Several Rules Questions

[Daedalus]

Hello, all:

I'm new to Malifaux. I went through a demo at my LGS last week and bought the Rules Manual. In reading through it, I ran into several questions that I was hoping you all might be kind enough to answer.

(1) LOS

pg. 15 - LOS: Imagine I have a height 2 figure (denoted by X below) in base contact with a height 2 wall (denoted by || below). Can it shoot a height 3 figure (denoted by O below) without any penalty?

X || O

My reading of the rules is, "yes, because the intervening base is less than the target's height." Also, the height 3 figure can return fire, but the height 2 figure receives hard cover because it is within 1" of the wall. Is this correct? It just seems odd that the figure is shooting over a wall that is as tall as it, which would be awkward.

(2) LOS

pg. 15 - Obscuring terrain seems inconsistent with blocking terrain. Blocking terrain states that the intervening base must be less than either the model's OR target's height to give partial LOS. Obscuring terrain states that it must be less than BOTH the model's and target's height to give partial LOS. Am I reading these rules correctly? If so, why are the rules different?

(3) Flat Elevation

pg.17 - The "Flat Elevation and LOS Diagram" is drawn from the side view. The third statement says that Perdita has LOS to Gremlin 3 because the "model" is not completely within the elevation's shadow. Is this LOS determined by the actual model or by the model's base?

(4) Flat Elevation

The 1st page of the Errata has Rafkin attacking a Crooligan and stating that the model is 6" away. However, the Crooligan appears to be 1 height shorter than the elevated terrain that Rafkin is standing on, so according to pg. 40 it seems that the range should be 7". Is this correct?

(5) Soulstone usage

Do I have the following correct?

pg. 27 - When a card is added by using a soulstone during an attack duel, the card is ADDED to the current total.

pg. 29 - Soulstones may NOT be used to modify damage flips.

pg. 31 - Soulstones used on the initiative flip REPLACE the original card.

(Soulstone usage appears to be different in every case, so I want to make sure I have these rules down.)

(6) Resolving Effects

pg. 32 - Are effects that affect a figure during its "next activation" removed during the Closing Phase? For example, if a figure receives "slow" or "paralyze" after they have made their activation this turn, are these effects removed before the next turn or do they carry over?

(7) Charging

pg. 36 - Is it legal to charge even if you are out of range?

Example: Razorspine Rattler wants to advance quickly, so he declares a charge at a figure on the opposite side of the board. He moves 12" directly toward the figure, but isn't in range to strike, so his turn ends here. (Since his walk is only 4", he moved 50% farther than he could have with two walk activations.)

(8) Jumping

pg. 37 - When jumping vertically 1/2 your walking distance, how is this measured? Can the figure move horizontally at all? If not, this doesn't seem like it would be useful at all.

(9) Morale

pg. 57 - If I charge a figure at an opponent's terrifying figure and fail the morale check, which direction does my figure "fall back?" Towards the nearest table edge?

pg. 57 - Alternately, if I walk a figure into melee range of an opponent's terrifying figure and fail the morale check, which way does my figure "fall back?" Directly away from the terrifying figure?

(10) Soulstone pool

pg. 73 - Do the soulstones gained by declining to select a scheme count towards the maximum soulstone pool? For example, if I already have 7 soulstones in my pool for a scrap and I decline to take any schemes, would I then have 11 soulstones or would this cap at 8 soulstones?

(11) Caster Additional Requirements

pg. 123 - Casting sequence, part 3d, states "Caster meets additional requirements." However, pg. 54 does not discuss this step. Can someone give me an example of this?

Thank you for your time!

[Finnegan]

1) Your interpretations correct, but both models would receive hard cover. Yes, it's awkward for to shoot above a wall as tall as yourself, which means the Ht 3 model also gets hard cover from bullets likely hitting the wall r missing entirely.

Keep in mind, also, that if either model is in the other's melee range, none of them can use a ranged weapon unless they have Gunfighter, since they fulfill both requirements of LoS and melee range.

3) The base. Always the base.

5) Correct on all counts.

6) Unless otherwise stated, effects end during the closing phase. The effects you mentionned end after the model's next activation, so it would carry over.

