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I recently had a friend who I had not played with in a good while take a die-hard stance in support of a nonexistent movement rule that he and apparently his entire FLGS follows. I'm not upset or anything, but honestly interested in how people play the following situation out, as the amount of people who agreed with this ruling surprised me.

If a Jet Bike, Jet Pack, or Jump infantry model uses their form of non-standard movement that normally ignores terrain to move from one level of Clear Terrain to another (three-dimensionally) either up or down, does that model have to take a dangerous terrain test?

I think I would need a specific example of just what you're talking about to say for sure... Because I'm a little unsure what sort of clear terrain would have levels...

In the rulebook it says ruins are difficult terrain and therefore dangerous for jump infantry. If you agree otherwise then they wouldn't take the test. I don't know of any other example of something that can have specific "levels" besides ruins.

If you mean from 1 roof to a higher roof, we'd just do it like movement. Flying out a window to do so, or doing anything in an unrealistic arc, might be dangerous.

The in-game situation was that we had defined the flat levels of a hill as Clear Terrain, while the bluffs leading up to those plateaus were difficult.

Isn't the point of the jump infantry that they can jump? That would mean that they could jump from one clear area, over difficult terrain and onto another clear area. I don't see why jumping on to a higher point would be more difficult.

I figured people just treat it as open ground that happens to be elevated, and measure up to move. I just seemed so obvious it's just a hill that has to be represented by a layered terrain piece to make it useable. I never thought of making it difficult, when people on top get assaulted, this represents their higher ground bonus and the difficulty of reaching them easily. Interesting.

Hmm, doesn't work for bikes though. If it's difficult that means they can explode trying to go up it. I can't see that if it was a normal hill, but it does make sense if the terrain was how it really looked...

Anyways, if you are saying the ramps are difficult then I'd think fliers would be unaffected because they are flying. If it ever mattered that a piece of terrain was really high, then we'd probably say you can only go up 12". Not only is 12" the move of jump infantry, it is a throwback to 2nd edition (which is basically what we played before 5th) where skimmers going fast speed and doing pop up attacks were considered to be 12" off the table.

That is all just doing stuff because we don't care too much. If you really want to look at the rules then jump infantry and skimmers can go over anything freely, the only time it's dangerous is when they land in difficult or on top of flat impassable. Why landing on top of a solid cube can kill you, I have no clue, but you question is answered by the above: If they land on the angled parts you called difficult, it's dangerous.

Kitzz wrote:The in-game situation was that we had defined the flat levels of a hill as Clear Terrain, while the bluffs leading up to those plateaus were difficult.

Then it would only need to take a dangerous terrain test if it was landing on or taking off from the bluffs. So long as it starts and finishes its movement in clear terrain, it moves over whatever is in between without penalty, as the jetbike and jump pack rules both specify.