Stacking terrain on Steep Hills?

[fredrik]

A question cropped up in yesterday's game: the rules state that you can stack a terrain piece on top of a "hill" (no mention of whether or not this only applies to Gentle Hills), does this mean you can also stack terrain on top of Steep Hills? The rules does not specifically say you can't, but if this is the case what happens for example if you stack an Open Field on top of a Steep Hill - does it become "Difficult" or "Uneven" as a result?

The purpose of such a terrain placement would be to limit the number of "bad" terrain pieces available to the player without initiative, specifically to ensure that there aren't enough pieces available of the same type for the non-initiative player to place a big 2-selection piece.

To be honest it seems a bit strange if this would be the intention of the rules.

[lawrenceg]

A question cropped up in yesterday's game: the rules state that you can stack a terrain piece on top of a "hill" (no mention of whether or not this only applies to Gentle Hills), does this mean you can also stack terrain on top of Steep Hills? The rules does not specifically say you can't, but if this is the case what happens for example if you stack an Open Field on top of a Steep Hill - does it become "Difficult" or "Uneven" as a result?

The purpose of such a terrain placement would be to limit the number of "bad" terrain pieces available to the player without initiative, specifically to ensure that there aren't enough pieces available of the same type for the non-initiative player to place a big 2-selection piece.

To be honest it seems a bit strange if this would be the intention of the rules.

Pages 131 and 140 are pretty clear on this.

Only certain terrains (not including Open Fields) can be "stacked on" (as you put it) a hill, i.e. the hill can be covered with certain terrain types.

This can be done with both gentle and steep hills. A steep hill is still steep and difficult regardless of what it is covered with. You are allowed to reduce the number of bad terrain pieces available to the other player in this way. The terrain rules are set up to allow players to minimise the impact of terrain in other ways too, e.g. by blocking placement with open areas, moving them out of the way, or removing them, so I'm sure it was intentional.

When terrain items are being placed on the table, they cannot be stacked on top of another item.