Reserves

Reserves

What Are Reserves?

Reserves represent reserve troops that can be "called up" to the front when you have accumulated a set of three reserves. A single reserve is awarded to you at the end of the turn only if you've successfully attacked and captured at least one region that turn. When a you have acquired a set of reserves, you can call up your reserves and you will have extra troops to deploy. Reserves are listed graphically in the Intel tab.

Shade: Reserves come in three shades: red, tan, and white. A set of three Reserves can be called up when a player possesses either one of each shade, or three of the same shade. Regardless of game setting, Reserve shade has no impact on the troop value.

Region: Each reserve is affiliated with a particular region on the map. If you control that region named on the card, you will automatically be awarded a bonus of 2 extra troops on that region when you call up that reserve card as part of a set (to see the names of your regions, click on the Names button on the top row). These bonus troops are immediately placed on the named region when you call up the reserves.

Calling Up Reserves

At the Beginning of a Turn:

If you have a set of three Reserves, you may "call up" the Reserves to get extra troops for deployment. If you have five Reserves, you MUST call them up before reinforcing:

Your reserves are displayed just underneath your game info tabs.

To call up reserves, click on the three reserves that you wish to call up.

After you've clicked on the reserve, the reserve will have a line through the name.
Click on the green "call up # troops" button to call up your reserve troops and add them to your reinforcements.

After Eliminating Another Player

The Reserves of a defeated player are immediately awarded to you when you eliminate another player from the game. If this leaves you with four or fewer Reserves, then you continue your turn as normal. However, if the reserves awarded to you gives you five or more reserves, then you MUST call up Reserves and deploy the extra troops before finishing with your turn. If, after calling up a set of Reserves, you still have five or more, then you must call up another set.

Reserves Game Settings

There are four different settings for Reserves available to choose from when the game is created— Escalate, Escalite, and Flat Rate assign different values to a given set of Reserves, and No Reserves eliminates them from the game completely.

Escalate

Value: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30,... Description: The first set of Reserves called up by any player is worth 4 extra troops, the second set is worth 6, and so on. Basic strategy: It's usually better to try and wait and call up reserves after your opponents do, so they are worth more. Strategy should be structured around trying to eliminate weaker opponents. Eliminating a weaker opponent and cashing multiple reserves can often allow you to eliminate more players, cash more reserves, and win the game in a single turn. Holding commands is less important than building up large stacks of troops in different areas of the map in order to make it more difficult for players to eliminate you and to maximize your opportunity to eliminate other players. When eliminating opponents, especially in large singles games, it's best to aim for defeating opponents with enough reserves to give you 5+ after eliminating them, thus allowing you to call them up mid-turn and deploy more troops.

Escalite

Value: 4,5,6,7,8,... Description: The first set of Reserves called up by any player is worth 4 extra troops, the second set is worth 5, and so on. Basic strategy: Since Escalite Reserves grow at a much slower rate than Escalating, there will be less of an emphasis on eliminating opponents for reserves, though that will still be a useful strategy as long as you don't weaken yourself so much in the attempt that you're easy pickings for another opponent.

Flat Rate

Value: 6 Description: Every set of Reserves called up, regardless of how many have been called up already, is worth 6 troops. Basic strategy: You'll want to focus more on taking and holding commands rather than eliminating opponents. Be sure to keep an eye on the Intel tab to make sure that no one opponent takes an insurmountable lead.

No Reserves

No Reserves are awarded. Basic strategy: Much like Flat Rate, with No Reserves you'll want to emphasize holding commands. Since there's much less incentive to eliminate other players, it's possible to hang around in a game with only a few regions. No Reserves games tend to be long ones, even in Head-to-Head games, so plan accordingly.