7) Yep, it's legal. It's actually a good way of doing movement tricks with the Obey spell, and also the avater of the Viktorias would be a bit screwed if it wasn't legal

9) In many cases you'll be engaged with the model that caused you to make a morale duel, and if you fail you fall back directly away. If you're not engaged with the model that caused you to make a morale duel (say because of spell or pulses), you fall back to the closest table edge. So if you walk or charge into melee with a terrifying model, you're engaged - failing the morale duel means falling back directly away.

10) The maximum starting SS Pool Size is immutable - in a Scrap, it'd cap at 8 no matter how many schemes you decline to take.

11) Actually it's discussed on p53. I don't have any example in mind right now, but the paragraph is pretty self-explanatory.

I hope someone else can answer the questions I couldn't.

[Daedalus]

I really appreciate the response! Hopefully, someone will answer #2, #4, and #8. In the mean time, I have a couple clarification questions on the answers supplied.

1) Your interpretations correct, but both models would receive hard cover. Yes, it's awkward for to shoot above a wall as tall as yourself, which means the Ht 3 model also gets hard cover from bullets likely hitting the wall r missing entirely.

Keep in mind, also, that if either model is in the other's melee range, none of them can use a ranged weapon unless they have Gunfighter, since they fulfill both requirements of LoS and melee range.

It looks like my picture got messed up in the editor. If the O is 3" away from the wall, it wouldn't receive hard cover because it is not within 1" of the wall, correct? (I'll make it vertical so the editor doesn't remove extra whitespace.)

X

=

O

9) In many cases you'll be engaged with the model that caused you to make a morale duel, and if you fail you fall back directly away. If you're not engaged with the model that caused you to make a morale duel (say because of spell or pulses), you fall back to the closest table edge. So if you walk or charge into melee with a terrifying model, you're engaged - failing the morale duel means falling back directly away.

That helps, but leads me to another question: pg. 57 states that figures makes a morale check when they "Declare a Charge targeting a model with the terrifying ability." It sounds like they make the morale check before moving, so they would not be engaged at this point and would run towards the edge of the table. Is that correct?

11) Actually it's discussed on p53. I don't have any example in mind right now, but the paragraph is pretty self-explanatory.

I see it now. It looks like the Casting Sequence table on pg. 51 and pg. 123 are out of order. It should be listed as 2d not 3d.

[Finnegan]

Yep, if your target is further than 1" away from the terrain that hides (part of) his base, he doesn't get cover.

For charging, your interpretation is correct.

Here's to hoping someone comes around with answers to your remaining questions. I suggest repeating them just in case.

[Daedalus]

I figured I would follow up some of my questions with answers.

(4) Flat Elevation

The 1st page of the Errata has Rafkin attacking a Crooligan and stating that the model is 6" away. However, the Crooligan appears to be 1 height shorter than the elevated terrain that Rafkin is standing on, so according to pg. 40 it seems that the range should be 7". Is this correct?

In the Errata, Rafkin is making a ranged attack. Page 40 of the rulebook only applies to melee.

(8) Jumping

pg. 37 - When jumping vertically 1/2 your walking distance, how is this measured? Can the figure move horizontally at all? If not, this doesn't seem like it would be useful at all.

On the first page of the Errata is an image showing Onryo climbing 2". When moving vertically, a figure is displaced horizontally so that its base is in contact with the edge it traversed.

[ravenborne]

1) Also note that neither model would get cover if they are both within 1" of the same terrain. In other words, the defending model gets no cover if the attacking model is within 1" of the same terrain piece.

---------- Post added at 07:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:27 PM ----------

(Blocking terrain only)

[ravenborne]

4) I think what is going on in that example is that page 40 is referring to melee ranges, and the example is referring to shooting and auras. That is because the section on page 40 is in the Melee Basics section. There do not seem to be any special rules for elevations in the Ranged basics section, so I believe you just measure straight out from a top down perspective.

I could see this creating some odd situations where you could put a ranged model with Range 3" attack on a Ht 6 building and still hit models 3" away, or even weirder, the other way around.