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Not read this question before (so apologies if somebody has already raised it) and was wondering if this is legal?

I pick a 2k army - this must have a minimum of 1x leader and 3x battleline units which for this example we will assume comes to 500 points. I then pick 1500 points of behemoths/artillery/unclassified stuff.

- I then state I am reserving 500 points for summoning and deploy the 1500 of behemoths etc.
- I then cast summoning spells but because these can be anything up to 500 pts I don't summon any leaders or battleline units
- As a result I go through the entire game never having a single 'legal minimum' model touching the board!


Slightly less extreme but in 2k you can have up to 4 behemoth choices. If you deploy them all can you then use your summoning pool to summon a 5th?

TL;DR can you use summoning to get round army selection rules either before or during a game?

(P.S. I'm not a cheese monkey trying to break AoS, more a curious George... )

To simplify it, summoning is basically the deep strike system from 40k. You're restricted by points and unit selections when you make your list, the choice to leave it to the side for summoning comes after it.

You don't pick what's in your reserves points, you just say "I'm keeping 500pts of reserves", and you can summon what you like up to 500pts. Yes, this means you can get around maximums (summon 5th behemoth, etc.)

The remaining 1500pts must be accounted for and meet minimum requirements for the total game size (e.g. 2K)

That's the other side of summoning - less stuff on the board to begin with but battle line requirements can mean you can't afford all the shiny stuff you'd like.

That's kind of weird, but even better than I've had it explained to me then.

No, you can't leave your leaders and battleline off the board - the minimum for the size of battle you are playing has to be deployed at the start. I'm not sure whether you can exceed the max limits of behemoths and such with summoning, I would have to read the rules more carefully to determine that.

Solaris wrote:
No, you can't leave your leaders and battleline off the board - the minimum for the size of battle you are playing has to be deployed at the start. I'm not sure whether you can exceed the max limits of behemoths and such with summoning, I would have to read the rules more carefully to determine that.

It's in the FAQ as it's not in the GHB - restrictions/requirements only apply to the stuff you pick prior to deployment, summoning allows you to exceed.
The exception to deployment for leaders etc. are rules that allow you to 'set up' units other than on the board, like the Stormcast Thunderstrike Brotherhood.

RoperPG wrote:

Solaris wrote:
No, you can't leave your leaders and battleline off the board - the minimum for the size of battle you are playing has to be deployed at the start. I'm not sure whether you can exceed the max limits of behemoths and such with summoning, I would have to read the rules more carefully to determine that.

It's in the FAQ as it's not in the GHB - restrictions/requirements only apply to the stuff you pick prior to deployment, summoning allows you to exceed.
The exception to deployment for leaders etc. are rules that allow you to 'set up' units other than on the board, like the Stormcast Thunderstrike Brotherhood.

Ok, thank you for that clarification. That might come in handy some day

let me add on to this... take Dryads and branchwyches for example...

their spell is not listed as summoning but effectively does the same thing and summons dryads. according to the GH it seems that it would be under the same rule and I'd have to have allocated points for my dryads in the rulebook. yes? no?

if yes, it seems kind of silly to ever summon if playing competitively. dryads can already walk through the forests and move very quickly.. i can see no benefit to leaving them off the table and hoping you summon them in before the wych bites it. gets me kind of grumpy but then i remember that no one else can use this nonsense against me and i stop whining lol

If it adds a unit to the field, its summoning whether its explicitly called summoning or not. And has been noted, there are instances where its tactically sound to summon models instead of just setting them up at the start of the game.

i guess i'm only looking at it from a sylvaneth perspective... when basically the whole army can redeploy at will and every other formation allows this, summing seems unneeded. i'd love to be able to add extra models at whim but i'd rather not be able to and know other guys can't as well.

The factions that the rules really affects are Death and Seraphon. A large part of their fluff deals with summoning.