Combat Clarification

Just to note:
I have not run any EotE games yet.
I ran a forum search and didn't find anything obvious that answered my questions.
I do not have any dice to roll tests, and have never seen the system in action.

Have I got the correct understanding of this:

Example:
Minion Group of 4 Stormtroopers
4 Player Characters

There will be 5 initiative slots, with each player using one each, and the minion group in one.
The players each get an action, lets say they all choose to fire at the troopers.
The troopers (of which we have 4)... get to fire back just once?

So while the players can attack ALL of the Troopers at once (each firing at a single trooper), the Troopers can only fire at a single PC.. even though there are 4 of them.

(Now I can get the narrative, that this doesnt represent a single blaster bolt, but rather an exchanged barrage of shots, just like a fantasy 'attack' is a succession of blows, rather than just a single swing of a sword)

Now, I am sure this must work, as otherwise it wouldnt be done this way, and the topic would be far far far more discussed with house-rules if it didnt... but really... this works? It doesnt nerf the enemies ability to fight back?

Next Bit:

The Stormtroopers group (of 4), has a WT of 20 (4x5), one of the troopers dies... does the WT drop to 15? or does it stay at 20 for the duration of the encounter, until all the troopers are defeated or fled?

Equally, the group would have 3 ranks in Ranged (Heavy), and so would be rolling 3 Yellow dice for all attacks (3 Agility and 3 Upgrades?) - If one dies, the group now has only 2 ranks in Ranged (Heavy), so do subsequent rolls drop to 1Green and 2 Yellow?
Or do the dice stats remain fixed as above, until defeated or fled?

Third Bit:

Would you logically deploy a Minion group of Stormtroopers (Lets stick with 4), along with a Sergent (Rival), thus making the original example 6 initiative slots? (4 for players, 1 for the Minion Group and 1 for the Rival)

And the Sergent is considered a totally independent character in their own right?


Last Bit:
Is it better to deploy More GROUPS of fewer minions, or Fewer GROUPS or greater number?
Or is that really a judgement thing? Is there a difficulty curve or rule of thumb that can be applied to this?
(EG: 1 group of 4 -> 2 Groups of 3 -> 3 Groups of 2)


Please remember, I have not run any games yet, do not have any dice to roll tests, and have never seen the system in action.

Cheers!
RD

Example: Yes, you have this correct. No, it doesn't really hinder them. Remember that these are minions after all and that their lot in life is to be cannon fodder.

Next Bit: In your example, when the minion group suffers 5 wounds, one trooper would die and the die pool would adjust accordingly. In this specific example, they would drop down to a 3 man squad and as such would only have 2 ranks in Ranged Heavy, so their new die pool should be 2 Yellow and 1 Green.

Example 3: That would work just fine. The sergeant has a special ability to help the minion squad, too, so don't forget to use that.

Last Bit: It's really a judgement thing. More groups will mean that the party will have to split fire, which may be a nice way to keep the combat from being ended by one lucky roll.

I will try to answer your questions as best I can. For future reference though you will probably get more responses by posting this type of question on the GM forum.

1) you are correct IF you group the minions they will only get one action. Grouping the minions is optional and if you only plan on useing four I would keep them sperate and let them act indivdually. The grouping mechanic is used to make large encouters more feasable and simplify combat. If you grouped them with a sergeant you could group them but I woulnt unless I had two groups of minions.

2)The WT does decease when each minion dies. Though they die because of damage done to the group. so the group in your example with a WT of 20 has one minion die when 5 damge is done. the WT for the group is now 15. if the group took 6 damage orginally the wt is 14/15 14 left out of a max of 15.

when the minion dies in a group the rolls for that group do change. so when the group dropps to three they now roll YYG instead of YYY with 4 minions in the group.

3) I think I answered this in question one.

4) this would depend on the effect I wanted to narrate. if I wanted overwhelming numbers it would be large groups. if it was an an encouter focused around a sergeat I would do small minion groups with more total groups. Say a sergeat and two groups of 3 minions. Each approach is appropraite it will just depend on what you are trying to narrate. I would say it is best to limit the amount of groups you need to roll for so that the PC do not have to wait long. Personally I would stick to 2-3 groups I need to roll for... including the Sergeant unless I was narating a large encounter.

Now, I am sure this must work, as otherwise it wouldnt be done this way, and the topic would be far far far more discussed with house-rules if it didnt... but really... this works? It doesnt nerf the enemies ability to fight back?

It does nerf them. It also makes combat fast and simple for the GM. These are both good things.

Next Bit:

The Stormtroopers group (of 4), has a WT of 20 (4x5), one of the troopers dies... does the WT drop to 15? or does it stay at 20 for the duration of the encounter, until all the troopers are defeated or fled?

The Wound Threshold always stays the same at 20 because you count Wounds up starting from zero. It's not like HP in other games where you start at some number and count down.

Is it better to deploy More GROUPS of fewer minions, or Fewer GROUPS or greater number?

Define "better". More groups of minions mean more chance for the NPCs to act and tip the balance of action economy in the GM's favor while fewer groups tilts it in favor of the PCs. Smaller groups of minions generally increases PC survivability as the minion group skill checks will have fewer proficiency dice while larger groups of minions will increase the chance of the GM rolling Triumphs which can be used to alter the circumstances of combat, destroy any cover that the PCs are using, add more enemies, trigger critical hits, and other related events in combat—your imagination is the limit.

There is incredible flexibility in this system from just a few simple rules. My recommendation is to run a couple pre-written encounters (the Beginner Game will get you up to speed quickly) if you can to get a feel for the system.

