The Call to Arms spell draws any of your creatures that hear it to the area it is cast. When cast on a ground tile, a banner of your colour appears and flaps around. Friendly creatures in the area with gather around the flag and will stay there until the spell is cancelled. Note that this means creatures can and will starve to death if the spell is active for too long, so try to avoid long crusades. If you cast the spell on your own land, the spell is free, but it will otherwise rapidly drain your gold. The spell stays active until you cancel it or run out of money.
This spell allows you to keep or draw your units together to prepare for a fight. It can also be used to invade an enemy dungeon or other places where you cannot drop your army directly. Minions who are able to Teleport will do so directly to the banner if there is a direct path to it. One can also cast this spell on an enemy room to command one’s creatures to start destroying the room, which is useful for hit-and-run attacks. Note, however, that Imps are not affected by this spell, and units without a Lair will create one before heading for the Call to Arms banner.
Unlike Dungeon Keeper 2, creatures will stop to fight any enemies they encounter en route to the flag.
Trivia[]
In sound.dat, there is a FANFARE3.WAV file, which is an alternative fanfare used by enemy Keepers in early versions of Dungeon Keeper. On the Dungeon Keeper Goodies Disc are two other fanfare sounds, which were presumably meant for Call to Arms.
Early icon
The icon was originally a trumpet rather than a flag and daggers.
Dungeon Keeper 2[]
The Call to Arms spell being cast
Call to Arms drops a banner on a select piece of revealed terrain that causes all creatures to drop their current job (if any) and run towards it blindly, most often even avoiding fighting (even if they themselves are attacked) until they can settle themselves near it (within five tiles).
Of note is the fact that when Call to Arms is active, your creatures will go so far as to completely forgo their needs - missing their payday while completely ignoring the mood effects brought by doing so, praying at a Temple constantly if not told to do otherwise or taking up a full-time job at a Library until your next spell has finished researching.
Call to Arms has only an up-front Mana cost and no constant drain associated with it.
Unlike the first game, casting this spell does not put the player in its "move mode", so do not waste mana by recasting the spell for this purpose (casting via the Spells Panel recasts it even if it's already active). To move the flag without wasting mana, pick it up with the hand and place it elsewhere.
