If a liberto's LoF to Patroclus is blocked by smoke, can Patroclus enter the holoecho state in the states phase (e.g. does the smoke go away first, not allowing Patroclus to enter the holoecho state because the liberto now has LoF or do the events happen simultaneously)? This is really a question on how the states phase works; does the states phase have a defined timing Relevant rules: Smoke ammunition: The Smoke Template remains on the table until the start of the States Phase. Holoecho: If the Holoprojector bearer is outside the LoF of enemy Markers or Troopers, then the bearer may automatically activate this State during the States Phase, placing the other two Holoechoes in Silhouette contact with it. Bold is my emphasis
Clearly the answer is yes, although like many things the timing is ad hoc and not centrally specified. Just in case you’re planning a follow up “So what is the timing for the states phase?” without without going through and doing an exhaustive search for references...
Turns out it's pretty quick to search "states phase" in the rules, there aren't actually a lot of things that happen in there. - Smoke and White Noise "remain on the table" or "persist" "until the start of the states phase." - Stunned is cancelled at the start of the states phase - Regeneration, frenzy, albedo, and holoecho all apply their effects "during" or "in" the states phase. The cancellation timing of Stunned matters for Regeneration. It looks to me like since Stunned is cancelled at the start of the phase and Regeneration is rolled during the phase, a Stunned trooper won't apply a -3 penalty to her Regeneration roll. Likewise, the timing of smoke/holoecho seems pretty clear to me. Smoke only stays on the table until the start of the states phase, so it's not there when Patroclus tries to re-apply holoecho during the states phase. To me it looks like for every instance of two effects that could affect each other during the states phase, CB has designated one of them to happen at the start and the other during the phase. Seems like a deliberate choice to resolve those interactions.
What’s your question? The rules specify that some effects happen at different times, referencing the phase. That is how “detailed timing” is specified in the typically written (general rules and exceptions) rules form.
So, is your reasoning that everything that happens in a phase always happens simultaneously, and a phase can never have an internal order, because the way the rules provide for an order of doing things is by having them happen in different phases? If so, that answers my question - my question was to ask by what reasoning you reached the conclusion that Patroclus can apply his holoechoes in this scenario.
