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Howdy, I've been writing up a Space Marine list for my collection that includes a Stormwing Formation (two talons and a raven), a Raptor Wing Formation (two ravens and a speeder), Scouts for the Grav shoot, and Kahn and one unit of bikes outflanking, in an 1850 pt game.

This lead to the thought: how much is too much in reserves? 1/4th your army? 1/3?

And on the other side of the spectrum my Orks, they always start on the board, which makes for devastating first two turn casualties. Should there be a second wave of boyz (in trukks) show up for the mid-game push?

What are the thoughts on proper Reserves management?

There is no rule of thumb. Its all match up based

Auto lose is too much.


On a serious note, it depends on your army, and the battle.
You don't want to be in the situation that each unit fights an entire army on its own and dies before the rest comes into play.

There are a few reserve tricks that I like.

- Keeping all the paper units in reserve while your rocks kill the scissors.
This is a crucial strategy for appocalypse or other extreme deadly games. You don't want your vehicles on the table before the ranged SD is neutralized.
-Deepstrike alfa strike like tricks
-objective grabbing.

If you have the tools to do it, null deployment (or near-null deployment) is a powerful tool against armies with lots of alpha strike potential. However, if you're not coming in from Reserves on turn one, you need to have a couple of rock hard units that can survive said alpha strike.

I'd also say that if you want to go reserve-heavy you need some form of reserve manipulation. A single bad round of reserve rolls could cost you the game. Or your reserves could end up getting strung out over 3 turns, letting your opponent deal with your army piecemeal. Having a degree of control over when units come in is essential with reserve heavy deployment.

As others have already stated, however, there's no hard and fast rules for how much is too much. For some match-ups, it might be a great idea to keep lots of your force in reserves. For others, any reserves at all might be a terrible idea.