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O.K., so I am fairly new to 40K and my son and I are trying to learn the rules. We are a bit unclear about buildings cover. I have built and based the Imperial Sector buildings and I have a few home-made structures as well. My question about rules concerns the following:

Let's say a terrain piece is a ruined building corner. Now clearly soldiers in the structure have visible cover from those approaching from points outside the building walls. What about those approaching from "behind" the building where, even if they are on elevated floors, miniatures are clearly visible on the open(destroyed) facing of the building. Do the WH40K rules distinguish actual cover and LOS consideration, a "what you see is what you get" approach if you will?- or is the fact that the soldiers are "in" the building terrain, even in a position without obvious cover to an approaching foe, mean they get the appropriate saves and armor protections nonetheless?

I hope I explained my question clearly- I appreciate all insights.

If it is area terrain, they get the cover save regardless.

If it isn't, operate on TLoS

An easy way to remember is if it is area terrain, than models can duck and or hide behind something.

Another good rule to note on the area terrain shooting is that models being fired at from models in area terrain get coversaves as well if there is some feature on the area terrain that you are firing through, for example firing between two trees even if they don't actually block line of sight.

So, as has been said, in this case a save would be dependent on whether the terrain is classified as area or not. This is why, when setting up the table, it is imperative that that the terrain be classified: Area, Difficult, Dangerous. You can even 'houserule' it: Blocks LOS (even if it doesn't), Impassible to certain types of models only (Tanktraps are impassible to vehicles, but not infantry), Provides cover but isn't difficult, etc. Once you've played a while you and your regular opponents will be able to just place terrain without discussing it, as you'll know how your group plays, but it's always wise to discuss what's what when playing a 'stranger'.

Based ruins are generally considered to be area terrain. You get the save because there's girders, piles of rubble, etc which are they but are not modelled (a realistic amount of rubble would make the terrain largely unusable for gaming)

Or, you could choose to treat them not as area terrain - then only the wall itself offers cover.

Manimal wrote:Another good rule to note on the area terrain shooting is that models being fired at from models in area terrain get coversaves as well if there is some feature on the area terrain that you are firing through, for example firing between two trees even if they don't actually block line of sight.

This isn't correct.

If the target (non-vehicle non-MC) is in area terrain, then it will get a cover save.

If the models *in* area terrain are shooting through 2+" of terrain, their target (non-vehicle non-MC) will get a cover save.

If the shooters and target are not in area terrain, but the shots are going over/through area terrain, then the target (non-vehicle non-MC) will get a cover save if the LoS goes between two elements of the terrain. (trees, pillars, etc.)


Note: This all assumes that at least 50% of the target is affected by this.