Summoning

[Mwharvey]

So i'm very new to AoS, in fact i'm new to table top gaming full stop so this may be a niaive question. My son and I have built and painted a few small army's and are getting into the actual playing. Were teaching ourselves as we don't know anyone else that plays. One thing we are unsure of is the death army ability to summon. Does there need to be a unit of whatever you wish to summon on the table to enable you wizard to know the spell. For example does there need to be a Morghast in play to enable to enable another Morghast unit to be summoned or can the fact you have a Morghast counted as part of your army but off the table enable the spell to be cast?

[Squirrelmaster]

7 minutes ago, Mwharvey said:

So i'm very new to AoS, in fact i'm new to table top gaming full stop so this may be a niaive question. My son and I have built and painted a few small army's and are getting into the actual playing. Were teaching ourselves as we don't know anyone else that plays. One thing we are unsure of is the death army ability to summon. Does there need to be a unit of whatever you wish to summon on the table to enable you wizard to know the spell. For example does there need to be a Morghast in play to enable to enable another Morghast unit to be summoned or can the fact you have a Morghast counted as part of your army but off the table enable the spell to be cast?

Not naive, a lot of players asked that question when AoS came out.

The answer from Games Workshop is basically: If there's a rule that says you can summon it, you can summon it. There doesn't need to be another one already on the table to "activate" the rule, you don't need to write it on your list beforehand, all you need to do is own the model.

If you are playing using the "Matched Play" rules, from the General's Handbook, then every unit has a "points" cost, and you need to set aside a pool of "reinforcement points" to pay for anything you summon during the game. That helps keep things balanced. If you aren't using points, but just talking it over and agreeing on what armies you are both going to use, then it may be worth agreeing to some limitations on summoning as part of that.

[Mwharvey]

Thanks so much, We are trying a bit of both, points and free but weren't sure how to deal with this one. Thanks again, I suspect there will be a lot of summoning tomorrow!

[Mwharvey]

4 minutes ago, Squirrelmaster said:

Not naive, a lot of players asked that question when AoS came out.

The answer from Games Workshop is basically: If there's a rule that says you can summon it, you can summon it. There doesn't need to be another one already on the table to "activate" the rule, you don't need to write it on your list beforehand, all you need to do is own the model.

If you are playing using the "Matched Play" rules, from the General's Handbook, then every unit has a "points" cost, and you need to set aside a pool of "reinforcement points" to pay for anything you summon during the game. That helps keep things balanced. If you aren't using points, but just talking it over and agreeing on what armies you are both going to use, then it may be worth agreeing to some limitations on summoning as part of that.

Thanks so much, We are trying a bit of both, points and free but weren't sure how to deal with this one. Thanks again, I suspect there will be a lot of summoning tomorrow!