A group of minions attack in one roll, but how does their movement work? Does each minion within the group move during the group's initiative slot?

Also, how do rules involving range work when the minion group attacks? For instance, one of the minion group is engaged to the target, another one of the minion group is at long range (they fanned out). In that situation, when the minions attack the target, what ranged difficulty dice do they use?

Does anyone know which book gives these answers and what page?

Side note: I've seen this error about minions mentioned numerous times... A critical injury to a minion group kills one minion. FALSE! A critical injury to a minion group causes damage equal to "one minion's worth of wounds". You might say, "What's the difference! It's the same thing!" No it's not, if you only need 1 more wound to bring the group's number from 5 to 4 minions, a crit wouldn't just give that group 1 more wound, it would give it more than that. Now, it always eliminates 1 from that group, but it usually does damage to the remaining also. (This is from Force and Destiny Core Book. (Maybe the EoE Core says otherwise, I apologize if it is different))

Honestly these kind of questions are exactly why I don't let minion groups stay as a group if they split up too far. Gets too hard to narrate effectively.

Age of Rebellion is the only CRB near me, so that is the reference I am using.

Page 410 under the adversaries chapter in the Minions subsection:

" Minions are killed by Critical Injuries : If a minion suffers a Critical Injury, it is immediately incapacitated. If a group of minions suffers a Critical Injury, it suffers one minions owrth of wounds (so that one of the minions in the group is incapacitated) " (Emphasis mine)

It's poor wording but the intent is still the same. A crit kills/subdues/incapacitates a minion. Period. In the end it's a simpler to run them as such.

As for your original question, I cannot quote you page number, but you move minions as a group. Statistically, they are a single unit that has a built-in way of starting strong an getting weaker as a sight continues.

6 hours ago, Darth Poopdeck said:

A group of minions attack in one roll, but how does their movement work? Does each minion within the group move during the group's initiative slot?

Also, how do rules involving range work when the minion group attacks? For instance, one of the minion group is engaged to the target, another one of the minion group is at long range (they fanned out). In that situation, when the minions attack the target, what ranged difficulty dice do they use?

Does anyone know which book gives these answers and what page?

Side note: I've seen this error about minions mentioned numerous times... A critical injury to a minion group kills one minion. FALSE! A critical injury to a minion group causes damage equal to "one minion's worth of wounds". You might say, "What's the difference! It's the same thing!" No it's not, if you only need 1 more wound to bring the group's number from 5 to 4 minions, a crit wouldn't just give that group 1 more wound, it would give it more than that. Now, it always eliminates 1 from that group, but it usually does damage to the remaining also. (This is from Force and Destiny Core Book. (Maybe the EoE Core says otherwise, I apologize if it is different))

There is no up/down answer. The source of your confusion is the way you're thinking about them. Not every dice roll is a pull of a trigger, it's a narrative expression of how well your attack was made, it can represent a fusillade of shots. The same applies to a minion groups, not every member of a minion group may be firing, the collective weight of numbers adds to their effectiveness and resilience. The game is narrative, not simulation. It's telling a story, not seeking to capture every tactical nuance correctly. Do what feels/looks best.

In regards to the range issue if your have them fire from long or have them fire while engaged there is no right answer. Pick who you think would be most likely in the group to open fire first and use that, or take an average spread on the range and use that. Personally I'd go with the short range guys would be most likely to shoot and help their buddy that's engaged and use that, with an Upgrade for the chance to hit their buddy(s). Is that completely accurate? It's sorta accurate, so good enough. It tells a story and in that story includes a risk of the engaged people being hit.

I really like 2P51's answer to this question and it's very well put.

I want to address this quote for emphasis

34 minutes ago, 2P51 said:

. . . The source of your confusion is the way you're thinking about them. Not every dice roll is a pull of a trigger, it's a narrative expression of how well your attack was made, it can represent a fusillade of shots. The same applies to a minion groups, not every member of a minion group may be firing, the collective weight of numbers adds to their effectiveness and resilience. The game is narrative, not simulation. It's telling a story, not seeking to capture every tactical nuance correctly. . . Do what feels/looks best.

If you're looking for "tactical accuracy" check out GURPS. But expect combat to be a slog-fest!

I think some simply psychology may help with this too. If the minion group is comprised of Scum and Villany type minions, then the minion groups will be smaller in size and those groups will tend to cluster together for mutual bravado and or psychological support. So when one minion bolts for cover, his buddies will likely follow suit.

Storm Troopers and trained army (and police) may behave in similar fashion, but because they are trained to support one another. Literally they'll be trained to shoot and move together.

Another thought to consider is that Minion Groups can change in quantity. For instance, if you have a squad of 6 Troopers and your players have bottle necked them into a stand off, its likely that the sergeant will point to three of the troopers and order them to "flank to the right" where there is an opportunity to change the tactical situation.

Now you're PC's are contending with two minion groups of three troopers instead of one group of six.

IMO just keep minions together, and line then up for the players to kill 2 or three groups of 4 are tough for a group of 4 to take down safely , but it can be done in a few rounds , and the players feel awesome for having done so. That being said Im currently GMing a group of 4 that had a bit of a hardtime with 3 groups of 4 stormies ( for reference 50 earned xp or so) that has left thwm running for the hills.