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AoS The power of summoning

Matthijs Mentink
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Matthijs Mentink

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Hi Awesome folks!

I just finished another post on aos-tactics.com: The power of Summoning in Age of Sigmar

I think that summoning is a great and misunderstood tactical tool in Age of Sigmar. To help myself and others understand its strengths and weaknesses I decided to write a post about it.


In this post, I explain the basics of summoning and how you can us it to kick butt. I do so by covering the following topics:
  • Flexibility
  • Model placement
  • Overruling restrictions
  • The Balewind Vortex
  • Summoner Efficiency
  • Dealing with the rule of 1
  • Minimising casting risk
  • A bunch of other stuff
I would love your input on the subject and the article.
How do you use summoning and do you think it is worth it?

Cheers!!
 
using a balewind vortex to push units forwards is slightly hilarious. Hadn't thought of that yet.

As for summoning being powerfull, the ability in basis is powerfull, the current limitations of the rule of 1 (god I hate that rule for magic...) and the point cost still being the same as if you'd just field it normally remove a considerable chunk of its power though. Especially the point cost make it just a variant of the stormstrike ability the main advantage being that you can pick whatever you need, thus allowing you to replace a crucial loss or summon something the opponent can't counter. But as long as summoning comes at the "normal" pointcost it'l probably Always be a tad underwhelming.

Good article by the way.
 
Brilliant article! Pushing units up with the balewind is an amazing revelation!
 
Excellent and helpful article.

I do not know if it is a bit Seraphon specific but my thoughts on this were that for any summoned unit that wants to get into combat an ability to move them by even a small distance changes the odds dramatically.

A unit that is 9" away has 27% chance of making a charge.
With the command from an Oldblood we can move front models in that unit 3" in the hero phase leaving a 6" charge for a 72% chance
With a Skink unit and a Stegadon with Skink Alpha we effectively have a 3D6 move+charge for a 74% chance.

Obviously other options are available including charge re-rolls from a couple of places.
 
As a lover of battlefield control and mind plays, I've especially appreciated the trick with the Vortex and the "letting your opponent to see the models you could summon".

Great job!
 
Nice article indeed!
Summoning is still very sub-par IMO, but you did bring to some interesting points.
 
Great article. The idea with the Balewind seems hilarious, and fun. As far as summoning goes, I feel like finding that perfect balance is nearly impossible. As it is now, it is subpar, since it's basically the Stormcast's ability, with slightly more flexibility. However, if they, say, halved the points cost of summoned units, then everyone would declare it OP and broken, because you could basically field a large chunk of your army at half its normal cost. So summoning is sort of damned either way. I definitely like the concept though, GW just needs to work out the kinks in a way that will satisfy both players using summoning armies and players fighting summoning armies.
 
Seems like a reasonable place to ask this question...

When you setup a battlemage and set it as Bright, does it gain the keyword BRIGHT? I really want to summon an incarnate elemental of fire into my army, but would need that to happen. Seems like an oversight if they can't...

Edit:

Warscroll for those interested in my shenanigans:

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/resources/PDF/fw_warscrolls/aos-monstrous-arcanum.pdf

"Destruction and Bright Wizards know the Summon Incarnate Elemental of Fire spell in addition to any other spells they know."

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-battlemage-en.pdf

Screen Shot 2017-05-11 at 08.29.35.png
 
I am not sure right now. I tend to say yes but can't prove it.
...wait, who even has the Keyword "Bright"? I haven't ever read that on a AoS warscroll as far as I remember.

Is there a tool somewhere that allows to search AoS warscrolls by Keyword? If not this has to be done, at least as an Excel sheet or something.
 
If there is, I don't know of it. Wouldn't be difficult to build, just time consuming to add all the Warscrolls.

I've not seen anything with the "Bright Wizard" keyword, which is why I ask - because these are the only Bright Wizards I know of, they just lack the keyword.
 
If there aren't ANY that's a hint that the elementals actually don't require the keyword but really mean a Battlemage with the "Bright" flavor.
 
Yeahthe battlemage does not gain the keyword, but does have the vright specialization. So most likely an oversight.
 
Definitely feels like it, I mean for friendly games it's not really an issue... I don't think anyone would object to it as it's reasonably obvious that is how it should work... But there have been FAQs that specifically debunk exactly that.
 
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