Line of sight, flying units and cover

[Ada]

This was written with GW in mind but I thought I would post it here to see what people thought...

Hi, I would like some clarification on “line of sight”, units with the “flying” ability and “cover” rules in AoS please. My son plays Nurgle, so he has Rot Flies, I play Seraphon, which can give boons/abilities of flight, and a friend has Sylvaneth, who can place down lots of woods. I know it states in the rules for the woods that flying units don’t benefit from the visibility rule while in or outside the woods but I find this controversial/contradictory to other scenery/cover rules?

My first question is when is a flying unit “classed” as high above trees and scenery and when is it down close the ground and hidden from view (for line of sight purposes)?

If most of the rules are to be read correctly, a flying unit can never gain the “cover” rule and/or is always visible... even though it is NOT “visible” when looking from model to model for “line of sight” purposes?

If the above is correct, then am I correct in assuming that the flying unit (for “visibility” and “line of sight” purposes) can shoot and/or cast spells on any other unit on the battlefield provided they are in range? (This would be like the old Eldar “pop-up” attacks from the Epic games back in the 80’s and 90’s)

If the above is incorrect and the only benefit to being a flying unit is the ability to move over terrain unhindered, maybe it is more of a curse as everyone else on the battlefield can see, shoot and attack you no matter what you do or where you sit!?!

It might be helpful if a set of rules, clearly set out in its own section, cleared up some of these issues, please. Searching online and watching “bat reps” just throws up more arguments as people are all doing different things?!

Maybe an article in “White Dwarf” could help? Even a poll, done by my son on “Reddit” has come out almost 50/50, slightly leaning in favor of flying units can hide and gain cover, but again it is a set of rules that need clarification... PLEASE!?!

[EMMachine]

Line of Sight and Flying units isn't actually that difficult. Flying itself has no real rules besides the movement. Most of the time it is interacting with other rules as special cases.

First of: If you have terrain or models that blocks line of sight physically, that means you don't see any part of the model, it doesn't make a difference if one of the units is flying or not. You don't see it (flying has no rules to ignore physical LOS Blocker and can't be seen if completly blocked).

The more interesting part is if terrain has rules that state that you don't see a model inside or behind the Terrain even if you can physically see it. For example the rule Overgrown from the Matched Play rules (Generals Handbook 2020) and woods have a similar rule.

Quote

Overgrown: Models are not visible to each other if an imaginary straight line 1mm wide drawn between the closest points of the two models crosses over more than 1"  of any Overgrown terrain features. This scenery rule does not apply if either model can fly.

In this case the flying model would see models inside or behind the terrain and can be seen because the rule states that it is ignored if one of both is flying.

You basicly have to look if an ability you are using in your game interacts with flying units or not.

On 9/29/2020 at 10:46 AM, Ada said:

If most of the rules are to be read correctly, a flying unit can never gain the “cover” rule and/or is always visible... even though it is NOT “visible” when looking from model to model for “line of sight” purposes?

In this case cover has no interaction with flying units, so a flying unit can profit from cover if it is not a Monster or Warmachine with more than 8 Wounds. They still can get +1 Save from Cover if they  are inside the woods or are in range of a terrainpiece with the obsticle rule (Azyrite Ruins)

Edited September 30, 2020 by EMMachine