(Answered) Hitting Cover - But Which Hex?

[NeonKnight]

Under the rules on Page 109 of TW, Page 32 of BMM, Quoted below:

Partial Cover: Partial cover only applies to standing ’Mechs. Add a +1 terrain modifier to the to-hit number if the target ’Mech is partially concealed (see Line of Sight, p. 99). When a ’Mech receives the partial cover modifier, resolve damage using the standard ’Mech Hit Location Table, but any hits against the target’s legs strike the intervening terrain. Remember that an attacker firing downhill negates its target’s partial cover (see Partial Cover, p. 102).

So, in the First Example Diagram below, the Awesome is firing on the Assassin getting partial cover from the building in front of it. Any attacks that hit the Assassin's Legs hits the building instead.

However in Example picture 2, the same scenario applies, but if the shot hit's the Assassin's legs where does the Awesome's shots hit? The level 1 hill, or the Level 1 Building?

This is a weird corner case as both the Building and the Hill are the intervening terrain, but technically only the Building is granting the Partial Cover. This gets further sticky as the scenario we were playing last night involved one side trying to destroy the Buildings, and the defending side placed all the Level 1 buildings behind hills to prevent LoS to the buildings as per INTERVENING TERRAIN rules on Page 100 of TW/Page 22 of BMM.

Obviously, the Defending players argued the Hill/Building were one piece of intervening terrain, while the attacking side argued that only the hex immediately in front of the Mech counted as intervening terrain.

[Xotl]

The AGOAC/BMM entry makes it a bit clearer, in that it says the hit strikes the cover, not "the intervening terrain".  Intervening terrain alone does not normally absorb shots or give partial cover--only a very specific scenario does this occur--so there's no reason to factor in the hill here.  The hex that gives partial cover always takes the hit.  In this case that's the building, so the building is damaged.

The hills do prevent LOS to the building directly, which might complicate things in someone's mind, but this would need to be filed under the notion of abstraction.

[NeonKnight]

Thanx Xotl!

That's what I thought.

So the shot would always impact the hex adjacent to the 'mech for similar situations (clearing woods, Modifiying terrain, etc).

[Xotl]

The only rule that specifically allows for a game effect in the partial cover rules is partial cover via buildings.  Otherwise a strikes-the-cover shot is presumed to vanish into dimension X and so doesn't have a game effect unless the rules for that effect specifically allow, on their own, for random missed shots to have an effect.  In other words, you haven't targeted that partial cover hex with a missed shot.