I see a related topic to my question appeared recently as well, but this is hopefully distinct enough for its own thread, since it's kind of the converse issue.

My group was fighting two squads of cannon fodder in the last session, 2 and 3 minions respectively. The one squad had 2 wounds against the remaining minions, and the other had 3 (against a wound threshold of 4). Due to some maneuvering, the boundaries of who was in each squad got blurry as they all moved into close proximity.

So my question: what happens if I merge the squads in an effort to improve their attacks? If the wounds also merge, then another goon dies since you only track pooled hit points and there would be 5 against the pool.

I'm guessing there's arguments to be made that the squads should stay discrete since they were only trained to fight as part of their own particular group, but that seems hokey, especially if there were a leader present to direct their efforts.

I see a related topic to my question appeared recently as well, but this is hopefully distinct enough for its own thread, since it's kind of the converse issue.

My group was fighting two squads of cannon fodder in the last session, 2 and 3 minions respectively. The one squad had 2 wounds against the remaining minions, and the other had 3 (against a wound threshold of 4). Due to some maneuvering, the boundaries of who was in each squad got blurry as they all moved into close proximity.

So my question: what happens if I merge the squads in an effort to improve their attacks? If the wounds also merge, then another goon dies since you only track pooled hit points and there would be 5 against the pool.

I'm guessing there's arguments to be made that the squads should stay discrete since they were only trained to fight as part of their own particular group, but that seems hokey, especially if there were a leader present to direct their efforts.

Seems perfectly logical to me. Combine them if they get too small, assuming they are identical in stat block. They would have had very similar training.

Joining them together doesn't seem like an unreasonable idea to me. I wouldn't kill off one more member if the wounds stacked up, though. Pick the one with the least wounds remaining, or simply set it at one wound below the threshold.

I have no problem with breaking up or combining like minions throughout a fight, as noted in the other thread. A veteran GM of this system should be able to easily do this without slowing play. "All 5 of these Stormtroopers are now firing at Jono at once!" with one big roll. The next round, "These 3 are firing at Jono while these 2 are firing at D53X", while quickly making the adjustments to number of dice rolled each.

Recalculating dice rolled for attacks isn't an issue, and I'm glad to see the replies so far are favorable to having fluid groupings of minions. I was more concerned with the wound pools merging (or even unmerging). I didn't want to create a situation where the players felt cheated for the wounds they've already caused. The artificiality of a shared pool definitely makes this tricky.

Recalculating dice rolled for attacks isn't an issue, and I'm glad to see the replies so far are favorable to having fluid groupings of minions. I was more concerned with the wound pools merging (or even unmerging). I didn't want to create a situation where the players felt cheated for the wounds they've already caused. The artificiality of a shared pool definitely makes this tricky.

I'd narrate the round before joining (or splitting) by saying something to the effect of "It looks like those two squads are going to link up!" Giving the PCs a round to attempt to stop/delay the two minion groups from merging by concentrating fire or some other means. This should mitigate any feelings of unfairness because it give the PCs a chance to do something.

I wouldn't split and combine back and forth on the fly like Sturn seems to suggest because that seems a bit too fluid and could come across as unfair. I don't think it's against RAW but it just feels a little munchkin-y.

Then make all of your LIKE minions share one large group at the start of battle, always. They will have one large shared Wound Threshold. If you later divide them up into different firing groups, they still have that one large shared Wound Threshold you are applying damage to. If your original group has later been divided into 3 groups, just make sure that when a minion gets killed, it comes from the group the player was shooting at. If your groups get back together to fire as one group, you aren't thus going to have any Wound issues.

Eta: I think that made sense?

Recalculating dice rolled for attacks isn't an issue, and I'm glad to see the replies so far are favorable to having fluid groupings of minions. I was more concerned with the wound pools merging (or even unmerging). I didn't want to create a situation where the players felt cheated for the wounds they've already caused. The artificiality of a shared pool definitely makes this tricky.

I'd narrate the round before joining (or splitting) by saying something to the effect of "It looks like those two squads are going to link up!" Giving the PCs a round to attempt to stop/delay the two minion groups from merging by concentrating fire or some other means. This should mitigate any feelings of unfairness because it doesn't just happen.

