Idle curiosity this one.

Does your group have a usual way of dealing with enemies during a fight?

More importantly, what (if anything) do the GMs here do to break those patterns / spice things up?

In our group we have four PCs:

1. My Bounty Hunter tends to go first, due to her being best at range and her rifle doing impressive damage (blaster rifle + jury rigged + superior + scope + marksman barrel with 2 Accuracy upgrades). Her primary target is usually the largest minion group, as doing so quickly degrades their ability to strike back effectively.
2. The Smuggler usually goes next, often going after a minion group because he carries a blaster rifle with spread barrel.
3. The Droid-Marauder tries to engage the big bad as soon as possible, because with mono-vibroswords and Lethal Blows, criticals are king. Also, its soak and wound threshold are both... unnerving.
4. Our Bothan Politico has decent Agility, so can attack if nessessary, but most of the time relies on Inspiring Speech or Scathing Tirade to help/hinder whereever we look weakest.

It depends on the initiative grouping for our party. If we have a lot of players going first, our Politico will go first to give BD to everyone else. Otherwise it's the players who have BD for attacking someone who hasn't gone yet who go first.

In general, everyone in our group is pretty combat capable so who goes first usually depends on the setup. Usually someone did something to provoke the combat and we let them go first to follow through. Or if someone is closer to the bad guys and is about to get swarmed, we have them go first.

Once we’re in the thick of combat we have a couple of players who prefer to go first, so we let them. However, if combat needs dictate that someone else needs to do something in a specific order, we let them do it. Such as, if someone is getting roughed up and they need to heal, escape, or put their man down quick.

Well, the Duel blaster wielding Twi'lek charges in. The Ex-stormtrooper tries to manuver to flank, The Thief/Pilot takes cover and take a shot, Politico takes cover and shoots, and the Chadra-Fan mechanic takes cover and hides.

Take down anyone that looks exceptional (better weapons/armor/whatever or different species from the majority) first. Group fire until a target drops. Groups of mooks are likely easy to drop, so go after them when you need to burn off some Strain.

Let's just say that it's a good thing the ship has a bacta tank.

My players come up with a really bad plan then execute it as poorly as possible. Invariably this results in the Rodian Doctor and the Human Scoundrel anchoring the front lines. The Pit Droid Slicer frequently gets blasted, and is frankly covered in repair patches. (That droid is notable for its preference for shooting into combat and racking up 'friendly near death' experiences.)

Then there's the human marauder who got an atomic wedgie attempting to jump through a window in a fight.. Oh and our pacifist heavy weapons chick. She forever holds out of the fight... Never mind that she could drop a boss with a single hit... She holds back... just in case.

The fights are entertaining though...

For some reason my players no longer trust me... :-)

I'm running Beyond The Rim and the players are incredibly afraid of running into Nexu or indeed other local wildlife. Probably because such events go so well. They have a life form tracker which is really good for causing them to squirm.

Now they won't go anywhere without their ship shadowing them over the jungle canopy. They finally found the Sa Nalor and what do they do? Cut the party in half and send the offensive component into the wreckage with the droid hauling the life form detector. (Not working so hot with all that metal around). The away team went in through the bridge, while the ship flew off and around the wreckage but won't land.

So they didn't notice the cyber Nexu crawling in the bridge behind them. And life life form detector went nuts. "2 front, 1 back... You see them and they have glints of metal on them." Interestingly the players performed admirably. Actually holed up in a through chamber, and grenaded the pair of Nexu but good.

Then like a scene from Aliens, all hell broke loose. Live on droidicam we got critters chomping at players, climbing walls, screams for help, the glint of vibro swords, and heavy blaster rifle auto fire muzzle flashes.

My players did very well, it was almost unchallenging. They put those Nexu down fast with only one serious injury.

I think I'm going to chase them out of the wreckage with more souped up Nexu. Too bad that was the only grenade...

The Human Bodyguard alwas rolls highest and gives his turn to the Gand Gadgeteer who, in turn moves to Long Range and dives into cover, then the Rodian Pilot complains about not being first, then the Wookie Marauder throws himself at the NPCs and spends his first turn moving into Engaged, then Rodian goes and does something but none of us are paying attention, then our Twi'lek Scoundrel aims, then the Bodyguard takes the Gand's turn in last place (usually moving into Engaged to Force Pike the baddies) and combat commences.

