Standard TOG/RL/CAF map symbol for friendly Legion
The legion is the basic large-scale military formation in TOG; created during Alexander Trajan's liberation campaign, its basic form also lives on in the Renegade Legions, in the Commonwealth Army and in most Major Spacefaring Races.
Organization (Baseline)[]
The basic ground forces unit is the Legion. Modeled after the early Imperial Roman legions (with some variation to account for the complexity of modem equipment) they all share the same basic structure.
A TOG Legion consists of 10 combat Cohorts, a supporting Artillery Manus, a supply manus, a Military Police Cohort, a Signal Cohort, an Engineer Cohort and Headquarters Units.The Legion is commanded by a Prefect of the Legion and has a Legatus Maximus as his executive officer.
The striking arm of the Legion are its 10 combat Cohorts. The 1st Cohort is always manned by the best combat troops in the Legion and are issued heavier equipment than the other Cohorts. The first Cohort consists of a Headquarters Century of 9 support vehicles, and 10 combat Centuries. The other 9 Cohorts control only 6 combat Centuries each, along with a Headquarters Century. Cohorts are commanded by a Centurion Maximus, while a Century is commanded by a Centurion.
The combat Cohorts are grouped for specific missions into temporary detachments of 2 to 5 Cohorts, each called a Manus. Depending on the Manus' mission, the Legion's Prefect can assign it support units from the artillery, signal, supply, MP, or engineer elements. A Legion has sufficient additional Headquarters Centuries to form 5 separate Manus. A Manus is commanded by a Legatus.
The Artillery Manus of the Legion consist of 3 Cohorts of Artillery, 1 Air Defense Cohort, and a Rocket Century. The Rocket Century is capable of launching satellites (primarily Thors or Observation satellites) into a planetary orbit. Artillery Cohorts are assigned to a Manus as intact units; they are never broken up. The Air Defense Cohort's Centuries are assigned piecemeal to individual Manus or to rear area defense. The Rocket Century is always directly controlled by the Legion's Headquarters Cohort.
The Supply Manus controls the activities of the Legion's maintenance, supply, medical, and other administrative units. These elements are normally assigned as needed to support the operations of the different Manus.
The Signal Cohort is responsible for all aspects of communications. They insure that Legion Headquarters is able to communicate with its far-flung Manus, support units and higher Headquarters. This mission includes the use and maintenance of communications satellites, though launching is the responsibility of the Rocket Century. The Signal Cohort is also responsible for signal intelligence, signal security and electronic counter-measures. Signal units are assigned by individual platoons to various Headquarters as needed.
The Engineer Cohort is responsible for the construction and maintenance of any permanent Legion facilities, clearing or reducing obstacles, erecting barricades, and constructing fortifications. The Cohort has 3 combat engineer Centuries and 3 construction engineer Centuries. The Combat engineer Centuries are assigned to Manus as needed, while the Construction Engineers normally are used to construct and fortify supply or maintenance depots in the rear areas.
The Military Police Cohort consists of 6 line Centuries and functions as a rear area security force. Additionally, it is used to maintain military discipline within the Legion. The MP Cohort is under the direct control of the Legion commander and only rarely is it divided up to support Manus operations.
Depending on its mission a Legion can be assigned a Wing of supporting space craft and/or an auxiliary unit known as an Auxilia. An Auxilia has 4 to 6 Cohorts of special troops, such as Penal Infantry, Military Police, Marine Assault Troops, or Population Control Troops (riot police). An Auxilia is about the size of a Manus. Unlike a Manus it has organic support troops assigned to it. This allows the Auxilia to operate without additional support troops for a limited time. In contrast, a Manus is totally dependent on Legion support units to maintain it in the field.
TOG Legions[]
See Appendix XIa: TOG Legion Designation of Origin for additional information.
Infantry[]
Infantry Legions are viewed by the TOG high command as defensive troops whose mission is to hold the ground won by the Strike Legions.
