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Summons to build a strategy around....
Teach me the power of conjuration!
What are some of the best or most interesting summons to build a strategy around? SP only. I know dread lords is good, any others? National summons maybe? |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
I cannot do without "awaken sleeper" (depending on what nation you are playing). He is big and strong and has good aim which makes a thunder bow great to give him (or any bow). He can lead alot of troops including undead and magical. For many nations he becomes very necessary to get my armies moving without having to think too hard about what leaders I need to lead what units.
Heliophagus with a black heart can be a very powerful assassin. And since he flies you can get him quickly to someplace in order to break up a large army moving toward you. |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
In the school of conjuration the following are good although many of them shouldnt have a strategy built around them.
Tartarians Wraithlords Banelords 'Sleepers' Abominations Tarrasques Naiads(not too powerful but can make clams for a late game boost) Streams from Hades(gets you a skilled death mage) Spectre(can give some diversity) Summon Ghosts cast by a high death mage(D2, 2+ ghosts and 9 gems. Scales nicely) Lamia Queens(magic Diversity) Troll Kings(E2 mage with boots of earth can cast to give you an E3 mage, 4 with boots. Also good fighters/thugs) Sea Trolls(Very tough. Combine with shark attack for a powerful underwater tactic) Ivy Kings(Similar to troll king magic boosting strategy but with nature. Can get you big vineman/ogre armies) Faerie Court(allows nature nations to get air magic+healers) Of course some are stronger than others but those are some which i find very useful. |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Harbringers are great. Pythium/Marignon only, but able to self-bless and self-buff (A3). They have great MR, decent stats, and flight.
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Bog beasts. Nuff said.
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
If you're going to build a strategy around a particular spell, it had better be something that accumulates and feeds back into the system. Ivy Kings to produce Vine Ogres can be such a strategy, since they produce an extra three Vine Ogres for each casting; it's quite a deal. You need to support them with other army-buffing spells since they have low protection, so it's good to focus on the Earth path as well as Nature. It can be difficult to get enough nature gems to get started, so be sure to pick a nation with good nature and earth mages so you can get your site-searching done quickly.
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Army of vinemen+army of gold(fire resistance http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif)+mass regeneration+some form of battlemagic(charm spamming, bladewind ect) can result in some very nasty things
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Tien Chi's national summons, River Demons and Celestial Soliders, are fun to base armies around. water 9, nature4 river goddess gives a good bless for them and you get water gems to fuel the summons.
The various Ape nations have a great national summons. sacred with awe and plate armor and good hits. another nice summons that scales well is animate statue. An e9 cyclops with a nation that has a good earth gem income can raise a bunch of them. i think at earth 9 you get 22 statues. |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
I'm not sure that you really want to build a strategy around any single spell, even the really cool ones. There's simply too many wild possibilities for what can happen.
Still, the Conjuration summons that have already been mentioned are very good. I'm especially fond of Ghosts because of the way that the efficiency of the spell "ramps up" with more levels in Death magic. If you can get to D3 (maybe D2, with Forge of the Ancients active), you can "bootstrap" your way into higher levels of Death magic with the right booster items. So now you have a couple of D4 (or higher) mages. Let those guys spend a few months summoning Ghosts, and you have a very respectable force. Of course, the Ghosts themselves are pretty good. Stealthy, ethereal, life-draining, fear-causing, chill-bringing ... what's not to like? Their only weakness is that a Ghost's only real protection is being ethereal, so magical weapons and spells will shred them quickly. Another great Conjuration spell is Earth Attack. No, it's not exactly a summoning spell, but it's in the same school of magic. Earth Attack is an assassination spell, arguably the best of them all. Any E4 mage (see Shovah32's note about the Troll Kings!) can send a monstrous Earth Elemental to kill nearly any commander. Finally, don't forget the Elemental royalty. As unique summons, it can be hard to form an entire strategy around them, but they're certainly powerful enough to be a part of your strategy. |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Arguably the best assasination spell? Can you argue with my annointed of rhuax being killed by over 400 vengeful spirits(damn vengance of the dead - killing maenads with falling fires wasnt such a good idea) :p.
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
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Seriously, Vengeance of the Dead is great, but it has two limitations. First, you need to punch through the target commander's MR. Second, it's only a real killer against commanders who have killed a lot of people. (And using VotD against a combat mage is brutal, by the way. Using it against a "strategic artillery" mage who kills over long distances with Flames from Afar, Murdering Winter, and other army-blaster spells ... even better!) Meanwhile, that gigantic Earth Elemental can kill almost anyone. He isn't stopped by MR. He doesn't care about how many people you've killed. And your bodyguards will probably just get trampled.... "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead." The only targets that are too tough for Earth Attack tend to be SCs or some pretenders. Sacred Statues, for example. That's when Infernal Disease becomes my favorite assassination spell. |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
vengance of the dead is nasty, but you do get a saving roll against it.
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Nationals? MA Agartha. Well its in enchantment, not conjuration, but Attentive Statues followed by another school or two, followed by Enliven Sentinels, etc.
I've had 10 Attentive Statues take out 70 independents, without support. I've also had them intsa-gibbed when I didn't properly protect my magic leadership, and a stray arrow gibbed the only mage on the battlefield. They do have that drawback of being never healing outside of labs, but on the plus side, your dominion can double their hitpoints. |
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Yeah, I use Earth attck, very cool spell.And yes the elemental royalities are good.