My players follow the same situation regardless of what game or character they`re playing:

Step 1: Players fail to even try to sneak into an area the know has enemies in it and spent 10 ~ 15min just outside of the bad guys area arguing with each other. Thus giving the enemies plenty of time to get setup. Then one finally gets tired of the fighting and walks into the ambush alone. Usually I have their adversaries give them an ultimatum, surrender or die.

Step 2: At that point, while the first character is completly in the open and targeted, a second will rush behind them and go for the nearest cover firing at will, nevermind that they could have stayed where they were and avoided the situation. This is usually followed by the first character getting shot alot or KO'd.

Step 3: While the second character, who is invariably the one who only packs very light weapons, dukes it out with the entire enemy group from cover the rest of the party forms a plan to save the wounded first player. This takes the form of a charge out in the open, usually taking fire, and if they survived that they pick the KO'd character up. Again they take fire as they try to rush back to their starting point to hopefully save the first character from death.

Step 4: With still nobody but the second character attacking the enemies, he invariably calls the others cowards and they in turn yell at him to quit it and run back.

Step 5: After some arguing and alot of questions about ducking and rolling the second character comes back. Usually in pretty bad shape. The party then heals to the best of it's abilities then discusses tactics, eventually this breaks down into a 'charge of the light brigade' style of attack. Half the party then gets KO'd or seriously injured while one or two take down the baddies. If the attack fails they fall back and repeat steps 3-4.

Step 6: Players talk about buying lots of grenades\potions\spells when the first player announces that they had bought grenades\potions\spells in the last town and everyone agrees that it would have been good thing to know ahead of time.

Step 7: Players now do not feel sorry for player one and insist on using all their grenades\potions\spells on the next encounter. Player one becomes a coward and never again goes willingly anywhere there might be danger until the next session.

Step 8: GM shakes head as players begin at step 1 again. Repeat steps 1-8.

I think I've GM'd for that group before...

Worst part is they`re not roleplaying their characters, they`re just flat out ignoring common sense out of spite. Though it's not as bad as a previous group of players I GM'd for as far as an SOP goes. They all swear they had played since their teens but on every encounter that they rolled initative for they automadically charged to kill everything that moved. I started making them roll initiative for just about everything. Walk into the bar - roll initiative, wander around in a field - roll initiative, just killed that dragon - roll initiative. Worst part is that they never learned. They walked into a church during mass I made them roll initiative and they whipped out their weapons and started herding people out the door. Priceless.

My players did very well, it was almost unchallenging. They put those Nexu down fast with only one serious injury.

Not to get off topic, but when I ran the game the nexu weren't much of a challenge for my group either but on other hand...

*Spoiler for any players who haven't ran the module yet*

They got ambushed in the jungle from those octopi and the beefy Trandoshan Bodyguard had one latched to him and things went south quickly. I used a Dark Side Destiny Point and upgraded the attack roll and critted. Just so happens I roll on the crit chart to hit again with the same dice pool. Another crit. So we roll again. Well what do you know, another attack with a another crit. Roll again. Somehow it happened another time yet. By the end of that the encounter the octopus had hit him about 4 times and by the end of the fight he had 6 criticals on him (He had two previously) and a mingled arm. Cinematicly it wrapped around him like those face sucking aliens in Half-Life and proceeded to smash his skull in while he was backed up against a tree while one tentacle was wrenching his arm. Poor guy had a fear of jungles for the rest of that characters life. I normally don't like to crit every time I can for situations like that but it was too good to pass up. We all had a good laugh. Except the Trandoshan, and probably the doctor.

I'm actually pretty grateful that my players love making me shake my head or making me say "Why didn't I see that coming?"

Before I begin, my group consists of:

--A Twi'lek Scoundrel/Mercenary Captain

--A Jawa Mechanic/Outlaw Tech

--A Dashade Doctor/Marauder

--A Zeltron Politico/Assassin

--A Human Hired Gun/Gadgeteer (lasted a single game before the party decided the player was NOT worth keeping around)

--A Human Survivalist/Recruit (recently added; no in-game combats with him yet)

So far, my group has:

1) Run away from a combat scenario that I felt they would have gone in, guns blazing.

