It gets better than that, if you interpret Vaulting so liberally, you can abuse the hell out of it on a large number of walls and all stairs, because nothing prevents you from vaulting each step so you never have to pay vertical movement.
Unless it's designated as stairs and ladders then you have to measure the distance travelled along the hypotenuse. The FAQ on vaulting is the quickest way to visualise it consistently but it does create a few logical problems for instance any WWE veiwer of the past 3 decades will probably have seen The Undertaker step over the top rope into the ring, but according to the FAQ that would look like this: (Only Probably without Bray Wyatt's' dad holding his hand)
Yes, but if you designate it as stairs and ladders there's a different, specific way to use it. Of coarse the question is then "why would you designate anything as stairs if its better to make 16 vaults?"
Unless the players have decided to treat that section as stairs or similar (which would be a sensible decision to take), I'm 99% sure the General Movement Rules wouldn't let you use the 'vault' section to go up there, because as soon as the trooper's base isn't supported then by definition you're not moving through a 'piece of scenery whose height be equal or inferior to the trooper's Silhouette Template' but instead trying to use the rule to move up something that's taller than the trooper's Silhouette.
Broadly speaking me and my opponent quickly run through the table for what to categorise any potential scenery elements (vis zones, saturation zones, difficult terrain). For my tournaments, I tend to produce a terrain pack and pin it to the side of boards that will use it with a note for both players to talk it through at the start of the game and to reference a TO if needed. :) Haven't had an issue since.
Literally the only reason I'd consider to build something like that on the table is to allow you to scramble up it. Without access to the terrain I'm not 100% certain if the double-stacked ammo-crate fully supports a model, but it looks close enough that I'd probably allow it: the only levels that unequivocally don't are due to the pallets. If I didn't want you scrambling all the way up that, I wouldn't put the pallets there. However, if you're concerned about the 'free' vertical movement, then designate it stairs: I'd have no issues with an opponent suggesting that. BUT we don't build specious examples on our tables. If we were doing that we'd build it on the specific understanding that it could be vaulted: which we do, often. I almost exclusively do it with individual levels that 'fully support' the model as cazboab suggests (which is my preferred way of playing this). But I'd have no issues with a model vaulting to the top of that if my opponent discussed it with me. Honestly though, I find the entire premise of this thread pointless: it smacks of 'I can't play with my opponent so I need hard and fast rules for everything'.
My simplest reading of the 'vault' clause is to find a general expectation for the unit to remain at the same horizontal level before and after the vault. The text seems to be written to allow things like vaulting over a wall, vaulting over the roof parapet, or vaulting scatter scenery like those crates and pallets; but it isn't really that explicit. I could also easily propose situations that'd make different but perfectly reasonable uses of the clause eg. a unit in a river bed vaulting up a vertical bank inferior to it's silhouette height... If you think about this, you can see it's a pivotal question that'll give clarity about how 'vault' can be applied. @ijw Would you say that simplest reading is correct, or do you prefer something broader?
A few things: http://infinitythewiki.com/en/General_Movement_Rules Q: Can troopers move through obstacles that do not exceed the height of their Silhouette Template? Then is that movement considered “up and down” or does it count as if they were always at ground level? A: Troops can vault and they are considered to be moving “up and down”. A trooper can vault over any obstacle not higher than his Silhouette Template (as determined by his Silhouette Attribute) at no cost, without declaring Jump or Climb. My TO and I have interpreted this to mean that "up and down" as detracting from your MOV value. If a wall is 1 inch high, that's 2 inches of movement we account for to move "up and down" through the obstacle. Now, "up and down" may only mean that for the purposes of tracing LoF, on account of the "at no cost" note in the second quote, but I doubt it. The Spanish version of this entry says this: Una tropa puede sortear cualquier obstáculo cuya altura sea igual o inferior a la altura de la Plantilla de Silueta que determine su Atributo de Silueta sin verse obligada a declarar Saltar o Trepar. The "at no cost" line does not exist in the Spanish version; what it says instead is that "without obligation to declare Climb or Jump." So I hold to the interpretation that it does "cost" movement, what it doesn't "cost" is an Entire Order to Jump or Climb. This line seems to axe the details of the other question, however: Any piece of scenery whose height be equal or inferior to the trooper's Silhouette Template does not block his Movement. It would follow that any piece of scenery whose height be greater than the trooper's Silhouette Template does block his Movement. Combine that with the "vault" permission being worded to allow "through" movement, not "atop" movement, leaves no question to me that you cannot short skill "vault" up a scenery piece higher than your silhouette.
it absolutely does not subtract from yout mov for the up and down, maybe thats a difference from the spanish version but the at no cost is very clear
Q: Can troopers move through obstacles that do not exceed the height of their Silhouette Template? Then is that movement considered “up and down” or does it count as if they were always at ground level? A: Troops can vault and they are considered to be moving “up and down”. if its changing your height its changing your height, surely. "Through" is a relative term afterall, if you are moving such that your direction of travel is to the sillie, then you are moving through the obstacles. But I guess Inane.Imp has made the right point (as has storm) and ultimately you have to discuss these things with your opponent because terrain is so variable the rules arent (nor should they be) hard and fast. I mean, really this whole game is about working with your opponent.
Yes, my point is that if you're on top of a surface that isn't big enough to support the base, you're still 'vaulting', so moving up higher is probably going to mean a 'vault' higher than the trooper's Silhouette height. But that's why I always use crates etc. that are bigger than 25mm to build those kinds of steps, as there's then no confusion possible.
See I've always looked at the individual pieces of scenery on the table as the key point with regards to heigh, not hte sum total of the height the sillie reaches. yeah same, and I'd bring this up before the game starts. Id probably only feel strongly about it is 1) I was the person whod set the table up wiht that in mind (because its cool) or 2) if I felt is was particularly important to the balance of the table
If you haven't reached a point where the trooper could stop, surely they're still 'vaulting' and you'd need to take the total height into account? Anyway, like I said in the first post, this is something that would need to be discussed before the game starts.
Do you have an additional FAQ citation? Because the Spanish (primary) source and the "up and down" is not "very clear".
higher than his Silhouette Template (as determined by his Silhouette Attribute) at no cost, without declaring Jump or Climb Doesnt get much clearer than that
Right, I can read. Apparently you can't, or won't, read the other two points. I'm not advocating for penalized vaulting, by the way, but reading it straight. I'd prefer no MOV penalty.
Magonus, daboarder isn't answering exactly what you're asking, but what you need to read is the original rule that the FAQ is clarifying: Cualquier pieza de escenografía cuya altura sea igual o inferior a la altura de la Plantilla de Silueta que determine el Atributo de Silueta de la tropa no obstaculiza su Movimiento. Any piece of scenery whose height be equal or inferior to the trooper's Silhouette Template does not block his Movement. So the 'at no cost' bit is a reminder that the movement is not being blocked at all, so it makes no difference that it's not present in the Spanish FAQ entry. The FAQ entry was the result of an argument about whether troopers count as going over the top of the obstacle or whether they moved 'through' it like they do when moving through allied troopers.
