The Legion's Restructuring

The Dawn Lady sat in her seat as she usually did while her advisors stood in front of her, Reynold standing among them, "We have an issue with deployment," She began, "We are too restricted in what our men can do while we ask too many tasks from them, archery, different battlefield tactics, managing supplies," The advisors seemed to agree, "Reynold, bring forwards your draft of rearrangement," The other advisors didn't have the annoyed reaction as the common legionnaires had when a rookie was mentioned. He laid out several pieces of paper with different things written on them, "Reynold and I have discussed a reshaping of our divisions to make sure we work well with both defense, attack and general purpose units, go ahead," Reynold nodded and cleared his throat. The three older generals turned their attention to him and listened.

"The current divisions are classified as defense, shock and cavalry, however that is not very accurate to how they fight," He began as the other men passed the paper to one another as they read, "Shock is expected to serve as a rapid deployment reserve while also act as a spearhead while cavalry are roaming supporting units and defense take the brunt of the dark land's aggression."

"What changes do you suggest then, Reynold?" One of the generals asked as he was passed the sheet of paper.

"A shifting of units and personnel to make smaller but more efficient units," The young man replied, "Army divisions, representing the trench guards, the wall defenders and all the tasks we ask of defense, generic, all purpose legionnaires who can fill gaps and be used to hold what was taken," The ideas he had were not all his own, discussions with Ilbert and other commanders had given him more knowledge than he could ever expect to gather on his own, "The next is to keep the cavalry units but to break them up into rider and cavalry units with riders being roaming units with scouting and locating weaknesses as their main goal while cavalry act as the reserves for the dangerous frontlines."

"What sizes do you think you will need for these divisions, Reynold?" The Dawn Lady asked, "We have an average of 200 men per unit at the moment, growing to 300."

"A rider unit would have 10 or 15 men, they are supposed to be fast and talented riders, trained in mainly mounted combat and hand to hand fighting, army units would be 200 to 300 men as they would need to man larger positions and be able to hold them and cavalry could range from 50 to 100 men depending on needs."

"Very well, go on."

"Supply divisions would make running supplies and managing frontlines easier, mainly administrative work but essential to having information and supplies moved back and forth from the frontlines to us and vice versa."

"A whole division for it?" General Hevert piped up, "Do we not have men attached to existing divisions?"

"That is complicated, separating allows us to manage them and move them with simplicity," The man nodded and gestured for Reynold to continue, "Archer divisions, men trained to support advancing or defending units, focus on covering movements or on holding walls."

"Why not have archers built into the units?"

"Simplicity and filling too many tasks, an Advancing Volley for instance," Reynold pulled out another piece of paper, "Has 3 ranks, 1 moving forwards, 1 firing and 1 reloading, instead you make it 4 ranks, 2 moving forwards and 2 firing at a higher volume as the front 2 can carry shields and heavier armor while the two at the back focus on killing the beasts and not charging."

"Would that be two different divisions?"

"A shock division and an archer division, shock divisions would be men sent to the advancing frontlines or held as back ups with the cavalry to hold breaches, heavy losses are expected with the way the dark lands can react to encroachment of the darkness or when sealing the gaps."

"Division sizes?" General Tolber asked.

"For supply, 50 men, archers, 50 to 100 men, shock, 150 men to make up for intense fighting and losses."

"Is there anything else in this reconstruction of our legion?" General Yibada added as he handed the papers back to the Dawn Lady, "It all seems good to me."

"Second."

"I third that statement," The generals commented as Reynold turned to the Dawn Lady. She nodded and looked at the pages once more.

"Where would you have larger weapons in these units?"

"They would be moved to where needed and it would fall into the final division which are the specialist divisions."

"What do they do?"

"Groups of 10 men, 5 to 10 per unit, who can be moved around the frontlines to erect defenses with the army units, to man special weapons or to help build bridges or other means of obstacle crossing," Reynold recited a carefully rehearsed plan, "They would need to be smart and men who could think on their feet to be able to accomplish their missions."

"Any medical units?" The Dawn Lady asked as she looked through the pages, "I think we should grant our men more luxuries, like field doctors."

"That would fit in, they would need more special training right away but having 10 to 20 per frontline should enable men to be healed and treated, depending on size."

"20 per division?"

"Yes, they would be moved where needed and that movement would be taken on by the supply divisions to make things smooth and quick," The Dawn Lady nodded as the three of her other advisors nodded and could only agree with the young man's ideas, "Any questions?"

"What are we to call our grand formations if we have army divisions already carrying the name of 'army'?" General Yibada asked and Reynold thought for a second before answering.

"A legion."

"A legion within the greater Dawn Legion?" General Tolber clarified before being satisfied by a nod from Reynold and then the Dawn Lady took back control of the meeting.

"We will meet once more, in the coming days to complete the logistics of this change, it will need to be done without affecting our frontlines negatively, you are dismissed for the evening."