The (not really) Official Endgame Summon Thread!

[JimMorrison]

Wrana said:
Well, as I've said, 'summon allies' doesn't allow for choices, and domsummon have only probabilities... Making 'factory units' normal summons - even with some of them from school(s) other than conjuration does, of course, allow for more choices... By the way, choice through shapechanging, while not entirely thematic, is a good possibility.

Well my theory was that the nation could be balanced with the need for those factories to play a vital role in combat. Perhaps they are your only reliable leaders, or some such. The point being that in general terms, for every 3 of these that spawned, you would want 2 of them in combat. So by putting in varied types, you supply a player with choices as to which he keeps behind to bring in more troops, and which he sends forward to engage in the active fighting (if there is any).

To be more specific, the nation would ultimately rely in large part on Dom Summons. The bulk of those freespawns would of course be small chaff. However, at castles with temples, in high Dominion territories, there would be a chance for powerful caster/leader units to spawn. These units would all have a Call Allies command, and there would be perhaps 10 different ones, each who had a corresponding elite unit tied to them. Not long into the game, you would find combat would be unmanageable without the use of these leaders (at lower level, you would still get freespawn leaders, with 40 Leader, and no special abilities) to bring larger forces to bear, and to support with their magic. So you would have to make a choice, between more elite unit creation, or a more robust army on the front lines. Once you had made the choice of how many of your casters to commit to leading armies, then you would choose between the different units that those leaders could create, were they standing still. I'm not talking about just 1 that does infantry, and 1 that does missile troops, but imagine for example that there is a more typical type of missile troop available, using bows or xbows, but they might also have some little amphibian guys that throw Slime. The balance of those capabilities, or your choice of which to use - is yours.