That makes sense to foreshadow the maneuver, but I wouldn't take too much time/activity. Minions have enough drawbacks as is, there is no reason not to give them this one bone.

Then make all of your LIKE minions share one large group at the start of battle, always. They will have one large shared Wound Threshold. If you later divide them up into different firing groups, they still have that one large shared Wound Threshold you are applying damage to. If your original group has later been divided into 3 groups, just make sure that when a minion gets killed, it comes from the group the player was shooting at. If your groups get back together to fire as one group, you aren't thus going to have any Wound issues.

Eta: I think that made sense?

I wouldn't combine them from the get-go in terms of skills, but sharing one big wound pool would certainly work.

Splitting a group I also would keep the wound pool. And if one NPC from a specific pool dies you know which one it is cause of targeting to that one. So you easily can split and merge again. The only thing is that you got to recalculate the skills quickly not to disturb the gameflow. But since the system is not very difficult it should be an easy going ...

Recalculating dice rolled for attacks isn't an issue, and I'm glad to see the replies so far are favorable to having fluid groupings of minions. I was more concerned with the wound pools merging (or even unmerging). I didn't want to create a situation where the players felt cheated for the wounds they've already caused. The artificiality of a shared pool definitely makes this tricky.

I'd narrate the round before joining (or splitting) by saying something to the effect of "It looks like those two squads are going to link up!" Giving the PCs a round to attempt to stop/delay the two minion groups from merging by concentrating fire or some other means. This should mitigate any feelings of unfairness because it doesn't just happen.

That makes sense to foreshadow the maneuver, but I wouldn't take too much time/activity. Minions have enough drawbacks as is, there is no reason not to give them this one bone.

I was thinking of Rykaar's concern about the players feeling cheated by bumping up their enemy after they dropped a few rather than the bump in stats. Also, I've posted this in other topics, I like to create as much tension as I can in combat and I think that by telling the PCs that the minion group is about to get stronger builds that tension better than just doing it automatically. Tension is all about the wind up not the throw.

I wouldn't split and combine back and forth on the fly like Sturn seems to suggest because that seems a bit too fluid and could come across as unfair. I don't think it's against RAW but it just feels a little munchkin-y.

I don't mind the on-the-fly adjustments to minion groups so long as they are spending a "Redeploy" Manueuver. It might be OK if they have a leader type figure that could instead spend his Action and/or Maneuver to redeploy allied minion groups.

I don't mind the on-the-fly adjustments to minion groups so long as they are spending a "Redeploy" Manueuver. It might be OK if they have a leader type figure that could instead spend his Action and/or Maneuver to redeploy allied minion groups.

Oh this sounds really good. It also opens up an action for the Leadership skill if you have players directing minion groups in mass combat.

I can imagine a typical Stormtrooper squad being two Minion groups of 5 each plus a Rival squad leader to direct them when splitting their fire or dividing/merging their groups.

Awesome suggestions all around folks, thanks! I think I may just go with the concept of a generic pool of wounds across all like minions, and force a redeployment maneuver when minions reform mid-battle as directed by field leaders.

If the combined groups have enough damage to kill a minion and you still want to combine, do so.

There's two ways to handle this.

A. Fudge the numbers and just decide that they are 1 point shy of a death. So the next point of damage will kill 1.

B. Kill one off. Minions are strange entities, but you'll run into this conundrum at other points too. A melee character approaches 1 minion and is at short or medium range to the other minions. He does enough damage to kill 2 or 3 minions...but remember he's out of range of the others....do they still die?

B can be easily explained through the battle. I haven't been in combat in real life, but I highly doubt everyone takes turns shooting each other. Weapons are swinging, blasters are firing, the air will be saturated with blaster bolts. Sure, the wookie rolled the damage to kill the minions, but some of those stray bolts that were being fired from cover also connected with another minion explaining his death. Same thing for the restructuring of minion groups. As the two group leaders were hunched in cover determining who was going to take command of the reformed group, one of them took a blaster to the helmet and went down, thus making the descision that much easier.

Same thing for the restructuring of minion groups. As the two group leaders were hunched in cover determining who was going to take command of the reformed group, one of them took a blaster to the helmet and went down, thus making the descision that much easier.

Or he just fell over dead, having finally bled out from his previous wounds.