Recruit legionaries are members of Caesar's Legion encountered in the Mojave Wasteland in Fallout: New Vegas, forming the backbone of the Legion's armies as frontline fighters during the NCR-Legion War in 2281.
Background[]
Recruit legionaries are the lowest-ranked members of Caesar's Legion. Freshly trained, these legionaries are given only basic equipment, mostly rudimentary melee weapons, although rarely, they also have access to firearms.[Non-game 1] Recruits who show results will be "awarded" with a promotion to the class of prime legionary. Recruits are the most common type of the legionaries, and they emulate the ancient Roman hastati.[Non-game 2][Non-game 3]
In combat, legionaries are most commonly organized into three waves based on their experience, with recruits occupying the first wave. As the least experienced and least equipped, the role of the recruit legionaries is simply to act as meat shields for the more experienced legionaries. Even if they are wiped out, the intent is that they will have wore out the enemy so that the back waves have a better chance of defeating their opponents.[1][Non-game 4]
Interactions with the player character[]
Interactions overview[]
| Interactions | ||
|---|---|---|
  |
This character has no special interactions. | |
Inventory[]
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items | On death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legion recruit armor Recruit helmet |
Rifles Varmint rifle Cowboy repeater Shotguns Single shotgun Caravan shotgun Handguns 9mm pistol 10mm pistol .357 Magnum revolver Melee Machete Throwing spear |
Bottle cap Legion denarius Random food items Healing powder Antivenom Purified water Bitter drink |
 Legion ear |
Locations[]
As the most common enemy variant from the Caesar's Legion faction, recruit legionaries will appear more frequently than most others in the early parts of the game. Two scripted encounters with recruit legionaries occur, one slightly north of Wolfhorn Ranch and the other to the east of Harper's shack, involving a Legion ambush on a traveling merchant and an attack on a group of Jackals. Recruit legionaries will also appear idling around Legion-held locations in the Mojave Wasteland such as the Fort and Nelson.
Notable quotes[]
- "Ave, true to Caesar."
- "True to Caesar."
- "Ave, Amicus."
- "The new slave girls are quite beautiful."
- "Give me cause, Profligate."
- "Degenerates like you belong on a cross."
- "Retribution!"
Appearances[]
Recruit legionaries appear only in Fallout: New Vegas.
Behind the scenes[]
Joshua Sawyer has described the recruit legionaries as the Legion's equivalent of the hastati, a basic infantry class in the military of the early Roman Republic prior to the Marian reforms.[Non-game 3]
Gallery[]
_token.png "Fallout Magic Soldier (Red-White) token.png (299 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ The Courier: "So what happened at Hoover Dam and Boulder City?"
Hanlon: "In big battles, Caesar deploys his legionaries in waves. Recruits up front, prime soldiers behind the recruits, old guard bringing up the rear. Opponents wear themselves out dealing with the first two waves, if they survive that long. When the veterans step up, there's not much fight left. Caesar can adapt, though, and when required, he can run any mix of legionaries as skirmishers and still retain order in the ranks."
(Hanlon's dialogue)
Non-game
- ↑ Question: "Could Caesar really win a war of attrition with the NCR, or is he just deluded by an environment of yes-men into believing they have the numbers for ancient tactics to still work when the enemy is just cutting down your front lines with gunfire?"
Joshua Sawyer: "Primes, Veterans, and even some Recruits use powerful firearms. Most of the legionaries who use melee weapons are early/weak scrubs. It's true that some Centurions and most Praetorian Guards also use melee/unarmed weapons, but as people who assault those characters in close quarters (where they are often encountered) can probably attest, it's not much of an impediment for them. As to whether or not Caesar has the numbers to ultimately win (and hold power) in the long run, that's unknown."
(Formspring reply from October 26, 2011) - ↑ Question: "Would Caesars Legion ever have Triarii? Or is it based on Marian Reforms era military?"
Joshua Sawyer: "Veterans are the equivalent of triarii, Primes as principes, Recruits as hastati. Wealth and class are not parts of Caesar's Legion's structure, but experience and access to equipment are."
(Formspring post on July 4, 2012) - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Question: "Maybe not "bows" per se - It does seem plausible, though, that in a post-apoc. wasteland there would be a (relative) scarcity of ammunition leading to the use of more primitive projectiles. Dirty tribals could more readily improvise "arrows" than bullets."
Joshua Sawyer: "They could more easily improvise spears than either! That's what they had in Fallout 2 and one of the reasons we brought them into F:NV. Also, they fit the style of Caesar's Legion's 'recruits' better. Though the primes and veterans use much better equipment, the recruits are the equivalent of pre-Marian reform hastati: multitudes of scrubs with the most basic gear they can find."
(Formspring reply from September 4, 2011) - ↑ Question: "Just how expendable are troops to the Legion? Roman tactics involved 2 lines of fresh meat, then a third line (Triarii) that would devastate the opponents that have tired themselfs killing the first 2. Does NV's Legion do similar?"
Joshua Sawyer: "That's exactly what the Recruits, Primes, and Veterans are."
(Formspring post on October 25, 2011)
