Know this and be still: it means elevated hindering and elevated blocking. True, the sentence throws around a bunch of adjectives and noun thing-a-mabobs in a helter-skelter kinda jambalaya; but the truth is obvious and tangible:

Bullseye can try to snipe that tiny target all day long; there's nothing in his way.

Nope the building is elevated the stairs are still ground level.

The current rulings on 'ground based' figures with a ranged attack can do a ranged attack against fliers but at a half range penalty. But, according to the current rulings from Wizkids, fliers can only attack other fliers, what gives? Why not just impose the same half range penalty on fliers versus land based characters with the exception of sentinnels (due to their enormous size).

The reason I say this is, we played the other day, my friend took a 300 point sentinnel. I took a 7 character (300 point, mostly rookies) X-Man team with Iceman, Storm, and Shadowcat as fliers. I had to keep landing to attack the sentinnel, which puts the characters at risk of being captured. I even had to land my fliers to attack land based figures on rooftops. I just don't see what gives with this rule. In the comics the X-men were always attacking land based characters, even sentinnels while flying.

By "flying", I assume you mean "soaring".

Sentinals can interact with soaring characters (and vise versa) as if the Sentinal was soaring. (as per the Sentinal special rules)

The reason a Soaring characters cannot attack grounded figures is simply for game balance. I take out your ranged/flying pieces, then go soaring. None of your remaining figs can touch mine, but I can still snipe your figs...


Hope this helps...

Actually, Manchine, this came up in the exact same game! (we were using the DC special edition outdoor map which is actually really cool -- tons of rooftops -- which is probably why all these questions came up). Anyway, like you, I was sure the stairs were clear, grounded terrain, and voiced my opinion strongly, convincing everyone to play that way and promising to look it up after the game.

So after the game I look it up and guess what? Dang nabbit, the top stair IS elevated terrain.

The other thing that is uber-confusing to my tiny brain is on this map the stairs are all surrounded by thick black lines, indicating elevated terrain. But according to the rules only the top stair is elevated. The rest of the stairs are supposed to be clear grounded. So what's the thick black line there for? Can I not shoot at someone on the stairs if I'm grounded? (this is particular to that one DC map...not the marvel outdoor map).

I always figured that was part of the roof not the stairs. Anything on the stairs is still on the ground. But you can attack from the stairs to the top of the stairs. Becuase there is no thick black lines on all sides.

This is the reason why they need to scan the maps and answer all the questions.

Anyone else help me out with my prior example (page2) if the building edge is only blocking for ground-to-elevated combat (or vice versa) then I should be able to fire straight past that black line from the top of the stairs to the guy on the roof. Since the last square of stairs is elevated (clearly stated in the rules).

Since being on the top square of the stairs means the figure is elevated he would ignore that black line for shooting at someone on that roof as they are both elevated figures.

Hope this helps.