2) Instead of killing all the guards and storming in, they came up with an insanely genius plan worthy of Ocean's Eleven planning, got in, stole what they wanted, got the blackmail, and got out without anyone getting hurt.

3) Heard voices of scavengers coming from the cargo hold of a wrecked ship they were searching. They closed the doors, locked them, blasted the controls and welded the door shut instead of picking a fight against 2 Minions.

4) When their cover was blown, the party in the middle of the mess started hoofing it toward the ship with their "cargo" (a dancer they were rescuing). The crew in the ship started firing at the landed ships to ensure there would be no chase, someone else used the forward guns to demolish the door that was keeping the ground party from getting to them, and then the pilot flew through an asteroid field at top speed in order to NOT have to fight.

That doesn't mean that the party doesn't fight. In the one big fight they had, it went as follows:

Initiative roll is normally the Twi'lek, Zeltron, Human, Dashade, and Jawa. Order of taking the initiative changed every turn.

Early on, the group fanned out. Dashade went charging for the guys under cover. Human took cover and started aiming for his shots against one of the groups. Twi'lek snuck his way over to a pillar and began to open fire on the apparent leader of the group. The Jawa, knowing that it wasn't a good shot, stuck with supressive fire and running stimpacks to the party members as needed.

The big fight prior to that, the group fanned out a bit early on, but the Jawa was the one who went after the leader. . .with an Ion Gun. She realized the leader was using a megaphone or similar tech to broadcast his orders, so she went right for him and shot the object, leaving him unable to call in support or even coordinate. The rest of the party just broke off into teams and cleaned the rest out.

I'm grateful that it isn't the same thing every time, but if they get into a rut, I'll either start throwing new tactics at them to make things change up, or I'll remind them of something that their character can see or would think of and let them run from there.

Meanwhile back on Cholgana....

The marauder was in the Bacta tank, and had just recovered to 1HP. He was left on the ship with the doctor and the mechanic while the other half the party went to The Retreat to convince the survivors that they were being rescued. In a twist, an imperial agent and 5 troopers were taken captive and hauled along with the players.

The negotiation was a glorious victory for the Empire! (Guess what I used the Dark Side points for. Guess.) The players mumbled through convincing the survivors that they were there to help. The crowd was unconvinced.

Then the Imperial Agent butted in; "Friends! The Empire has brought peace and prosperity to the galaxy. These supposed friends are criminals and thieves (holding up a holo display showing their faces and crimes) Murderer, Murderer, Theft, and of course Attempted Murder of me... (a clear video playback of the players taking IT3PO plays) As I was meeting IT3PO to take him to meet you I was shot in the back by that droid (pointing at the Slicer Pit Droid)." The Pit droid player (just trying to correct me), "That was Hack, the other droid." The Agent didn't miss a step, "And now (typing in a little keypad) harboring a fugitive! We turned the Wheel upside down looking for that little cretin! He shot me in the back! Unprovoked!" Turning the crowd, "The Empire is unconcerned with your supposed transgressions and is only worried for your safety. I have been authorized to bring all of you to the nearest spaceport for a fresh change of clothes and a hot shower. Now what say you?" I rolled a critical success in front of the players. The crowd went wild, and my players visibly sank.

Negotiations went as expected... IT3PO was unable to convince the survivors that they shouldn't listen to the Empire... but when the gun ship (second ship.. its a long story) arrived and started mowing down men...

I decided to run a ginormous double combat for with split parties. As a GM I have to say this was very satisfying. DO THIS some time.

5 Imperial Scouts used fire gel(?) and burned their way into in the rear hold of the ship just as the other players were screaming for help from the other camp.

The battle for the ship combat was hilarious. Alarms went off.. the marauder went running out of the med bay, naked swinging his sword (the metal one) around. The doctor was badly perforated trying to hold a door, but a grenade thinned the imperial troops. Then in a fit of utter silliness, the mechanic turned off the gravity, and took the ship off in a loop da loop barrel roll. Yeah... bacta and naked guy everywhere. "Put some pants on. Or something." After they won, they were able to bring the fight to the Deep Dark and chase it off.

