What cover to apply?

[Andi]

Hi. While playing we encountered the following question:
A squad consists of 5 models. Two are standing inside a Forrest ground tile, three models are placed outside the forrest. An enemy unit can only see the two models located inside the woods, the three models behind the wood are not visible to the attackers. When this enemy is shooting at the unit in the woods, which cover do they get?
As usually wood is considered to be light cover.

Thank you very much in advance.

[LordRao]

A unit can only shoot at targets it can see. Hence, the targets outside the forest are not relevant. Hence, the soft cover for the forest applies to the targets available to your opponent.

As an aside, these two men are the only potential casualties your unit will take from enemy fire, unless it uses a template.

Hope this helps.

LR

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by LordRao.

[cornet]

1st rule, covered for more than half of the unit (light drill/cover sees 2 out of 5 figures)
2eme regle, the losses in the unit are made even to the figurines that the opponent did not see!

[Haskeer]

Speaking as an absolute novice, I’m not sure I understand your first point, Cornet.

Your second point I understand ( p58, “Target Takes Casualties” 3rd paragraph confirms).

Can I twist the o/p’s question? – if I shoot at a unit of 5, 2 of whom are in the open, 3 of whom are out of sight due to say a high brick wall. Less than 50% of the target unit are in the open, so a cover modifier should apply. Should I apply a hard cover modifier, even though the 3 guys are not even visible?
The page and paragraph I quoted says ” think of it as a dynamic situation, where soldiers are moving around…….”

I’d lean towards the hard cover modifier, but as I said, I’m a newbie to the game.

John

[Greg S]

I would lean towards hard cover, as more than half of the unit cannot be seen. But I can’t find a rule to back this up.

Models can definitely be removed a casualties even if they can’t be seen or are out of range (p58).

[Master Chief]

Page 57 of 2nd Edition, last paragraph in the box:

This means, for example, that if a firing unit is trying to draw line of sight to an enemy unit and all of the models in the enemy unit are behind a piece of dense terrain (and not in it) – so that the line of sight from all firing models to all target models is drawn through the dense terrain, then the target is considered impossible to see. If any of the enemy models are inside the dense terrain, then the target is visible, but counts as in cover, either soft or hard depending on the type of terrain (see the rules for cover on page 57).

So I think the answer to your very first question is yes, the unit with only 2 models in the woods can be targeted and is in cover, even when the other 3 models cannot be seen.

The same logic applies to your “flipped” question. The unit can be targeted and is in cover even though 3 models cannot be seen.

[Andi]

Thank you very much, Master Chief. The bold text from the cited paragraph is the information we were looking for.

[Haskeer]

Master Chief – I have second edition but mine doesn’t have that written on p 57?

It does answer my question, though, so thank you.

John.

[Greg S]

It is on page 52. The Dense Terrain box, para 3.

[Master Chief]

Thanks for the correction. Yes it is on page 52 🌝

[Author]

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