Does terrain come into account when determining area adjacency? Two instances came up last night, one regarding Battlemage Jaes's ability, and the other was a mission card that had the prerequisite of controlling an area adjacent to a home realm. In both cases there was a mountain dividing the relavent areas. Will the mountains block/prevent the outcome?

Not as far as I know. But it would make sense, so I'll houserule it that way I think.

Terrain doesn't affect adjacency. While I can see why some may want a house rule, I'd almost suggest not doing so, because even terrain isn't completely "blocking", since Mountains can be overcome by fliers and by some tactics cards, and Water can be overcome by fliers, tactics cards, and Winter! Thus, if terrain "blocked" adjacency, you'd have to account for situations where the blocking is overcome (especially the Water issue, since in Winter, it's basically just ignored altogether!!)

I figured mountains wouldn't block but I wanted to ask anyway. It still feels kind of cheesy though. I was really hoping my $20 plastic mountains would offer me a little more security. If it was a frozen river during winter then I wouldn't have had a problem with it. Those incidences probably won't occur too frequently though so I probably won't house rule it.

I don't know which quest you're referring to, but I don't really have a problem with Battlemage Jaes's ability working across a mountain. Each hex represents a significant area of land, so if we can accept Jaes shooting at units a few miles away from his current position, I don't see mountains in between being a big problem.

Steve-O said:

I don't think it's a quest, I think it's one of the Evil Objective cards.

Steve-O said:

I always had a similar problem with Deep Space Cannon in Twilight Imperium. It always seemed a bit far fetched to me for a cannon on a planet to be able to shoot a fighter out of the sky in another solar system.

At least Runewars the scale is miles... and it's magic.

zelbone said:

Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and vice versa. =)

Yes, but it begs the question...why send a fleet when I can snipe enemy ships 100's of light years away?? But I digress...

zelbone said:

You could snipe them from 100s of light years away - but it's very inefficient as the PDS fire can't hit tons of ships per shot! Cooldown time, reloading, or whatever - it just can't kill that much in a short amount of time, so if you want them dead FASTER, bring in ships to do the deed!

sigmazero13 said:

It actually does. Not in the case the original poster described (as there's no movement happening), but in terms of the Strategize-Order (#1) mountain and water borders hinder movement to an adjacent area (except for non-flying units and using card effects) as described on p16.

Just to clarify, so nobody shows up at the game table crossing the mountains with his Strategize order with reference to your quote

CthIngo said:

It hinders movement, but doesn't affect their actual adjacency. The Strategize Order bit was clarified so people don't move through mountains, but it doesn't make them non-adjacent.

Do we have an official answer from FFG to the following question : can Jaes or Tobin shoot across mountains?

I thought this had been asked before, but I can't seem to find it. I believe the answer was "yes". (Techincally, the abilities say "1 area away", not adjacent, though). Areas over mountains/water are still 1 area away; the borders block movement, but not actual distance to those areas.

However, just to be sure, I'll ask Corey

I need a few more questions to update my rulings document anyway

I got an answer from Corey

Q: Can Battlemage Jaes and Tobin Farslayer user their abilities through mountains/water? The abilities say "up to 1 area away", but this doesn't necessarily mean the same as movement distance. (IE, an area on the other side of a mountain is 1 area away, it's just the mountain border that normally blocks movement over it).

A: Yes, these abilities may be used regardless of mountains and water.

Are you certain that Jaes is even shooting his enemies? I got the impression that he summoned a lightning storm or something along those lines, which would clearly ignore terrain. Or maybe he summons a flying invisible stalker or something.

kumquat said:

Jaes may not be, but I'm pretty certain Tobin is