Pls explain how early summoning spells are useful

[Baalz]

NTJedi said:

Howl costs 2 nature gems and requires 2 nature to cast. Howl provides very very few wolves which usually retreat after a few are killed.
Swarm is cheaper to cast, easier to cast, and the units will all fight to the bitter end not retreat unlike the wolves. Their flying works great for stopping the fleeing units as well. If you cast one Howl(2_gems) against one swarm the swarm will win and you'll have an extra gem.

I like howl a lot better than swarm in several situations. One big difference is that the wolves appear all around the battlefield, while the dragonflies from swarm are clumped. The implications of this is that the wolves are vastly superior for being decoy targets. I've had several battles I've won thanks in no small part to the fact that the enemy mages were casting all their best spells at the wolves which spawned near them while my mages obliterated their army. Try that with swarm.

The wolves also have a much better attack than the dragonflies. Its certainly not anything special, but the dragonflies essentially are there just as warm bodies while the wolves can actually do some damage against some troops. For instance, if you're storming a castle with a bunch of enemy mages and a few elite gate blockers, casting several howls can bring an easy victory, while the dragonflies are much more likely to get hung up on the blockers up front.