Questions about Stormtroopers

[Augustus Caesar]

I'm thinking of making a fanfic and have a few questions regarding Stormtroopers.

Apart from the E-11 and and the DLT-19, what other weapons do stormtroopers have?

Are their ranks like the ranks in modern militaries, like private, pfc, corporal, the diferrent grades of sergeant, and commisioned officers?

Are they organized in squads with different fire teams and a squad leader?

Are they under the Imperial Navy or Army?

Finally, are their dedicated troop transports used for them apart from the old Acclamators?

Thanks in advance for any info.

[Captain tycho]

Stormtroopers use T-21 repeating blasters, E-webs, thermal detonators, various grenades, and a slew of other weapons. About the rest of the stuff, it might be in the Imperial Sourcebook from WEG.
EDIT: I should be able to get some more info for you, from an *ahem* free copy of it.

[000]

Are they under the Imperial Navy or Army?

Different branch-- the Stormtrooper Corps, which is basically the Imperial Marines.

Finally, are there dedicated troop transports used for them apart from the old Acclamators?

Sentinel-class landers seem to be most commonly used for space-to-surface transport. For ship-to-ship transpprt and boarding actions they use Delta-class Stormtrooper Transports or Gamma-class assault shuttles. For extravehicluar activity they use Assault Transports (no class designation that I know of) to carry them in their "Spacetrooper" armored suits. Beta-class escort transports might also be used, although they're designed for escorting construction vessels down to build outposts and not for assaults.

I'd have to do some searching to answer your other questions with any degree of certainty, so I'll see if anyone else knows.

[Civil War Man]

Are their ranks like the ranks in modern militaries, like private, pfc, corporal, the diferrent grades of sergeant, and commisioned officers?

Clonetroopers seem to have that. As for stormtroopers, I'm not sure. Does anyone have a source where officers wear the armor? If not, it may be that only enlisted wear the armor while the officers are comprised of the blackshirts and brownshirts.

Are they organized in squads with different fire teams and a squad leader?

If they maintain anything resembling Delta Squad, yes.

Are they under the Imperial Navy or Army?

Technically army, I believe. Though they also seem to act as the Empire's Marine Corps since they are often stationed aboard naval vessels.

Finally, are their dedicated troop transports used for them apart from the old Acclamators?

Yes, though most stormtrooper transports are in the form of dropships and small freighters as opposed to capital ships with landing capabilities.

[Isolder74]

Stormtroopers use T-21 repeating blasters, E-webs, thermal detonators, various grenades, and a slew of other weapons. About the rest of the stuff, it might be in the Imperial Sourcebook from WEG.

That is a good source but not everyone has it available. But Trooper gear includes

The E-11, The DL-44, Light reapeater(seen in ANH), T-21 Meduim repeater, and The E-Web Heavy repeater. Storm troopers also carry a backpack that can power their heavy blaster without needing to reload as often. Other thing may be in the pack such as enhanced communication gear, ect.

Anyone who can make a comlpete list please do so.

[Vympel]

Apart from the E-11 and and the DLT-19, what other weapons do stormtroopers have?

The DLT-20A (not seen in the hands of a Stormtrooper in the films, but referred to as Stormtrooper weaponry in the OT:VD)

http://www.partsofsw.com/plscan.htm

An unidentified heavy blaster rifle:

http://www.partsofsw.com/hvyblas.htm

The T-21 light repeating blaster:

http://www.partsofsw.com/t21.htm

Scout trooper / biker scout blaster:

http://www.partsofsw.com/sctblas.htm

"Short-range combat pistol" as referred to in the VD:

Link- beware, 800x600 wallpaper

The above picture appears in the OT:VD, and the weapon appears in the hands of Stormtroopers in the Dark Horse comic about Biggs' defection from the Rand Ecliptic.

Link

and
http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/comics ... jpg]Link 2

Note the weapon's similarity to Dr Evazan's blaster:

http://www.partsofsw.com/drevblas.htm

Refer to the sw.com databank for other weapons, like rocket launchers and such. The cylinder on the back of their belt is a thermal detonator.

Are their ranks like the ranks in modern militaries, like private, pfc, corporal, the diferrent grades of sergeant, and commisioned officers?

A clonetrooper is referred to as Sergeant in RotS, for what that's worth.

