Can something affecting swarms, such as spells, items, templates or other features, can affect troops as well, and vice-versa? or are they two different archetypes, with two distinct subtypes that don't get affect by the other?
BTW, troops are basically Gargantuan "creatures" made of 12 to 30 Small or Medium creatures, like soldier squadrons or like the mob template back in 3.5. These were introduced in AP #100 and have been used a few other times after, in addition of being set to appear in Bestiary 6.
I'd like to point out that I'm not talking about how swarms and troops generally react to spells, such as area spells. I'd like to know if effects that specifically target a swarm can target a troop, and vice-versa, since, let's face it, a troop is essentially a swarm of Small or Medium creatures, as opposed to a swarm made of Fine, Diminutive or Tiny creatures.
They might have similar properties, but a swarm is not a troop and a troop is not a swarm. Because there is no rule saying they are the same.
An item that says it affects swarms doesn't do anything special to a troop.
That might change when the troops are going to be added in B6 though. So far, troops have been added in APs only:
- Russian soldier troops are in #71: Rasputin Must Die
- Dottari and Inquisitor troops are in #100: A Song of Silver
- The Glorious Reclamation has sergeant and hound archon troops, in addition of having several variants for sergeant troops, all in #108: Hell Comes to Westcrown.
Thanks for the heads-up ;)