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Let's say I make a 2000pt army and it has a necromaner and 3 units of skeletons as my battleline units and those are my only battleline units. Other then that my army points are full and I left zero reinforcement points. Could I at the start of the game not put my skeletons on the field "reserves" and have my necromaner summon them later in the battle? I'm only talking about matched play/pitched battles,

I could be wrong but if you don't have any skeleton on the battle field then would that not mean you don't actually have the summon skeleton ability?

Something about summoning that I was wondering about. A necromanacer for example does not innately have the summon X ability so would you not actually need a specific unit on the battle field to actually summon another of its kind? I don't play undead or any summoning armies but this is how I understood it.

To your question I would think you need the battle line on the actual table as the rules for a 2k game is your army must include 3 battle lines so you would had to of actually paid the points for the skeleton unit. As I believe the summoning rules are that you hold a certain amount of points to summon something and you don't need to declare what you are actually holding in reserve to summon.

But in the case of battle line you do have to declare what they are and you paid the points for them.

From the General's Handbook FAQ:

Page 108 – Reinforcement Points
Add the following to the end of the second paragraph: ‘Reinforcement units must belong to the same Grand Alliance as the rest of your army, but can otherwise have any allegiance. Because restrictions are determined when you pick your army, units added later using reinforcement points can allow the army to exceed the normal limitations for leaders, artillery and behemoths.’

If summoned units don't count against the maximum number of units allowed, it stands to reason they don't count against the required number of units either.

Yeah I totally agree with you guy you need battleline units in your army not in reserves to have a legal army. A unit with a rule that lets you "place it to one side" at set up is different then a unit in reserves. I asked my question the way I did so I wouldn't sway your thinking. Cause it seems my local group thinks you can write up a list with three battleline units so it's a legal list but then at the start of the game not put your battleline units on the board to be summoned later. Which I don't agree with.

Besides that.. summoning battleline usually isn't the most effective way to spend your reserve anyway.

Those reinforcement points could be spent on anything - so they can't count towards your battleline, because what if the player chose to summon something else? Well now they've gone and made an illegal list mid-battle lol.

AN'SHI wrote:
I could be wrong but if you don't have any skeleton on the battle field then would that not mean you don't actually have the summon skeleton ability?

Something about summoning that I was wondering about. A necromanacer for example does not innately have the summon X ability so would you not actually need a specific unit on the battle field to actually summon another of its kind? I don't play undead or any summoning armies but this is how I understood it.

No this isn't right. Look at any Warscroll with a summon spell on it and just above the spell it will say "Death Wizards in your army know the following spell" - or something to that effect. It's covered in one of the FAQs too that you don't need a "seed" unit.

 Bottle wrote:
Those reinforcement points could be spent on anything - so they can't count towards your battleline, because what if the player chose to summon something else? Well now they've gone and made an illegal list mid-battle lol.

AN'SHI wrote:
I could be wrong but if you don't have any skeleton on the battle field then would that not mean you don't actually have the summon skeleton ability?

Something about summoning that I was wondering about. A necromanacer for example does not innately have the summon X ability so would you not actually need a specific unit on the battle field to actually summon another of its kind? I don't play undead or any summoning armies but this is how I understood it.

No this isn't right. Look at any Warscroll with a summon spell on it and just above the spell it will say "Death Wizards in your army know the following spell" - or something to that effect. It's covered in one of the FAQs too that you don't need a "seed" unit.

Hmm the rule does say Death magic users know the spell raise the skeletons for example but as they don't have it on their profile I had thought it is open to them only after a unit that has the ability is available aka as you stated a "seed" unit. but I agree that is dosent state that you need the unit to be able to summon them so I can see your point.

Answered in the Age of Sigmar FAQ:

Q: Can the summoning spells on some warscrolls be used by the appropriate caster even if none of the models from the warscroll are in my army?

A: Yes.

AN'SHI wrote:
I could be wrong but if you don't have any skeleton on the battle field then would that not mean you don't actually have the summon skeleton ability?

Something about summoning that I was wondering about. A necromanacer for example does not innately have the summon X ability so would you not actually need a specific unit on the battle field to actually summon another of its kind? I don't play undead or any summoning armies but this is how I understood it.

How is this still around? It was an interpretation stemming form "summoning is broken, that can't be what they meant", the notion (and all others that sought to limit summoning) were destroyed by the FAQ. In open play summoning has no such restrictions, if playing matched play the reserve points mechanics applies to balance it out.

 DarkBlack wrote:

AN'SHI wrote:
I could be wrong but if you don't have any skeleton on the battle field then would that not mean you don't actually have the summon skeleton ability?

Something about summoning that I was wondering about. A necromanacer for example does not innately have the summon X ability so would you not actually need a specific unit on the battle field to actually summon another of its kind? I don't play undead or any summoning armies but this is how I understood it.

How is this still around? It was an interpretation stemming form "summoning is broken, that can't be what they meant", the notion (and all others that sought to limit summoning) were destroyed by the FAQ. In open play summoning has no such restrictions, if playing matched play the reserve points mechanics applies to balance it out.

Still around for the fact that I was not really seasoned in regards to summoning as I play an army that dosent summon. But it was answered and I did in fact re-read the summoning rules to confirm I was wrong. I appreciate the fact that individuals pointed me in the right direction regarding the rules.