Advice on how to use reserves?

[Bona221]

So whatever situation I'm in on the battlefield, I always do my best to have some units in reserve in order to rotate them out with fatigued units on the front line. This has been fairly easy for me in Vanilla and w/ Radious, but in DeI my units rout the majority of the time when I try to do so. Any tips on how to make this work more effectively without having my units flee?

I actually just fought a siege battle wherein two units of hoplites held my gate, and as they were nearing exhaustion, I pulled them out (straight back) and had two other units of hoplites on the flanks coming in just prior to there withdrawal to fill the gap. One unit, which had loss less than ten men, immediately routed and ran straight out the gate, through the enemy...

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So, needless to say, I'd like to know what I can do to help this!

[Augustusng]

DeI has severe morale penalties for being attacked in the flank or rear, but one way to avoid that kind of situation is to make sure that your reserve unit is engaged with the enemy before you withdraw the other unit. Once your new unit is fighting the enemy, your other unit should be able to withdraw with less problems. Still, I try not to do this very often as it is risky. It's usually only worth it in a siege battle like your example. I'm not sure if this will change at all in the 1.0 balancing update though.

[General Maximus]

DeI has severe morale penalties for being attacked in the flank or rear, but one way to avoid that kind of situation is to make sure that your reserve unit is engaged with the enemy before you withdraw the other unit. Once your new unit is fighting the enemy, your other unit should be able to withdraw with less problems. Still, I try not to do this very often as it is risky. It's usually only worth it in a siege battle like your example. I'm not sure if this will change at all in the 1.0 balancing update though.

This. Be it DeI for Rome II or any other mod for any TW game that slows down the battles to a playable level. Order your reserves to go into the combat heat and let them reach the frontlines and have a decent number of troops from the reserve units engaging the enemy. Once it looks like that they are there, you can pull out the troop that was previously fighting.

This does sometimes result in heavy casualties though, and might even lead to your army being pushed back a few paces and create a serious breach.

[Aethyr]

Not only does it cause a lot of casualties but it also quite messy. What I have begun to do is when I initially set up my battle line, i then hit ctrl + down arrow to reduce file and add ranks (ie, shorter fatter units) with a gap between units - this allows me in many cases to bring the reserves in on the flank of foe and back out my troops without having to navigate through friendlies. Does that make sense?

[Barune]

Not only does it cause a lot of casualties but it also quite messy. What I have begun to do is when I initially set up my battle line, i then hit ctrl + down arrow to reduce file and add ranks (ie, shorter fatter units) with a gap between units - this allows me in many cases to bring the reserves in on the flank of foe and back out my troops without having to navigate through friendlies. Does that make sense?

^ The principle behind the roman maniple system.

[Aethyr]

Longer thinner battle lines just mean each unit is going to get engaged by more enemy I find

[General Maximus]

Not only does it cause a lot of casualties but it also quite messy. What I have begun to do is when I initially set up my battle line, i then hit ctrl + down arrow to reduce file and add ranks (ie, shorter fatter units) with a gap between units - this allows me in many cases to bring the reserves in on the flank of foe and back out my troops without having to navigate through friendlies. Does that make sense?

This was exactly the Polybian-era Roman strategy, and in turn heavily influenced Marian-era army. They left gaps between units so that units could move to the frontlines without any hindrance, or units being pulled out could move to the rear without tearing the rest of the army apart to make spaces.

Narrow ranks result in fewer men going in the fight though.

[Aethyr]

I find the only way I can achieve this is by fielding an army without cav or skirmishers (or at most, minimum of either but not both) with at least 6 hastati and Principe, and 5 or so triarii.

To compensate this j field a second army who has less of these core troops but has ample Cav and skirmishers and have that army work in tandem.

Of course this usually means I spend a lot of time setting up my forces pre battle and I tend to get into fights with multiple stacks more often than not but it works for me.

[Butan]

Making space help, but most of the time you'll have to "move through" allied to support an exhausted unit.

Sometimes it will rout whatever you do as soon as you order him to get back.
Except if the unit rout in the direction of the enemy, he should survive and rally to you later on.

To be sure your unit doesnt rout, its best to cycle units before they are exhausted or too badly maimed, so that it will only get into shaken/wavering morale at worst.
If your unit is too low morale, nothing will do, and if its exhausted or had too many casualties, its often best to let them fight to the last.

[Bona221]

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll work on my positioning and timing with my reserves and see if I can't get 'cleaner' with the process. I don't mind losing a few men when cycling units out, but losing an entire unit all at once could potentially break my entire battle line.