Ladders
How ladders work in Messalith: climbing up to two levels at a cliff foot, what a rung costs in movement, and why a ladder gives no cover and no overwatch.
A ladder is a way up a cliff. It stands on the tile at a cliff's foot, with its poles and rungs against the face, and it is the only way up besides a ramp or a ledge.
What a ladder does
- Climb: an exile standing on a ladder can step to the neighbouring tile up to 2 levels higher, and back down again. A ramp only goes one.
- Straight only: a climb is an orthogonal step. No one climbs on a diagonal.
- Cost: the step costs 2 where a straight step on the flat costs 1.
- Cover: none on the ladder itself.
- Overwatch: nobody can fire an overwatch shot from one.
Where they are
The generator puts ladders where a cliff face blocks the quickest way across a board, or hides ground the squad would otherwise never reach. They stand at least 8 tiles from the next climb. A mesa, the canyon's landmark, is reached by ladders and by ramps, and every ladder has a way for the squad to walk to its foot.
The ground at the top is the same height as its tile says it is, so high ground applies on arrival. A ledge climbs one level. A ladder is the way to two.