Summoned Units II - Negative Opinions

[OG_Gleep]

I was going to post this right after the last thread, but I'm a lazy bastard.

What are your top 5 least favorite summoned units and commanders. The context is value vs return. Which units do you feel simply aren't worth it due to the cost and performance.

Units
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Commanders
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

[Endoperez]

I'm not sure. Corpse Man Construction, maybe Will'o'Wisp and the similar death/fire battle summon, some early Conjuration summons (Fire Drake), and Spine Devils. Don't know about commanders.

[OG_Gleep]

In addition to me being curious what people like/dislike compared to me, I don't have the experience everyone else does, and tend to summon off a very small list. I found the last thread to be very insightful, and am hoping to get similar feedback.

[Edi]

In the unmodded game, the drakes are pretty useless and have a high summoning cost, and the corpse men are just an atrocious waste of air gems even with a lightning rod.

Almost all death summons that summon low level corporeal undead (longdead, soulless, ghouls etc) or the incorporeal undead (shadows, shades etc) are bad.

My own summoning list is also rather limited simply because there is no cost effectiveness in summoning otehrs units. I tend to play with a fairly low site frequency on large maps, so you need to be economical with the gems.

Edi

[Nerfix]

Single-unit summons that summon weak-ish creatures.

[PvK]

Like Wyverns - one of the least effective units for the price, in my limited experience trying them.

I do summon a few drakes sometimes.

[Gandalf Parker]

I find wyverns handy (but you know that I always push the lesser choices). They tend to be available early in the game and with "attack rearmost" can nicely distract mages if properly used. Of course, an early choice "handy" summons can became a later game "crappy" summons when something better is available to the same purpose.

I do agree that Ive never been able to justify corpse men.

I have have a peeve about things like those wood spirits that cant leave their province. Not because of usefulness. I just think the game-logic is low. It would make more sense to me if they ONLY allowed themselves to be summoned to forests that do NOT have any structures like labs. Not being summoned only to ones that do have a lab. Of course if that happened then you would need one specific for each terrain but I have no problem with that logic

[PvK]

Ok, I have tended not to play nations that can summon wyverns early on, and/or that do have other things I'd rather do with those gems.

[NTJedi]

Gandalf Parker said:
I do agree that Ive never been able to justify corpse men.

This spell is not very useful... sometimes I will have a sceptre holding a staff of storms in a castle and then will have him cast the spell if death gems are needed elsewhere. I think you get 5 corpse men per air gem with the staff of storms.

[PvK]

I've zapped up a few with Corpse Man Construction myself using a lightning rod, as Machaka, but only a few, to fill a small and pretty unimportant role, but I agree it seems like a big waste, especially when I don't have a spare lightning rod sitting around.