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Getting things for free is a big no-no, but I think few can deny that the GHB's had


a) Reduce overall points costs, make things more spammable so you don't sacrifice stuff. The least favorite but the easiest to implement.

b) Add two point profiles: one for summoning and one for regular, since you don't have to bring in the troops and "pay upkeep" it would be cheaper and easier to plop them from the battlefield rather than have them walk a hundred miles.

c) What would be the funniest for me: add "carnage points". Basically the death player gets half (or less) the points of his units' loses. That way he gets to recoup but it's nothing too extreme as it doesn't trigger in any meaningful way until you're down hard.

I would just add this rule:

'When creating your army list, you may set aside any amount of points to become reserve points. The amount of reserve points available during a battle is equal to the amount you set aside plus an extra half (50%). For example; setting aside 200 points when building an army would mean you have 300 reinforcement points available to spend during a battle.'

Just that sentence basically makes summons cost 33% less and does not require any alternate point costs, adjustments to spells, etc.

Before the GHB, we played that everything summoned died when the summoner of that unit dies... That balanced it as long you did not face a zillion casters, but we had no TFG so that never happened.

I've been wondering, how are people actually using summoning these days, tactics- and strategy-wise? I've been told that it's a good way to put up roadblocks and tarpits for hard-hitting enemy units, and that you can get units where you want them by using it, but are there any other interesting strategies that rely on summoning?

Summon battle lines cost no points, but you can not have more then 3 summoned battle line units on the field at a time.


Meaning, for undead, you could summon 3 groups of zombies you did not pay for, but you could not summon anymore battle line until one of those 3 finally die.

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
I've been wondering, how are people actually using summoning these days, tactics- and strategy-wise? I've been told that it's a good way to put up roadblocks and tarpits for hard-hitting enemy units, and that you can get units where you want them by using it, but are there any other interesting strategies that rely on summoning?

You can reserve points as what is essentially a sideboard, allowing you to summon specific counter-units to what your enemy happens to have.

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
I've been wondering, how are people actually using summoning these days, tactics- and strategy-wise? I've been told that it's a good way to put up roadblocks and tarpits for hard-hitting enemy units, and that you can get units where you want them by using it, but are there any other interesting strategies that rely on summoning?

When summoning tzeentch daemons you can actually summon extra wizards, who get to do spells to. So you can actually summon a herald of tzeentch who summons a unit of pink horrors that summons a unit of flamers etc.
It can allow you to place a piece that cannot be ignored behind enemy lines, having your opponent divide attention to different fronts, Destroy artillery or a lone caster etc turn 1

It can also allow you to summon a 1000 pts flank out of thin air on your opponents weak side.

There is also a matched play battleplan where you do not get all your units turn 1 and battleline comes in first. Summoning could allow you to have a lot more units on the battlefield turn one and two. Last tournament, this devastated about 300 pts of my opponents free people army turn 1 and by the end of turn 2 he had only one model left of all the units that had already arrived without my list being cheesy or OP, it was just the summoning that screwed over the battleplan.
To bad it cannot be used with the tzeentch battalion that allows units to switch places that would have been very tzeentchy and very awesome (but probably OP)


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 Backspacehacker wrote:
Summon battle lines cost no points, but you can not have more then 3 summoned battle line units on the field at a time.


Meaning, for undead, you could summon 3 groups of zombies you did not pay for, but you could not summon anymore battle line until one of those 3 finally die.

I think three units is a bit much, this could get broken fast. But 1 free battleline unit per caster might work due to only getting to cast the same spell 1 time every turn.
But how would it work with merging zombies? If I summon a unit of zombies and merge them in another unit, which unit "died"?

Did the last model from the original unit die? If not, it did not die.l

Thats why i said 3 battle line troops is your max, if you have named characters like lets say Nagash, he is not limited to battle line, he could summon up morghast

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Did the last model from the original unit die? If not, it did not die.l

Thats why i said 3 battle line troops is your max, if you have named characters like lets say Nagash, he is not limited to battle line, he could summon up morghast

With 3 free units it gets OP if you play a 1000 pts game or smaller. that is why I suggested 1 battle line unit /caster. Maybe even limited to max 3 but that should only be an issue if you have a TFG in your club. You should off course still be free to use reinforcement points for extra summonings...

3 free battleline summons is too inconsistent and also doesn't scale well with different game sizes. Further, it doesn't at all address abilities that summon models without it being a spell.

How about that number goes up as the points bracket does?

Imo this is the main problem death has right now and is one of the main reasons they are not doing well.

We sort of run into an issue of its either way to much or way to little.

What about a fatigue mechanic on them? For each turn a summoned unit is on the board they take d6 mortal wounds at the start of the controlling players turn.

What about a 'hybrid' system, that has equal parts summoning-for-free as summoning-from-reserves?

As in, the units you start with in your deployment phase can be re-summoned once they've died for no extra cost, but if you want to summon anything else you need to have set aside reserve points for them.

It'd still need a cap on how many times you can re-summon your original units, though.

Thoughts?

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
What about a 'hybrid' system, that has equal parts summoning-for-free as summoning-from-reserves?

As in, the units you start with in your deployment phase can be re-summoned once they've died for no extra cost, but if you want to summon anything else you need to have set aside reserve points for them.

It'd still need a cap on how many times you can re-summon your original units, though.

Thoughts?

I'd like that system but with a bit of a caveat: add +2 to summoning rolls required for the deployed units. They were already infused with magic and even then were rendered non-combat worthy, you'd need more energy to do the feat.