Guild Wars 2

There has been some discussion as to what a centurion commands in the high legions, A legionnaire commands a warband, so what does a centurion command? A Cohort? A Century? A Company? A Division?

Each warband consists of about 5-12 Charr I believe, which is roughly 50-120 Charr under the control of one Centurion*, which is what an actual Roman Centurion commanded in the Roman Legions. So is it right to call them a Century?

The Wiki quotes it as a Centurion commands a "Company" but is there a more militaristic way of saying this? A Company in modern terms is 80-250 men which kind of matches up to what a century consisted of, depending on what country you are in.

* The Wiki quotes it as a Centurion controls "A number of warbands" so given the name it makes sense that a Centurion would control about 80 just like the actual Roman Equivalent.

Please help! :3

As far as I know it was never explicitly stated what a centurion commands. We know that a Centurion commands multiple warbands, but my guess is that due to the constantly fluctuating numbers within the warbands due to deaths/desertion/acquiring new members, having a precise number of troops under a Centurion as a standing order is impractical.

My guess is that Centurions get assigned however many warbands their Tribune feels they are capable of managing and/or is required to accomplish the task at hand. For example, a Centurion in charge of ensuring stable food supplies to the Citadel from Diessa Plateau may have as many as 10 different warbands focusing on ranching, but only 1 or 2 military warbands in charge of protecting them. A Centurion assigned to lead the assault against a Flame Legion stronghold may instead have 5 assault warbands, 2 engineering warbands, 1 espionage warband, and 3 supply corps warbands. Once the assault was over, the warbands under the Centurion’s control would get reassigned to wherever they were needed.

Essentially, it’s what Zaxares pointed out in the first paragraph. A specific name for that unit is never used in-game apparently (even if early canon lore calls it a “company”).

The smallest military unit in Ancient Rome was the contubernium, a group of 8-10 soldiers who lived and fought together; multiple of these units formed a century, which were then grouped as maniples (2 centuries, pre-Marian reforms) and cohorts (6 centuries, Marian reforms). Nowadays we have modern companies, comparable to centuries and composed of a number of platoons; platoons are then divided into several squads (each comparable to a contubernium).

To me, both in organization and philosophy, a warband is the charr equivalent to a contubernium, with the legionnaire acting as the decanus (or “non-commissioned officer” in command, as explained by Scott McGough himself in a podcast). Additionally, the Blood Legion area in the home instance has a point of interest called “20th Blood Cohort”, whereas the Iron Legion has the “12th Iron Maniple”, which happens to make sense in terms of each legion’s main role (Blood being organized for higher scale, frontline combat).

Now the problem comes with what’s inbetween: a centurion’s unit. The centurion from “The Legions of the Charr” is known to have “six warbands to organize”; Centurion Sinestra Burngunner, inside the Imperator’s Core, says that she has “twelve rifle warbands” that report directly to her “and two more currently under review”; Castella Swordstrike, at the Mustering Grounds, says her centurion’s got “a dozen other warbands to worry about”; Centurion Korrak Blacksnout, from “Edge of Destiny”, led “three hundred charr soldiers”; Centurion Harrow Shroudweather, from “Sea of Sorrows”, was the captain of an Iron Legion experimental naval vessel, originally crewed by seventeen charr, and divided into two warbands (thus, somewhat resembling centuriones classiarii of the Roman Navy).

As you can see, size may vary, considerably. I’m therefore inclined to think that groups of warbands are a heavily modified version of the Roman army centuriae, one that makes it easier for these warbands to adapt to any required situation (just as Zaxares said): a non-specific “number of warbands”, which can be smaller or bigger than typical centuries or companies in size (Blacksnout’s unit could even be compared to a small battalion, although it could also be considered one of those large companies a primus centurion would command).

Going back to the naming issue, it’s possible that both the spread of a common language and military standardization may have led the charr to abandon some of their traditional unit names (e.g. centurions originally commanded “centuries”, but nowadays either the term is not used anymore or these are referred to as “companies” due to them being roughly equivalent in size, even if they differ in internal organization).