Are they under the Imperial Navy or Army?

Seperate organization, IIRC.

[000]

Did a little reading.

Are their ranks like the ranks in modern militaries, like private, pfc, corporal, the diferrent grades of sergeant, and commisioned officers?

Are they organized in squads with different fire teams and a squad leader?

The Imperial Sourcebook has this to say:

Stormtroopers technically do fit into
the Order of Battle. But these elite troops
continue to be a source of mystery to the
regular Army, even at the level of their
organization. The major difference seems
to be the complete lack of support personnel.
It is known that the Stormtroopers do
siphon off some supplies from the normal
chain of logistics, but not nearly enough to
support a force as large as the Stormtroopers
appear to be. Whether they can somehow
"live off the land," have a shadow
network which resupplies them in order to
enhance their mystery, or really not be in
need of resupply is simply not known.
The end result is that a stormtrooper
unit is a pure combat unit.
A stormtrooper battalion has 820 men,
just like any other battalion. But every
single individual is either combat command
or a trooper — there is even a complete
absence of staff officers.
Other differences, although minor, do
appear. Stormtrooper squads vary in number
of men to a greater degree than in the
regular Army. The level of organization
corresponding to a battlegroup is called a
legion. While there is no larger unit of
stormtrooper organization than the legion,
legions have been known to appear from
other sectors to join in a major offensive
with legions which belong to the Sector
Group.

Other sources indicate that stormtroopers do use basically standard ranks for enlisted personnel, as well as for officers. Officers are shown as wearing armor in Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, among I believe a couple of other sources. Officers not on combat duty wore black uniforms-- there are a few examples of these in the actual movies, I believe.

The only real example of Stormtrooper squads in detail comes from Fool's Bargain and Survivor's Quest, where stormtroopers are organized in four man squads, each with a squad leader and operate in a way oddly reminiscent of the old Republic Commandos. These stormtroopers are members of the Empire of the Hand, however, and not the Empire proper, so it's probable that their organization has changed much over the years.

While typing this, though, I found a description in The Imperial Sourcebook which suggests that four-man squads may indeed have been the norm in the ST corps:

The eight-man line squad is the basic unit of
the Imperial Army. The Imperial squad is smaller
than the old 10- and 12-man squads common in
the Old Republic, but superior training and
more thorough use of coordinated small-unit
tactics have resulted in no reduction in squad
firepower. Additionally, a large number of new
squads were created from the available manpower.
The Empire has been experimenting with
still smaller squads, particularly with elite or
stormtrooper units, but these are still rare. The
eight-man squad remains the backbone of the
Imperial Army.

_____________________________________________________________


As a side note, I'd avoid comparing the Stormtrooper Corps too closely to the Grand Army of the Republic. The two were, outward appearances aside, entirely different organizations.

[Illuminatus Primus]

The Stormtroopers are formally known as the Imperial Marines; the Clonetroopers were the Galactic Marines.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

The Stormtroopers are formally known as the Imperial Marines; the Clonetroopers were the Galactic Marines.

Although there was a specific Clonetrooper legion called the Galactic Marines, led by Commander Bacara and Ki-Adi-Mundi.

Another name for the Clonetroopers was the Grand Army of the Republic.

[Kurgan]

Gaffi sticks. We've seen them carried by some Troopers before.


Edit: Originally I wrote "gaffe" sticks. Oops!

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Gaffi sticks. We've seen them carried by some Troopers before.

When?

[Illuminatus Primus]

The Stormtroopers are formally known as the Imperial Marines; the Clonetroopers were the Galactic Marines.

Although there was a specific Clonetrooper legion called the Galactic Marines, led by Commander Bacara and Ki-Adi-Mundi.

Another name for the Clonetroopers was the Grand Army of the Republic.

ALL clonetroopers are Galactic Marines; they just did not give the specific unit. Chances are when you have a bunch of comparable pieces of evidence, all of them listing specific units, and then one listing a service branch, that the service branch doesn't magically transmogrify into a unit.

"Galactic Marines" will not be a unit of the army. That self-contradicting. "Grand Army of the Republic" is probably a colloquialism for the Republican military in general a la the Lincoln quote that inspired that dialogue, or the earlier title of the Galactic Marines before the reconstitution of the (seperate) Republic Army (later Imperial Army).

