Possibilities of #onebattlespell

[Burnsaber]

I just started thinking how I could use the new coming #onebattlespell command and it came to me. We have finally gotten a way to duplicate the "at the start of battle, summon some troops" like Ko-Onis and Oni Generals do. Just mod a 0-fatigue summoning spell and the commander that as #onebattlespell (I'm not 100% sure, but I think that you could set that spell as researchlevel 10 so that it's not researchable, only castable). When I started to bonder about this more closely, I realized how huge even this one implentation of #onebattlespell is. You can have:

More options in PD -> Yeah, you can only mod 2 different troops for levels 1-19 and 20+. But things are now bit better, since you could make the commander you get from 20 def to summon the third type at beginning of the battle. Not excatly perfect, but more options are always more options.

"Summoner" mages -> Weak in paths and research, but bring something fierce in battle.

"Epic Leader" -> Expensive commaders that summon a whole army (like 40 -50 infantry) at the start of battle. One man army indeed! This kind of "army" would differ this way from normal.

Advantages:
- No supply cost (if you don't want this to happen, you could probably give the commander huge gluttony to compensate for his "honor guard")
- If the commander survives the battle, the guys will still be there for the next battle

Disadvantages
- No scripting

This also could be the way to give the boost national commanders need. Sure, I could ferry my guys with regular indie commanders, but Lizard Lord comes into battle with his "Honor Guard" of 5 Slave Warriors, which are replenished from his personal slaves at the beginning of every battle.

Hmm. You could perhaps also use that trick to buff up a bit those "I'm semi-thuggable weak human hero, but look I have recuperate/sneak/ one 5 gem magic item at start!" things that you always send to front lines to die because they prevented you from getting the "12 magic levels" mage hero. What if Hildegard came with a retinue of 5 Black Knights? Not so wimpy anymore, is she?

Heh, a nation which had weak recruitables, but with wide retinue of commanders who summon a good number of troops to combat might be intresting. Oh, wait.. Sombre, I remember you complaining a bit about how your "Dogs of War" nation would have to bound by a honor system that the player doesn't give the mercenary troops to regular commanders and have merc commanders summoning all the time. Perhaps you could use this trick to have the merc commanders summon their troops in comabt directly?