Best/Worse Troops in Sci-Fi

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-08-17 11:24am

Simple...which, using sort of modern military equipment and tactics as a standard if you want, is the best ground force in sci-fi, and the worst. No space forces, just infantry, armor and air no 'T3h BDZ iz R0xxorz!!' assuming they must fight without orbital cover. Air cover, close air support and transport, artillery, infantry, armour...all that is in.

For me, the best, is a toss up. On the one hand there are the Space Marines whose training and physical ability is phenomenal, their armor and equipment is phenomenal, and when used on the attack, as swift shock troopers, they are all but unstoppable. On the other hand there are the CloneTroopers. Extremely numerous, easy to replace, they combine the intelligence of a human with a droid's...shall we say, expendible nature. More so, they have excellent air support in the form of close-air gunship fire, and that ALONE is enough to put them over in some cases, cosndiering how powerful a Clone Gunship's weapons can be, combined with good armor, NBC protection, good weapons, and artillery suppor and they become a highly effective main army--the Army to our Space Marines if you will. Those two, i think, represent the best of their respective universes in terms of sheer firepower, skill and effectiveness.

Now...the worst.

That would be the Signers. Worse than the Movie MI, more retarded than a herd of Klingons, unable to defeat a simple locked pantry door...the Signers are just horrendous. No armor, no weapons...that'd be maybe ok if they had the numbers and other weapons, but no: no air support, artillery, tanks, no nothing. Worse yet, and this is the clincher, they built spaceships they obviously are more technologically advanced than we are, and they MUST have known that Earth was literally COVERED by oceans of, what to them, is a deadly chemical...and that we are MADE from the stuff...yet they wore no armor and carried no ranged weapons whatsoever. It's as asinine as saying, "Well we will now invade the planet of the acid people, known for it's vast acid oceans and acid rain, and we will engage them...in hand to hand combat, stark naked! C'mon marines, on that acid beach!"

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2005-08-17 12:24pm

I'm convinced the Signs aliens were invading as some kind of manhood rite, or they were prisoners sent to die fighting for the entertainment of the people back on Zarquon or wherver the fuck they're from. They can build spacecraft that can travel between star systems but they haven't invented pants yet?

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-08-17 01:24pm

A prison revolt kind of makes sense. It would explain their utter lack of weapons, clothes, vehicles, etc...maybe they stole their ships from the guards and fled some jailer world. I guess coming here and grabbing us was a desperate attempt to steal food, which they had to eventually abandon when they realized our bodies were comprised of materials leathally toxic and corrosiive to them.

Panzer Grenadier · Post by **Panzer Grenadier** » 2005-08-17 01:57pm

I thought the aliens were not using their advance weapons, to stop us from using our nuclear weapons and thus damaging the planet they wanted to take. There is a part where the kid is reading from his UFO book and mentions something along those lines. Still pretty stupid IMO, but that was the explanation the movie gave.

I would definatley put The Race from Harry Turtledoves World War series as pretty pathetic troops. Small, tactically inflexible little buggers with a weakness for ginger.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2005-08-17 02:31pm

Best Soldier: Me being me, I of course have to say the Spartans. Trained from early childhood, genetically/cybernetically modified, good tactical sense, excellent armor system. Good, varied armor support, Scorpions, Warthogs, Pelicans, etc. The works.

The worst as far as I've seen are probably the Klingons in "honor" mode. Although, the Race soldiery isnt that great either.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2005-08-17 03:14pm

Culture combat drones. Someone had to say it.

Dakarne · Post by **Dakarne** » 2005-08-17 03:19pm

Best:
Anything from WH40k... The Jedi Order, The Sith Order, Clonetroopers, The Drow

Worst:
The Borg, Klingons, Remans, Romulans, Federation, Jem Hadar.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2005-08-17 03:22pm

Dakarne wrote:Best:The Drow

Not a chance in the Nine Hells.

The Drow may be wanked into uber-duper single warriors, but they are absolute dogshit at armies. They are a society built to backstab each other on the way up, and their uber-duper warrior ways only hurt as soldiering. It's no wonder they amount to nothing more than raiding forces.

The Fey'ri are demonstrating to be a high-calibur evil elven force. But they use mercenary forces properly and make excellent use of airborne artillery.

Anomie · Post by **Anomie** » 2005-08-17 03:24pm

For the best soldiers in Sci-Fi I'll go with either the forces of the Imperium of Man/Chaos or the Clone armies

The IoM forces have the Imperial Guard with there billions of trillions of soldiers, armor regiments, close air support, and specialized armies like the stormtroopers and steel legions, then their is the Space Marine chapters - the elite forces of the IoM, and we can't forget about the Titan Legions. They also have the Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus, the Adeptus Sororitas Sisters of Battle, and the Adeptus Astarts. The Chaos forces have most of that as well as chaos possesed troops, Daemons and Daemon Princes.