A typical Infantry Legion has 1 Heavy Grav Armor Cohort, 2 Cohorts of Medium Grav Armor and 7 Cohorts of Grav Armored Infantry.
All vehicles in a front line Infantry Legion use Grav drives. The Supply and Artillery Manus of Infantry Legions assigned to rear areas use ground vehicles for transportation. This means these second line units are tied to a relatively fixed logistical train, but the cost of raising and maintaining the second line units are less. If a second line Infantry Legion is assigned to the front, its support and artillery vehicles are usually replaced with Grav Vehicles.
An Infantry Legion can be assigned a Space Fighter Wing, but normally it is not, leaving ground support and space superiority to Naval units.
Auxilia are assigned to the Infantry Legion as needed. Typical Auxilia assignments include Grav Armor, Air/Space Defense, or Construction units.
All of TOG's 286 Praetorian Guard units are Infantry Legions. All Praetorian units are composed of 1 Heavy Grav Armor Cohort, 2 Cohorts of Medium Grav Armor and 7 Cohorts of Grav Armored Infantry. All infantry are carried in medium Grav APCs. Every Cohort contains 10 Centuries rather than 6. They permanently have an Auxilia of Heavy Grav Armor attached, along with a permanent reinforced Fighter Wing.
Strike[]
Strike Legions are the front line combat troops of TOG. Their mission is to destroy all enemy forces that they encounter. They are not expected to garrison a planet, just to seize it.
A Strike Legion consist of 1 Heavy Grav Armor Cohort and 9 Medium Grav Armor Cohorts (this mixture may vary). The Heavy Grav Armor Cohort is the first Cohort and consist of 4 Heavy Centuries, 3 Medium Centuries and 3 Light Centuries of Grav Armor.
The Medium Cohorts each contain 3 Medium and 3 Light Grav Armor Cohorts.
All vehicles in the Strike Legion are equipped with Grav drives. This allows the Legion to use the strategic and tactical advantages of Grav drives to their fullest extent, because their logistical tail is as maneuverable as the combat elements. A Strike Legion is almost always permanently assigned a Space Fighter Wing, to provide it with organic ground support and local air/space superiority. The Strike Legion or its Fighter Wing does not have any organic interstellar capabilities. All interstellar transports are under the direct control of the Imperial Navy.
The Strike Legion has tremendous offensive fire power available, but it is very deficient in combat infantry. This is rectified by assigning the Strike Legion an Auxilia of some type of infantry. The Strike Legion has only 1,536 combat infantrymen, while an Infantry Auxilia typically has over 2,000 legionnaires. Depending on the type of combat expected and the likelihood of opposition by the population at large, an entire Infantry or Garrison Legion might be attached to support the Strike Legion.
Garrison[]
Garrison Legions are the most numerous Legions in the TOG military. A Garrison Legion's primary mission is population control, over and above normal civilian police activities. TOG doctrine calls for the stationing of 1 Garrison Legion per 1 million population that a planet has.[1] While it is capable of fighting tenaciously against an invading Strike or Infantry Legion, its lack of mobility and the lower quality of its legionnaires guarantees that it will eventually be defeated by Grav mounted troops.
A typical Garrison Legion has 1 Heavy Armor Cohort (again the First Cohort), 1 Cohort of Medium Armor, and 8 Cohorts of Armored or Airmobile Infantry. The Military Police Cohort is upgraded to Manus size and contains 1 Military Police Cohort and 3 Cohorts of Riot Control Troops. The Engineer Cohort has only three Centuries of construction troops and the Artillery Manus exchanges 2 Cohorts of Armored artillery for 2 Air Defense Cohorts.
The Garrison Legion does not posses any organic grav vehicles. All of the Legion's vehicle are either hover, wheeled, or tracked. This makes the Garrison Legion very immobile in comparison to a conventional military unit, but keeps its costs low. The vulnerability of the Garrison Legion's logistical bases is recognized by the TOG High Command. Two additional Air Defense Cohorts are assigned to redress the balance somewhat, though at the cost of losing 2/3 of their ground artillery support.
