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Today during a game I had an issue with skimmers. In the rulebook it says that skimmers can end movement over terrain features. So the question that came up is can skimmers move vertically? Can they move 12" up like infantry would into a building? Just for reference he was trying to move his skimmer so see a unit behind cover.

Skimmer can end upp "on top" of terrain but can never fly upp enough to not be reachable from say CC.

Vehicles likewise has a size and while moving on top of a terrain piece may increase that size you may not fly upp to say size 12 in order to see over a size 11 obstacle (nither size 11 or 12 are really usable in 40k hence why I chose them).

Thus the vehicle always counts as its own size if not over a terrain piece.

I could not atm find any reference as to how to calculate a skimmer ontop of say a wooded area (say size 4) would count as, my guess would be size 4 but that is like I said just a guess.

But in short, you may not fly upp with a skimmer to get a clear LOS to a target behind a cover the skimmer can not normally see over, not even if the vehicle remained upp there for the duration of the oponents phase.

Rons219 wrote: So the question that came up is can skimmers move vertically?

They don't really need to. Skimmers ignore terrain, and can finish their move on top of it. You just measure the distance moved, and place the skimmer on top of whatever happens to be there.

I could not atm find any reference as to how to calculate a skimmer ontop of say a wooded area (say size 4) would count as, my guess would be size 4 but that is like I said just a guess.

There is no such thing as 'Size 4' in the rules. There are only 3 Size categories. Nothing is bigger than Size 3.

But in short, you may not fly upp with a skimmer to get a clear LOS to a target behind a cover the skimmer can not normally see over,

This is not entirely correct.

If the LOS crosses Size 3 Area Terrain, then yes, sitting on top of a terrain feature will do nothing to improve LOS from the skimmer.

In any other situation, though, since LOS is drawn from the actual position of the vehicle, sitting on a terrain feature most definitely can provide LOS to things you wouldn't be able to see from table level.


Or did you mean simply that the skimmer can't be assumed to be higher than the model is actually sitting?

I think what the question was is:

Are you allowed to state that the model elevates to this high (holds model in the air) and from this point that or that model/CC/unit/terrain does not block my LOS.

As far as I know you are not allowed to do this.

There is always the issue that I have heard of that some people ither have multiple flying bases of different hight that vthey exchange or simply mount models on higher bases.

The common position of GW is that creative modeling should not convay any bonuses or penalties and thus such models should have no advantages over standard ones.

fester wrote:Are you allowed to state that the model elevates to this high (holds model in the air) and from this point that or that model/CC/unit/terrain does not block my LOS.

That wasn't the question, no.

The question was simply to do with whether or not skimmers could move vertically in order to sit on top of tall terrain features.

There is always the issue that I have heard of that some people ither have multiple flying bases of different hight that vthey exchange or simply mount models on higher bases.

That's not an issue. There are no rules allowing you to modify a model during the game.

The common position of GW is that creative modeling should not convay any bonuses or penalties and thus such models should have no advantages over standard ones.

I can't say I've ever heard anyone from GW say that. And while it's a nice idea, it would be nicer if they actually wrote that sort of idea into their rules.

rons219 wrote:So the question that came up is can skimmers move vertically?

Just for reference he was trying to move his skimmer so see a unit behind cover.

The part about them being allowed to sit on top of terrain looked to me like the argument that he would be allowed to move upp high enough to get a LOS while not actually ontop of terrain.

insaniak wrote:

fester wrote:The common position of GW is that creative modeling should not convay any bonuses or penalties and thus such models should have no advantages over standard ones.

I can't say I've ever heard anyone from GW say that. And while it's a nice idea, it would be nicer if they actually wrote that sort of idea into their rules.

You have never seen GW state this?
Odd, I seem to run into them stating that dramatic poses should not affect LOS all the time.

Thanks for the input guys. fester was right, I should have worded my question better. I was refering to moving vertically in the open to claim the same height advantage as sitting on top of a building or area terrain.

So what does happen to a skimmer "hovering" over size 3 area terrain. Is it essentially the same thing as being in the area terrain, since size 3 is the cap?

Rons219 wrote:Thanks for the input guys. fester was right, I should have worded my question better. I was refering to moving vertically in the open to claim the same height advantage as sitting on top of a building or area terrain.

Ahh. In that case, yes, he's right. You can't hold the skimmer up in the air and draw LOS from there.

Grignard wrote:So what does happen to a skimmer "hovering" over size 3 area terrain. Is it essentially the same thing as being in the area terrain, since size 3 is the cap?

Not quite the same as being in it (skimmers can't generally enter terrain anyway), since they don't get cover from it. But a Size 3 skimmer hovering over Size 3 terrain is still Size 3.

Rons219 wrote:I was refering to moving vertically in the open to claim the same height advantage as sitting on top of a building or area terrain.

No they can't. There is nothing in the rules to state that you can other than the rules for skimmers moving over (and on top of) terrain. Since their flight base is always going to be on the ground (or on top of the terrain they are over) it will always be possible to get into base to base contact with them for things like assault. Shooting can likewise, simply be measured to the hull of the vehicle regardless of where it is.