Ammunition

A formation is three groups

When the ammunition runs out

A formation that runs dry does not die: it is still there, still counted, still a target. It simply cannot make the attack that needs ammunition.

It gives up its place in the line to a formation with full quivers, and the fresh men start shooting next round. The spent men go to the spent reserve; their empty quivers are never mixed with those of men who have not shot yet, so whoever has arrows left keeps them. Running dry is not a punishment: it is a clock measuring how long your ranged strength lasts.

Kinds of ammunition

How many volleys?

Every attack spends one point, so a quiver's capacity is how many rounds that formation can shoot from the line. An archer with fifteen falls silent after fifteen rounds in the line. One kind never stands in for another: a crate of bolts fills no quiver. Units that use no ammunition never run dry; what each one carries is in the unit tables.

A volley that could not reach anything costs nothing: an arrow that was never loosed is not counted.

Reinforcement and ammunition

Fresh reinforcement brings its own ammunition. It does not refill what is already there.

Sending one fresh archer to five thousand dry ones does not refill five thousand quivers — it adds one full quiver. Getting your ranged strength back takes fresh troops in real numbers.

The defender's ammunition

The defender is inside a city, and the city turns out some ammunition every round: the Arsenal makes arrows, shot and bolts; the Siege Workshop makes stones. A city with no Arsenal makes no arrows, and a city with no Siege Workshop makes no stones.

Each building feeds only its own city's defenders, and its own level decides how much: every level adds the same amount. An Arsenal in another city sends this one not a single arrow; raising a city's Arsenal means its archers shoot for longer when that city is besieged. Whatever level the buildings stand at when the siege begins is what they produce for the whole siege; raising them while it runs comes too late for that siege.

Each round it goes to the formation in the line first, then to the supplied reserve, then to the men who are spent. Allied troops standing in the city share the same production; an arriving ally does not bring a workshop of his own. But it is not infinite ammunition: it is production, not a stockpile — what is left over is not kept, and a large garrison burns through it faster than the city can make it. The battle panel line The city cannot keep up says exactly that.

What the city makes

Each row shows what a building gives its own city's defenders every round of a siege, counted in shots: one shot is one man shooting once. The values come from the game's own content. These buildings have no last level; every level keeps adding the same amount.