When I edited the centurion article on the wiki a few months ago, I decided to stick to the exact definition given by “The Legions of the Charr”, leaving the original quotation marks for the term “company”, due to how ambiguous it is. There was even a long discussion on whether or not a specific article for this was needed, but in the end we decided it was better to just add any detail on these units to the centurion one.

Personally, and being a charr roleplayer myself, I prefer to avoid using any term other than “unit” or “(group of) warbands” while in-character when referring to these unless there’s a good reason for me to use the term “company” (e.g. military standardization of a full charr unit on duty with the Pact).

Centuria is 100. Since Century lasts for 100 years, C in roman numbers is 100, etc etc. Centurion has under his/her control about 100 soldiers. So I guess, to make it easier, Centurion commands around… let’s say 10 warbands. Which should – but don’t need – to cross this milestone.

I agree, considering a Warband is like a platoon, that the appropriate term is a company, also company is the correct “militaristic” terminology.

Avarage platoon is ~30 soldiers. May be less, and may be even 50.

Warbands count from even just 3, to even 12 soldiers, and yet I may be wrong. If centurion would command a platoon, he wouldn’t be called centurion, my friend ;x

Tarreth.8914:

Avarage platoon is ~30 soldiers. May be less, and may be even 50.

Warbands count from even just 3, to even 12 soldiers, and yet I may be wrong. If centurion would command a platoon, he wouldn’t be called centurion, my friend ;x

I didn’t say the centurion commands a platoon. Warband is a bit of a broad term I feel, but I always class it as the platoon because Charr hierarchy isn’t as deep as real military hierarchy.

Considering a Centurion controls multiple warbands, depending on the context of the mission, and who will be required, would different warbands from other high legions be added to the company?

Obviously each Centurion themselves has their own association to a particular legion, but for example, would a Blood Centurion, sometimes call upon Iron or Ash warbands to join the company, for example if they needed more war-machines for a particular task, or scouts and discreet attacks?

Im wondering, beacuse in a lot of areas where the legions actively battle (The brand, Fireheart Rise, etc.). I see soldiers of different legions floating around together.

Each High Legion is it’s own nation. So they would have no authority to call upon warbands of other HL’s. Unless of course, those warbands are tasked with helping out by their own Legion. As is the case for the charr PC’s .

“I answer no authority, but the clenched fist of my Legion”
Tho, as it was said above, some warband may be assigned to answer Centurion of other Legion.

Regardless, each Legion has same ranks and in eyes of even other Legions should be at least respected as it says.

I think warband is around 10-100, in today’s terms that would be a platoon to a small company . So a Centurion would command a battalion or several companies, which would be a thousand or more.

Have you ever seen a warband, that counted more, than 10? O.o
If so, then norn would be totally overpower, since they are known of being capable to kill the entire warbands alone.

Warbands are not big units.

Well, to be fair, the centuries in Imperial Legions were only 60 or 120 people each.

Warbands vary in size but we know they can be as little as 4.

Most logical thing I think about how it’s organised :

Soldier
Command nothing, obey simply. Can suggests thing.

Legionaire
Command a warband (Tactical unit commander)
Ensure that the warband jobs is done with direct view of what is happening to adapt how they’ll do it instantly.

Centurion
Command warbands (Tactician / battle commander)
Manage warbands during a battle, overviewing the battle field, trying to anticipate ennemy counter attack, managing where warbands have to go to be useful.

Tribune
Command armies (Strategist / warmaster)
Plan entire wars, debate on how to proceed with long term views, counselors of the Imperator.

Imperator
Supreme ruler of a high legion (chief warmaster)
Leader and ender of Tribunes disagreements

Well, if the Khan-Ur still existed, he/she’d be the final arbiter of Imperator disagreements.

Yeah, I thought Tribunes but marked Imperators xD