"National Roman Legion"

[MARCVS PETRONIVS MAIVS]

A couple main points...

Yuri...a main event every 3-4 years would be fantastic...but N. America is just soooo huge. It's costly now to travel beyond an 8 hour trip. To the point where it is cost prohibitive. And gas prices wont' be going down anytime soon.

The main thing (adressing this to all) that I dislike about this very topic is that 90% of ALL reenactment groups in N. America comprise of say 10-15 people on paper, and 5 or so guys who come out all the time. On paper I have over a full contubernium, but to get everyone out at an event due to other commitments is very hard. Add to that an event which is a thousand miles/km away and that number will continue to shrink.

So...based on the MASSIVE logistical problem of getting all these groups together...literally makes it extremely probable that a national legion will not be anything more than a website with a few satelite groups.

Second...as Yuri mentioned standardization usually just "happens" at an event. I've yet to see any issues. So if things aren't broke, why fix them?

If that's the case, what advantages are there for a national legion in the first place? If we all get along and play well as mixed units...why switch?

This just all seems a massive exercise in redundancy.

A massive logistical problem present; it does. But then so did besieging Alesia, subduing Britannia, and forging an empire of thousands of miles.... ON FOOT! Im sure wherever our beloved romans are, they are watching us with shame, with our flying behemoths, petrol consuming cars and speed trains, and yet unable to converge at a single point, even if only once between Olypics. Nothing worth doing comes easily!

All inspirational babble aside, I think it would be possible to achieve if all the interested parties (read groups) put the effort into it, agreed on a date, and counted up all those willing (read able to afford) such an expensive endeavour.

As Matt has said, many groups do not even have 20 people on paper. I think we could not get 5000 if all re-enactments groups in the world came together. But still, 300 is still a respectable number, and anything larger than the usual 20-30 would be awesome!

All that said, I find it hard to believe a single individual could achieve this through willpower alone. I think cooperation, patience, diplomacy and perseverence are the key qualities needed to make this work. From what I have read, observed and learned from experience, the 'Borg' approach of assimilation and ''fly our banners or don't fly at all'' mentality is not the way to go.