Rules Rundown – Riddle of Steel GT

Greetings, all you War Kings out there!  My last Rules Rundown article had a pretty good reception, so I’m back again with another installment, this time from the Riddle of Steel GT, held on February 18 and 19^th in Lake Forest, California.  This seemed like a real laid back event, with people hanging in hot tubs and relaxing in the sun between rounds.  Our esteemed Chief Editor, Brinton Williams, was the rules TO for the event.  As with most Kings of War tourneys, there weren’t a ton of questions, but two came up that were worth discussing.  So, without further ado, let’s dive in. 

First question was an easy one, and had to do with cover from lightning bolt.  In the scenario, Unit A is casting lightning bolt at Unit B, which is in the open.  Unit A moved into a forest this round without receiving a halt order.  Does unit B get the -1 for cover? 

The rules for lightning bolt in the spell list on page 62 state “hits on a 5+ against units in cover.”  The casting player’s contention was that the target (Unit B) wasn’t in cover, so he wouldn’t suffer the -1 penalty.  However, in this instance we don’t look at the target, but the caster to determine if Unit B is in cover.  In Chapter 14, Magic, Section a, it states that “Spells are Ranged attacks and thus follow the normal rules for these (e.g. a model that moves At the Double cannot use spells in the same Turn), with the exceptions listed below.”  The rules go on to say, “Spells always hit on 4+ and ignore all the normal to hit modifiers for Ranged attacks, including any modifiers from special rules, unless otherwise stated.”  So far, so good.  It looks like the main issue is whether Unit B is considered to be in Cover.

Since Magic spells use the same rules as other Range attacks, let’s take a look at the section on Cover in the Shooting Chapter.

First check, is Unit B a concealed target?  Under the Cover section of the rules, in the Shooting chapter, regarding Concealed, it states: “In cases where a unit has sought shelter within terrain, a target unit is considered to be a Concealed Target. A Concealed Target is classed as being in Cover.  If a target unit has at least half of its base within Difficult Terrain, it is considered to be a Concealed Target.”  But Unit B was out in the open, so it’s not Concealed.

So is it Obscured?  Well, in the previous section, under Obscured, the rules state: “To determine whether the target unit is an Obscured Target, draw LoS from the Leader Point of the firing unit to the facing and arc of the target unit that the firing unit is in (front, rear or either flank). If, when drawing this LoS, at least half of the target unit’s facing is behind intervening units or terrain (including Difficult Terrain the target unit is in contact with), then the target unit is considered an Obscured Target.”  Alright, so in this instance, the LOS from Unit A, which is sitting in a wood, goes through the difficult terrain in a line to Unit B. 

Lastly, the rules go on regarding the shooting unit.  “A firing unit that received a Halt order in its Movement phase ignores any piece of Difficult Terrain that it is currently within, or in base contact with, for determining whether an enemy unit is an Obscured Target, unless the enemy unit is also touching or within the same piece of Difficult Terrain.”  Since Unit A didn’t receive a Halt order, and instead moved into the woods before zapping Unit B, it would count the woods it was in when determining cover.  Next turn, if Unit A received a Halt order, then it wouldn’t suffer the -1 for cover, and would zap Unit B on 4’s.

The second question turned out to be a little trickier, and it had to do with Lines of Sight and Hills. 

Infantry Unit A (height 2) has a small part (less than 50%) of its base on a hill, but not its leader point.  What can the unit see?  And can the unit be seen? 

First, let’s look at the basic rules for hills.  In Chapter 5, Terrain, under the section on Hills, it says: “In order to be on a hill for game purposes, a unit must have at least half of its unit’s base on it.”  In a later bullet, the rules say: “While on a hill, a unit adds that hill’s Height to its own. For example, a Height 2 unit on a Height 2 hill would be Height 4, while a Height 3 unit would be Height 5 while it stood on the hill.”  So more than 50% of the unit’s base has to be on the hill for the unit to get the height bonus.  

For the first question, can the unit see, we check rules for drawing the unit’s line of sight.  In the same section on Hills, it states, “If a unit’s Leader Point is on a hill, then that unit ignores that hill when checking LoS. Otherwise, hills impact LoS…” Brinton ruled that since the leader point wasn’t on the hill, and since the unit had a lower height (height 2) than the hill (height 3), the unit couldn’t see over the hill.  All good. 

And can the unit be seen?  What height was the unit considered with less than 50% of its base on the hill?  Brinton ruled that since the unit wasn’t more than 50% on the hill, that it was still considered Height 2, and couldn’t be seen.  However, there’s more to this one. 

In the next section, under Terrain and Line of Sight, it says, “Terrain does not block LoS drawn to units that are at least partially inside the piece of terrain. If any part of a unit is in a forest, [or a hill] for instance, then other units outside of the forest [or the hill] may draw LoS to the unit in the forest.”  So in this instance, because the unit has a corner up on the hill, the hill doesn’t count for determining Line of Sight to the target, and it can be shot without penalty. 

Lastly, for completeness, it gets a little trickier if a unit with a shooting attack has just its leader point on the hill but isn’t considered “on the hill”.  Back to the Shooting Chapter, Cover Section, Obscured subsection on page 32 regarding hills, it says, “If a unit’s Leader Point is on a hill, but the unit itself is not on the hill (with more than half its base), LoS is not blocked, but the hill itself is taken into consideration when determining if a unit is an Obscured Target.”   In this instance if the unit had a shooting attack, and wasn’t three height levels higher than the hill, then it would get to shoot but it would suffer a cover penalty. 

 So that’s it for this month.  Let me know what you think in the comments below.