The summoning debate has been going on since AoS was released and all we had was a PDF! I think the FAQ on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar facebook page clears up most things. GW have stated this is a first draft and not official yet, but it's all we've really got at this point Q: Can the summoning spells on some warscrolls be used by the appropriate caster even if none of the models from the warscroll are in my army? A: Yes. Q: If I summon a wizard, can that wizard use his magic abilities in the same hero phase? A: Yes, in your hero phase you can cast spells and use abilities that your models have, in any order you chose to. As such, a newly summoned wizard may cast spells. Q: When models are slain and removed from play, can they be brought back into play using abilities or spells that allow you to summon new models? A: Yes. Q: Can you keep summoning slain models (dice permitting) for ever and ever and ever? A: Yes.
Happy to help! This does mean that summoning for Lizardmen has the potential to be as broken as people claim it to be, but until the Generals Handbook comes out I'd say just exercise some restraint. Honestly I don't think many people actually own more than 2 Slann so it's not entirely game breaking, whereas Chaos wizards are all over the place so the potential for Daemon summoning goes way beyond ours in my opinion. I own 3 Sorcerers and I don't even have a Chaos army for AoS!
All that summoning doesn't make for a particularly fun game though, because either your opponent doesn't have a summoner and then you overpower them, or they have a summoner and you just get caught up in a summoning war.
Lol! By the way, I have to say that I've often played AoS with my relatives (who don't have summon-capable armies), and everytime I summoned a unit/model I felt a bit cheesy... I mean, it seems you are simply breaking the balance by using a tool the other player simply doesn't have, cause I like lizards and my opponents different races. I'm not saying summoning is unbalanced (because it can even bring balance in some situations!), what I find unbalanced it's the fact some races can summon, other armies don't. It's like having a fighting videogame in which some characters can jump while others cannot: the game can be perfectly balanced and fun, but it doesn't feel right to me to have handicapp characters. Spoiler: For those who play Smash Bros 4 on 1vs 1 For Glory That's why I hate Little Mac and Cloud. Why can they charge a sort of "Super Special" and, I don't know, Zelda or Jiggly can't? But this is an old discussion... Regarding the number of slanns I have, I actually possess a metal Lord Kroak and a metal Slann... I'd be really scared to play against @SlanntaClause
Personally I'd play this rule as summoning only works to summon units across battlefields - the engine of the gods fills the summoning from elsewhere slot - " 14-17 A Seraphon unit is called forth from Azyr to join your army. Set up all of its models within 8" of this model, at least 9" away from the enemy." This is why I think normal summoning is just a mechanic to strategies battlefield positioning - for example you could bait the enemy to move towards a unit and then summon it away leaving the enemy exposed
I really feel that summoning works much better with the scenarios were it's not just "Kill everything". Really, the game is better with scenarios anyway.
Nice thing! But again, your opponent (who let's say has not a summon army) has to plan carefully all of his moves, while you have "a little help". You are completely right: I agree 100% with you! That's why I can't wait to get some other info on that Summer Campaign GW is posting about nowadays...
The way I just read this suggests a slann could be summoned by the EoTG. So, in a sudden surprising reversal of the thread title, what do you think of units summoning Slann?
It says Unit which im guessing wording wise excludes hero and characters and lords? unless they are described as units too in which case bring forth the Slann - could produce a round winning turn what we call in the industry a SLANN DUNK - quite literally.
Hmm. In the warscroll description, only multi-model groups are described as a "unit" I would love this to be correct though, that would be crazy!
From the first page of the rules, Warscrolls & Units section: "Models fight in units. A unit can have one or more models, but cannot include models that use different warscrolls. A unit must be set up and nish any sort of move as a single group of models, with all models within 1" of at least one other model from their unit. If anything causes a unit to become split up during a battle, it must reform the next time that it moves." So yes, you can summon Slann Starpriests, and Lord Kroak with the Engine of the Gods!
I still don't think this involves special characters because in the book I have it states a Unit size under everything in core and excludes to say Unit size of one on the special character entries. I don't have the latest rulebook but I'm like 99% sure a Unit is something that can be more than one regardless of whether It can be the minimum of one.
I know stegadons count as having a Unit strength of 10 or something so they are involved which might mean special character on one can be summoned.