Daemonology in 30k: Summoning

Summoning. 

Malevolence introduces a replacement Daemonology psychic discipline that supersedes the one presented in the Horus Heresy Age of Darkness core red rulebook. 

The designer explicitly notes that this is to bring the discipline in to line with the new Daemons of the Ruinstorm rules presented in book eight. 

The interesting side effect of the new summoning rules is that any summoned lesser daemons gain the same allegiance as that of the summoner. This means that as well as having "traitor" daemons, the summoner can create "loyalist" daemons too. The book gives the example of the tools of the enemy being used against them (perhaps some strain of loyal Dark Angels?), or when wanton destruction is needed by loyal members of traitor units (I could readily imagine that the Alpha Legion loyalists would not think too much about using such tools at their disposal!). 

Summoned Daemons.

Turning now to the Primaris Power: Summoning. This spell creates a unit of 10 ruinstorm lesser daemons for the summoner. These new daemons do not gain any of the usual Ruinstorm rules. Instead, they have the much more classical daemon and fearless special rules. In addition, they can also have a single emanation of horror.

The question is which emanation might be best to select? Without any dominion rules, the choice is more limited than normal emanations. I would suggest one of the following:

Daemonic Wings (for quickly moving around);

Crushing Claws (for better close combat);

Bone Shard Harpoons (for general dakka);

Warp Scaled Hide (for survival).

Plausibly flensing talons is a reasonable choice too, but I'd favour one of the above depending on the situation. Horned Crown might also be viable if there's something close too. 

Overall, this is a balanced approach to summoning that does not have much of a "run away" feature; more of a reinforcement flavour, which is very reasonable. The summoned unit has a base value of 120 points, plus the cost of whichever emanation is selected. This could take the points value up to 170 points plausibly. Of course, the inclusion of such a unit might tilt the balance of a game, but in a large points value game that 30k encourages, it is not so great as to be imbalanced. However, multiple successful summonings can sway the entire game, and an opponent would be well advised to guard against it. 

We will have a look at some of the other daemonology powers in future posts.