Yeah - the rule doesn't apply to battles you won. All AIs are "rivals" but retreating to an ally's colony should be fine as long as you're not planning it as part of a break-alliance-backstab attack. Retreats from your own colony can't go back to the same world either if you lose the battle overall.
The whole rule is basically a grey area though, and since I never redirect retreating ships at all, I can't base it on my own play. So sure, if you're just showing up and immediately retreating, to recoordinate after the nebula bug messed things up or whatever, don't worry about getting a scratch on the way.
The whole rule is basically a grey area though, and since I never redirect retreating ships at all, I can't base it on my own play. So sure, if you're just showing up and immediately retreating, to recoordinate after the nebula bug messed things up or whatever, don't worry about getting a scratch on the way.