Worthwhile summons (early to mid)

[krpeters]

Short answer: most aren't worth it.

Long answer: with normal gold/gem frequency, it seems to me one gem is worth 25 gold. So for any summonable creature, ask yourself if it can defeat two of your enemy's normal troops, or one elite troop -- per gem cost.

If you're playing with more gems or less gold, summonables become much better. More gold or less gems, and they're only good for unique situations.

[Baalz]

Originally Posted by krpeters

Short answer: most aren't worth it.

Long answer: with normal gold/gem frequency, it seems to me one gem is worth 25 gold. So for any summonable creature, ask yourself if it can defeat two of your enemy's normal troops, or one elite troop -- per gem cost.

If you're playing with more gems or less gold, summonables become much better. More gold or less gems, and they're only good for unique situations.

That seems fairly arbitrary and not really in line with my experience. What a gem is worth varies immensely depending on what type it is, what kind of mages you have, what your research level is, what your opponent is fielding, etc. etc. 5 -10 gems can absolutely swing a battle with thousands of gold worth of troops even with modest research if you're in a situation with the right leverage.

Summon summer lions to surround the enemy prince of death (without fire resistance) that is rampaging through everything else you've got.

Summon a behemoth and buff it with iron warriors, luck, body ethereal and quickness and watch it smushify hundreds of enemy troops.

Plop that crusher in the front row to stop that hoard of elephants like a brick wall.

Let those triple blessed vans run right over a band of spine devils (hint: length 0 hooves get poisoned regardless of their defense/glamour).

Let those mind blasters blast the be-jesus out of your good MR regenerating sea trolls.

Let those big nasty Niefel giants chew through your cold immune and ethereal dispossessed spirits.

Sure, these are all situational uses, which is kinda the point. You're gonna find most summons are not very cost effective to just summon and use as line troops, but they bring a wide variety of abilities to the table that give you tools to handle situations when your line troops aren't cutting it.

[krpeters]

Originally Posted by Baalz

Sure, these are all situational uses, which is kinda the point. You're gonna find most summons are not very cost effective to just summon and use as line troops, but they bring a wide variety of abilities to the table that give you tools to handle situations when your line troops aren't cutting it.

In an oblique way, we're in complete agreement. I was answering the question of how useful summons are generically -- as a mass of front line troops. And the answer is, not very, unless you have high gems/low gold.

In unique/special situations they can become extremely useful, but which ones for which situations would be the answer to a different sort of question than what the OP asked.