Ferretz said:

That particular scene is already covered in the rules. The snow troopers were using a heavy repeating blaster, operating in a two-man team if memory serves with one gunner and one guy maintaining the generator.  In this case, I'd treat them as a group of minions, but still allow them the perk of being able to fire the E-Web every other round instead of being limited to firing every third round the way a single operator would.

So I don't think any special rules are needed to provide a "squad weapon" beyond the GM deciding "hey, this group of stormtroopers have access to a heavy repeating blaster" for that particular encounter.

Ah, I noticed it now. I think the wording is a bit unclear. But I'm glad it's included.

Of course, I guess we'll see much more details around military operations, squad weapons and such in Age of Rebellion. But the rules for squad weapons as they are now works for the purpose of the adventure I'm planning. :)

-E.

For game mechanics, even if a crew manning a squad weapon would have importance equivalent to minions, it may be better to  treat the squad weapon + crew as a henchman.  The individuals and weapon function as a unit, and together they are substantially more dangerous than a typical single minion.  This would give you some flexibility with what the squad's abilities are (ala talents) and you can assign appropriate ability scores and skills (Not requiring multiple minions to get actual skill ranks).  When all their wound points are gone, all members in the crew die (GM may even want to say the weapon is destroyed, to keep powerful hardware from unbalancing later encounters where the players weren't expected to have that kind of firepower).

Also, where Ferretz asked "could the minions have a sharpshooter in the mix", the answer is, unfortunately, no, as the RAW stand.  On pg 196, in the section minions can fight as a group it states "Minions can only be deployed in groups of the same type".

If you need individuals (or very small groups of individuals) supporting a group of minions (squad weapons or a few sharpshooters), its probably best to add them as henchmen, instead of more minions.

-WJL

LethalDose said:

Well, a pack of minions functioning as a "group" or "squad" already have the perk of having a combined wound threshold, with every increment (usually 5) reflecting one minion getting taken down, so again it'd just be a matter of the GM equipping that squad of minions with the appropriate heavy weapon and the skill to make good use of it.  So to use the Hoth Snowtroopers and their E-Web as an example, combine 3 Stormtrooper minions into a squad and give them a heavy repeating blaster.  The squad has a final Wound Threshold of 15 and can attack once per turn with a big damn gun, which I think is plenty enough as is.

As for the worries of the PCs keeping it, remember that this is military-grade hardware, and only on the most lawless of worlds are the PCs not going to have the locals calling for the authorities.  Plus, whatever fun toys the PCs might acquire, the Empire has better quality and lots more of them ;).  As the Alliance brass will gladly remind you, fighting a war of attrition against the Empire is a losing proposition, and that's with the Alliance offering a degree of support that most EotE groups simply won't have.

Ferretz said:

The minion’s mechanic is designed for back ground battle fluff and damage. I understand they can actually do a sizable amount of damage over time or with a good roll here and there, but all in all they are more table dressing for the over-all adventure/encounter.

Snipers or Sharpshooters would be considered a low level NPC in my opinion. This is a unique element that makes the encounter extra nasty or difficult.
 

Daegren said:

A Sniper or Sharpshooter would probably just be a Henchman that's operating alongside a minion squad rather than being a part of one.

Alternatively, the presence of a "sniper" or "sharpshooter" could instead be used as a story-based justification for why this pack of minions are now rolling proficiency dice; the other minions that get dropped save for the 2nd-to-last one simply "got in the way" of the heroes' attempts to take out said "sharpshooter," and they only succeed once they attack a minion squad that's down to 2 members, with the last member (now a lone minion) simply being a regular shmoe (and thus why the proficiency die goes away).

One thing that I have noticed reading through Crate of Krayts is that some Minions do not have any skills listed, so how would you use them as a group?  What would the mechanical benefit be?

And on a related note, can a group of Minions target more than one enemy?  Or would it be best to split the group to cover more targets?

lupex said:

The mechanical "benefit" would be that the GM has a few less individual bad guys to keep track of, which in bigger fights can be a huge boon.

As for what a group of minions could target, I'd leave it that they can only target one enemy at a time.  Granted, I think you can put minions into groups of 2, so you can use that option to let your minions get the benefit of their skill ranks (when they have them) and still be able to attack more than one PC at a time.  Mind you, I'm away from my book, but it kinda seems that for a lot of EotE combats, putting minions in groups of 2 seems to be the easiest way to increase their threat to the PCs and yet still have them be easily taken down. 

Donovan Morningfire said:

It actually clearly states that when minions are fighting in a group, they attack as a whole, not as individuals. So they make one attack roll against one target - same exact way squads worked in Saga Edition. The other minions in the group are considered to be "aiding each other."

Same way when the PCs are attacking the minion group. They attack the group as a whole instead of Stormtrooper B.

Cyril said:

I understand the rules for using Minions as groups but a Minion Group of 4 Minions without a skill, such as Ranged (Light), would not be any significant threat to a group of PCs as they would have no skill dice in thier dice pool.  Whereas a Minion Group of 4 Minions with a relevent skill would have the opportunity to include 3 skill dice in thier pool, thus becoming a significant threat. 

The only benefit of having a group of unskilled Minions is that they would have a higher level of wounds but they could only target one PC each round, so they may as well attack as individuals?

:edit:

I had a reading comprehension fail :-).  As you were Lupex.

So here's a wonderment:  If you use a grenade on a group of minions… does that deal damage to "each" Minion in range of the blast, or does it deal damage to the "group" as a single entity. 

My gut reaction is to deal damage to each minion, effectively making AoE minion sweepers, as this fits the idea I have for what a grenade should do to a group of thugs, but I can understand the RAW view as well, since the abstraction of a "group" as a single enemy is done for balance and narrative.

Has anyone else encountered this?

Majesticmoose said:

I haven't encountered the situation, but I'd say you were right.  Reading the blast description, when activated, it deals blast damage to all characters in range (friend or foe).  While the minion group, aka "goon squad", operates as an "entity" they are still individual characters.

The sticking point here is that it never states that minions are required to be in an engagement to form a goon squad to begin with, nor must they remain in an engagement to maintain the good squad bonuses.  I think this is something we take for granted.  They could all be spread out over a short (nee close) range area, and acting together, but not susceptible to the blast effect, which hits each other character engaged with the original target.  To use the minions group attack, all the minions should be at the same range to the target, but that's possible to do and not be engaged in the RAW.

-WJL

Majesticmoose said:

Haven't encountered, but I'd be inclined to make a GM ruling and simply let the minion "entity" be taken out if the damage from the Blast quality would be enough to take down a single minion of that type.  It might be a bit powerful, but given these are minions whose sole purpose is to provide a minor threat to the PCs, to say nothing of needing 2 Advantage to trigger that Blast quality, I'm okay with that.

So then how does wound allocation work?  Let's say a player hits a group of 4 Stormtroopers (5 soak/5 wounds each) for 20 damage (big gun, point blank, lots of successes).

Does he kill two Stormtroopers, or just one?  Does damage get capped at the max wounds of a single entity within the group, or spill over? I can't find this clearly articulated in the rules.