The
bamboo-swamp question was different in a number of respects. Bamboo, for example, rates its own section in chapter G, while a lumberyard is not only lumped into the section on buildings, it is also tucked, as a subsection, inside the rules for a Single Story House. Although this was likely done in an effort to keep the rules as succinct as possible, the placement of lumberyard in section B23 creates other problems. Secondly, the rules are explicit in stating that "a lumberyard is considered
identical to a wooden Single Story House
in all respects except" as stated otherwise in B23.211.
From a common sense point of view, it's hard to visualize a fortified lumberyard. In fact, B23.91 states that
only buildings can be fortified.
Okay. So maybe a lumberyard is
not a building. Does this mean that backblast is NA when firing PF/PFk, BAZ, and PSK from a lumberyard hex?
Or does backblast apply? If it does apply, then surely we must conclude that a lumberyard
is a "building" for the purposes of C13.8.
C13.8 BACKBLAST: Due to the attendant backblast of these weapons, a PF/PFk, BAZ, PSK, or RCL may not be fired from inside a vehicle, rubble, pillbox, cave, sewer, or building
[EXC: Factory and rooftop] without a Desperation (
13.81) penalty.
How about concealment terrain? The Terrain Chart lists such infrequent terrain types as Vineyard and Cactus Patch in red, but no listing for lumberyard. Is lumberyard concealment terrain? The index is unhelpful. Could it be that a lumberyard is also a (wooden) building for concealment purposes? If lumberyard is
not supposed to be concealment terrain, how would we know?
INDEX Concealment Terrain (bamboo, bocage, broken ground, brush, building, cactus patch, cave, cave complex, dense jungle, grain [in-season], hut, kunai, light jungle, marsh, olive grove, orchard, paddy [in-season], palm debris, palm trees, rubble, scrub, swamp, vineyard, woods)
That's two cases where the rules lead us to draw our own conclusions about the nature of a lumberyard. Both cases appear to treat a lumberyard as a
building. However, B23.211 doesn't say that a lumberyard is identical to a building; it says that it's identical to a wooden Single Story House. But a wooden Single Story House
is a building. Moreover, neither a lumberyard nor a Single Story House (wooden or otherwise) is listed on the Terrain Chart. Nor do they appear in the list of concealment terrain found in the index. Presumably both come under the umbrella term "building," and in some cases share the more specific term "wooden-building."
So who's to say that a lumberyard would not collapse/rubble just
like a wooden building would, like a wooden Single Story House would? Is there anything in the rules to indicate otherwise? Is there an exception for lumberyard in B24, or B25, like there is for rooftop in C13.8?
Where is the Kindling Number for a Lumberyard listed? How about the Spreading Fire DR? Is a lumberyard a building for these purposes too? How are we to know when the term (wooden) building
doesn't include lumberyard in its meaning? By noting an exception, as in the case of C13.8?
It also seems strange that a dozer would be unable to create a TB through a lumberyard with or without rubbling it. Contrary to G15.25, which specifically uses the term "Single Story House," B23.211 suggests that a dozer cannot enter a lumberyard at all because it is a vehicle. Why a lumberyard would be virtually indestructible and impregnable cannot be explained away as easily as the general "permanence" of walls and hedges--a concession to ease of play.
The last sentence of B23.211 is odd too. Why bother to tell us that paths never exist
through a lumberyard? Were the authors on to Tuomo all those years ago? Did some joker try to Clear a Path (G2.7) during a play test of some long-forgotten scenario? Or was the rule supposed to prohibit a TB
through a lumberyard hex?
Suffice it to say that while a lumberyard
is a lumberyard, it's also a lot like a (wooden) building. How much so remains unclear.
