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Has there ever been any mention of Imperial Army / Navy special forces units in the official SW material? Back when Shep had the entire Imperial Sourcebook on his website, I seem to recall reading something about them. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Spacetroopers and scout troopers come to mind.

Oberleutnant wrote:Has there ever been any mention of Imperial Army / Navy special forces units in the official SW material? Back when Shep had the entire Imperial Sourcebook on his website, I seem to recall reading something about them. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Magmatroopers, spacetroopers, scouttroopers, stormtroopers.

In Jedi Outcast there are also swamptroopers and shadowtroopers (not sure what shadowtroopers do).

Clone Troopers, Scout Troopers and these.

StarshipTitanic wrote:

Oberleutnant wrote:Has there ever been any mention of Imperial Army / Navy special forces units in the official SW material? Back when Shep had the entire Imperial Sourcebook on his website, I seem to recall reading something about them. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Magmatroopers, spacetroopers, scouttroopers, stormtroopers.

In Jedi Outcast there are also swamptroopers and shadowtroopers (not sure what shadowtroopers do).

Shadow Troopers are elite Reborn in Cortosis armour.

Thanks to all who replied, but I was looking for units who are not related to Stormtroopers. Sorry, I should've made it clearer in my original post.

Standard Imperial Commandoes. They wear armor similar to Veer's combat uniform. Also, on some missions they wear fully enclosed dark blue/black armor. I'd imagine they're similiar to Galactic Wide US Rangers or SFGs

Disregarding the stormtroopers (and the curious, tangled contradictions as to whether Kyle Katarn served in the Imperial Marines or the Imperial Army)....

Known ground forces include the Hell's Hammers Regiment, the Imperial Commandos and the Starcrash Brigade. The Commanding Officer, Hell's Hammers Regiment, is Colonel Zel "Rancor" Johans, IA. It should be noted that the Hell's Hammers (an armoured or vanguard armoured regiment), while considered élite, are not technically a special operations formation.

Information about the Starcrash Brigade is almost nonexistent (all that is known is that they carried out the destruction of Firrerre at Lord Hethrir's behest), but the name does vaguely imply a function similar to that of the British Army's 22nd Special Air Service Regiment.

As indicated by the name, the Imperial Commandos are almost certainly directly analogous to the British Army's disbanded Commando Group (now succeeded by the Royal Navy's Corp of Royal Marines) and the United States Army's 75th Rangers Regiment.

The blackshirted Naval personnel with open blast helmets seen in the films often perform a number of security- and combat-related tasks, leading one to suppose that they are a sort of Shore Police/master-at-arms and Marine/Naval Infantry combination. Although some armed forces (e.g., Spanish, British and Soviet) consider Marines/Naval Infantry to be special operations formations, one hesitates to classify these blackshirts as such, because the Imperial Marines are, in fact, the Empire's famous stormtroopers (who are, as it happens, considered to be special purpose forces). Certainly, most Marines will insist loudly and to anyone who will listen that all Marine formations are élite.

Furthermore, there are the Naval Special Operations ("SpecNav") troopers, who wear stormtrooper-esque armour but are said to have been a joint endeavour between the Imperial Navy and Imperial Intelligence (hence, SpecNav personnel have also been occasionally called Special Intelligence Operatives, despite pronounced visual dissimilarities). In that sense, they are similar to the Royal Navy's disbanded Royal Naval Commandos and the United States Navy's Naval Special Warfare Command (which includes the Navy SEALs). However, the SpecNav troopers have also been referred to as "Imperial Special Forces troopers", which would also imply a similarity to the United States Army Special Forces, or the "Green Berets" (the officially non-existent Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta, or "Delta Force", is essentially a part of the Green Berets).

Spacefaring forces include the 181st Imperial Fighter Group and the Scimitar Assault Wing ("The White Death"), embarked on the Star Destroyer Retribution. The Commander, 181st Imperial Fighter Group, was originally Colonel the Rt. Hon. the Lord Fel, IN, but became General Turr Phennir, IN, upon the Lord Fel's defection. The Commander, Scimitar Assault Wing, was Captain Tomax Bren, IN. Again, although the 181st is considered élite, it is not technically a special operations group.

