Hills and cover

[Kubrick54]

Hey guys!

I ran into a rules issue in yesterday's game. My opponent had a unit fully on a hill, thus fully on a piece of terrain. He claimed cover for it but I seemed to remember that hills don't grant cover. I checked the rules and couldn't find anything preventing hills granting cover. Is that right? Thanks!

[CaptainSoup]

From what I can see as long as that hill has been declared a terrain piece and they meet all the requirements for cover then that unit has cover. From the simplified design of the rules of AoS like cover to the whole page dedicated to terrain itself and the different abilities you can apply to terrain, it sounds like GW wants you to use any terrain you see fit for ease of use then add abilities afterwards so you won't have to worry about what piece does what. Any exceptions are laid out on any official terrain warscroll and on the terrain rules page.

[eekamouse]

I never like to count hills as cover, and most people I play with are the same. I do always make sure to agree on what and what isn't cover before deployment etc...

[bsharitt]

RAW, hills could as cover if you're counting them as terrain. Most of the people I play with don't count hills as terrain. Of course we don't really use any of the special rules for terrain, and just stick with cover, LOS blocking and usually try to keeping more thematic and structured than random terrain drops.

[GriinWan]

It was covered in the outdated FAQ for the first edition rules (quote is below), but it seems to be removed in the actual rules and designers commentaries. I think it is better to solve this question with opponent before the game. In local club we play with hills granting cover (as they are the most common variant of area terrain here that units can be fully placed on)

Q: Do units on hills benefit from cover?

A: No, hills are not considered to be scenery, they are considered to be part of the battlefield.

[Kubrick54]

thank you guys for the answers!