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I am new to 40k and some of the terrain rules seem a bit weird. If you think of a ruin (which is an area terrain) over 5" height it gets the obscuring trait. Obscuring means it auto blocks LOS if the building is between the target and targeter and neither of them are in said area terrain. It's like the wall right in front of you just disapears if you are in the area terrain and suddenly you can see everything. That itself is weird, but it seems even more strange when you compare them to an obstacle for LOS.

Obstacles (it seems) do not have the obscuring trait. Therefore if I have model behind an obstacle (that is less than 5" height) and I can't get any LOS on the enemy then I assume I can't target it. In a weird kind of way it's like the obscuring trait is doing the exact opposite under certain conditions - you can see see an enemy if either of you are in the area terrain (even though you might not be able to get *true LOS), but an obstacle which does not have this trait (therefore you can't get auto LOS by being next to it) can block LOS, even though it might be smaller.

It's hard to explain what I mean, and it even sounds confusing reading back my own message, but does anyone see my point? Is this actually the rule, or am I not understanding it properly?

*Not even sure if this is a real word, but when I say true LOS I mean you as a person get behind the model and check with your own eyes if your unit would have LOS to an enemy. In the case of a ruin with obscuring trait my understanding is that even if you can get true LOS (through a window for example), the obscuring trait just means it is auto blocked.

mucker973 wrote:
It's like the wall right in front of you just disapears if you are in the area terrain and suddenly you can see everything.

You still need true line of sight if you are within the area obscuring terrain.
Models that are on or within this terrain feature can be seen and targeted normally. (Core rules, page 263).

So once you're within the ruin the wall doesn't suddenly disappear, if it's a solid wall and completely blocked line of sight then you cannot shoot through it (well, most weapons can't). There is not an auto-granting of line of sight.

As above. You're not reading all of the rule. Once you're within the trrrain it is normal line of sight.

You see, the way you described it is how I thought it worked when I originally read the rules. But i read an article on rule hammer which implied others wise, and I came up with the above interpretation instead.

I’m pretty sure that it said that if you have a unit in the area then obscuring does not apply (granted, you still need LOS), but it made a comment about how you longer have to annoyed about drawing los lines through windows. To me, this implied you can just see through it??

Sorry, it wasn’t rule hammer but this here https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/06/11/terrain-rules-and-line-of-sightgw-homepage-post-1/

Notice the part where he says, gone are the days of drawing los lines through windows

You didn't read all of that article either

"However, the days of drawing line of sight through a gap in the wall and three consecutive windows to a unit on the opposite side of a huge building are over!"

OPPOSITE SIDE in this case means you're stood one side, they're stood the other, but neither is inside . The context is entirely about the obscuring trait ie los blocking when not stood inside