In the paramilitary intelligence community, there are field operatives of the Adjustments Bureau, who report directly to the Ubiqtorate and the Director of Imperial Intelligence, and the Special Intelligence Operatives, who seemingly also operate directly under the Office of the Director (indeed, it is possible that the SIOs are part of Adjustments). SIOs have been seen to wear a sort of black, armoured uniform. The Imperial Security Bureau has not yet demonstrated any sort of special purpose troops.

Publius

[Edit (8 August 2003): Upon reflection, it should be noted that when comparing the SpecNav troopers to real units, it largely depends on whether one emphasises their Naval or Intelligence rôle. If one focusses on their nature as a special combat team for the Imperial Navy, then they are like the Royal Naval Commandos/Navy SEALs; if one focusses on their nature as paramilitary forces for Imperial Intelligence, then they -- and, by extension, the Special Intelligence Operatives -- are like the Spetsialnoye Nazranie (Spetznaz -- Special-Purpose Troops) of the Soviet Union's Glavnoe Razvedyvatel'noe Upravlenie (GRU -- the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff).]

If I remeber well, the Han Solo books contain marines dressed in blue, having better armor (painted to match to the environment) and heavier weaponry (so heavy that several of them hang the weapons on their neck) than stromtroopers. I do not know, whether they count or not.

If I remember from Dark Saber, General Madine used to lead an Imperial Commando team that did dirty work for the Empire such as planting plagues..

A "magma trooper" sounds pretty retarded if you ask me.

CaptainChewbacca wrote:A "magma trooper" sounds pretty retarded if you ask me.

Then call it a High-Temperature Assault Trooper (HTAS).

there is the starcrash brigade that released the viruses on planets such a fierre(sp) and also you might count dark side adepts

Imperal Royal Guard.

Admiral Johnason wrote:Imperal Royal Guard.

Wrong, they are the best trained stormtroopers (EU, Hand of Thrawn Duology), stormies do not factor into this argument (read earlier posts).

Publius wrote:Spacefaring forces include the 181st Imperial Fighter Group and the Scimitar Assault Wing ("The White Death"), embarked on the Star Destroyer Retribution. The Commander, 181st Imperial Fighter Group, was originally Colonel the Rt. Hon. the Lord Fel, IN, but became General Turr Phennir, IN, upon the Lord Fel's defection. The Commander, Scimitar Assault Wing, was Captain Tomax Bren, IN. Again, although the 181st is considered élite, it is not technically a special operations group.

You forgot Avenger squadron. Nyah.

Connor MacLeod wrote:

Publius wrote:Spacefaring forces include the 181st Imperial Fighter Group and the Scimitar Assault Wing ("The White Death"), embarked on the Star Destroyer Retribution. The Commander, 181st Imperial Fighter Group, was originally Colonel the Rt. Hon. the Lord Fel, IN, but became General Turr Phennir, IN, upon the Lord Fel's defection. The Commander, Scimitar Assault Wing, was Captain Tomax Bren, IN. Again, although the 181st is considered élite, it is not technically a special operations group.

You forgot Avenger squadron. Nyah.

In the same vein, isn't Talon squadron supposed to be an elite assault fighter unit in XvTF?

Robert Treder wrote:

Connor MacLeod wrote:

Publius wrote:Spacefaring forces include the 181st Imperial Fighter Group and the Scimitar Assault Wing ("The White Death"), embarked on the Star Destroyer Retribution. The Commander, 181st Imperial Fighter Group, was originally Colonel the Rt. Hon. the Lord Fel, IN, but became General Turr Phennir, IN, upon the Lord Fel's defection. The Commander, Scimitar Assault Wing, was Captain Tomax Bren, IN. Again, although the 181st is considered élite, it is not technically a special operations group.

You forgot Avenger squadron. Nyah.

In the same vein, isn't Talon squadron supposed to be an elite assault fighter unit in XvTF?

Errr.. IIRC Avenger squadron WAS the elites from XWvT. The only "Talon" squadron I can think of was the X-wing squad Myn Donos commanded in the Wraith Squadron novels.

I remember Talon squadron flying gunboats for bombing runs in XvT missions, paired with Avenger flying superiority. I'll have to dig the game out (darn).

Robert Treder wrote:I remember Talon squadron flying gunboats for bombing runs in XvT missions, paired with Avenger flying superiority. I'll have to dig the game out (darn).

Talon got upgraded to Tie Advanceds eventually.

