Battles in the 41st Millennium aren’t fought on open fields and desolate parking lots – they’re scattered with all kinds of foliage, ruins, craters and remnants of wrecked war machines. Terrain provides vital cover for advancing armies, and in the new edition of Warhammer 40,000, the rules are just as lean and mean as the armies that fight among them.
Terrain provides the Benefit of Cover rule to those units that can take advantage of it. As in previous editions, this adds 1 to save rolls* against ranged attacks, but this time there’s an important caveat.
Having the Benefit of Cover will not improve saves of a 3+ or better against weapons with an Armour Penetration characteristic of 0. This means a unit will never have its save improved to 2+ by terrain.
In the current edition of Warhammer 40,000, figuring out how units interact with certain pieces of terrain requires one of four Terrain Categories and a table of 12 different Terrain Traits, with typical areas having anywhere from one to six features to keep track of.** The new edition slims that down significantly, with rules entirely determined by the kind of terrain you are using.
Now, deciding whether or not a unit has the Benefit of Cover is as simple as knowing which category their cover falls into – craters, barricades, debris, hills, woods, or ruins.
Craters – This category includes other small patches of terrain such as rubble. It’s the most simple type and functions like the area terrain of previous editions, granting cover to any INFANTRY model standing wholly inside them. Even if the models are fully visible to the attacker targeting them, they get the cover.
Barricades – All sorts of terrain are classed as Barricades, from promethium pipelines to ramshackle defence lines, and any model within 3” can claim cover so long as the object partially obscures them from at least one of their attackers. As the thickness of a barricade can often make it difficult to get within 1” of an enemy unit when charging from the opposite side, this terrain type also modifies the Engagement Range rules to include models within 2”, providing they’re attacking a unit on the other side of the barricade.
Debris – This terrain includes any bits and pieces that a unit can’t end their move on, such as barrels, statues, and piles of discarded Mek Workshop parts. These confer cover when they partially block a model from the attacking unit, regardless of range or size.
Hills – The Hills terrain type also encompasses solid buildings that units can stand on, like the Battlezone: Fronteris Landing Pad or Munitorum Armoured Containers. Both models and other terrain features can sit on top of hills provided they don’t overhang the edge and, like debris, the hill confers cover to anything it partially obscures. This often results in some dicey close-range firefights, as the edge of the hill itself gets in the way of units shooting up and down at each other.
Woods – Woods and forests are a little more involved than the rest. Any model*** fully inside the wood, or viewed through an area of woodland terrain by a unit that is also not inside it, is never considered to be fully visible and receives the Benefit of Cover.
Ruins – These wrecked and damaged structures completely block visibility of all models*** through their footprint, regardless of how much you can see through their fancy gothic windows. Otherwise, models outside can shoot in, and models inside can shoot out.
Since particularly tall ruins can give attackers an advantageous position, they also come with the Plunging Fire rule, which improves the Armour Penetration characteristic of a ranged attack by 1 when the attacking model is more than 6” above ground level and shooting at a target on the ground – making it a great way to get around other units’ cover.
Check out our new edition hub page for more rules and reveals, and come back next week for a look at the Tyranid leader from the cinematic trailer who’s strong enough to tear a Terminator in two.
* Not including invulnerable saves.
** There were, technically speaking, over 12,000 possible terrain types.
*** Unless they have the AIRCRAFT or TOWERING keywords.