Tactica: The Seven Secret Sigils of Summoning

[Sanai]

So, in storm of magic we can use the Seven Secret Sigils of Summoning to summon a unit of either 75, 150 or 300 pts, depending on whether we have prescence, equilibrium or dominance, from any army book except VC, Daemons and Tomb Kings.
So, I figure I should start collecting some units for this purpose. I already have 4 zombie ogres (no idea how many pts worth they are) but what else would make good summoning units?

For the 75 pt category, I guess the obvious choice is hero level wizards..... anything else good that fits in 75 pts?
For the other pts costs I have no idea. Cannons? Summoning a cannon would be pretty cool, could model it with skeletal crew and everything. (of course all these undeadified versions of summoned units will look funny if they fail ld tests and run away for some reason)
What do you guys think would be worth summoning to help our VC in those points categories? Any particular character/unit builds?

 

[Count Darvaleth]

I feel the magic requirement is a little too high, even for SoM. I mean, 25+...? And with no chances for IF, but still chances for miscasts, perhaps magic is better spent on buffing our units/raising the dead...?

Contrary to that is the odd units that can fill incredibly specific but very useful battlefield roles. For instances, cannons. There are other units, I'm sure, which have game-mechanics which we would find very helpful in battle, but at the moment I can't really think of any... maybe things like Dark Elf Hydras and the like.

 

[Sanai]

You don't need the sigils to get hydras in SoM....
I think theres alot of good shooting options out there, as well as probably some good small units. I don't think its worth casting if you just have prescense (unless you need a new wizard to sit on a fulcrum) but if you have dominance its probably worth the casting value, as the ability to suddenly add a 300 pts unit to your army mid battle could be pretty powerful (imagine spawning a Hellpit Abomination out of nowhere on the flank of a key enemy unit)
edit: looked round the webs, and here are some things people have come up with:

75pts:
lvl 1 night goblin shaman (nikkit nikkit!)
empire mortar
warpfire thrower

150 pts:
level 2 nurgle sorc (rot bomb)
lvl 2 slaneesh sorc with third eye
dwarf cannon with rune of burning (to kill monsters)
empire great cannon
dark elf sorc (summon it near a fulcrum, use oblivion)

300 pts:
steam tank
lvl 4 chaos sorc
4 rat ogres with skweel
slann.
grey seer for the dreaded 13th spell
12 chosen with full command, mark of tzeentch and halberds
6 chaos knights of khorne with upgrades
The Green Knight?
Teclis?
150 skavenslaves
warshrine (eye of the gods on grave guard and blood knights anyone?)
WoC Daemon Prince

 

[Humaneater]

I'm summoning something with squigs. Just for the hell of it.

Although if we're talking seriousness, I must say that Hellpits would be great. Or an organ gun

 

[Count Darvaleth]

I meant Dark Elf Hydras specifically; they're better, and cheaper I believe, than the standard Hydra from SoM.

But imagine summoning Teclis! That'd be insane! You'd practically insta-win from there. (If you already had Dominance, Teclis will just make it insane.) And a Chaos Warshrine! Youch!

 

[Sanai]

It seems you can't summon two things: monsters and uniques (uniques being things with the unique unit type)
Anything else is fair game (including monstrous infantry and special characters)
Too bad we can't summon skulltaker (as we can't summon anything from the pact armies) but I'm sure skulltaker would be pretty pissed of if you did and hunt you down afterwards anyway.

 

[Humaneater]

Ummm is teclis less than 300 points? I don't think he is off the top of my head, which would mean we can't summon him unfortunately.

 

[Sanai]

Honestly I have no idea how much Teclis costs, hence the question mark.

 

[Humaneater]

Personally my special character of choice would be Festus the Leechlord, Curse of the Leper would be a real complement to our infantry units and add another pressure to dispel, similar to CoY.

EDIT: Oh balls, are Squigs unique?

 

[Bravo_10]

Unfortunately, you can't summon Teclis. His point cost is approximately an arm and a leg, which is greater than 300 points. What you could summon, however, is a unit of 15 Phoenix Guard with the Banner of Sorcery (and a musician, for kicks). Imagine getting an extra D3 Power Dice per phase with your Vamps. I'd take that over Teclis in a heartbeat.

 

[Sanai]

Enemy unit bearing down on you? Summon a regiment of swordmasters! "You shall not pass!"

 

[Ferrum]

I think that a trebuchet could be quite good...it's fluffy, and it's one of the best stone throwers around! It's perfect at doing what our army can have trouble with, sniping monsters, and smashing heavy cav units before they can hit our units that often lack high enough I to effectively fight back. Another very interesting choice would be warrior priests/arch lectors. They would greatly enhance any unit they joined, and could cheaply augment the hitting power of blood knights as well as ghouls who're insane with re-rolls to hit

 

[Capt Rubber Ducky]

For under 300 points you could summon a slann with one discipline A level 4 wizard turning up with any lore you want is pretty handy (Plus that slann super killy spell, under the right circumstances anyway). But with the high casting value I probably wouldn't bother without dominance.

 

[Sanai]

I would say there is never a time when I would say "I would never cast *insert spell here*"
It depends on the battlefield situation, and on what other spells I have access to at the time. Even with prescense, there might be a time I desperatly need another wizard on the table (25 power in a storm of magic game is a small price to pay to summon a wizard to cost the enemy dominance/give you equillibrium)(especially seeing as how you REALLY dont want your opponent to have dominance in many cases).
So it is situational, you judge in that magic phase which spells you have access to are the best for you to spend your pd on.
(For example, say my casters have all been slain, except for my vamp lord with lore of vampires, and a level 2 dark emissary with lore of shadows. The enemy has dominance. My dark emissary only has....steed of shadows and the withering, my vamp lord is too far away from the enemy to use gaze/curse of years. In that case I would definatly attempt the sigils, to try and summon a skaven caster who can skitterleap, or a dark elf sorceress, to try and get a caster onto a vacant fulcrum asap)