 10. Normal regiments are sized from 15 to 20.

[Timotheos]

Let me know if this helps.
da Hugh

Wow, Don, you've been doing a lot of research!  Have you posted photos anywhere?  Have you considered talking to your library about another display?  An educational thing like that would be up their alley.

To Justin:
I've settled on 20 guys to a century, with a centurion, optio, and standard bearer. 
For cavalry, 8-10 riders is my turmae, with a decurion, duplicarius (no sesquiplicarius), and vexillium bearer. 

These turned out to be physical necessities due to space and resources.  A twenty man century is so big on the table I can't do much with it.  And, I'm modelling different auxiliary cavalry troops (Roman Gallic horsemen, Numidians, and the emperor's singulares) and running short of equipment.

I'm not attempting to model a cohort, but a garrison out in the middle of nowhere with maybe a legion marching through.  With the Egyptian theme coming out, I'm tempted to overhaul my display and move it to Syria from Britain.  (I'm currently using green felt terrain but could swap some of it out for desert brown.  Actually, Syria has (or had) forests, right?  Didn't the best cedar in the world come from Lebanon?

My barracks is scaled down considerably and actually resembles the barracks of a fortress instead of the bunkhouses of a fortlet (the fortlets were considerably more spartan--even the Decurion's room was normal sized compared to the rest of the men (vs. the centurion's fortress dorm which was 7 times as wide as a regular barracks room).

My biggest problem is I like modelling aspects of the legion, but they don't have a place in my scene, of an auxiliary fortlet.  Even the catapult and scorpions are out of place.  I may have to clear off space on a shelf for them.  My "Roman" scene will probably end up having very few actual Romans....

-Tim 

[Justindo]

da Hugh:  Thanks for your post.  500 klickies is a lot!  It sounds as if you're making cohorts rather than centuries, which for large scale wargaming probably makes more sense. 

Tim:  I plan on having my Romans fight both "barbarians" (Playmobil's Vikings, Celts, and Barbarians) and Meroians (Playmobil's Egyptians).  I've also been building up an army of Palace Guard Specials which could be Arabian (Mauretanian?  Berber?) enemies or allies of Rome.

I've been doing some thinking and I've decided that my original idea of 20 fighting klickies per century, plus centurion, signifier, cornicen, and three men for the artillery (two for the century's scorpio and one toward the cohort's onager) is a better number than 25, as one klicky will represent exactly four men.  This will keep the possible century formations on the battlefield both more balanced and more realistic (e.g. two rows of 10, four rows of five, or five rows of four).  I guess I'll just not use my additional klickies.

In addition to a complete six century cohort of legionaries and one of Praetorians, with six centuries each as described above, I have 40 infantry auxiliaries, 40 Hamian archer auxiliaries, and 20 cavalry auxiliaries.  (My cavalry turmae will included ten men and one officer.)  I would perhaps like some more infantry auxiliaries, but this will probably be enough.

[Timotheos]

Did you get the 40 hamians from direct sales?
Were you able to do it in one shot?  (I ordered 5 and waited with baited breath whether I'd even see one! 

Really wish PM would expand its add-on sets.  A lot of people must be ordering these klickes. 
-Tim

[Justindo]

I ordered 39 Hamain archers with their accessories along with 39 auxiliaries with their accessories from the parts department, but that was back in September 2007 when I guess they had a bunch in stock and the Roman klickies had moulded rather than painted arms.  Since then I've repeatedly tried to order more Roman klickies of various types, but the parts department has been out of every one, although supposedly I have two caesar klickies and a single cavalryman with yellow shorts on the way, but I'll believe it when I see it.

I agree that Playmobil should expand its Add On sets.  A Hamian archer 3-pack and an auxiliary/Republican infantry 3-pack would be a lot easier and cheaper than ordering from the parts department, and I bet they'd be pretty big sellers too!  At least the upcoming Egyptians seem to have some nice military and civilian Add On packs!