Rhakhaan Armed Forces

By Jonas Cedher

This chapter describes the military situation in Rhakhaan. Most of the military forces is the professional army known as the legion, it handles all of the external wars and when the country is attacked by an external force.

Insignias and Ranks

Legate: [Rank 7] (General) Legion Commander.
Black uniform, Gold surcoat with Red Phoenix, Gold helm with Red wings and Plume. Shield is Black with a Gold Phoenix and a Gold trim.
Prefect of the Camp: [Rank 6] (1st Colonel)
Black uniform, Red surcoat with Gold Phoenix, Gold helm with Red wings and Plume. Shield is Black with a Gold Phoenix and a Gold trim.
Senior Tribune: [Rank 6] (Colonel) 1st Cohort commander. Legion 2nd Command.
Black uniforms with a Red surcoat, Gold helm with Red wings and Plume. Shield is Black with a Gold Phoenix and a Gold trim.
Tribune: [Rank 5] (Major) Cohort or Alae Commander.
Black uniforms with a red surcoat, gold helm with Red wings and Plume. Shield is Black with a Gold Phoenix and a Gold trim.
Centurion: [rank 4] (Captain) Century or Heavy Turma commander
Grey uniform with a Black surcoat, Gold helm with Red wings. Shield is Black with a Red Phoenix and a Gold trim.
Optiones: [Rank 3] (2nd lieutenant). Century 2nd Command
Grey uniform with a Black surcoat, Gold helm with Gold wings. Shield is Black with a Red Phoenix and a Gold trim.
Decurion: [rank 2] (Sergeant 1st Class) Turma commander.
Grey uniform with a Black surcoat, Gold helm. Shield is Black with a Red phoenix. (Cavalry rank)
Signifiers: [Rank 2] (Sergeant). Standard Bearers.
Grey uniform with a Black surcoat, Gold helm. No shield.
Principales: [Rank 1] (Corporal). Line commander
Grey uniform with a Black surcoat, gold helm. Shield is Black with a Red phoenix.
Legionnaire/Soldiers: [rank 0] (Private).
Grey uniform with a Black badge, Steel helm. Shield is Black with a Red Phoenix.

Organization of the Legion

Most of the defense of Rhakhaan is made up by the Legions, formed like the Imperial legions of Rome but with a bit more cavalry. They are very organized and disciplined forces consisting only of professional troops.

There are 10 Legions each consisting about 4.500 men, giving an armed force of about 45.000 men, enough for defending the gigantic empire.

The Legion's is divided in several different units as follows:

Infantry

Legion

A legion has 8 cohorts (3.840 soldiers) plus two Alae Medium Cavalry (MC, AT13-14) to protect the flanks and is led by a Legate (Rank 7) and the Prefect of the Camp (Rank 6), second-in-command of all non-combat matters.

Cohort

A Cohort consists of 6 centuries (480 soldiers) and is led by a tribune (Rank 5).

1st Century, Heavy Infantry (Sword & Shield, AT16)
2nd Century, Heavy Infantry (Sword & Shield, AT16)
3rd Century, Heavy Infantry (Veterans) (Sword & Shield)
4th Century, Medium Infantry (Spear & Shield, AT13)
5th century, Medium Infantry (Spear & Shield, AT13)
6th Century, Light Infantry (Shortbow & Shortsword, AT1)
1st Turma, Light Cavalry (AT1, messengers and scouts)

The Tribune of the First Cohort (Senior Tribune, Rank 6) is the official second-in-command of the Legion. Each Cohort has a Turma of Light Cavalry (LC) for use as scouts and messengers. The light Turma is led by 1-4 decurions.

WarLaw-SG:

The Medium and heavy infantry is trained to stack one Sword and one Spear in combat and they are able to choose which one they defend with in melee attacks.

The 7th and 8th Cohort is a little different organized; they contain the engineer and siege-warfare forces.

2 Centuries of Heavy Infantry (one veteran) (Sword & Shield)
2 Centuries of Medium Infantry (one veteran) (Spear & Shield)
1 Century of Engineers or Sappers
1 Century of Siege engineers
1 Turma of Light Cavalry

Century

A century contains 80 legionaries, including a Centurion (Rank 4). Assisting the Centurion is the Optiones (Rank 3) or “chosen”, sometimes there can be more than one optio in a century. The Principales (Rank 1) and the cohort standard bearers, or Signifiers (Rank 2) is the lowest petty officers. There are usually 2-4 Signifiers and 6-10 Principales in a century.

Veteran units are usually held in reserve in battles, the empire taking care of their veterans.

Cavalry

Alae

Rhakhaan cavalry is divided into units called Alae, 640 men strong. The Alae is led by a tribune. Each legion has normally two full alae of medium cavalry for it’s flank protection, there is no free forces of cavalry except the Heavy Alae’s that is formed in war and consists of knights.

Turma

Each Alae is divided into 16 smaller units called Turma, which have about 40 men trained to work in groups of 10 men each. The Turma is commanded by 1-4 Decurions (Rank 3), in theory they commanded units of 10 men.

Knights

The Rhakhaan Heavy Cavalry (HV-CA, AT20) is a unit of its own, it consists only of Zori Nobles. It’s also divided into different Alae. There are a total of 5 Heavy Alae’s. They are only active in a case of War, and then only a few of them.
Each Heavy Alae are lead by a Senior Tribune who is at least Count or duke. The Alae is divided up into 16 Heavy Turma’s that is lead by a Centurion (usually a baron or a count), no lower ranks exist.

download pdf Download Imperial Legion Organizational Chart

Support Forces

Private forces

Many of the peerage has private forces, these are usually very restricted in numbers, usually not more then a century. In case of war when the civilian levies are formed these forces is usually used as NCO’s.

