My group is currently in the middle/end of ACT II of Onslaught at Arda I*. They're roughly Knight Level in a campaign intended for starting characters they're simply destroying the opposition. I've tried adding more enemies to the encounters, but "more dudes to shoot" is kinda boring as a solution. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Oh, and the party consists of an Explorer/Scout focused on ranged combat, an Ace/Pilot, a Sentinel/Artisan+Shadow, and a Consular/Niman Disciple heavily focused on lightsaber combat.

*Which is a ton of fun and I highly recommend it.

Multiple ranks of adversary, multiple minion groups at different ranges, crew-served weapons, vehicles (AT-PT, AT-ST, etc.), use minions as spare soak for Rivals/Nemesis, automated defensive systems (turrets), environmental dangers (vacuum, flooding, lava, etc.), enhanced armor (extra soak and extra defense), stealth enemies...

Just a few ideas.

The bigger each minion group is, the more dangerous it is. When you get over five members in a minion group, they could be rolling five yellow dice. Combined with larger numbers of minion groups, and they can be a real challenge for most any PCs. A whole platoon of 120 stormtroopers in six-man squads would give them twenty chances per combat round to do serious damage to you. That would challenge even Anakin Skywalker.

Plus all the above, of course. And minions do make great meat-shields for seriously badass BBEGs.

As your players get better and have more XP, you need to start phasing out minions and replacing them with rivals. 5-6 rivals instead of 10 minions makes a lot of difference, not just when it comes to how much damage they can take but also because rivals can have talents that make them more dangerous opponents.

Squad rules from the GM screen help. Instead of a minion group adding more targets, they work as cover for your nastier NPCs. Another option would be upgrading your adversaries' equipment. It's much more problematic to face an E-Web than just a squad of Stormtroopers.

The bigger each minion group is, the more dangerous it is. When you get over five members in a minion group, they could be rolling five yellow dice. Combined with larger numbers of minion groups, and they can be a real challenge for most any PCs. A whole platoon of 120 stormtroopers in six-man squads would give them twenty chances per combat round to do serious damage to you. That would challenge even Anakin Skywalker.

Plus all the above, of course. And minions do make great meat-shields for seriously badass BBEGs.

Later in my campaigns, 8-man squads of Stormtroopers plus a Sergeant becomes the "standard" unit of deployment for the boys in white. They can be murderously effective.

Simple method:

Try upgrading (sometimes twice) every single roll an NPC makes but use the same stat blocks from the adventure (less work for you)

More options:

Increase environmental effects by increasing the amount of setback

As others have said increase the number of minions in each group, not the number of minion groups.

Improve the vehicles being used by the NPC's

Increase the adversary rating of Rivals and Nemesis.

Oh, another thing could be have the enemies start using stun damage, since Strain is rather more difficult to recover in the middle of combat than wounds. Plus, since most defensive talents cost strain, they can be squeezed that way as well.

Oh, another thing could be have the enemies start using stun damage, since Strain is rather more difficult to recover in the middle of combat than wounds. Plus, since most defensive talents cost strain, they can be squeezed that way as well.

That's a potentially ugly solution since it triggers a lot of metagaming concerns. Do a search for other threads where the PCs use stun weapons to knock out enemies and then slit their throats, or how everybody should know that Wookiees are weak to stun weapons.

Oh, another thing could be have the enemies start using stun damage, since Strain is rather more difficult to recover in the middle of combat than wounds. Plus, since most defensive talents cost strain, they can be squeezed that way as well.

That's a potentially ugly solution since it triggers a lot of metagaming concerns. Do a search for other threads where the PCs use stun weapons to knock out enemies and then slit their throats, or how everybody should know that Wookiees are weak to stun weapons.

Oh, I know. But he was asking for alternatives to simply adding more enemies. Plus, this would make sense contextually if someone wanted the party captured for interrogation or bounties....

Simple method:

Try upgrading (sometimes twice) every single roll an NPC makes but use the same stat blocks from the adventure (less work for you)

More options:

Increase environmental effects by increasing the amount of setback

As others have said increase the number of minions in each group, not the number of minion groups.

Improve the vehicles being used by the NPC's

Increase the adversary rating of Rivals and Nemesis.

Quoted for emphasis. The NPC dice pools should be closer to the PC's dice pools. You can make minion squad groups bigger...the additional dice and the slightly greater longevity will allow more hits to land. Also, be sure to throw around setback like candy...it takes away some of the PC's edge, plus that will make players with setback reducing talents happy...

The bigger each minion group is, the more dangerous it is. When you get over five members in a minion group, they could be rolling five yellow dice. Combined with larger numbers of minion groups, and they can be a real challenge for most any PCs. A whole platoon of 120 stormtroopers in six-man squads would give them twenty chances per combat round to do serious damage to you. That would challenge even Anakin Skywalker.

Plus all the above, of course. And minions do make great meat-shields for seriously badass BBEGs.

Later in my campaigns, 8-man squads of Stormtroopers plus a Sergeant becomes the "standard" unit of deployment for the boys in white. They can be murderously effective.

How do you run them for maximum effect (I'm assuming some relatively high-level PCs here)? I'm always on the lookout for good tactics.

Thanks for all the responses folks! Definitely going to have to make better use of setback dice, but the suggestions of upping the Adversary dice, switching Minions for Rivals (or Minion groups of Rivals) and increasing the number in the Minion groups should go a long way to getting back to that sweet spot between TPK and the PCs steamrolling.