A friend was at a tournament.

Opponent player has squad touching the edge of flat low profile scenery which has been classed as heavy cover.

He targets this squad. He is opposite the target and cover is on the other side of target.

So target is not obscured and is not on the scenery. Target claims heavy cover.

Thoughts?

How did he "claim" cover? What rule did he point out to state that any model would get cover from that piece of terrain?

Simply that he was touching its edge and had a very strong opinion on the matter.

My friend tried to reason with him, especially about not being obscured.

Feels like BS but wanted to check before I give my friend advice for any repeat schenangins

For flat areal terrain, usually the center of the majority of the models must be within. But it is still subject to agreement on the terrain before the game. At a tournament this is usually done by the TO.

A general advice: At a tournament, if anything sounds fishy, always get a judge (and respect their call!). Disputes are resolved quickly, no hard feelings.

Hmmm

Not in

Not obscured

I hoped this was a pretty obvious conclusion - it's good to be able to point arguments back to posts.

Can it be that conjective and open to abuse?

8 hours ago, Deddog said:

Simply that he was touching its edge and had a very strong opinion on the matter.

My friend tried to reason with him, especially about not being obscured.

Feels like BS but wanted to check before I give my friend advice for any repeat schenangins

There's no need to "reason." Simply open up the rulebook.

7 hours ago, SailorMeni said:

For flat areal terrain, usually the center of the majority of the models must be within. But it is still subject to agreement on the terrain before the game. At a tournament this is usually done by the TO.

Your "center of the majority of the models" is either a house rule or you're confusing this with another game.

As @arnoldrew said, it's as simple as looking at the rulebook. Right on step 1 of determining cover:

1. Determine Number of Obscured Miniatures: The player checks line of sight from the attacker’s unit leader to each mini in the defending unit. If any part of a defending mini, including its base, is blocked by a piece of terrain , the player then traces an imaginary line from the center of the base of the attacker’s unit leader to the center of the base of the defending mini. If the imaginary line crosses the piece of terrain that blocked line of sight, the defending mini is obscured. The player repeats this process for each mini in the defender to determine how many of those minis are obscured.

And also on Area Terrain:

"When determining the size of area terrain, imagine a zone beginning at the bottom edges of the terrain and extending straight upward to a point parallel with the highest physical feature of the terrain. This creates a three dimensional, often cylindrical, zone that is effected by the area terrain. Any attacks made that fire through or into this zone , even if line of sight is not physically blocked by a feature of this terrain, are subject to the effects of the area terrain."

If someone can show us a rule that says that a unit gets cover only by touching a piece or terrain even if line of sight is not obscured or passes through or into the area terrain, then there will be a discussion. Right now I think that there is not.

13 hours ago, arnoldrew said:

Your "center of the majority of the models" is either a house rule or you're confusing this with another game.

Right, it's not the center, the models need to be fully within the terrain. If "flat low profile terrain" refers to terrain like "holes and trenches". The center of the model confusion comes from higher area terrain measured from the near side. Still the same game but different situation ;-).

13 hours ago, Lemmiwinks86 said:

If someone can show us a rule that says that a unit gets cover only by touching a piece or terrain even if line of sight is not obscured or passes through or into the area terrain, then there will be a discussion. Right now I think that there is not.

Holes and Trenches allow cover without physical obstruction. But they require the models to be fully within the terrain.

It really all boils down to how the terrain was defined. I've been to tournaments where some flat terrain was defined as high area terrain so units would get cover behind it without being within (or touching it).

11 hours ago, SailorMeni said:

It really all boils down to how the terrain was defined. I've been to tournaments where some flat terrain was defined as high area terrain so units would get cover behind it without being within (or touching it).

That's correct and it's how area terrain is defined in the rules. If line of sight is traced into or through an area terrain, even if the minis are not obscured they get cover. But as I understood the problem here was that line of sight didn't go through nor into the area terrain, the defending minis were just touching the area terrain with the back of their bases.