Opponent declares BS-attack at unit A (LoF, no ZoC), unit A responds with a smoke grenade BS-attack, placing the template such that it covers allied unit B, who had no ARO against the opponent (out of LoF and out of ZoC). Is unit B 'affected by a template' and therefore able to perform a dodge ARO? Does active vs reactive turn affect this?
Active Turn is a definite No, only the Active trooper(s) can declare skills and only the Reactive Player can declare AROs. As far as I can tell in RAW in the Reactive turn it looks like a tentative yes, as long as the smoke was used with the first ARO step then affected troopers would be eligible to Declare during the second ARO step, though amusingly because they are not enemies it looks like it would be a Face to Face roll, as Smoke Ammunition says "Any enemy in the Area of Effect of the Smoke Template that declares a Dodge ARO will make a Normal Roll, not a Face to Face Roll against the Smoke user." However, because of the way F2F rolls are written assuming they are between opposing players, and because Smoke Ammunition has the line I quoted above, I think that there is a very strong argument for the RAI being that friendly smoke does not grant AROs.
Thanks @colbrook that was my reading too. It seems unintentional to be able to trigger a bunch of extra dodges on your reactive turn just by throwing smoke on your own models, and quite exploitable for leaving hidden deployment or standing up MSV units in smoke on reactive etc.
Forgive me if I'm off base here, but ARO require a response to an Active model (enemy) model. Your own template wouldn't be valid.
The original question is partly based on the fourth clause of the ARO rules: A Reactive Trooper is allowed to declare ARO in the following situations: An enemy Trooper activates within its Line of Fire (LoF). An enemy Trooper activates within its Zone of Control (ZoC) or Hacking Area. It has a Special Skill, weapon, or piece of Equipment that specifies that the Trooper can react to enemy actions without LoF or ZoC. It is affected by a Template Weapon, or is the target of a Hacking Program or other Comms Attack. It doesn't actually specify that it has to be affected by an enemy Template Weapon.
The bullet points that you're quoting don't. But if you read further down the page, there's additional text, such as this statement: Troopers cannot react to AROs, since only the Active Player's Orders give AROs and only the Reactive Player can declare AROs. If a template is placed by an ARO, then reacting to that template would be reacting to an ARO.
Moreover... If the template is placed in ARO, there are still an ACTIVE and a REACTIVE player. And AROs can be declared only by troopers of the reactive player. It is also quoted over there...
Another reason that this can't work is that the Smoke Template doesn't actually go down until the Resolution step, (assuming they succeed), which is much too late for any new AROs to be declared.
Only to determine placement, (if it's successful), and whether it needs Face-to-Face or Normal rolls.
And to determine what troopers are affected by the template, potentially granting AROs. But like others have pointed out, you can't ARO an ARO.