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Sorry, IP, I want to reply to you, but can't. I just can't seem to organise my thoughts on the subject right now.

All I'm going to do for the time now is just request for a specific cite or example of usage for the term Galactic Marine in reference to the Clonetroopers as a whole.

[000]

IP, the Galactic Marines was the nickname of a single legion, not a name for the overall Grand Army. Clones serve as standard infantry as well as special forces, pilots, gunners, marines, tankers, artillerymen, and so forth.

[Rampage]

For extravehicluar activity they use Assault Transports (no class designation that I know of) to carry them in their "Spacetrooper" armored suits

According to XWA, Gamma is also the class name for the ATR-6 Assault Transport.

[Noble Ire]

Gaffi sticks. We've seen them carried by some Troopers before.

When?

Watch ANH again, and note the "."

[YT300000]

For extravehicluar activity they use Assault Transports (no class designation that I know of) to carry them in their "Spacetrooper" armored suits

According to XWA, Gamma is also the class name for the ATR-6 Assault Transport.

Wasn't the Gamma class the Assault Shuttle?

[Augustus Caesar]

Hey guys, thanks for all the info.

Hate to ask again, but is there a kind of "Imperial Order of Battle"? With the sizes of platoons, companies, and their weapon loadouts?

Again, thanks for the info.

[Old Plympto]

Hey guys, thanks for all the info.

Hate to ask again, but is there a kind of "Imperial Order of Battle"? With the sizes of platoons, companies, and their weapon loadouts?

Again, thanks for the info.

Oh man, how do we reproduce the second half of the Imperial Sourcebook in here? I'll see what I can do, but if anyone can work faster than me please go ahead and post first.

[Duckie]

I'm not sure how accurate it is, but the ASVS Fanfic Archive lists:

"Imperial Order of Battle" by Lord Sander
under Non-Fiction/Essays.

Now, if Stormtrooper organization is identical up to the Battlegroup ("Legion") level, it'd follow this ridiculously long list of things within the Imperial Army's various unit sizes would equally apply (Perhaps, if we don't discount the Imperial Sourcebook quote earlier in the thread, without any visible administrative or logistical personnel)

Also, to answer someone talking about Officers earlier, I seem to remember SWTC saying that the blackshirts in the Death Star were listed as Stormtrooper Officers, and that the Orange Pauldron Stormtroopers were conjectured to be low-level Officers, so they definately exist. (If the Pauldrons refer to specific ranks and not sets of ranks, perhaps Lieutenants, considering the small-but-important mission of capturing the Falcon and the Plans they're leading)

[Captain tycho]

The Imperial Sourcebook has an excellent order of battle; I'll take some screenshots and post them here for all to enjoy. (if its illegal, I'll understand.)

[000]

According to XWA, Gamma is also the class name for the ATR-6 Assault Transport.

I know. I'm talking about the classless Telegorn Corp. "Assault Transports"-- long, boxy things with Spacetrooper hatches lining the top of it. Gamma-class ATR-6 Assault Transports-- or Assault Shuttles, as they're most often referred to in the litarature-- are an entirely different vehicle.

Oddly enough, the Imperial Sourcebook does indeed designate these as Gamma-class, and provides a two-page schematic for it that is noticably different from the smaller illustration under the entry.




About the Imperial Sourcebook-- I have an electronic copy of it that I was quoting from (it's much easier that way). If anyone would like a link, PM me-- I don't think distributing copies is illegal, as the manual is out of print, but I'll err on the side of caution.

[Rampage]

Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about.



That's a Gamma-class ATR-6 Assault Transport.

But..



That's a Gamma-class Assault Shuttle.

Weird.

[Crazedwraith]

For extravehicluar activity they use Assault Transports (no class designation that I know of) to carry them in their "Spacetrooper" armored suits.

They use an Assault Shuttle to do that. At keast in X-Wing Alliance.

[Illuminatus Primus]

IP, the Galactic Marines was the nickname of a single legion, not a name for the overall Grand Army. Clones serve as standard infantry as well as special forces, pilots, gunners, marines, tankers, artillerymen, and so forth.

"Marines" are a service branch; the meaning itself is wrong as the name of a legion. A legion should be the XXth Whatever Legion. Combine this with the fact this body becomes the "Imperial Marines," and the conclusion is obvious.