Admiral Johnason wrote:Imperal Royal Guard.

They're the Secret Service of SW.

Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:

Admiral Johnason wrote:Imperal Royal Guard.

They're the Secret Service of SW.

That everyone knows about. Sort of like CSIS.

Trytostaydead wrote:If I remember from Dark Saber, General Madine used to lead an Imperial Commando team that did dirty work for the Empire such as planting plagues..

Crix Madine is a bit of a curious case. As nearly as can be determined, he appears to have been a colonel of the Imperial Army, who nevertheless was Commanding Officer of the Imperial Storm Commandos, a formation of the Imperial Marines. (Indeed, this oddity is frequently seen in the Expanded Universe: Although All-Terrain Armoured Transports are consistently said to belong to the Army, they invariably transport Marines!) Storm Commandos are special purpose stormtroopers, and as such do not fall within the purview of this thread.

Although it should be noted that the guerillero/counterinsurgency rôle performed by the Storm Commandos means that they are actually more comparable to the United States Army Special Forces ("Green Berets") than to the British Army Commandos/United States Army Rangers.

Darth Mall wrote:there is the starcrash brigade that released the viruses on planets such a fierre(sp) and also you might count dark side adepts

The dark side adepts, the Emperor's Hands, and even the agents of the Inquisitorius are not really special forces at all. They do not perform military or paramilitary functions.

Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:

Admiral Johnason wrote:Imperal Royal Guard.

They're the Secret Service of SW.

The United States Secret Service is a law-enforcement apparatus, originally within the Department of the Treasury (transferred to the Department of Homeland Security by Public Law 107-296). While its function -- protection of the chief of state, and selected others -- is the same as the Imperial Royal Guard's, it is not, in fact, the principal function of the USSS (the USSS is charged with investigating counterfeiting and fraud).

There are numerous, more analogous examples. One must remember that, in addition to being the Galactic Emperor's protective detail, the Imperial Royal Guard is an élite combat formation composed of the finest professional soldiers, handpicked for their excellence. Some excellent examples of such a formation would include Cæsar Augustus's Prætoriæ Cohortes, Louis XIII's Mousquetaires du Roi (or the Duc de Richelieu's Garde cardinale), or Napoléon I's formidable Garde impériale.

In fact, one might point out that the Holy See's Guardia Svizzera is one of the most directly comparable entities to the Galactic Emperor's Imperial Royal Guard. The soldiers of the Pope's personal army are carefully selected for personal character, religious beliefs, intelligence, and height; they wear ornate, ceremonial uniforms, carry mêlée weapons (halberds being more or less analogous to force pikes), and swear absolute loyalty and fidelity to the sovereign's person, not to the State. They even serve under an absolute monarch given to wearing monochrome outfits.

Publius

Don't forget "SpecNavOps"...

If you would be so kind as to read the message posted on Tuesday, 5th August 2003, at 1927, you would find the following:

Publius wrote:Furthermore, there are the Naval Special Operations ("SpecNav") troopers, who wear stormtrooper-esque armour but are said to have been a joint endeavour between the Imperial Navy and Imperial Intelligence (hence, SpecNav personnel have also been occasionally called Special Intelligence Operatives, despite pronounced visual dissimilarities). In that sense, they are similar to the Royal Navy's disbanded Royal Naval Commandos and the United States Navy's Naval Special Warfare Command (which includes the Navy SEALs). However, the SpecNav troopers have also been referred to as "Imperial Special Forces troopers", which would also imply a similarity to the United States Army Special Forces, or the "Green Berets" (the officially non-existent Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta, or "Delta Force", is essentially a part of the Green Berets).

and

Publius wrote:[Edit (8 August 2003): Upon reflection, it should be noted that when comparing the SpecNav troopers to real units, it largely depends on whether one emphasises their Naval or Intelligence rôle. If one focusses on their nature as a special combat team for the Imperial Navy, then they are like the Royal Naval Commandos/Navy SEALs; if one focusses on their nature as paramilitary forces for Imperial Intelligence, then they -- and, by extension, the Special Intelligence Operatives -- are like the Spetsialnoye Nazranie (Spetznaz -- Special-Purpose Troops) of the Soviet Union's Glavnoe Razvedyvatel'noe Upravlenie (GRU -- the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff).]

Publius