help with Republican Roman formations

[cytaylor]

Hello All, I have played a dozen or so games of Hail Ceasar and think it is very interesting and a fun system. I'm having some troubles over organizing my Rep Romans according to the List, with small units. For example, the units representing a legion are 4 velites, 4 hastati, 4 princeps, and 2 triari. Our group uses standard size units of 2 60mm 'stands' wide by 2 deep. A small unit would be 1/2 a standard unit, or 1 stand wide by 2 deep. We may use bigger units, but the key thing is that the small unit is 1/2 the size of a standard unit.
1) The first issue is how to line up the hastati - edge to edge, or with a gap (~60mmm) in between ? How was this envisioned when the List was made? How do others do it? If edge to edge, I see the force will be powerful to the front, but very narrow. I suppose an alternative is to expand the unit - making it 2 stands wide by only 1 deep.
2) how to represent the roman 'line exchange' -- I'm thinking of a 'house rule' to allow the princeps to charge through the hastati and replace them in combat, provided they are all drilled. They don't have line of sight, but would know where the opponents are, and trained to do this. How do others do this?
thanks! Cy Taylor

[Big Al]

Hi Cy

I gave you my thoughts on the Yahoo group so won't add to it here.

Cheers

Al

[twinehtc]

Hi Cy

Re : exchanging Principes with Hastati when the latter are in combat. I suggest you look at the Warhammer Historical publication "Hannibal and the Punic Wars" which is an army list + specific rules for WAB2. However there is a very useful section on "Manipular formation swap" on pages 54ff which could form the basis of what you need, although it would need some adaption for Hail Caesar.