Even the ordinary line legionaries of the XX Legion were anything but ordinary, for the Legion Tactical Squad of the Alpha Legion was schooled to a versatility and independence that its brother Legions rarely matched. Every legionary was drilled not merely to hold a line but to think, to adapt, and to act on his own initiative when a plan demanded it, for the cell-based doctrine of the Legion meant that squads often fought far from any higher command and had to trust their own judgement. This produced tactical squads that could pose as another Legion's warriors, infiltrate a contested zone, or execute a complex stratagem on a single coded order. In open battle they fought with disciplined competence, but their true strength lay in the unexpected, the volley from a direction no enemy had watched, the sudden reversal that turned a feigned retreat into a killing trap. Behind every Alpha Legion tactical squad lay the unsettling possibility that its apparent purpose was not its real one.
Order of battle
