Suppose a weapon with 5 damage and 3 crit hits a minion group (consisting of 3 minions that have base wound threshold of 4 and base soak of 1) with 3 hits and 5 advantage. Before soak, what is the total damage dealed to the group?

12 damage? (8 damage = 5 damage + 3 hits and 4 additional damage due to a critical injury)

After soak, what is the total ammount of damage absorbed by the group?

My best bet: 9.

4 damage is unaffected by soak (the critical damage) and of the remaining 8, 3 is absorbed by the minion's total soak (1 for each standing) Is this right? Is soak added up?

Minions in a Group act, for most purposes, as if they were one character. Soak and damage are applied only once for the whole group. Wounds are applied to a common wound pool they share, and a minion is removed each time the group takes wounds exceeding (one greater than) their individual wound threshold. Activation of a Crit removes a minion from play, it does not technically apply any more wounds, you just remove one minion.

So in the example you present (Dam 5, Crit 3, 3 Successes, 5 Advantage vs Soak 1, WT 4 Grp 3) You would inflict 7 wounds after soak, removing one minion for wounds exceeding the threshold and rolling over the remaining three to another (if you'd only done 4 damage you would have removed none). If you activate a crit, another minion is removed, leaving one minion left with 3 wound on him.

Minion grouping isn't some complex math exercise, it's a cheat, a way for the GM to represent larger numbers of disposable baddies while not having to carefully track lots of wounds or dozens of initiative slots. So you bunch them up, keep them engaged, and count them as one while describing them is more.

If you do want lots of weak individuals all acting and moving independently, just don't group them. Grouping is an option, not a requirement.

Thanks, I now know soak isn't modified in a minion group. I got curious about something you mentioned:

So you bunch them up, keep them engaged, and count them as one while describing them is more.

If you do want lots of weak individuals all acting and moving independently, just don't group them. Grouping is an option, not a requirement.

As engaging minions in a group is optional, do they lose their group buffs if separated? e.g. if a group of engaged stormtroopers later separate in the jungle to hide behind a tree or rock for protection, do they still count as members of the group? do they still retain their buffs?

thanks!

Thanks, I now know soak isn't modified in a minion group. I got curious about something you mentioned:

So you bunch them up, keep them engaged, and count them as one while describing them is more.

If you do want lots of weak individuals all acting and moving independently, just don't group them. Grouping is an option, not a requirement.

As engaging minions in a group is optional, do they lose their group buffs if separated? e.g. if a group of engaged stormtroopers later separate in the jungle to hide behind a tree or rock for protection, do they still count as members of the group? do they still retain their buffs?

thanks!

Grouping and keeping them Engaged are two separate things.

Grouping is an encounter design feature. It allows you to take a set of weak NPCs and combined them to be a larger threat and to act as one for the purposes of tracking them in combat. For sanity sake it's usually good to also keep everyone in the group Engaged as doing so:

• Keeps the group's range banding standardized (no sorting out what to do if one member is Short to you, and the rest are Extreme.)
• Avoids odd damage modeling narratives (The wookiee with a vibro-axe attacks the Stormtrooper at Engaged range doing 24 damage after soak, the remaining stormtroopers in the group at Long range die too because... reasons.)
• Provides opportunities for the players (Jayne says: Always bring grenades!)

But there's no requirement to keep them engaged, so if the encounter design allows, and it's appropriate, you could have them all at short range to each other or something. As long as they are still "grouped" they still retain all benefits from being grouped.

Typically once you've decided to group a set of minions they will stay that way throughout the encounter. In the rare occasion where a minion falls out of a group (see Squads and Squadrons in the AoR GM Kit) they generate a new initiative slot that immediately follows the slot the group was taking, and yes, they no longer count as a group member thus no skill rank contribution ect.

Ungrouped minions will likewise, usually stay that way for the duration of an encounter. For all intents and purposes an ungrouped minion will act more or less like a really lame rival type character. In this case they can all move to engaged range with each other for any legit reason, but they'll still act individually. Reasons for ungrouped minions may include:

• The desire for a simple combat encounter (sometimes the narrative value of an easy fight is more important than a challenge.)
• Speedbumps: Powerful melee fighters can't hack through single minions as fast as groups.
• Illustrating that these mooks aren't trained/experienced to work together: Those goons the hutt sent after you aren't trained soldiers and don't really know each other that well.

I see your point, thanks!