Necropolis Knights "Summoning" Spell

[Mortarch]

Hi, question relating to the Summoning Spell on the necropolis knights warscoll. This also applies to a few other units that have similar spells.

 

Firstly, the wording of the Spell itself:

Quote

REANIMATE NECROPOLIS KNIGHT - Reanimate Necropolis Knight has a casting value of 5. If successfully cast, pick a unit of Necropolis Knights within 18". You can add one model to that unit.

Now the question. In my view there are a couple of ways to read this.

1. - Firstly that the spell allows the player to return a slain model back to the table in addition to the Banner Return ability the unit has. Therefore a 3 model unit which had been reduced to one, could be returned to full strength of three models in one turn. This wouldn't override the restriction of increasing beyond the original unit strength. If this was the interpretation, then the player should not need to reserve summoning points.

2. -  That by casting the spell, the player is increasing the unit size from 3 to 4 and has to pay for summoning. In this case, I would imagine the player would need to set aside the full unit cost for each instance of summon. So 140 points to go from 3 to 4, another 140 to go to 4 to 5, etc. While if we are talking "fairness" for instances like this, I would have said it would be most fair to pay the unit cost to allow the player to cast up to 3 additional to the unit. In which case it would be 140 points to add the 4th model.. and then let the player attempt to summon on subsequent turns up to 6, and if a 7th was to be summoned it would need an additional 140.

The question is... how are spells like this handled in relation to summoning points?

 

 

Cheers,

M

 

 

[Aginor]

I would say it is the first option only, and if the result would be more than 3 units the spell just fails.
Option two would be that expensive, it would be pointless.

As a Seraphon player summoning rules are something I looked into, and to me it seems that if you have spells summoning MODELS to existing units and not units (like with my Seraphon or for example Skeleton Archers) it is only meant as replenishment in matched play, not to increase the size. It is even called "Reanimate Necropolis Knight", not "Raise Necropolis Knight", in contrast to "Raise Skeleton Archers".

But I am a newb myself so don't take what I write too seriously.

[BaldoBeardo]

Under the caveat of "discuss with opponent", matched play rules are that adding models to a unit does not cost reinforcement points - but you may not increase a unit beyond its starting size.
So (1) is correct and perfectly fine, (2) is not permissible under a strict reading.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[rokapoke]

Two very important things:

1. "Summoning points" are not a thing. They're reinforcement points, and you spend them any time you set up a new unit on the battlefield. When adding models to an existing unit, no points are required.

2. In matched play you cannot increase the size of a unit beyond its starting size (so point #2 in your initial post is not an option for matched play, but would work fine [point-free] in narrative or open play).