The Deep Dark trashed The Retreat. Ship board weapons... Two of characters were seriously put out of commission in one rake of the settlement. (and the bacta tank on the ship just got dumped) The body count was appalling.35 dead(?), and one cyber nexu.. Sad and viscous. When the Deep Dark was chased off, Captain Harsol ran over to the Imperial Agent and gunned him down in cold blood.

On the plus side the ship now had enough life support for all of the survivors...

So far, my group has:

1) Run away from a combat scenario that I felt they would have gone in, guns blazing.

2) Instead of killing all the guards and storming in, they came up with an insanely genius plan worthy of Ocean's Eleven planning, got in, stole what they wanted, got the blackmail, and got out without anyone getting hurt.

3) Heard voices of scavengers coming from the cargo hold of a wrecked ship they were searching. They closed the doors, locked them, blasted the controls and welded the door shut instead of picking a fight against 2 Minions.

4) When their cover was blown, the party in the middle of the mess started hoofing it toward the ship with their "cargo" (a dancer they were rescuing). The crew in the ship started firing at the landed ships to ensure there would be no chase, someone else used the forward guns to demolish the door that was keeping the ground party from getting to them, and then the pilot flew through an asteroid field at top speed in order to NOT have to fight.

While I am very kind to my players and give them just as much experience for not fighting and accomplishing a goal as fighting, it does tend to loose it's epic starwars feel.

Ran an old republic game years ago with a trio of jedi padawans (out to cause trouble). They were investigating stolen lightsaber crystals and had tracked them to a warehouse where they were going to be traded between two smuggling groups. I had planned an epic speeder chase scene giving the pilot something to do while the rest of the group fought off smugglers in speeders or leaped aboard a speeder truck to recover the crystals.

Rather than wait until the groups finished their trade and went their separate ways, or even just sneak aboard the smugglers truck that had the crystals and drive away the group decided that justice was their responsibility. They threw gernades and charged in with lightsabers blazing. Rather than slaughter them with twice the numbers they could handle I had one group of smugglers decide that they would take the cargo and run for it, trying to initiate a speeder chase. The group was quickly dispatching the remaining smugglers when they noticed the truck (think like a uhaul equivalent) racing off into the distance. One of the padawans steps out and says: "

"Is it within range of my force move."

I do some quick figuring and yes it is

"Yes...."

"Great, I`ll flip it over."

"It's going full out."

"Good, that`ll mean less chance of them surviving."

He rolls and easily succeeds (he focused on force move), the truck doing a very high speed suddenly finds itself crashing down a busy street sideways rolling over and over. I roll checks for the damage to the pilot and co-pilot whom luckily were wearing seatbelts and were protected, they survive but just barely.

"Sweet!" The player says "See, I told you I wouldn`t kill anyone"

"But what about the people in the cargo bed with the unsecured cargo crate of rare and not unbreakable crystals?"

"Oh...I didn`t know about those so it doesn`t count!"

"Not an excuse, ignorance is." I say, rolling for the two in the cargo area and the cargo itself.

Roll nearly maximum damage for the cargo, which one of the non-jedi players points out would cause serious damage to anyone inside, nevermind it goes way over the cargos soak and HP. So I roll damage for the two 'poor innocent cargo workers' in the truck again massive damage, compounded by a loose cargo container bashing them. I do not tell the players the results till they finally finish off the rest of the smugglers and get to the crashed truck. They cut open the doors of the truck and find bloody smears everywhere and two very dead bodies, the cargo broke open and 1/4 the crystals had been destroyed. The rest of the crystals survived due to individual packaging and a bit of luck but they were covered in bits of blood and gore. Pilot was pissed he didn`t get to fly until I announced that the padawans had incurred two dark side points, one for attacking without provocation, another for using their powers to intentionally cause harm (levitated grenades in) and the one whom flipped the truck had an additional one.

Arguments commenced. Needless to say I`m glad I do not have to deal with players trying to be jedi and failing.