A toggle at the top of the start card. It changes what an army is, so it gets its own page.
Normally your army is one number that defends every tile you own. With Garrisons on, troops live where they are: every contiguous area of your land has its own garrison, and water — sea or river — is what separates areas. Growth accrues per area in proportion to its land; a city's +300 goes to the city's area; a continent windfall lands on that continent.
Attacking: left-click a bordering nation and the attack draws the slider's share of the area that shares the border. Survivors return to that area. To send from somewhere else, right-click the target and choose Send troops here from an area you click, then click any of your land: that area sends the slider's share of its own garrison — by land if it borders the target, otherwise by transport. Reinforcing your own area works the same way: right-click it, "Reinforce this area from an area you click", click the source. Transports face shore guns and warships on the way, so a distant stronghold helps only as fast as your navy can carry it. Merging is automatic — conquer the land between two areas and their garrisons combine; lose a corridor and they split. Defense reads the local garrison: neutrals push back and allies betray based on the density of the area they touch, and every casualty from bombardment, bombs and nukes comes off the area that was hit. The sidebar lists your areas (hover to highlight) and the map shows each garrison's count. Bots follow the same rules and ship reinforcements to thin beachheads.
Why play it
Without Garrisons, a big empire is safe everywhere at once. With it, every coastline you hold is only as safe as the troops actually standing on it, and the navy becomes your logistics as well as your weapon. Expect more small wars at the edges, more use of ports and shore guns, and a real reason to consolidate land into connected blocks before pushing on.
Tips
| Watch the list | The sidebar area list is your early warning. A beachhead reading 80 troops next to an enemy at 3,000 is about to be pushed back into the sea. |
| Cities on the front | A city's +300 lands in its own area, so building one on a beachhead is the fastest way to stiffen it. |
| Bridge the river | Two areas split by a river merge the moment you own both banks all the way around — often cheaper than ferrying reinforcements for the rest of the match. |
| Escort the convoys | Reinforcements sail as transports and die to one hit. A destroyer on the lane and shore guns at the landing make the difference. |