What are the strongest summons?

[LordArioch]

Spirits of the wood might be decent, but being unable to move to other provinces seriously limits the usefulness of hama dryads. In terms of low level summons I'd have to go for behemoth for death, although wights might be decent...maybe.
I think I like the Kithanironic lion for nature/earth, although vine ogre mass production is great and economical. Maybe pride of lions? Costs a bit, but lions are pretty sturdy and it lets you spend gems fast. The scorpian beast isn't so costly as a drake, and the wyvern is cheaper now for spending air gems...
I don't really see much in earth...earth magic just strikes me as weak overall really. Besides blade wind its battlefield spells are weak or hard to cast, and its summons are not great either, except for some high level construction.

And blood of course has a wide selection of demons..I like the area damage on frost fiends against light troops, but the rest are more pratical it seems.

In high level summons, tartarian gate is awsome...you get a undead pretender god/mage for 10 death and 20 nature (Gift of reason). And some of them are pretty good mages too.

[Jasper]

Kithironic Lions are much improved from Dom 1. They cost less, while the seasonal spirits cost more.

Pride of Lions is less interesting, but more widely castable. The lions are a bit easily killed for my taste, but I can easily see using them in an early conflict.

Vine Ogres might also be worthwhile, but I'm not sure they're worth the time investment. They'd be much better if you got 3-5 Ogres for 3-5 gems.

The various drakes look ok now that Seasonals are more expensive. The Wyverns look like perhaps the best of this bunch, although I haven't tried them.

5 Gems for 3 Bog Beasts is a good deal -- especially for Miasma C'tis who starts with them!

IMHO the lesser elementals are still decent, just not so obvious a tactic as before.

Earth doesn't really get anything I like until level 5, either Clockwork Horrors or Gargoyles.

Tien Chi's summons would be good if Tien Chi was!

[HJ]

Originally posted by LordArioch:
In high level summons, tartarian gate is awsome...you get a undead pretender god/mage for 10 death and 20 nature (Gift of reason). And some of them are pretty good mages too.

And sometimes you don't even have to cast Gift of reason, as they come in a commander form. Awesome!

However silly it may sound, I see Spirit mastery as rather useful. You get a huge amount of cannon fodder for only 4 gems that is not completely useless either. If you have something to deal the actual damage after the paralysis kicks in, it works like a charm. For example, I found it to work great against knights and similar otherwise nasty units. Masses of ghosts both soak up the attacks, and evenutally succeed in paralyzing whoever they are fighting against, and then the rest is easy. Plus you don't mind if they die in droves, as you can summon droves just as easily, and they have a size of 1 so there are a lot of them per square, meaning a lot of chances both to succeed in paralyzing and to soak up attacks. They are also ethereal, and the sheer amounts mean they won't rout like the rest of the cannon fodder units.

[ November 25, 2003, 10:05: Message edited by: HJ ]

[Joonie73]

I have never seen Doom Horrors. How do you get them, aside from Wish?

Originally posted by Teraswaerto:
Nope, they don't. One fun thing to wish for is the Doom Horror.

[Joonie73]

What disadvantages come with "dead and decaying"? I have stayed away from Tartarian things for that reason.

Originally posted by HJ:
Maybe not the strongest (haven't really compared the stats), but tarrasque is really something. Its sprite is also great.
And considering the low cost (high magic requirements though), tartarian titans are also awesome. Through that spell, you in fact get other pretenders, only that they are dead and decaying...

Wyverns are fantastic and I personally like Vine Ogres. 1 Nature Gem for 2-3 Ogres per cast (or more depending on your equipment) that are enough of a threat that they have to be targeted because of their high HP and decent damage; but not expensive gem wise.

I have never had a Tartarian Giant die on me yet because he was decaying; they just need some blush. They don't radiate disease AFAIK.

[HJ]

Originally posted by Joonie73:
What disadvantages come with "dead and decaying"? I have stayed away from Tartarian things for that reason.

It was just a figure of speech. They are undead Versions of some pretenders, but otherwise have no downsides, aside from the fact they usually come with afflictions. They usually appear as normal units, not commanders, and that's what the "years of imprisonment have damaged the mind of dead god" in their description means.