AoS What are our best summoning units?

[TheadTheOgorSlayer]

Azyrite blood has given DinoBois an interesting tool and I’m looking to maximize it. The best units I’ve theorized are skinks(easy speed bump and objective scorers also immediate damage from range and cheap) razordons ( more damage then skinks and great for charge denial cuz overwatch in AOS lol) terradons (not useful the turn they come in but damage wise they seem to be one of the better ones especially since ripperdactyls need to start in your list to get a blot toad...) salamanders (need handlers to shoot when they come in but saving a few points for it and maybe summoning a second turn super wave of flamer death on something like nagash or any other spooky dude sounds fun, add astrolith for rerolls and DEATH) troglodons appear weak in terms on power... but with a shooting attack and the plus 3 charge rule it seems it can get to grips far easier then our other monsters making it perhaps the best distraction carnifex. Carnosaur with old blood can be devestating, but requires a lot of points... I think a bastilidon is the better choice out of our biggies with the stegadon being as good or a bit worse. Anyways these are just from me studying the army for a week! I want help from the elite and powerful Slann! What’s are best options in practice?

 

[Shadowstorm]

Not my info or anything but if you haven't already you might want to check out this Summoning sticky thread it should answer most of your questions

 

[Asamu]

I'd say the best units to summon are skinks and razordons. They can shoot right away with decent output, and skinks are good for screening charges, and Razordons can overwatch when the opponent charges. They're also summoned cheap at 6 conjuration points, so you can bring them on every turn. If you go for the big summons like bastiladons, you run the risk of the Slann/Astrolith dying before you can bring them out, and point for point, they aren't doing as much - 2 razordons have just as much output as a bastiladon and they can overwatch. The range isn't as good, but the opponent will probably be pretty close to you, and you can summon Razordons in range to shoot anyway.

 

[Canas]

In short the rough overview is this:

6 points
- 10 Skinks: solely usefull as fodder for an emergency screen or to grab an objective (10 skinks are simply never going to do any damage). However, noone else is quite as good at being fodder and standing on objectives. Just don't count them on actually doing anything other than standing around and looking pretty on an objective.
- Razordon: good shooting also nice for discouraging a charge, bonus points if you can put em in a bottleneck somewhere.
- Salamander: Decent shooting, but the razordon will probably perform better.
- Handlers: mostly pointless

12 points:
- 10 warriors: basicly pointless
- oldblood: basicly pointless
- priest & starpriest: usefull to replace a fallen version of the hero, or for arcane vassal, otherwise kinda pointless
- Scar-vet on cold one: usefull for replacing a fallen version, kind of amazing if you can dump him near some Knights and can get the command ability seemingly out of nowhere. One of the few summons that can make the charge as well.
- Sunblood: underwhelming
- Terradons: decent enough, provided they can live long enough to drop their boulders
- 5 guard: if they won't be subjected to mortal wounds, halfway decent. Good even if you can buff em up defensivly. otherwise pointless
- 5 Knights: decent-ish, but don't do anything well enough to really warrant a summon. Skinks are better fodder, our big dino's are better for dealing damage.
- Eterinity warden: good for replacing a fallen warden
- chameleon skinks:again, decent-ish, but not particularly outstanding in any way unless you're facing daemons.
- rippers: decent if they can live long enough to fight near a bloattoad, otherwise fairly pointless

18 points:
- Troglodon: amazingly cost-efficient, one of the few summons that can actually make the charge. Big enough to be scary, small enough to not really care if he dies.
- Starseer: currently basicly pointless summoned or otherwise…
- 20 warriors: has some use for claiming an objective where you actually need to stand and fight (which skinks just can't..) otherwise mostly pointless.
- astrolith bearer: usefull as replacement, otherwise pointless
- Kroxigor: decent provided they are summoned in optimal conditions. Otherwise underwhelming (just like regular kroxigor really..)
- EoTG: unless you can summon him turn 1 he's probably going to be too expensive to be worthwhile

24 points:
- Big dinosaurs: they're all more than worthwhile, provided you'l actually get em in combat for a round or two. Their high cost does mean you're liable to not being able to summon em quickly enough for em to have an impact.


Caveat: some of it is situational and some of the summons that are mostly pointless can in certain situations be absolutly briljant. This is just the rough general overview.

tl:dr: skinks, razordons & troglodon are fairly amazing in basicly any situation the rest varies from decent in the right situation to basicly worthless.

 

[Killer Angel]

I'd say it has all been covered.
remember that the most useful units for summoning, are the ones able to accomplish something in the same moment you conjure them.
So, what usually would be a strong unit, could be suboptimal for summoning. EotG is probably the most obvious example.