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So... quick question regarding barrage blasts and cover, I understand completely how the shot is resolved once the blast has been centered and that the units being hit get cover if they are obscured from the center of the blast... however what happens when the blast hits? Do the unit get cover?

This happened yesterday on my game got a barrage hit in the middle of a unit inside a ruin (top level), we were using the imperial bastion model but consider it a ruin.

So a bunch of eldars were up there and my manticore got 1 blast that only got 2 models and the center of that blast outside the bastion, therefore we went with these 2 models get cover form the ruin since the center of the blast would have the unit 25% obscured. The second blast on the barrage got hit and I placed just in the middle of the top level... so from them center of the blast no model was obscured and claimed that they didn't get any cover save since the blast is right next to them.

Here is where the discussion started, because my opponent was claiming they got the cover save by being inside the ruin no matter what, so we go to the BRB and see that area terrain cover saves are granted just by being sitting on it, however... is all the terrain (ruins in this case) considered area terrain? since the book specifies that it is the base the actual ruin is mounted on or the base of a forest/swamp. In this particular case the bastion was without a base and being treated as a ruin.

At the end the LGS owner came and told us that it wasn't cover because the blast was coming from within the ruin. And knowing him he would have ruled the same if the same situation was placed on a forest. However form my re-reading of the rules a simple ruin w/o base wouldn't get cover from barrage however a forest would since the models are in actual area terrain.

What's your opinion on this guys?

1) if the center of the blast missed the top of the ruin it would drop down to the level the center of the blast is center over.

2) There is no area cover saves for ruins anymore, only 25% obscured for LoS cover saves. If he was on the base of the ruins it is considered 5+ but if you are on top of the ruins and barrage hits you, there is nothing.

3) Cover is not on a per unit basis anymore, it's per model. If the model is 25% obscured from the viewpoint of the hole it gets cover, if not, it doesn't.

4) If the models were in Area Terrain like a crater or forest then they would get their 5+ cover save from the barrage.

BlueDagger provides an excellent answer, and just to clarify p98 details when area terrain rules are in effect for a ruin.

Yup got it all, thanks a lot. However I can't find BlueDagger's first point... all I read is that if the blast misses it goes to the next top level, however didn't see anything specifying the center of the blast.

On this same subject if the barrage is a multiple blast like mortars and the 1st blast falls to another level do the subsequent blasts are allocated on that level or are they free to hit the top one?

Pg 100 is what you are looking for. When using barrage only the blast falls down upon the level the whole is over, so if you miss the top of a ruins and scatter over the side it will drop to the bottom level. If you have multiple barrage though you can move the blast as per barrage rules to make the hole now overtop the level you were attempting to hit in the first place.

Basically imagine the shot starts out mid air, comes down to the point where the hole hits, and the blast then goes out from there. In you example the 2 guys up top wouldn't be hit since they aren't on the floor that was hit.