The quality of these troops can vary a lot, but is usually of regular (lvl3), how heavy they are depends a lot on the wealth of their noble who equips them with weapons and armor. Sometimes they can even be equipped as cavalry.

The rules of the empire of the size of forces is as follows

Baron 1 century
Count 2 centuries
Viscount 3 centuries
Marquess 4 centuries
Duke 1 Cohort

Lower nobles (landlords, knights etc.) are not allowed to have a structured military force, so the limit there is less then half a century.

City guards or constables is not counted into a military force, they are counted as a civilian force.

Militia/Auxiliary/Levy

If war breaks out with a strong outer force the villager’s form a militia of light irregular infantry of green quality, a total of 60.000 men can be called in for this duty, more if there are time for training. The militia is divided up into various units, led by the local nobleman.

Free Companies

If southern Rhakhaan gets in war they can call upon the Erlini population and get up to 1.200 Light Infantry with Longbows of Average and better quality. Lethys has a standing military force that is called the Free Companies, all well trained archers or rangers; they often support legions in the area with scouting.

Placement

Location

The Imperial Legions

The Legions divided in their base of operations as follows:

Legion I - Haalkitaine
Legion II - Prevan
Legion IV - Sanaria (Former of Wulris)
Legion V - Lethys/Western Marches
Legion VI - Kaytha
Legion VII - Lethys
Legion IX - Dalos
Legion X - Haalkitaine
Legion XII - Haalkitaine
Legion XIV - Haalkitaine

This has change due to the war however; the present locations of the legions are as following:

Legion I - Prevan
Legion II - Prevan
Legion IV - Sanaria
Legion V - Hœneydar (Destroyed)
Legion VI - Kaytha
Legion VII - Arx Metosud (Halved)
Legion IX - Dalos
Legion X - Haalkitaine
Legion XII - Prevan
Legion XIV - Haalkitaine

The Heavy Alae’s

(Only knights)

1st Alae - Haalkitaine
2nd Alae - Prevan (From Haalkitaine region)
3rd Alae - Prevan (From Esov Mur region)
4th Alae - Lethys (Partly unformed, heavy losses)
5th Alae - Kaytha (From northern regions)

XII Legion

This legion was stationed around Haalkitaine, but has lately moved to northern Prevan to fight the Usurper.

It is a full legion (4500 men), with a Heavy Alae (2nd) to protect it.

X Legion

The second legion stationed around Haalkitaine that moved north to prevent the Usurpers advances south.

It is a full legion reinforced with a Heavy Alae (1st) of heavy cavalry.

VII Legion

This legion is stationed at the two forts of Arx Metosud it has the primary responsibility to keep the Yinka at bay. The legion has suffered more losses then it had time to replenish and is very weak at the moment.

This is a half legion (about 2000 men) with half an alae of cavalry. (5 Cohorts Infantry, 8 Turma Cavalry)

V Legion

This legion was stationed south of Lethys; it was annihilated by a major Yinka incursion in the summer/autumn of 6.050. It has not yet been reformed.

The legion was consisting around 3000 men and 2 Turma of heavy cavalry. And half an alae of medium cavalry

Navy

Most of the Rhakhaanese Imperial Navy is protecting the trade-ships to and from Lethys. A small part of it is also stationed outside Duraan.

The bulk of the warships of the Navy is galleys, capable of carrying 200 legionaries or marines and also sport one or two catapults or ballista’s.

Marines

More recently they have bought a few sloops and training marines for boarding action, to be able to escort merchants further out in the sea, since most of the piracy activity is now in the Melurian straights. Most of these are Melurian’s, but as the saying, it takes a pirate to catch a pirate.

Miscellaneous

Life in the Legion

Enlisting

To work in the army is usually a life time choice and career, as a legionnaire you sign up for 20 years of service after which you are rewarded with a small piece of land and a “pension” for the rest of your life.

One season of the year the legionnaire has “vacation” and can return home to his family or whatever he wants. The rest of the year is usually equally divided between being in the field and being at the Legions base for training.

Salary

The pay in the legion is pretty good; the emperor values his legions and wants to keep the quality of them. Besides the salary the legion supplies food and shelter for the soldier.
The weapons, armor and equipment a legionnaire has he has to buy himself and if broken he replaces/repairs it himself. The weapons and armor used from the beginning is paid of by half the legionnaires salary goes back to the legion until all is paid.

The amount of money a recruit has from the beginning is usually what decides his position in the legion; wealthy people (noble’s son’s etc.) usually enlist in the cavalry and the poorest in the archer centuries. As a legionnaire can afford it (and has time to train) he can change to other centuries.

Duties

The legions are also in charge of maintaining the main roads and build new ones; they also construct forts wherever they go so the men in the legions are usually skilled craftsmen after a few years.

Veterans

After 5-10 years of service (depending on the war situation) the legionnaire is considered a veteran, this is a much healthier life as in combats veterans are held in the reserve and in other duties they usually have positions of masters and lead the work more then actually doing the hard work.

Retirement

After the 20 years of service required the legionnaire retires, for the loyal service over the years he is rewarded with a piece of land (or a farm etc.) and a pension, the pension can be in a one time lump fee (00 gold) or in the form of a monthly payment (½ the normal salary) for the remainder of his life.

Officers that have distinguished themselves in the services are often nobled after their service, how high title depends on their rank.

To get out of the army before your contract expires is extremely hard, usually only way is by getting maimed in battle so you are an invalid and not useful to the legion, the only other is through very high contacts (for example high nobles).

Some nobles sons that are in the legion can be released from duty if their fathers died and they need to take over the land.

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by Jonas 'Drac' Cedher.