Hi all

i noticed imperial officers got 2 special abilities: overwhelming fire and tactical maneuver

those 2 abilities let him/her use a maneuver to give a free combat check or maneuver to a close minion squad

this represent the abilities of imperial officer to "issue order" to the squadr, thus forgoing his own maneuvers to command one squad into doing something

However, rules for squads and formations in Game Master's Kit offer a more balanced way to represent one rival issuing orders to a minion squad

so...

what's better way?

special abilities on IO seems to me a bit unbalanced yet "fast and dirt" way to do the same things, while formations is a well round rule even the PC can use but a little more complicated

is wise to remove those 2 special abilities and give IO a Leadership score to issue formations?

or both things can be used?

thanks for your advices

I vastly prefer the NPC version to the formation rules in the GM Guide. Having one NPC roll dice to determine if another NPC is going to roll dice isn't much fun for anyone.

I use different rules for different situation. Mostly it depends on how much book keeping or what I want the emphasis to be for that encounter.

Both are acceptable and viable.

It's the difference between the Officer standing in the back lines of the fight, at a safe distance, and commanding his troops forward into battle as opposed to the Officer being on the front lines himself shooting at the PCs and then if he does really well (triumph) then his squad actually gets the chance to hit something. It works well in both cases, the former giving the PCs the feeling of a non-combat Officer and having to fight through multiple groups of minions, or a very combat focused Officer who is right in the fight but is hard to hit (passing damage of to kill his squad).

You could also use both, one as a squad with the minions up front, one further back with a bodyguard rival. For engagements where you want/need something a little more interesting/challenging.