Re: Pls explain how early summoning spells are use
 

Howl is a great spell, especially on mountain and forest terrain. Anything that can disrupt casters is worth a look.

Re: Pls explain how early summoning spells are use
 

I'll also use Call of Winds for sieges. If I've taken a fort's province with a small army, SC or a few bless troops, the addition of 20 flying siegers can help alot in knocking the walls down.

Re: Pls explain how early summoning spells are use
 

Unless desperate I just find the gem usage more appropriate to crafting and dominating the globals. Although it seems what usually happens is that i dominate the globals, and by that point I don't really need summons any more unless its a specific magic type. Although trolls are great if you can afford em. Cast 2 earth and 1 sea in a province and you have an army that'll go for quite awhile.

Re: Pls explain how early summoning spells are use
 

vinemen can really supplement an army early in the game. They dont eat, and they have high morale. Vine Ogres can be even better.

Wyverns can be handy as a flanker. Set them far to the sides of the combat (the top and bottom of the formation screen). You can have it attack archers immeadiately or set to hold-and-attack rearmost. I generally find that having my archer-attackers at the top of the screen and my attack-rearmost flankers at the bottom seems to work best against the usual AI setup.

The spell "awaken sleeper" can give you a great commander at a time when you might really need him. He leads alot of troops, of any type (including magical and undead). He has good hitpoints, strength, just about any stat. I like to give him the Thunder Bow because it specifically uses his strength.

Generally, the summons need to be used for their best attributes, not as replacements for regular troops. The stealthy ones are great to add to a stealthy army, the fliers can help add some variety to flying armies or other places that you need fliers, the mages can be very useful to fill in magic areas you dont get otherwise, and the ones that can be dropped into provinces you dont own yet are great for suddenly taking areas that you find the enemy has weekly defended.

Re: Pls explain how early summoning spells are use
 

thanks for the tips guys!

Re: Pls explain how early summoning spells are use
 

I love Fire Drakes! They rock mixed with mechanical men. For an off-fire nation, or one with fire-immune troops, they offer some nice short ranged support. That doesn't mean you're not better off using those gems for somethign else. Generally i raise them only in emergencies.

Re: Pls explain how early summoning spells are use
 

Howl costs 2 nature gems and requires 2 nature to cast. Howl provides very very few wolves which usually retreat after a few are killed.
Swarm is cheaper to cast, easier to cast, and the units will all fight to the bitter end not retreat unlike the wolves. Their flying works great for stopping the fleeing units as well. If you cast one Howl(2_gems) against one swarm the swarm will win and you'll have an extra gem.

Re: Pls explain how early summoning spells are use
 

Fire Drakes would be great if they were just willing to let someone else do the melee fighting for them. (same problem as Giant and Agarthan Rock Throwers)

As Abyssia, a nice mass of fire drakes is wonderful right up to the point where it charges into melee and gets cut to ribbons. Would be totally worthwhile if you could script them to stay behind another group of troops and snipe.

Re: Pls explain how early summoning spells are use
 

How about just setting them to fire closest with a fire resistant unit infront set to attack closest?

Re: Pls explain how early summoning spells are use
 

I like howl a lot better than swarm in several situations. One big difference is that the wolves appear all around the battlefield, while the dragonflies from swarm are clumped. The implications of this is that the wolves are vastly superior for being decoy targets. I've had several battles I've won thanks in no small part to the fact that the enemy mages were casting all their best spells at the wolves which spawned near them while my mages obliterated their army. Try that with swarm.

The wolves also have a much better attack than the dragonflies. Its certainly not anything special, but the dragonflies essentially are there just as warm bodies while the wolves can actually do some damage against some troops. For instance, if you're storming a castle with a bunch of enemy mages and a few elite gate blockers, casting several howls can bring an easy victory, while the dragonflies are much more likely to get hung up on the blockers up front.