I know we already have two questions regarding scrub in the FAQ proposal, but last night we played our first Island level and I got confused, this had not been addressed so far.

Scrub says:
When making a ranged attack into or through a scrub space,
every scrub space that line of sight is traced through adds two
range to the total distance instead of one.

The spaces traced through for LoS and for calculating range are not necessarily the same, so the rule is not applicable at all IMO.

Example:

SSSSM SSSTM
SSSSS STTTS
HSSSS HTSSS

The distance H->M is four, but LoS is traced through five "S" spaces (denoted by T in the right-hand diagram)
and then into the monster space (assuming scrub for that as well)

So, what is the range needed to hit the monster?

12, because 6 scrub spaces are traced through and into the target space? Contradicts the "instead of one" part.
8, because only 4 spaces are needed to "move" from H to M? Contradicts the "every space that LoS is traced through" part.

Thoughts? What did I miss?

Parathion said:

I see your point, but calculating range and tracing LoS are (almost) independant from each other - there is no need or rule to calculate range by using spaces that LoS actually was traced through - as you already stated.

In the example, I could calculate range by selecting the sequence of spaces (starting in the H space): "east (T space)-east (S)-northeast (T space)-northeast (M space)"

This is still an allowed way to count spaces for calculating the range - there is nothing in the rules that demands to stick as close to the LoS tracing as possible. The result for the range needed would then be seven, since three scrub spaces are involved through (and into) which LoS was traced, and one through which it wasn´t.

Parathion said:

I think there is enough inference in the scrub rule, which implies both that an attack is made through a space and LOS is traced through spaces, that the attack is made only through spaces that have LOS traced through them. I also think that this does imply that only spaces which have LOS traced through them should be used for calculating range.
In other words, you might count range as 4 by E-E-NE-NE, but you can't designate those as the spaces the attack passes through, because it did not pass through one of those spaces. But you can count range as NE-E-E-NE = 4 and thus the range requirment is 7, or 8 if M is also a scrub space.

An alternative is that the range requirement is 10, because it is 4+6 (assuming M is scrub). But I think that is harsh, and creates an unnecessarily complicated situation for angled shots, and an inconsistancy where two characters at the same 'range' and shooting through the same 'block' of scrub have wildly differing requirements due to a slight angle change meaning extra spaces are passed through (just barely) for the same range.

12 is never an option, because the base range requirement is only 4 regardless of how many scrub spaces are attacked through-or-into.
That was the change mechanism argument - it couldn't be 12 because 12 requires a mechanism change for calculating the basic range.

Using the implications you stated is fine and clearly makes the most sense.

As I stated, the rule as written is not applicable or rather may lead to arbitrary situations if applied as written, I just wanted to make sure I didn´t miss anything.