AOE, structures, and those beyond

[Fryerdan]

When a unit is in a tower or other structure which he can fire from how does blast damage affect that unit? For example: a long gunner is standing in a guard tower and a destroyer lobs a shell at him. The attack misses but deviates to where if he were on the ground he would be within AOE. Does the long gunner take blast damage through the structure of the tower?

[Mootaz]

AOEs are inifinitely high and are not stopped by structures, etc.

[Fryerdan]

So if a group of infantry with stealth are hugging a wall I can fire an aoe at the wall and splatter them all without even making an attack roll. Seems a bit overpowered.

[Mootaz]

You cannot target terrain pieces unless they are explicitly defined as damageable (meaning they have rules as to how much damage they can take before collapsing, etc.).
See Hordes FT p. 53 for rules regarding structures.

Remember: Agree with your opponent about all terrain pieces before the start of the game.

EDIT: make clear I mean all terrain pieces.

[Fryerdan]

The rules specifically define structures as something that can be damaged.

I mean yeah in a friendly game we can say that towers and walls act like trenches for everything with a point of origin on the far side of the wall, but come tournament time there will definately be much rules lawyering over this issue as it has been left wide open by the rules.

[Hjelmen0]

In a tournament you (the TO specifically) needs to define exactly whether or not individual terrain pieces are terrain or structures.
The rules cannot define every single piece of terrain that you might end up using, so you (or the TO) really need to agree upon whether or not terrain pieces are structures (i.e. can be destroyed and targeted) before the game starts.

[Virgil38]

Easy fix then, get a PG ruling or don't use buildings. I've been playing since 2003 and it hasn't been an issue.

[Fryerdan]

Thanks for clarifying.