Reserves and Reinforcement
The reserve is not held back: it is queueing. And the ground belongs to the side, not the player.
What the reserve is
The reserve is not an army that stayed out of the battle: it is the army waiting because it did not fit on the ground.
A man in reserve is in the battle and is yours, consumes supply, neither strikes nor is struck, still carries his own ammunition, and steps into the line at the next boundary when room opens. Room opens when someone in the line falls or runs out of ammunition.
Why is only part of my army fighting?
Because the ground in front of the city holds that many.
This is not working against you: your reserve is what rebuilds the line as it wears away. An enemy with no reserve does not get his line back once it collapses.
When does reinforcement join?
An army joins at a round boundary. A force that lands exactly on one fights that round; a force that lands between boundaries joins at the next.
What joins enters the BATTLE first and the reserve second. Sending 500 Hoplites does not mean 500 Hoplites start fighting: as many go into the line as there is room for.
What reinforcement changes
| What | Effect |
|---|---|
| The line | It fills the gaps. |
| Depth | It lengthens how long your army lasts. |
| Ammunition | Only what it brought. It does not refill existing quivers. |
| Morale | In proportion to its share. One slinger joining five thousand men does nothing. |
| Supply | Its share. It brings its own campaign supply, but cannot refresh a large army on its own. |
Reinforcing a defence
There is no separate order for a besieged city: every new soldier in the city joins the garrison at the next round boundary.
Troops you train in the Barracks and troops you move into that city enter the battle by themselves — and because they come out of the city's own stores, they arrive full.
The figures come from the game's own content. Balance updates can move some numbers; the rules themselves are as written here.