Syvanne and MacDowall both give very different number for the troops at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. As I discussed in my last post, the numbers presented by Syvanne seem a lot more consistent with those presented by Jordanes. However, as war-gamers tend to use a ratio of figures to troops, I will go on to argue that it is not too important to resolve this issue of differing numbers to recreate the battle.
Hun army composition
Syvanne, argues that the Hun army has about 410,000 troops and that with non-combatants this would total the 500,000 men reference by Jordanes. Syvanne breaks the army down as shown in the table below:
| Inf | Cav | Total | % | |
| Ostragoths | 40,000 | 60,000 | 100,000 | 27% |
| Huns | 110,000 | 110,000 | 24% | |
| Gepids | 50,000 | 50,000 | 12% | |
| Other | 105,000 | 45,000 | 150,000 | 37% |
| Total | 145,000 | 265,000 | 410,000 | 100% |
MacDowall has much lower numbers of troops which he breaks down as follows:
| Total | ||
| Ostragoths | 7,500 | 27% |
| Huns | 12,500 | 46% |
| Gepids and Others | 7,500 | 27% |
| Total | 27,500 | 100% |
It can be seen that both authors have the Ostragoths making up around a quarter of the troops. This is where the similarity ends. MacDowall has the Huns comprising of nearly half the army whereas Syvanne has the Huns at around quarter of the army.
Roman army composition.
Syvanne has the Roman army at just short of 400,000 troops:
| Inf | Cav | Total | % | |
| Romans | 179,000 | 34,000 | 213,000 | 55% |
| Alans | 75,000 | 75,000 | 19% | |
| Visigoths | 40,000 | 60,000 | 100,000 | 26% |
| Total | 219,000 | 169,000 | 388,000 | 100% |
MacDowall places the Roman army strength at around 30,000:
| Total | % | |
| Romans | 15,000 | 51% |
| Alans | 2,000 | 7% |
| Visigoths | 12,500 | 42% |
| Total | 29,500 | 100% |
It can be seen that both authors have the Roman contingent at around 50-55%. The main difference is that MacDowall only has a small contingent of Alans at around 7% while Syvanne has the Alans at 19%.
Setting an order of Battle for a game.
I am less worried about the difference in the total number of troops between the two authors than the difference in composition. Syvanne has a total number of troops for both sides together of around 800,000 whereas MacDowall has around 57,000. Irrespective of which author I believe I have set the goal of replaying the battle with about 1400-1500 figures. All that will change is my figure ratio. For Syvanne I would use 600:1 and for MacDowall I would use 40:1.
I have a personal bias for using the force composition suggested by Syvanne. The main reason is that his estimate of the total army size of the Huns more closely corresponds to the account of Jordanes that I am using for the basis of my game. The second reason is that the account of Jordanes, the Alans seem to play a more important part that the 7% composition figure that MacDowall would suggest.
In the final analysis, there is no way of knowing which order of battle is closer to that of the actual battle. As I am starting this project from scratch I have chosen to take the order of battle presented by Syvanne as my basis. Others with existing armies might plausibly chose a different force composition that allows them to use the figures that they have.
Below are the units of Romans that I have painted to so far. In the next post I will detail the list of units I will be creating for the battle.
