We started discussing this in the Cataphractii thread a while back and I'd asked that the debate be tabled until after the list was at least hammered out. I think I forgot to bring this back up at the end there so I wanted to do so now if there is still interest in discussion what gets called a maniple, century, demi-century, company, squadron, or something else I forgot to add.

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-Vaaish

But is a demi legio not HALF a titan legion? A demi-century is then indeed a subunit to the century.

This opposite nomenclature only for mechanized forces appears a bit strange to me...

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My tabletop-blog (in German): http://menofleadandplastic.blogspot.co.at

I'd need to double check as well, but I think GW uses demi-century for what's effectively company sized skitarii units hence why we have Skitarii Demi-Century. I'd also wager that the Maniple designator would be more platoon sized infantry formations as well.

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-Vaaish

I'd always assumed it was a demi-century because it was 50 "men" (i use that term loosely in the ad mechanical.)

Hey, I'll get back with you on this soon, busy with the holidays at the moment

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-Vaaish

Quick post:
In looking over things again, it seems Demi is used to denote a smaller component of a larger unit. So, you can have Demi-centuries or even demi-maniples. This might only be true of titan formations though since that's the only reference to a demi-maniple I've come across.

Maniple - squad sized detachment, seems to usually be 5 units. Especially true of robots, though titans seem to be in 3's from FW.
Cohort - smallest unit before individuals, at least if FW is reliable based on the thaalax cohort.

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-Vaaish

Demi is "half" in French, i assume it is of Latin origin. My assumption was GW were trying to make a distinction by the imperialad mech working in a "mechanical" metric system of 100s and 5s while the imperial guard use an outdated British anachronism based on 3,4,12s Though as you say fw seem determined to undermine this...

Looking back over Armageddon and Eye of Terror information here's what I've got:

Skitarii: listed as regiments

Demi- and sometimes Quarto- is used to denote smaller elements of a legion for titans. I'd assume the original intent was Half legion and Quarter legion. As I noted earlier, it seems that more recently Demi- is being used to represent just about anything that isn't at full strength.

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-Vaaish

OK, so after thinking about this more here's what I've got:

Demi- and Quarto- seem to reference portions of total legio strength committed in a campaign. Inside that, the organization seems to follow this:

Legion > Regiment > Century > Maniple > Cohort

I'm proposing:

Century: Company sized element composed of two maniples.
Maniple: platoon sized element composed of 4 cohorts and a command element
Cohort: 5 hypaspists, or ,in epic terms, 1 stand. Also refers to an armor component smaller than a maniple.

Under this, the following name changes would happen:

Skitarii Demi-century -> Skitarii Century
Sagitarii Maniple -> Sagitarii Century
Ordinatus Minorus Company -> Ordinatus Minorus Century

Macharius Cohort -> Macharius Century
Super Heavy Cohort -> Super Heavy Tank Century
Super Heavy Tank -> Super Heavy Tank Cohort

Note: Need to find something better to call the Super Heavy stuff. Typically it's called by the class tank so Baneblade Century or Macharius Century, but since we have multiple options for the superheavys rolled into a single entry we can't quite do that here.

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-Vaaish

Could I make a suggestion? The Steel Legion list uses "typical" rather than full-strength company structures. That's because a company loses men but they retain their unit assignment.

What if the AM has a different philosophy? The adeptus treats its men and machines as interchangeable parts. They don't recognize (or due to combat programming don't NEED) to worry about unit cohesion. So they keep nice neat centuries of troops. After a battle, men are shuffled around to maintain full units (disbanding other units as required). So the demi century you're likely to bump into on the battlefield really IS 50 men. After the battle, the men return the to ranks and are re-assigned to centuries shortly before the next battle. Rigid adherence to doctrine, the use of drugs, cybernetics and lobotomies, and religious dogma means that individuality is suppressed and any formation is put together shortly before combat.

Incidentally, look at Soviet doctrine during the cold war (I'm getting this from that book I posted about last week). Apparently, the plan was to send divisions into battle with ammunition and fuel, and that's it. They would be well-fed and rested before entering battle, but would not be fed or allowed to sleep once deployed (they weren't even issued sleeping bags). Any war equipment that wasn't immediately repairable was abandoned. The wounded would be sent back to field hospitals. Casualties were expected to be high.

After five days, another division would leapfrog the first. At that point, all the remaining men were pulled off the front and permitted food and rest. Abandoned war equipment was recovered by the repair battalion and returned to combat-ready condition. When enough troops and equipment were available (recoveries from the hospitals plus men pulled from fighting), then a new division would be formed, regardless of their previous assignments, and thrown back to leapfrog and relieve a current division.

That sounds a LOT like the adeptus (and IG) to me.

I don't think we need to literally represent 100 men. A century in the old Roman legions didn't always equal 100... IIRC it started out at 80 men for a while and eventually ended up around 100 men.

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-Vaaish