Dacian Historical Army composition and tactics ?

**Sertorio** · April 30, 2012, 07:28 AM

Well the title sums it up. I have researched a bit about dacian tactics but with little sucess. As i want to start a dacian campaign and i like to roleplay what would be the composition of a dacian army?
Would they deploy as single phalanx or manipular formations ?
Any hints i can get would be welcome.

**ur-Lord Tedric** · April 30, 2012, 09:26 AM

I'm afraid I don't know much about the Dacians and indeed they figured late in the Romans time too (ie RTW and perhaps RSII are supposed to finish by 17BC-14AD (after ~200yrs), whereas the Dacians didn't really figure for Rome until between 80-106AD.

An approximate Dacian Army from that period, however (from old WRG Army Lists) would be:

Gen
Dacian Light Cav 1-2
Sarmatian Cataphracts 2-4
Dacian Infantry 6-14
Dacian Falxmen 2-3
Dacian Archers 2-5
Dacian Skirmishers 0-2

Throw a few Bastarnae in for flavour......

Certainly something along those lines. Galatian (Eastern Celts) rather than Dacian would probably be closer to our time-frame. It was the late Galatian Imitation Legionaries who eventually became Legio XXII Deiotariana after Galatia's incorporation. However we have Celts, so Dacia adds more flavour.

**Sertorio** · May 04, 2012, 09:44 AM

Thanks for Lord Tedric reply
.For starters i am trying out this army composition, wich i will probably evolve at a later date by replacing some medium infantry by dacian elites. My reasoning behind that is that more wealth and territories allows for more recruitable population, better equipment etc etc.

As for the thracian units, i am mixing them with dacians but i might mimic Lord Tedric in is Roman Republican Consular army and maybe create a second stack of thracian allies. We will see.

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