But A lot of the sugguestions here (Tarrasques etc) are very high level right? I play medium maps mostly now, so waiting for lv 8-9 spells are a bit slow. I'm more in the market for good summons at lv 6 or below (lv 6 seems to be where they get really good) They don't have to be game breakers of course, just standout good ones. I could be wrong but the very low level conjurations are just good for dark knowledge, the various "Summon X powers" for battlefield casting. |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Level 6 summons?
Id go for EA or LA Mictlan. Those flying jaguars tear through anything the ai will throw against you. |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
One of my favorite nations is LA Atlantis. I use the winter wolves with them alot. They make good flankers for the ice armored atlantians which have 75% cold resistance. Add in some ghosts and banes and you get a very tough force.
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
I like, 'free stuff', which is basically anything that can summon (useful) allies.
A few have already been mentioned but:- Wraithlord can summon 1 ghost/month. Its not too hard to get 5-10 wraithlords summoning 5-10 ghosts/turn. Mound Fiends can reanimate free undead. Call of the Wild Werewolf can summon 3 wolves/turn. Faery Queen can summon 3 sprites/turn. The 2 fire kings can summon magma men/fire elementals. Water Queens can summon water elemental/ernyies. Draconian Chief can summon 1 Draconian. Also it easy to spam vine ogres, corpse men and remember to cast carrion reanimation after big battles. |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Oh, you missed the best one Bob:
Onaqui (?sp?) the Mictlan national summon who auto spawns holy beast bats (number dependent on dominion) every turn. With a good blessing they're more than worthwhile, and they auto summon so the Onaqui (a not insignificant mage) can do something other than "summon allies". |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Elementals are crazy cool. They're just there, and they just pound on stuff until it's *all* elemental http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Not the attentive statues (enchant 3). I'll see if i can suggest any low level summons.
Summon Cave Drake - Got soft, fleshy humans who can't take arrows but can dish out some damage? Summon an earth drake or two. They have a good strength value, though the low attack means you won't summon them for their damage. They have a whopping 58 hitpoints, 22 protection, and a nice 14 MR. Add in the size, and they make a lovely distraction. When they do get in close combat, they are capable of killing puny human things, when they hit. Reanimation: Not worth building an entire game strategy around, but I've used them succesfully in some short term raidingstrategies. They can raid from water provinces, and with a Revenant you can cast them there, too. Black Servant: If you've got the gem income, summon one, give him a rod of the leper king, and give him some shades/shade beasts. Voila, EA Ctis now has a stealthy attack force. With a follow-up force of real troops, I've used this to win wars. Even the easy AI will be able to adapt fairly quickly, but on a cramped map, it can be a devastating and unexpected strategy, that will cripple a small nations economy, and make it much tougher for them to counter-attack. The whole wight-banelord line is generally thought of in terms of super combatants, and the lowly wight is usually ignored, because something much better is around the corner. However, the wight jumps in value with certain nations, such as LA Atlantis. The normal weakness of the wight strategy is that they are hard to mass, don't play well with friendlies (thanks to that chill), and despite their 17 morale, its rather easy to rout a small group. If your nation has built in cold resistance, you don't have to worry nearly as much about what happens when close combat occurs and everybody joins into a big clump. With some units, you can even group them in the same squad with your mundanes. Throw in water magic, and a captain perpetually spamming nothing but Numbness with an Ice Pebble Staff, and most temperate nations will start dropping like flies to fatigue. Mages would be a good replacement, but the ones I need with LA Atlantis are too much on the pricy side, and capital only. And I don't have much to spend water gems on. There are some I really want to try out as Atlantis. Hidden in Snow (conj 6) looks even better than Wights, but pricier. The Winter Wolves (conj 4) are ethereal with a chill of 6. The Ice Drake (conj 2) is available for some early muscle, though I haven't tried it out yet. While I haven't figured out even a loose strategy yet, but Streams from Hades is practically begging for a strategy to be built. I mean, a stealthy, recuperating, fear causing, amphibious, dark vision, dddwwww mage? What's not to like, other than 0 protection and 10 hitpoints? Though as Atlantis, the Kokythiad is magically redundant. |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Those sea serpents you get at the same time you get the drakes are really good too, especially if you have the capacity to heal the afflictions they seem to accumulate
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Don't forget about the Black Servant thug.
Black Servant with a couple cheap items (black steel armor, maybe lucky pendant or horror helm) does well solo against PS and some indies. Stealthy, ethereal, no fatigue. |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
But against even basic indy priests black servant thugs(which i love) can drop like flies(13 or so MR iirc).
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
It's a bit much for just a thug, but don't forget the Spectral Mage (Summon Spectre, Conj6, 20 death gems). Reasonably affordable for a nation with death income, it's better than a Revenant and Black Servant combined. 25 hitpoints, MR 16.
You can drop the Rod of the Leper King and still lead shades, and use your life drain. Depending on randoms and boosters, you can battle-summon skeletons as well, to 'flesh' out your forces, metaphorically speaking. |
Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
The EA Agartha's Rhuax Pact and... errr... whatever the other one is called. It's a garage sale all the way.
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Another one to really consider building a strategy around is your basic kraken summons-lots of attacks and a tough unit, and fairly cheap. The problem is, they're pretty far up on the research tree. If you can get these guys en masse though, and start casting Quickness on them left and right, you've got an underwater force to be reckoned with.
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
Only 1 level above sea serpents(although early that can be alot). Krakens can, if nothing else, keep you safe until you reach the sea trolls/shark attack combo.
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Re: Summons to build a strategy around....
EA's agartha's Rhaux Pact rocks yes.
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