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Old Republic era
Legio 0
Military of the Morsian Empire
(From 20,000 BBY onwards)
Structural history
Rutilarian reforms · Farranaxian reforms · Reforms of 3,920 · Cracian reforms · Unit types and ranks · Equipment · Legions (Canon · Legends) · Navy (Canon · Legends)
Campaign history
Wars and battles (Canon · Legends) · Civil Wars and rebellions (Canon · Legends)
Strategy and tactics
Infantry tactics
Borders and fortifications
Castellum · Castra · Escensio · Finibus Galacticus (Finibus Septemtrionis Galacticus (Finibus Otega ad Qiilura · Finibus Thanium ad Ashicus · Finibus Meram ad Quelii · Finibus Kanz ad Raioballo) Finibus Coruscanticus · Finibus Teraab ad Trax · Finibus Meridionali Galacticus (Finibus Chommell ad Brema · Finibus Arkanis ad Cadavine · Finibus Lambda ad Bothanicus))
Under different political systems
Royal Morsian Army · Morsian army of the Dictatorship
Morsian army of the First Republic · Imperial Morsian Army (Canon · Legends)
Flag of the Morsian Empire Morsian fanon continuity

The Rutilarian reforms were a group of major reforms and restructuring of the Morsian army of the Dictatorship by dictator Gaius Rutil'iar, who the reforms were named after. The reforms sought to completely transform the Royal Morsian Army, expanding it, restructuring it, and retraining it to better expand the lands of the fledgling Morsian Military Dictatorship via conquest. The reforms were radical and revolutionary, completely changing the face of the military for centuries to come.

Background[]

The Royal Morsian Army was, at the time of Gaius coming to power, a very new thing for the Morsian people. Until the creation of the army, the Morsians had been a purely defensive nation with barely a militia to actively fight threats. However, when the Sicc'orax Republic reached the borders of the Morsian Kingdom, they began to raid and pillage the settlements that had little to stop them. After several different forms, the Royal Morsian Army was created with three permanent legions in its possession. Shortly after Gaius came to power at the end of the First Morsian Civil War, he raised two more legions to increase the number to five, and each legion had 1,000 men in its command.

The legions were of a simple structure, arranged into ten cohorts of 100 men led by a centurion, along with a legate in command of the legion and a second legate as their second in command. No additional support units were given to the legions, meaning any extra manpower would come in the form of irregular militia, levies or allied forces who joined with the legion to fight with them. There was no dedicated siege equipment, engineers, or even mounted units, and all 1,000 soldiers were heavily armored legionaries. For the First Morsian-Sicc'orax War, the legions were adequate at defending the Morsian territory against the more lightly armored Sicc'orax infantry. Gaius, however, decided that the legions were too specialised in heavy infantry to be a true professional fighting force, so set about reforming the army shortly after the end of the war, where a 500 year long peace treaty with the Sicc'orax afforded him time to reorganize the Morsian forces.

Attributed reforms[]

Several major reforms were attributed to Gaius, though not all of them were invented or discovered by him first. Rather, he was the person to make them official and formally implement them into the army. The exact date of the start of these reforms was unknown, however it was generally attributed to some time shortly after the end of the First Morsian-Sicc'orax War c.16,697 BBY.

Legion expansion[]

Under Gaius, the legions were expanded in size both internally and externally. During the first few years of his rule, the legions were expanded from 1,000 to 1,500 men, an increase of fifty percent. Two additional legions were raised during the war, the 4th and 5th legion, along with a further three during the time of his reforms. This was the first of many expansions made to the unit count of the armed forces of the Morsian state. The main driving reason for Gaius to expand the legions in size was to combat the vast amounts of warriors fielded by their main enemy the Sicc'orax, as with a higher number of men in a legion as well as more legions to field, there was less of a chance for them to be overrun or overwhelmed by their opposing force. By the end of his reforms, the army had over doubled its size, greatly increasing the capability of the Morsian military.

Legio 1 old

The standard of the 1st legion as it would have appeared during the reforms

Legionary standard[]

Following the end of the war, Gaius feared that the legion will may break and cause them to flee from a battle should the outcome look unfavorable for its survival. During the war, and the civil war that Gaius partook in, he noticed that units and armies morale would break and fail, causing a mass rout of its troops. Not only would this cause morale to fall lower for any nearly friendly units, but it also created more casualties and great shame to both the men and commander of the force. In order to prevent this happening as much as possible, he created an emblem for each legion which would be displayed anywhere it went.

