Hello there idiot, welcome to Chapter 5 of an Idiots Guide to MCP. This one has come hotly requested by some of our readers, and are two of the most common rules that both new and experienced players get wrong, it's the Cover and Line of Sight rules.

Line of Sight
Line of sight is required, when determining if an attack can be made against a character. If Line of Sight is not established, then a character is determined to not be able to see another character, and therefore cannot make the attack (unless the attack specifically states LOS is not needed). Line of Sight is described in the rulebook as:
A character has Line of Sight (LOS) to another character or an object if a straight, unobstructed line can be drawn from any part of the character’s base to the other character’s base or the object. The line can pass unobstructed through characters but not through terrain features with a larger size than the other character or the object. A character always has LOS to itself. If a character is on top of a terrain feature, add the Size of the character and the Size of the terrain feature together for the purpose of determining LOS. A character on top of a terrain feature ignores that terrain feature when determining if it has LOS to another character or object. Remember, a character’s Size is listed on its Stat Card and doesn’t correlate to its base size or the physical size of the miniature.
So, let's break this down. You need to be able to draw a straight line, from ANY part of the attacking characters base to the target characters base. So, however small that is, as long as you can draw an unobstructed line from one section of one base to one section of the the other base, then LOS can be established. The line can pass unobstructed through characters, so other characters can never block LOS, but not through terrain features with a larger size than the target character. So, if the character was size 2, and stood behind a size 3 building and you can't draw a line to any point of their base from the attacking character without going through the terrain, then you do not have LOS and the attack can't be made. Alternatively if the character was Size 3 and behind the same size 3 building, LOS can still be established as you can draw a straight line to the character through the terrain as the terrain is not larger than the target character. If a character is on top of a terrain feature, add the Size of the character and the Size of the terrain feature together for the purpose of determining LOS, that terrain feature is also ignored when determining whether the character can be seen. So if my Size 3 character was stood on top of a size 3 building, for the purposes of determining LOS, that character is now considered to be size 6.

The Cover Rule
Now, let's take a look at cover, and AMG's description of this rule in the rulebook:
Terrain features can provide cover to characters that hide behind them. There are a number of requirements that must all be met in order for the defending character to benefit from cover:
The defender must be within range 1 of a terrain feature the same size or larger.
A straight line can be drawn from any portion of the attackers base to any portion of the defenders base through that terrain feature.
The attacker is not within range 2 of the defender.
During the modify dice step of an attack, a defending character benefitting from cover (from terrain or otherwise) may change the result of one defence dice to a block.
Ok, so there's a few things to note here, firstly is that ALL of the aforementioned bullet points above must be present for cover to take effect, so if one is missing, there's no cover to be applied. The size of the terrain and your distance from it is also important, as the character needs to be the same size or smaller than the terrain they are looking to get cover from and they need to be within range 1 of this (this also applies to being directly on the terrain) - too bad size 4 Rhino, that size 2 dumpster isn't going to protect you (throw it in someone's face instead). You also wont benefit from cover if the attacker is making the attack from range 2 of you, so no taking cover from a punch to the face from Wong I'm afraid. One of the most confusing parts to this, is the drawing of the straight line between the attacking and defending characters bases. If you can draw a line from ANY part of the attackers base to any part of the defenders base through the terrain feature (and the attacker isn't within range 2 of the defender) then cover will apply. So even if there's 1mm of the defenders base behind a terrain piece, and you can draw a straight line between 1mm of the attackers base through the terrain piece to that 1mm of the defenders base, then cover will be applied.
So, we've established how cover is identified, now we need to apply it accordingly. In order to do this, we need to first understand how the dice rolling process works, and the order in which we roll and modify dice. This works as per the below:
The attacker creates an attack dice pool with dice equal to the Strength of the attack. Apply any effects that add dice to or remove dice from the attack pool. Note that an attack pool can never be reduced to fewer than one die.
The defender notes the type of attack targeting them and creates a defence pool with dice equal to their Defence stat of that type. Apply any effects that add dice to or remove dice from the defence pool. Note that a defence pool can never be reduced to fewer than one die.
Roll the attacker’s dice: The attacker rolls all dice in the attack pool. This is the initial attack roll.
Roll the defender’s dice: The defender rolls all dice in the defence pool. This is the initial defence roll.
Resolve any Critical results: Beginning with the attacker, each character rolls an additional die for each Critical result in their initial roll. Criticals rolled in this step are not part of the initial roll and do not add further dice to the roll.
Modify Dice: Beginning with the attacker, each character may use any superpowers, cover, or other effects at their disposal to reroll or change their dice. Criticals (p) rolled in this step are not part of the initial roll and do not add further dice to the roll. Then, beginning with the attacker, each character may use superpowers or other effects to force their opponent to reroll or change their dice. Criticals rolled in this step are not part of the initial roll and do not add further dice to the roll.
If we refer back to the cover rule, it explains that cover does not take effect until the modify dice step of an attack, so you still need to roll your defence dice as normal, and then you modify one of those results to a block at the modification step. So if I had 3 defence dice, and I roll 3 successes, I'm not going to get the benefit cover because I've already rolled 3 successes, as I've then got no failures to change into a success. Similarly, if I roll 3 skulls, I'm also not going to get the benefit of cover, as you can't modify skull results as a general rule, and the cover rule does not provide an exception to this.

I hope this guide has given you a better understanding of both rules, and prevents confusion for both you and your opponent in any future games.
As always, thank you for reading, and please check out our sponsor www.protechgames.co.uk for all your MCP needs.
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