Skirmishers Rallying

[Hannibal]

Had a question come up in regarding skirmishers.  The situation:  Carthage Elephants had charged Velites in the Carthage player's turn.  Both units move 5", so at the start of the turn the Elephants are able to final rush the skirmishers and thus no auto-rally for the velites.  However, a unit of Principes had final rushed the elephants in the flank.  The rule states:

Routing skirmishers rally automatically during their controller’s Movement & Command phase, provided there are no enemy units currently eligible to final rush them (i.e. unengaged and within final rush range).

The question hinges on what does "during their controller’s Movement & Command phase" mean when determining "enemy units currently eligible to final rush"?  Does it mean that when the skirmisher is activated?  Or at some definite point in the M&C phase (i.e. start or end)? Or does a skirmisher continue to rout if there is an enemy eligible to final rush it at any part of the M&C phase (even if in later parts it is unable to do so)?

We determined that definitely since final rushes are the first movement that is done, that in this case the elephants were considered engaged when it came time to do other movement, so the skirmisher rallied on the spot.

But that left unanswered other situations.  For example, say the Roman player moved a Triarii unit sideways from behind those Principes.  The Triarii would move 2.5" sideways, blocking the path of the elephants to the Velites.  At the point "during the M&C phase" that the Roman player activated the Velites there was no "enemy units currently eligible to final rush them" and so the skirmishers rally on the spot.  Would that analysis be correct of both the rules as written and the intent of the rule?

[BubblePig]

I would say "Routing skirmishers rally automatically during their controller’s Movement & Command phase" is pretty unambiguous. It does not put any limit on what part of the M&C phase, and it says they do it automatically. As for the intent, I will leave that to others.

[Niko White]

I would say "Routing skirmishers rally automatically during their controller’s Movement & Command phase" is pretty unambiguous. It does not put any limit on what part of the M&C phase, and it says they do it automatically. As for the intent, I will leave that to others.

Yep, this is correct.  You can do rout moves in any order, and you can spend the command action to rally whenever you like during M&C.  The skirmisher auto-rally is basically a CA-free rally; for sequencing and so forth it replaces the rout move and as such happens whenever you like (but after final rushes) just like normal movement by orders.  So you did it right.

[Hannibal]

Thanks.  I figured, and the wording seemed straight forward to me.  But I was doing some skirmisher shenanigans to take out his elephants, so I wanted to make sure I wasn't engaging in wishful thinking.

[Niko White]

Thanks.  I figured, and the wording seemed straight forward to me.  But I was doing some skirmisher shenanigans to take out his elephants, so I wanted to make sure I wasn't engaging in wishful thinking.

Yeah, though do remember that like any other rally they can't do anything else useful that turn.

[Hannibal]

Yeah I got that part right.   

Follow up:  would a skirmisher unit rally at the end of its move?  Say you have elephants able to FR the Velites.  You activate the Velites who rout.  At the end of the rout move, which is still "during their controller’s Movement & Command phase", they are not longer within FR range of an enemy unit.  So would they rally at the end of their rout move?

(I'm now going over the skirmisher rules with a fine toothed comb as I start trying to recreate the flypaper trick).

[Kevin]

Don't have the rulebook in front of me, but I'm pretty sure that a unit rallies instead of moving.  Look up the "rallying a unit" rules.

[Niko White]

Kevin's right.

[Hannibal]

Yes thank you, I forgot that part.