These standards, or vexillum in Old Morsian, were unique to each unit and gave them an identity outside of just being a unit in the army. By displaying this emblem in a central area of the legion, it allowed all soldiers to see it at most times of their daily life and instil a sense of identity for themselves and the legion they served in. A high emphasis was also placed on the importance of the standard, and keeping it safe and protected. In dire situations, or desperate defenses, the given order was often "Defendere vexillum!", which translated to "Defend the standard!" in Galactic Basic Standard. All these factors combined along with further emphasis and honor placed on the standard bearer or signifer, the soldier tasked with carrying the standard, meant that the soldiers of the legion quickly became very defensive and protective of their standard. Given the threat of great shame placed on them should the standard be destroyed or captured in battle, the standard gave the soldiers something to defend and protect, increasing their morale both in and out of battle as well as increasing their willpower to fight on and not flee from a battle.

Unit changes[]

Gaius radically changed up the formation of the legions and their structure, creating new classes of soldiers and expanding the higher ranking positions of the legion in reflection of its increased troops count. His thinking was that the legion was inflexible in its, at the time, current form. The legion was comprised entirely of heavily armored legionaries, which were excellent at attacking and defending, however they were not very mobile to fast moving threats on a battlefield and so were at risk of coming off worse in an engagement facing fast moving threats such as mounted units or fast, light infantry. As such, he reduced the amount of heavy infantry in each legion while replacing the number with lighter armored but more mobile infantry. His reasoning was that it would make the legion more flexible and able to respond better to a wider range of situations.

He reduced the amount of heavy infantry legionaries to 500, using some of them from the initial legions to form the newly raised 4th and 5th legions. Of those remaining he retired the older or more injured legionaries. Next he created a class of medium infantry named the mediares who used lighter equipment than the legionaries, however they were still well protected and armored for a medium class of infantry, and more mobile than the legionaries. Finally there were the luxarii, light infantry that were not nearly as well protected as either the legionaries or mediares, however they were far more mobile and able to respond to a suddenly appearing threat or changing battlefield.

The hierarchy of the legion was also changed. Prior to the reforms, the legion was commanded by a Legatus, or Legate, and his second in command a Secundus Legatus. This was done away with by Gaius, who replaced it with a series of three Tribunes and the Legate. The Legate remained as the commander of the legion, but instead of a Secundus Legatus, he had three Tribunes who each commanded one of the class of infantry. This spread the tasks out more manageably between the officers as well as allowing the legion to be split more evenly into three, with a Tribune commanding 500 men each.

Fighting tactics[]

Gaius formally implemented a series of melee tactics that the legions could fight with, which themselves had been independently created or discovered by various Legates and officers over the course of mainly the war. Gaius himself, using the new classes of infantry now present in the legions, created the triplum linea as a tactic which was specifically for use with the new legions. This battle tactic saw a shift from the static defending of the legionaries to a more mobile and quicker responding tactic using the lighter classes of infantry.

The initial engaging line was formed of the luxarii who fought with a mixture of static and mobile tactics depending on the enemy they were presented with. Being light infantry, they were not able to last as long in a fight without taking significant loses, and against heavily armored opponents the luxarii generally came off worse. However they could skirmish against lighter opponents as well as chase away bowmen or other ranged units who invariably engaged the Morsian line first. The second line was comprised of the mediares who served two purposes. The first was that if the luxarii were being overrun, or had their will broken, they would retreat into and through the mediaries to regroup behind the main battle line. The mediares would then take their place as the first line of battle. As fresh troops with better armor and weapons, they would be engaging already tired and injured enemy troops who would invariably break when presented with fresh troops who were tougher than the luxarii. The second purpose they served was that if the luxarii did not break and appeared to be making a breakthrough, the mediares could be sent in both as reinforcements but also as breakthrough troops to capitalize on whatever momentum the luxarii had gotten.

The final line was comprised of the legionaries, the heavy infantry who were formed usually of the veteran soldiers of the legion. The best equipped with the heaviest armor, the legionaries formed the backbone of the legion as well as the last line of defense should both the luxarii and mediares fail to defeat the enemy and have their morale broken. If both other lines fell, the legionaries were the last fresh troops available and so be the fallback to prevent the legion from routing. Being fresh and full strength, the legionaries presented the best chance for the legion to defeat the enemy army and force their morale to break, as the already tired and depleted enemy force would be fighting the heaviest armed, best trained and fully rested legionaries. This combination often brought victory to the legion back from a dire situation. A different usage of the legionaries was to perform final breakthroughs, being sent in to support any sagging areas of the other two lines, as well as exploit any weak areas of an enemy formation.

Legacy[]

As the first major reform to the Morsian Army, the reforms had both short and long term impacts, some of which could be felt tens of millennia after the death of Gaius. The diversification of unit types was the largest immediate take away for the army, and following these reforms the Morsian Army would often see unit types be created or fall out of service with later reforms or wars which necessitated tactical or equipment changes. The new unit types lasted for several hundred years, being altered or diversified as needed with wars coming and going. However, the longest living legacy of the reforms was the addition of the standard and a signifer to hold it. The standard became highly worshipped in the legions and remained a core part of the legions following its introduction with these reforms. Even into the Imperial Morsian Army and beyond, the standard was front and center for any legion.

Behind the scenes[]

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