As a terrainaholic (both making it and how it affects gameplay), the recent discussions about how different areas play terrain in EA are fascinating.
So I thought it was time to find out exactly how different areas play terrain and LoS, and at the same time get a bit of a feel for how dense player's tables are.
Question 1 (answers 1-6)
For terrain/LoS, as far as I can see there are three main approaches:
AbstractThe whole area of terrain blocks LoS beyond 10cm in/out/through, regardless of where terrain elements (trees, buildings etc.) are on the terrain base. This then has three subsets:
Infinite Height - as commonly used at EpicUK events, all terrain areas are infinite height so block LoS to pretty much anything other than Flyers or popping up Skimmers.
Highest Element - similar to the above, but the terrain area is as high as the highest terrain element, so an area of scrub and bushes that are 10-20mm high will be 20mm high, allowing taller War Engines or units on hills and tall buildings see over the top.
Height Values - areas and units are all allocated heights, letting units see over based on those relative values.
PhysicalIf you can see it, you can shoot it. This is probably the closest to the written rules, where only physical items block LoS, allowing units to draw LoF through the gaps in ruins etc.
HybridSome mix of Abstract and Physical, for example using physical LoS with extra restrictions for woodland, or extra rules for who can see through lower gaps in areas.
If I've missed out some major variations, please make sure to say so!
Question 2 (answers 7-10)
DensityThe terrain guidelines for the tournament scenario allow for a huge variation in terrain density - taking the maximum guideline size of terrain areas of 30x30cm (ignoring hills up to 60cm for now) you get a full 50% table coverage. At the other extreme, if the terrain areas are 15x15cm and you stick to 12 areas on a standard table you're looking at 12.5%
So question 2 - how much terrain do you generally play with?
I'll also dig out some photos of example terrain items that can be used to explain how everyone plays specific situations.