Clone armies also potentially number in the billions of trillions, have there own armor and air support, and trained from birth to be soldiers.

As for worst, pretty much anything from Star Trek, with Klingons and Jem'hadar being at the forefront.

Now...the worst.

That would be the Signers. Worse than the Movie MI, more retarded than a herd of Klingons, unable to defeat a simple locked pantry door...the Signers are just horrendous. No armor, no weapons...that'd be maybe ok if they had the numbers and other weapons, but no: no air support, artillery, tanks, no nothing. Worse yet, and this is the clincher, they built spaceships they obviously are more technologically advanced than we are, and they MUST have known that Earth was literally COVERED by oceans of, what to them, is a deadly chemical...and that we are MADE from the stuff...yet they wore no armor and carried no ranged weapons whatsoever. It's as asinine as saying, "Well we will now invade the planet of the acid people, known for it's vast acid oceans and acid rain, and we will engage them...in hand to hand combat, stark naked! C'mon marines, on that acid beach!"

Haven't seen Signs, but from what you say, they sound even more stupid than Star Trek.

Dakarne · Post by **Dakarne** » 2005-08-17 03:36pm

The Drow may be wanked into uber-duper single warriors, but they are absolute dogshit at armies. They are a society built to backstab each other on the way up, and their uber-duper warrior ways only hurt as soldiering. It's no wonder they amount to nothing more than raiding forces.

Good point, but they can function better than anything in my "Worst" list...

Lord of the Abyss · Post by **Lord of the Abyss** » 2005-08-17 03:42pm

Cadre Drop Commandos from Path of the Fury. Elite of the elite soldiers, with superhuman speed , great skill and absolute determination to do whatever it takes.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2005-08-17 03:45pm

Depends on what you want for best. Best black ops may belong to Freehold Military Forces...50 agents caused six billion casualties, although they admittedly lost 98% of their force doing it. But a 122 million to 1 kill ratio is pretty darn good.

For worst, it again depends. The Signers are worst overall, but there should also be a look at the worst use of technology, i.e. who's incompetent but equipped.

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2005-08-17 03:46pm

Signers are pretty damn stupid. They don't even know to run away from a man with a club.

Obviously the ST forces are pretty inferior, but the Race actually stacks up pretty well as a middle-of-the-road SF force. They may be inept, but they have combined arms and tactics, which places them head and shoulders above the redshirts, Klingons, Romulans, movie MI, Bond Henchmen, Signers, Necromongers, SAAB pilots, cylons (old), etc.

Also, don't forget the new WOTW aliens. They weren't terrible, but they were quite lacking several important areas. They had no indirect fire or long range abilities, no area-effect weapons (apparently) and (I'll try to avoid spoilers) their tactics would lead to simply horrendous losses in the Middle East, if Ray's performance is any indication.
Also, they had pretty poor NBC protection.

Zed Snardbody · Post by **Zed Snardbody** » 2005-08-17 03:47pm

The thing with signs that bothers me the most, is that it makes no fucking sense at all. Now you going to say of course Zed you fuck tard, but follow this with me for a moment.

Now in star trek, B5, Star Wars, we've seen some people, races, governments, do some utterly stupid shit, but there was a reason of some sort behind it.

In signs, for the life of me, I can't find a reason, at all.

Scenario 1. They want are planet, but are afraid we'll go nuke happy if they land with uber tanks and what not.

Why do they want are dinky little rock? Resources? No, see asteroid belt. Base, colony, fleet port? Why go to a planet that rains acid from the sky, the natives are the xenos of the system. All we have to do is spit at them or piss on them to fuckem up. You'd be further ahead to Put a station in orbit, or on the moon. The construction cost and resources would be basically the same considering what you'd have to build to protect your garrison planet side.

2. Hunting part?

This one is a little bit more plausible, but not by much. From the look of things, they riled up the entire world and had the military of the world ready to kick some ass. There where allot of the naked bastards running around. And what are they hunting? Us. Woo Hooo, big challenge.

3. Prison Break?

Again, your in rainy acid land, and you what? Split up and start fucking with the natives? You would think it would be better to stick together, fix your ship and split before you discover you've landed in a place that is about to have a monsoon season.

There is just no conceivable reason those pantsless bastards would show up and start shit. If you have one, I'd love to hear it.

Junghalli · Post by **Junghalli** » 2005-08-17 03:50pm

Panzer Grenadier wrote:I thought the aliens were not using their advance weapons, to stop us from using our nuclear weapons and thus damaging the planet they wanted to take. There is a part where the kid is reading from his UFO book and mentions something along those lines

That's no excuse for them not to have guns or armor.

