From c2182e189cc6303558dc3f5497e20bfd8bb5622f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Drew Haven Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2026 11:03:27 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Adds note on 40k11th visibility. Removes old note on 2" ruins. --- .../notes/Warhammer/11th/Line of Sight.md | 19 +++ ...bility through obscuring areas in 11th.svg | 140 ++++++++++++++++++ src/content/notes/Warhammer/2-in-ruins.md | 57 ------- 3 files changed, 159 insertions(+), 57 deletions(-) create mode 100644 src/content/notes/Warhammer/11th/Line of Sight.md create mode 100644 src/content/notes/Warhammer/11th/images/Visibility through obscuring areas in 11th.svg delete mode 100644 src/content/notes/Warhammer/2-in-ruins.md diff --git a/src/content/notes/Warhammer/11th/Line of Sight.md b/src/content/notes/Warhammer/11th/Line of Sight.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..97d42a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/notes/Warhammer/11th/Line of Sight.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: Line of Sight +--- + +Line of sight in 11th edition is both easier to understand and more confusing than previous editions. Here I've collected a few notes on situations I've found interesting. + +## Obscuring and Touching Terrain + +The Obscuring rule no longer applies to a terrain area if either the attacker or defender are touching it. The key is the parenthetical clause in the Obscuring rule. + +> Obscuring (13.10) +> +> Terrain areas containing one or more light or dense terrain features are obscuring terrain areas. If every line of sight drawn between two models crosses one or more obscuring terrain areas **(excluding obscuring terrain areas that one or both of those models are within)**, those two models are not visible to each other. + +This can lead to some weird effects where two units are visible to each other even though every line of sight passes through an intervening terrain area. Simply touching an obscuring terrain area allows you use the entire model for drawing line of sight, even the parts that are still behind the terrain area. + +![[images/Visibility through obscuring areas in 11th.svg]] + +_In this example there are two units, A and B. Unit A is behind an L-shaped terrain area created by two different terrain areas joined at right angles and considered as one (the open eye in GW terrain descriptions). Since A is touching the back of the terrain area, it can see and be seen through all parts of the terrain area. All lines of sight between A and B pass completely through the terrain area. Line of sight can be drawn from anywhere on model A, despite only a small part of it actually being in the terrain area._ diff --git a/src/content/notes/Warhammer/11th/images/Visibility through obscuring areas in 11th.svg b/src/content/notes/Warhammer/11th/images/Visibility through obscuring areas in 11th.svg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca2c7c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/notes/Warhammer/11th/images/Visibility through obscuring areas in 11th.svg @@ -0,0 +1,140 @@ + + + + + + + + + + + + + 󰈈 + + + + + + + A + + B + + + + diff --git a/src/content/notes/Warhammer/2-in-ruins.md b/src/content/notes/Warhammer/2-in-ruins.md deleted file mode 100644 index 8247f86..0000000 --- a/src/content/notes/Warhammer/2-in-ruins.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,57 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: On 2" Ruins -tags: - - Warhammer - - 40k - - rules ---- - -# On 2" Ruins - -I've seen an idea floating around that the 2" ruins on GW layouts have a special rule that vehicles are never allowed to set-up or end a movement on them. I cannot find anywhere that this is supported by the rules so I consider a house-rule. Here is some information about how these ruins work. - -## What do the blue ruins mean? - -The Chapter Approved tournament guide has a section on terrain layouts. First, they describe their lyouts as purely guidelines. It's up to each event to interpret rules however they wish. Here's how they describe it. - -> The following layouts primarily use the Ruins terrain feature. This efficiently achieves a good amount of line-of-sight blockage and cover appropriate for balanced games, thanks to the natural abstraction of line of sight within the rules for Ruins. Remember that a variety of terrain heights not only adds to the immersive nature of the battlefield, but is also important for line of sight and rules such as Plunging Fire. For organisers and players with a more robust terrain collection (especially elements that block true line of sight), incorporating features such as Woods, Barricades and Hills into your chosen layouts is perfectly acceptable. - -Then they go on to explain what the ruins mean. Gray areas are "More than 4in" and the blue areas are "2in or less". - -> For model mobility purposes, we have shaded the area terrain outlines in the above colours to show our recommendations for how tall the terrain should be in each section. -> -> [...] -> -> These height and Ruin placement guidelines help provide a balanced tournament experience; as organisers you are free to adjust this to suit your terrain collection. - -That's it. Nothing special about the blue ruins except that they should be 2" or less in height. Basically that hits the cut-off that those terrain features do not have to be accounted for during movement. - -There are various other parts of the rules that cover ruins, but those are for ruins in general and don't say anything about differing heights of ruins. You can find it in the core rules section `Terrain Features -> Ruins`. The Rules Commentary has some more detailed explanation of how line of sight works through, in and out of ruins. The word "ruin" doesn't even occur in the official FAQ. I don't see any information about this in the WTC FAQ. I have been unable to find any large-scale ITC FAQ since that was taken over by GW and is therefore presumed replaced by the GW FAQ. - -In short, blue ruins are just ruins like anything else. The ground floor acts just like the ground floor of other ruins. The terrain acts just like terrain in other ruins so models can overlap the terrain and the footprint as long as they wouldn't intersect with the physical terrain. - -## Tournament Exceptions - -A common exception is to treat all walls in ruins as if they were infinitely tall. This means that a model cannot be set up such that it would overhang any wall. These tournaments often do not place any walls in the 2" ruin areas because those are meant to never be over 2" tall. - -## Some examples - -So there is nothing that prevents vehicles from being inside those ruins. Let's find some examples from prominent streams with very experienced players! - -### LVO 2025 - -These games were cast on Wargames Live. In addition to the ever-present Joe, they have a guest commentator in the form of Jack Harpster from Art of War. The games were also (usually?) observed by a judge. These people have seen a _lot_ of events. - -[Here's an example from Round 1](https://youtu.be/HgshKDfWYyU?t=5284) on Layout 1 where John Kilcommons charges a Sky Ray Gunship into a small 2" ruin to engage Michael Hoopeer's Demon Spawn on the other side. It's actually a very interesting case because John is able to engage the Spawn through the ruin by being within 1" engagement range. He rolled low enough that he does not have to go around and fully base-to-base which would have opened him up to a heroic intervention. - -![[images/2026-05-01_LVO_round_1.png]] - -[Here's another example from Round 3](https://youtu.be/HgshKDfWYyU?t=31597) on Layout 1 where Durante Bozzini moves his Ghostkeel (a walker vehicle) into the 2" ruins on the side in order to get better angles. - -![[images/2026-05-01_LVO_round_3.png]] - -[Here in Round 4](https://youtu.be/9FTPZxTcbic?t=4283) on Layout 4, Forrest Phanton moves his Land Raider into a blue ruin in corner before disembarking, with a judge watching over his shoulder. If you watch until 10:33:00 Joe makes a comment about it. - -> They just talked about it, Andrew. So vehicles can fit on the footprint, they just can't stand on top of the wall. It's a pretty standard interpretation on the GW layouts, I think. Sometimes they're crates though, so there's not a lot of room to stand on those things. - -![[images/2026-05-01_LVO_round_4.png]]