AD

Do you mean something that has a roof over the top of it, but the template fits inside?

 

I don't see anything that explicitly covers this in the rules; however, I think that trying to jump into the inside of a building will go against most people's intuitive understanding of what the Airborne Deployment rules represent. As such, I would recommend that individuals/groups not adopt it as a practice.

 

I very rarely see a room large enough to fit the template with no small terrain in there.

But as far as rules are concerned, it is totally legit to land there if said room exists.

 

While i agree that RAW you can do it i highly doubt it is the intent. We can just compare it to speculative fire. By just reading the rules you can fire inside of a building (with a roof). Only a later added FAQ tells us you can't.

But to be honest we can argue over intend forever.

 

Would you advise against allowing AD to a point that is directly beneath a bridge? It's a pretty similar scenario.

 

Maybe? I'm not necessarily prepared to provide a detailed and precise set of guidelines.

If you want a quick rule of thumb, assume the circular template is infinitely tall, and the entire column needs to be clear of terrain/obstructions, not just the bottom surface.

 

I'm of the opinion that once you start teleporting into rooms and below bridge it becomes less Arial Deployment and more Comic Sans Deployment.

 

We usually treat AD template as indefinitely high (just like smoke templates)
if something touches the volume, you can't drop.
Of course, small scatter terrain/railing do not count, since that would basically make AD 3 useless

 

I also play the drop template as being infinitely tall. I can see ignoring scatter terrain but on that point the rules do seem clear.

• Any horizontal flat surface the size of a Circular Template and free of scenery elements may be chosen as the Drop Zone.

I wonder if CB's intent was to limit the number of drop locations to a manageable point from a defensive perspective. Something akin to tall buildings for snipers. Both to be seriously considered when setting up a table.

The more drop locations available, the more difficult AD is to defend against and the more powerful those troopers become. CB specifically talks about large buildings during table setup, maybe they should include drop zones as well.

 

I mean I have my opinion and I think if under the bridge is devoid of scenery, it's a completely legit landing spot. I also agree on the inside of buildings being valid landing zones if they are flat and free of scenery, I just wanted to see if your rules of thumb extended to that scenario.

 

CB needs to define this more clearly. There's the other factor to where technically a template on a rooftop is in contact with scenery but nobody plays it that way.

 

Huh, I do play it that way, actually. It has forestalled a lot of rules arguments.

 

We're at risk of running off on a tangent, but...

In general, people treat the flat, walkable surfaces of buildings as "not terrain" because otherwise there are weird interactions with, for example, the cover rules.

 

Probably Impetuous as well.

 

Most of probably don't care about the precision of their language in this case because it seems fairly obvious what they really meant, but it's a good example of their loose writing style and that what works in Spanish for Galicians doesn't translate at all well to English.

I'd personally bet that they'd have no difficulty with allowing an AD unit to drift in under a bridge, or even through an open doorway into Close Combat, but I really like @toadchild's suggestion that you could notionally extend the template vertically and keep the column clear. It keeps things simple and practicable, to the point where I think I'll make it a written house rule.

 

Rooftops are not scenery. They may, however, contain scatter terrain that could prevent the placement of a template for AD purposes.

Similarly for inside rooms and under bridges, if this is a concern, you can definitively prevent it from being a problem with some scatter terrain.

As a general rule, though, I would encourage people not try to be silly with teleporting air drop to inside of buildings without some sort of pre-established agreement on how it would function.

For an example, we have had interior only maps (corridor maps) that had nowhere that would be "open sky" to drop in from. AD on that map was simply stated to be "jumping on to the roof and then climbing through the air ducts" or whatever else you want it to be. Thus where the intersections existed, a space big enough for a template existed, and that happened to be an HVAC vent someone might be able to pop out of.

 

They are. In the section on Scenery Buildings it talks about how roofs are part of a Scenery Building.