Normally a Garrison Legion is not assigned any ground support spacecraft. If ground support is needed the local Navy commander is expected to provide it.
If guerrilla activity is especially large, the Garrison Legion might have a Grav or Heavy VTOL Transport Auxilia assigned to it. This Auxilia is capable of simultaneously lifting 3 Infantry Cohorts along with their organic vehicles.
Non-TOG Legions and Legion-Equivalents[]
Renegade Legions[]
Renegade Legion ground forces are organized in the same manner as TOG Legions; with 10 combat Cohorts, an artillery Manus and support troops. Rank structures are the same, as is the organization of the various types of Cohorts and Centuries. Many Renegade Legions have foregone the Strike or Infantry designations for other more romantic designations, such as the 932nd Air Mobile Renegade Legion (organized as a front line TOG Infantry Legion), or the 5791st Heavy Armored Minerva Legion (organized like a TOG Strike Legion). There are a few key differences between the Renegade's Legion structure and their TOG counterparts.
Organizationally, the combat Cohorts are permanently assigned to one of 4 Manus. The 1st Manus (or Manus Primus) contains the 1st Cohort and three other Cohorts. The other 3 Manus are assigned 2 Cohorts each. The vehicles of the fifth Manus are used to supplement the Headquarters elements of the Manus Primus. Support troops are assigned as needed from the support elements.
This organization allows the combat Cohorts to develop the teamwork necessary to become a well-integrated fighting force, while at the same time gives the Prefect of the Legion the tactical flexibility to tailor a Manus for a specific combat mission by assigning it support elements.
Another major difference is that the military police unit of a Renegade Legion is only at Century rather than Cohort strength. Renegade and Commonwealth units seem to have fewer rear area security and discipline problems than their TOG counterparts. The Renegade ground forces number 300,000 Legions along with a significant number of Auxilia. Auxilia and Fighter Wings are assigned to the Legion in the same manner as TOG assignments. Of the Renegade Legions three are classified as Praetorian: the 51st, the 65th and the 109th. Unlike TOG forces, there are no Renegade Garrison Legions.
Commonwealth Legions[]
There are 200,000 Legions in the Commonwealth's Armed Forces (CAF). Half of these Legions are organized and operated on the Renegade model. The other half represent a wide variety planetary and racial military organizations and nomenclature. One predominant nomenclature difference is that Manus are called Brigades, Auxilia are known as Regiments, Cohorts are Battalions, and Centuries are Companies.
Naram Legions[]
A "B'ekkal" legion is patterned after the typical Naram military organization. They are highly mobile, lightly armored, and equal in size to a Legion. A B'ekkal Legion contains 3 permanent Brigades (Manii) each with 4 Battalions (Cohorts) of the same size and type. There are never any Heavy Tanks assigned to a B'ekkal Legion (though in Commonwealth units a KessRith Armor Regiment might be attached). The majority of a B'ekkal Battalion's mobile units are Light armored vehicles while the remainder are Mediums. Supporting units are the same as for a Renegade Legion.
KessRith Legions[]
A "KessRith" unit follows the organizational structure of the KessRith Empire. They are heavily armored, powerful and relatively slow. KessRiths organize in groups of four. There are 4 line Companies (Centuries) to a Battalion (Cohort), 4 line Battalions to a Brigade (Manus) and 4 line Brigades to a Legion. There are a few deviations to this rule, but for the most part it is very strictly adhered to. A KessRith Battalion has an organic Artillery Platoon, unlike other military organizations.
References[]
- Legionnaire (RPG), pp. 42-7
- ↑ Note that the cited eight million legions are nowhere near enough to garrison the "quadrillions" of population on "billions" of worlds of TOG.