Yes on initiative.

The troopers can fire back once if you use the minion grouping rules. You can deploy them separately if you like. They still are quite effective independently.

Correct a minion group has one attack, if they are grouped together. The point to the grouping rules is to give them the skill use and upgrade option if they are deployed in groups. It increases the damage that single hit could land if you are dealing with high soak players. In addition it makes your life easier and you have to track less initiatives, less dice rolls, etc.

Wounds drop as you lose minions as if they were one entity.

The grouping rule allows skill usage and an additional skill rank to the max per minion deployed together in excess of one minion as long as the skill is on their skill list. So your 4 man group has 3 ranks of Range(H), so the pool is YYYPP for a medium range shot as an example. As they die it drops, so you deploy them in groups greater than 6 to maintain an ablative effect to keeping the dice pool maxed.

How you deploy is a matter of what kind of players you have, their relative soak and combat skills, and what you are looking to accomplish in the encounter. Like I said, a lone Stormtrooper is still quite good, that medium range shot for him is GGGPP , which is quite good still and a threat with a blaster rifle.

Next Bit:

The Stormtroopers group (of 4), has a WT of 20 (4x5), one of the troopers dies... does the WT drop to 15? or does it stay at 20 for the duration of the encounter, until all the troopers are defeated or fled?

The Wound Threshold always stays the same at 20 because you count Wounds up starting from zero. It's not like HP in other games where you start at some number and count down.

This. You should note that this system works off Accumulation of damage (Wounds), not reduction of health (Hit Points). When your accumulated damage (Wounds) exceeds the Wound Threshold of a character, they are incapacitated (dead in the case of certain NPCs).

So in the case of 4 Stormtroopers grouped their Wound Threshold is 20. At 6 Wounds one trooper is down, at 11 Wounds another trooper is down, at 16 Wounds the third trooper is down and at 21 Wounds the last trooper goes down.

Otherwise, everything 2P51 said.

Liloki is right. It's when the collective wounds would exceed the threshold of the the individual minion.

So in your example a minion would drop at 6, another would drop at 11, the third would drop at 16, and the final would drop at 21.

Remember, PCs and NPCs do not fall unconscious until their wounds or strains exceeds their threshold.

So I had a quick question on Range making sure I am interpreting it correctly. A character can only engage a target if they are within range of their weapon. Meaning that if a person is engaging stormtroopers, who are armed with blaster rifles and a group of rebels are armed with pistols and they start at extreme range of one another. The troopers can start firing when the rebels get into long range and then the rebels can start shooting when they get into medium? I am basically just trying to recreate an assault in AoR and want to do it right. From a narrative stand point could a player use advantage or triumph to engage sooner? Like a sharpshooter takes a shot from extreme range with his pistol and scores a triumph or 4 advantage so could I narratively say on the triumph he manages to make a shot on a stormtrooper or with a triumph he provokes the whole squad of four to break cover cause these rebels seem to be nuts but good shots.

So I had a quick question on Range making sure I am interpreting it correctly. A character can only engage a target if they are within range of their weapon. Meaning that if a person is engaging stormtroopers, who are armed with blaster rifles and a group of rebels are armed with pistols and they start at extreme range of one another. The troopers can start firing when the rebels get into long range and then the rebels can start shooting when they get into medium? I am basically just trying to recreate an assault in AoR and want to do it right. From a narrative stand point could a player use advantage or triumph to engage sooner? Like a sharpshooter takes a shot from extreme range with his pistol and scores a triumph or 4 advantage so could I narratively say on the triumph he manages to make a shot on a stormtrooper or with a triumph he provokes the whole squad of four to break cover cause these rebels seem to be nuts but good shots.

Yep, the weapon's range listed it the maximum range of the weapon. Extending that range requires either modifications/attachments to the weapon, or Talents like "Sniper Shot."

I wouldn't do the destiny point to extend ranges simply because there are talents and such that already do that, so giving them a "free" way of doing that negates the talent, and by extension the players motivation to take it.

As for the Triumph/Advantage, yeah that's a valid effect, costs 3 Advantage IIRC, not 4.

So I had a quick question on Range making sure I am interpreting it correctly. A character can only engage a target if they are within range of their weapon. Meaning that if a person is engaging stormtroopers, who are armed with blaster rifles and a group of rebels are armed with pistols and they start at extreme range of one another. The troopers can start firing when the rebels get into long range and then the rebels can start shooting when they get into medium? I am basically just trying to recreate an assault in AoR and want to do it right. From a narrative stand point could a player use advantage or triumph to engage sooner? Like a sharpshooter takes a shot from extreme range with his pistol and scores a triumph or 4 advantage so could I narratively say on the triumph he manages to make a shot on a stormtrooper or with a triumph he provokes the whole squad of four to break cover cause these rebels seem to be nuts but good shots.

If I'm reading correctly, you're asking if a character can attack a target outside the maximum range of his weapon. The answer is "no," but there are talents that allow you to extend the range of your weapon.

The question "can I use a triumph to hit the enemy at extreme range" is a moot point, because you cannot attack him in the first place, therefore there is no dice pool to roll; ergo, no triumph is possible in this situation.

now...if you're at extreme range, and the enemy can see you clearly, I don't see any reason why you can't attempt a Ranged combat check (at a hefty difficulty) to intimidate or otherwise convince the stormtroopers into breaking cover. But such a check would not be an attack, and you'd likely have to spend a Destiny Point to make it happen.