I recently came upon an interesting timing question and I can't find an answer to it anywhere in the rulebook. Let's say we've got a following situation:

1. A squad of Tauntauns has just made a move that engages a squad of droids in a melee.

2. However, there's Grievious with a standby token nearby.

3. According to the rules, standby triggers before Tauns can do anything they could normally do after the move, including gaining a dodge token from agile or making their melee attack with relentless.

4. Grievious uses his standby to perform a move action, which let's him join the melee and make his own relentless attack against the Tauntauns.

The obvious question now is who gets to make their melee attack first - Tauns or Grievious? As you can imagine, it's a pretty important question in that situation. If it's Grievious that strikes first, he might well be able to wipe the entire Taun squad before they do anything. I guess it comes down to 2 things:

A. Does the standby's priority extend beyond the initial move action and also apply to the attack action granted by Grievious' relentless? I used to think they're inseparable but clearly they're not, because Tauns move-action combo granted by relentless IS interrupted by standby.

B. If the answer to A. is that the relentless attack isn't a part of standby and thus doesn't have that special priority that standby actions have, how does it queue up with Tauns ability to gain the dodge token and perform their own relentless attack? Is there any rule or a precedent that would allow to resolve this?

I would use the bullet from the Abilities section to rule on this:

Quote

If the timing of an ability uses the word “after,” that ability’s
effect occurs immediately after the described timing event
has occurred.

Grievous' Relentless must come immediately after his move action. Since his standby is interrupting the usual timing of the tauntaun's abilities, he takes priority.

1 minute ago, nashjaee said:

I would use the bullet from the Abilities section to rule on this:

Grievous' Relentless must come immediately after his move action. Since his standby is interrupting the usual timing of the tauntaun's abilities, he takes priority.

I guess you refer to this one:

Quote

If the timing of an ability uses the word “after,” that ability’s effect occurs immediately after the described timing event has occurred.

The problem is that Tauns' relentless is also "after move" and hence should happen immediately. The only reason why it doesn't happen is standby and AFAIK standby ends the moment Grievious performs his move action. That means we've got 3 effects that should happen "immediately": gaining dodge through agile and relentless attacks by both Tauns and Grievious. Concluding that Grievious' attack should happen first because it's trigger is more recent is one way to resolve this. The advantage of that approach is that only one relentless is interrupted in that case, which feels better from the perspective of the game flow. However, one could argue that precisely because Tauns' performed their move first and therefore triggered their own relentless earlier than Grievious, they should be the first to attack and I have to admit it's a pretty convincing argument.

I agree with @nashjaee . You're interrupting the Relentless from the Tauntauns because of the specific ruling of Standby:
"A standby token may be spent before any effects that trigger after an attack, attack action, move, or move action."

But there's nothing interrupting the Relentless from the unit that used the Standby, which must happen immediately after his move.

35 minutes ago, Lemmiwinks86 said:

I agree with @nashjaee . You're interrupting the Relentless from the Tauntauns because of the specific ruling of Standby:
"A standby token may be spent before any effects that trigger after an attack, attack action, move, or move action."

But there's nothing interrupting the Relentless from the unit that used the Standby, which must happen immediately after his move.

This seems correct to me. See also: a single clone unit spending multiple shared standby tokens off of a single enemy action. An official clarification on standby for this would be nice, but it seems the intent is that when standby is triggered, the player using standby gets to complete all possible actions from any standby being triggered before the active player resumes their activation.

11 hours ago, Lightrock said:

The problem is that Tauns' relentless is also "after move" and hence should happen immediately.

Yes, however the tauntauns’s actions have already been delayed by a rule. I see no rule that I can point to allowing me to delay Grievous’ attack. If you insert the tauntauns’s attack before his you’d be breaking the “after” rule. I think Grievous going first is the most reasonable interpretation. As a TO/judge that’s also how I’d rule it.

I think this could do with clarification, but currently I'd be on the grievous side

Agreeing with @nashjaee here as well. In effect the game is paused and each unit must complete it's standby actions.

Now here's a fun one.

Tauns rush in, Greivous activates and rushes the tauntauns but then Luke had a standby too and rushes Greivous, meanwhile the sappers and sabine are setting off their bombs.....

oy......

Hmm, that's a neat thing to do with Grievous! Being the bodyguard of those B1s: "come closer! I dare you!"

@nashjaee further question on this, but only involving a single unit. (specifically tauntauns)
So, if I move my tauns and want to take the pivot action after the move that kills my relentless? Or if I make my relentless attack I can't take my free picot actions?

9 hours ago, Zrob314 said:

@nashjaee further question on this, but only involving a single unit. (specifically tauntauns)
So, if I move my tauns and want to take the pivot action after the move that kills my relentless? Or if I make my relentless attack I can't take my free picot actions?

Pivot is also a move action, so you can trigger relentless off that.

9 hours ago, Zrob314 said:

@nashjaee further question on this, but only involving a single unit. (specifically tauntauns)
So, if I move my tauns and want to take the pivot action after the move that kills my relentless? Or if I make my relentless attack I can't take my free picot actions?

Since they have the same trigger, you’d choose the order in which they resolve.

13 hours ago, mini78 said:

Pivot is also a move action, so you can trigger relentless off that.

Reposition gives a free "pivot" action" which is not or at least appears to not be a move action.

7 minutes ago, Zrob314 said:

Reposition gives a free "pivot" action" which is not or at least appears to not be a move action.

From Reposition page 59 RRG: A pivot performed with the reposition keyword is a move.

19 hours ago, Zrob314 said:

Reposition gives a free "pivot" action" which is not or at least appears to not be a move action.

Pg 49

“The primary way that units move is by performing a move action. When a unit performs a move action, it performs a standard move, reverse, pivot, climb, clamber, embark, or disembark.”

On 1/14/2020 at 10:06 PM, Caimheul1313 said:

From Reposition page 59 RRG: A pivot performed with the reposition keyword is a move.

Exactly.

This is not a "move action."

See also: Scout (page 61)

"A move performed with the scout x keyword is a move, but is not a move action."

So, if a move can not qualify as a move action then a "pivot action " is somehow, in a strict legality sense, not the same as a pivot which is a move action.

"When a unit with the reposition keyword performs a standard move, it may either perform a free pivot action before performing that standard move or perform a free pivot action after performing that standard move."

12 hours ago, Zrob314 said:

Exactly.

This is not a "move action."

See also: Scout (page 61)

"A move performed with the scout x keyword is a move, but is not a move action."

So, if a move can not qualify as a move action then a "pivot action " is somehow, in a strict legality sense, not the same as a pivot which is a move action.

"When a unit with the reposition keyword performs a standard move, it may either perform a free pivot action before performing that standard move or perform a free pivot action after performing that standard move."

If pivot is a move, then a free pivot action is a free move action. Scout doesn't say it grants a move action it says it grants a move. Reposition specifically calls what it grants and "action" in the wording of the RRG.

Regardless, it's moot in light of the update to the Official Rulings post on the forum.

10 hours ago, Zrob314 said:

Exactly.

This is not a "move action."

As of the new ruling from yesterday, you are correct. Before that Reposition granted a "pivot action", which is as good as a "move action" for determining triggers. (This caused some annoying loopholes, so it's good to see them make the change.)