Sites with summons
 

Found a site, where it says "an air mage can enter to summon a draconian". Is is free? And what's the proccess?

Re: Sites with summons
 

It's free. Bring an air mage to the province and give him the order to 'enter site'.

Re: Sites with summons
 

What to expect on entering? He can enter once? Will draconian appear next time? Or many times? or in several turns?

Re: Sites with summons
 

You can expect to summon a draconian.

Only one air mage can enter the site per turn. You get one free draconian per turn. Try it, it's not complicated.

Re: Sites with summons
 

What happens is an air mage enters and summons a draconian.

Re: Sites with summons
 

When an air mage reaches that province they will have a new command available on their orders list. Besides things like Defend Province, Move, Patrol Province, Blood Hunt, Construct Building; there will be a new one for Enter Site. There is no visual change but the command stays there as the active command so you know who is in the site. Once entered, the commander stays entered until you change it.

There is no advantage to powerful mages versus little apprentices. So if it says "Air Mage" then just try to find a 1-air mage of low research, and young so you can leave them a long time (click on fatigue on the units view to see their age).

Usually they get one gain per turn. It usually ends up in the province queue so that you have to use the Army Setup screen to assign them to someone. Unless the mage already has followers in which case it assigns them to the mage. Its usually best to allow them to go to the province queue because once the mage "fills up" their leadership limit you wont get any message. Any additional units gained will just be lost until you notice and fix it. So in most cases dont give that mage any personal followers until you are ready for them to fillup and move out.

Some creatures gained require mages of that type to lead them. In that case you have to plan for moving mages in and out of that province. Some creatures can be led by anyone so you can just plan for your armies to move thru that province to pick those up on the way, or even purchase a commander there whenever you have a bunch to move.

Re: Sites with summons
 

Additional creatures will be lost? They don't just go to the province queue once the mages squad is full?

Does that apply to all commander summoned units? Sites, reanimates, domsummons, summon allies, etc?

Re: Sites with summons
 

That seems to be my foggy old memory on it. I could look thru old games I still have available and see if I can find one I can test it on

Re: Sites with summons
 

Any units that can't fit with the summoner just go to the provinces garrison pool just like any unit that's recruited.

Re: Sites with summons
 

Good catch thejeff. I just tested it I was wrong on that.

Must be an overlap with my much more often used tactic of not putting followers onto Pans so they can sneak.

Re: Sites with summons
 

Speaking of that, apparently stealthy freespawn created in enemy territory by stealthy commanders don't hide by default. In a SP game as Man I just sent Sure (stealthy commander, freespawns stealthy cu sidhe) into enemy territory, and the next turn there was a battle with 1 cu sidhe against the PD.

Re: Sites with summons
 

Aaaand, enter Gandalf and his nonsensical 'paratrooper' trick.

Re: Sites with summons
 

There's no such thing as a stealthy troop without a stealthy commander. As was said above if the summoning commander doesn't have any troops under his command, they will join the provincial garrison. In enemy territory you don't have a provincial garrison so they attack ... and run away because they don't have a commander.

If you sent him out with one cu sidhe under his command, the rest would sneak along with him.

Re: Sites with summons
 

Which is a problem with Pans since their free followers (Maenads) are not stealth. So if you have ANY followers on a Pan, even stealthy ones, the first enemy province they stealth into will create a combat with everyone being visible losing you your Pan. I guess it could be considered a bug which probably ticks off lots of new players but I found uses for it and I dont think I want it fixed.

If you give the Pan NO followers at all, then the Maenads appear to the province. This can actually be useful since it gives you a REAL view of what is there instead of a scouts randomly close report. And you an see what scripted spells and equipment might be used.

AND if you give a Pan a black heart then you have an assassin who can attack commanders with an automatic check each time to see if its clear. Sometimes even win. Not to mention having an "assassin" that can cast charm in a one-on-one combat giving you a much better seducer for stealing enemy commanders with all their equipment still on them.

Re: Sites with summons
 

Except the guy you stole will fight in the province you stole him from. So it's not the same as seducing at all. All other problems with that idea aside.

Re: Sites with summons
 

Yes, but he won't get any more cu sidhe until he's back in friendly lands, and every turn one cu sidhe will spawn, fight, and run away.

Re: Sites with summons
 

Still good for getting a real scouting report. Altho the drawback of that is that the enemy knows you are scouting.

@Sombre True. But if he is the last commander you get to see him rout his previous units. Fun.
Depending on who he is up against and what equipment he has, he might even win earlier with him and the maenads vs some other commander.

Re: Sites with summons
 

Are you in the same game as somebody? Then they are scouting you.

Re: Sites with summons
 

Actually does it even work like this? I thought the commander disappeared in such a situation. Or is that only the case with enslavement before a battle?

Re: Sites with summons
 

I think thats enslavement. In fact, I only recently played a nation with enslavement and was trying to figure out where the commanders went. Its so different than Im used to.

You get two messages. One for the assassination. Then another for the combat that followed.

@Tollund: in the games I prefer its pretty hard for anyone to be scouting everyone.