I was playing the Hellfire Pass mission from Days of the Fox , and I found that this scenario is a study in the elevation rules. Half-way through playing this scenario, I got stuck and had to quit because the elevation rules just didn't make sense to me. I thought I had it down, but then I ran into a situation that contradicted what I thought. Out of frustration, I just quit.

Here's where I'm confused: Elevation rules, p. 24 of the rules from the base set (2nd column, third paragraph down), state that... when dealing with varying unit elevations, a hill the same level or lower than the unit on the higher elevation is also considered blocking terrain for the purpose of determining blind hexes. I thought I understood this. I thought that in the Hellfire Pass scenario, a great tactic would be to rush your tanks up to the hills where the German AT guns are, and then your tanks would be out of the line of sight of the guns. Picture this set-up: three hexes, the southern hex being level two elevation, the middle hex being level one elevation, and the north hex flat ground. There is an AT gun on the level two hex and a tank on the flat ground hex. The middle hex (level one) is empty. Does line of sight exist?

I think it does not based on the rule I quoted from p. 24 of the rules. Based off of this rule, if I am interpreting it right, isn't the level one hex considered blocking terrain? If so, then the flat hex with the tank would be a blind hex (because the difference in elevations is two, then just the one hex behind the blocking terrain is a blind hex). This seemed right to me. However, on p. 23 of the rules book (I love how I have to go back and forth between sections to read the fine print to find little rules clarifications!), it states, under the Line of Sight header, that... blocking terrain includeds woods hexes, building hexes, and any hex of a higher elevation than that of the two units . What!? The rules I quoted from p. 24 seem to say that a hill of a higher or lower elevation can be blocking terrain, but the rules on p. 23 seem to say that only a hex of higher elevation can be blocking terrain.

Can someone please clarify this for me? I understand the plateau rule, but that does not seem to apply in this instance. Here's a situation where I ran into a real rules conundrum trying to make sense of this. Again, picture three hexes, but this time, the southern hex is at level two elevation, the middle hex is at level one elevation, and the northern hex is also at level one elevation. There is an AT gun in the level two hex, the middle hex is empty, and the level one, northern hex, has a tank in it. Is there line of sight from the AT gun to the tank? If the middle hex is considered blocking, and since the difference in elevations is just one, then both hexes behind the middle hex would be blind hexes. This just does not seem realistic at all. I must be doing something wrong, but again, what is up with that rule on p. 24 that states: when dealing with varying elevations, a hill the same level or lower than the unit on the higher elevation is also considered blocking terrain for the purposes of determining blind hexes.

Have you seen Mike Z's LOS examples? They are very good and visualises all possible LOS issues.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/25123/LoSexamples.pdf

I think, you possibly confused yourself. On page 24 where it talks about LOS between units on different levels it has 4 bullet points that I believe address your confusion.

In your first example, your strategy was sound because the 4th bullet point explains that the AT gun does not have line of site (depending on where you go and which AT gun we're talking about). When in doubt, simplify. Since the units are at different elevations any differences on page 24 take priority from the standard LOS check.

In your second example, there is LOS because there is no blocking terrain between the two units since the tank is on the same level as the hex in between. If the ehx in between were level 2 then there would be blocking terrain (plateau effect). What provides the blocking terrain in the first example is the fact that the level 1 hill is higher than level 0 which is creating blocking terrain between the unit at level 0 and the unit at level 2.

You guys are awesome. This information really helps. I think I was overcomplicating things. I heard that Hellfire Pass was so hard for the British, but I was doing so well, I figured I must be doing something wrong. Thanks again for the help.

It's important to recognize the organization of the rulebook. P.23 is the beginning of the Line of Sight section. The first section, where you got your rule, is titled 'D etermining Line of Sight Between Units on the Same Level of Elevation' . Same elevation requires higher blocking terrain. On p.24, the second section, where you got your rule, is titled ' Determing Line of Sight Between Units of Different Levels of Elevation' . This has the blind hex information. The plateau rule on p.25 is in the section titled 'LOS Exceptions' . These are three separate situations. The relevant information for each situation is in each section.