Okay guys, I have been talking to bucellarii from TWC, a renowned historian with old RTR. Here is something he PMed me:
"By the way I trust you are aware that the RTR Roman unit roster/skins for the bellum Pyrrhicum (i.e. the opening of the mod) was a known issue within the team.
Take for example the RTR depiction of the Roman heavy infantry all wearing the lorica hamata (mail cuirass). Here is an excerpt of a larger post I made on the subject:"
The manufacture of mail, which involves interlinking rows of iron or copper-alloy rings, is relatively uncomplicated. However, alternating punched rings with riveted rings and linking each one to its four neighbours is a time-consuming process. One reconstruction suggests that it took 4,813 hours (1.3 years, given a working day of approximately ten hours) to produce a single mail cuirass (Sim.D, Roman Chain-Mail: Experiments to Reproduce the Techniques of Manufacture, Britannia, Vol. 28, 1997). Whilst this estimate may be on the high side the manufacturer of lorica hamata is undoubtedly an expensive process. The use of the lorica hamata by Roman soldiers for much of the Middle and Late Republican period is accordingly restricted to members of the prima classis (first class).
those men who are rated at more than 10,000 drachmas put on a halusiddtos thorax (mail cuirass), instead of a kardiophylax (heart-protector) along with the others
Polyb. 6.23.15
It is not known what percentage of the entire citizen body is enrolled in the prima classis at any given time. The prima classis perhaps comprises a third of the heavy infantry in a manipular legion (Develin. R, The Third Century Reform of the Comitia Centuriata, Athenaeum 56, 1978); although this figure must have been significantly lower during periods of large scale mobilisation such as in the bellum Hannibalicum. It probably reduces still further during the second and first centuries BCE with the proletarianization of the Roman army (Erdkamp. P, The Transformation of the Roman Army during the Second Century BC in Ňaco and I. Arrayás (eds), War and Territory in the Roman World, Oxford, 2006; de Ligt. L, Roman Manpower Resources and the Proletarianization of the roman Army in the Second Century BC in de Blois L & Lo Cascio E, The Impact of the Roman Army (200 BC – AD 476), Brill, 2007)
To conclude, the Roman legions which fought during the bellum Pyrrhicum featured a variety of defensive body armour. However, the predominant form was the bronze pectoral (Gk. kardiophylax) and this probably remained the case until the Late Republican era and possibly beyond. Italic anatomical cuirasses must also have fairly common and it is likely the shoulder-piece corselet was also worn. In contrast use of the Greek-Style muscle cuirass was rare; whilst this type of armour might have represented an ostentatious display of the wearer’s familial wealth and status it was ill-suited to missile warfare and cannot have survived long into the third century BCE. The more widespread use of the lorica hamata only probably occurred as small-scale arms production by skilled local craftsmen was gradually replaced by more intensive methods of mass production and the establishment of state armouries (Cic. Rab. Perd. 20). However, at nearly all times during the Republican period the lorica hamata was only worn by a minority of Roman soldiers.
Thoughts?
Currently our Principes, Triarii, and Equites have Lorica Hamata as well as our Marian Cohorts and Antesignani, and Alae Cavalry lol