Zed Snardbody · Post by **Zed Snardbody** » 2005-08-17 03:52pm

Junghalli wrote:
Panzer Grenadier wrote:I thought the aliens were not using their advance weapons, to stop us from using our nuclear weapons and thus damaging the planet they wanted to take. There is a part where the kid is reading from his UFO book and mentions something along those lines
That's no excuse for them not to have guns or armor.

Fuck armor, give 'em pants!

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2005-08-17 04:01pm

Hey, hasn't this thread been done a bajillion and one times? Nevermind.

Best: Necromongers. 18-Till-I-Die has converted me! Nearly immune to pain, one shot kill personal weapons, Conquest icons double (triple?) as WMDs on the way down, and BDZ devices on the way up. Proper air support and overwhelming firepower.

Worst: Movie Starship Troopers Mobile Infantry. Shithouse logistics, seemingly no support weapons, crappy air support, etc.

Gunhead · Post by **Gunhead** » 2005-08-17 04:07pm

Good thing those signers invaded the midwest. They would have frozen to death here in the winter (not to mention we get several cm of that "corrosive poison" here every winter).

Me: "THAT'S TOTALLY HORRID!"
Friend: "Yeah I know, ugly looking bastards."
Me: "No, I mean they're not wearing any pants and it's -20C here. That's fucking unnatural."

-Gunhead

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2005-08-17 04:33pm

Gunhead wrote:Good thing those signers invaded the midwest. They would have frozen to death here in the winter (not to mention we get several cm of that "corrosive poison" here every winter).

Me: "THAT'S TOTALLY HORRID!"
Friend: "Yeah I know, ugly looking bastards."
Me: "No, I mean they're not wearing any pants and it's -20C here. That's fucking unnatural."

-Gunhead

They would've lasted somewhere between 5 minutes and 12 hours down here, if they landed anytime between March and October...then the rain would melt them all away

.

Kruk · Post by **Kruk** » 2005-08-17 04:42pm

Best - most Lem-verse ground forces - imagine big science droid with enough weapons to turn Mount Everst into golf course. They dont need soliders, they need more scientists.

There was also some sort of swarm in "Invincible" (also Lem's) - a micro-robots that together formed intellifence and after then - killed anything on the planet and forced said uber-scientist to run. They attack anything that thinks - from microwave to humans, androids, ship computrs etc.

Worse: 'blind' Stormtroopers, Klingons, Feds, Jedi, Sith ... hmm... almost anything from ST and SW.

Necroid · Post by **Necroid** » 2005-08-17 04:49pm

Here is my take on Signs

1) They want to take over the planet, but they are afraid that we are going to destroy the planet with nukes if they use their super technology.
So, they attack naked and unarmed.
But, either way, they lose.
Attack witout wepons=die
Use uber tech =get nuked and die
Conclusion = aliens are teh stupid.

2) They wanted to abduct some humans and experiment and do tests and stuff on us.
But if it's just a quick raid to abduct some people, why not use ubertech?
It would be quicker and the chance for sucsess is much higher.
If they have any brains at all, they should be able to pull this off witout getting nuked.

So, once agein, aliens are teh stupid. (if you didn't get it, I think Signs aliens are the worst)

The best troops ( in my opinion) is clonetroopers\ìmperial guard
They have numbers, equipment and training.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2005-08-17 04:50pm

What is it with the "Stormtroopers have shitty accuracy" business? All those Hollywood movies where the protagonist gets a headshot at 50 paces give people a skewed sense of what's considered accurate.

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2005-08-17 05:03pm

Worst: Again, the Signs aliens. ' What witchcraft is this?! Acid from the Skiiiiesss!' *melts*

Best: Hmm. In terms of damned cool, I vote the book MI. In terms of all rounders, I'm stumped.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2005-08-17 06:36pm

Worse: 'blind' Stormtroopers, Klingons, Feds, Jedi, Sith ... hmm... almost anything from ST and SW.

What the hell? I'll agree about the Klingons and Feds, but "blind" stormtroopers? Jedi and Sith? Care to clarify?

Civil War Man · Post by **Civil War Man** » 2005-08-17 06:39pm

Best: I'd have to go with stormtroopers/clonetroopers or Space Marines in terms of discipline and equipment. The clones might edge it out when you include the commando teams.

Worst: I'm not including the aliens from Signs, since they didn't strike me as showing any semblence of being soldiers. For worst I'd nominate either the Klingon "let's drop our guns and attack with poorly designed swords" warriors or the Jaffa from SG-1. In this case, the Klingons would edge out the Jaffa since at least the Jaffa, with those big animalistic masks, make halfway decent terror troops.