"What does the Imperial Army (NOT Storm Troopers) look like?" Topic

To those who dont know this may come at a bit of a shock but according to the Edge of the Empire Role Playing rules, the Imperial Military is broken up into several branches: The Navy, Imperial Customs, the Army, and the Storm Trooper Corp. Unfortunately I dont own the book and only flipped around so I didn't actually check if they showed any other info on the Army.

So what does the Army look like? It is made clear in the rp system that the Storm Troopers are the elite soldiers that make all but the most brave/foolish quake in fear. Since they're only used when extreme force is necessary, I wonder what the army is equipped with arm and armor wise.

The Army was represented in the West End Games miniature range. They wear a helmet, no armor and carry a blaster (rifle or carbine, I forget which).

auction

As John said – with light grey uniforms. I don't remember offhand what color the helmet was. Maybe dark grey?

Mike

Google knows all: link

In the Star Wars universe is there really a downside to not wearing the paper armor?

They were the guys driving the AT-STs on Endor.
General Veers is wearing the uniform, but he is also wearing an armor chest piece.

I would hope they looked something like this:

or

or

I hope these help as painting guides for your figures.

Didn't really need a Death Star to win, obviously.

;)

Talk about a Weapon of Mass Seduction……..

Watch Return of the Jedi again, and you'll see them; lined up in the Death Star's hangar bay when the Emperor arrives, or running out of the shield generator alongside the Storm Troopers. They're the ones in grey. General Veers (the commander on Hoth, seen in the cockpit of an AT-AT) is an Army officer. Body armour is apparently optional, although ironically the only people I remember wearing any were AT-AT and AT-ST crew.

To add some confusion, naval officers' uniforms are a greenish-grey (as modelled by Grand Moff Tarkin et al), Storm Trooper dress uniforms are black (as seen on the detention centre guards on the Death Star (and those ladies above), while navy troopers wear (different) black uniforms with the odd swept back helmets (the Death Star superlaser gunners) and the white-uniformed AT-AT drivers are also Army troopers.

Imperial Army
�Imperial Army Trooper
Imperial Navy Trooper
Imperial Military Uniforms

Where do I join up?

This is why ground combat games based on Star Wars are always doomed to fail. (the clone wars don't count) It wasn't a land war. Stormtroopers take a lot of heat but they are faceless intimidation/shock troops. Not front line troops. They stand around and look scary to keep the peasants on line.

Why would the rebel alliance ever engage in a ground war with the imps? They jump in with their fancy starfighters and blow stuff up then drop some spies/commandos in to screw up imp stuff.

Your biggest engagement is nothing more then a skirmish in spaceship hallways.

According to the movies you are correct for the most part (excluding Hoth). However, in the West End Games Rebel and Imperial Sourcebooks there are ground actions at Battalion and Regimental level described in some detail. The Empire could never be defeated in a long term ground action. But a Battalion or two attacking some target on a lightly defended world would be a different matter.

I still prefer the Clone Wars for my big Star Wars ground battles.

Thanks,

John

If the Storm-Troopers are the elite forces, I dread to imagine the quality of the army…

I'll be in my bunk.

Javelin, that's great!

According to the movies you are correct for the most part (excluding Hoth)

Once you exclude actions where force sensitives were playing a role, they did pretty darn good.

1) Don't forget their phenomenal accuracy in boarding the Tantive IV… hitting enemies in cover while under heavy fire yet still managing to avoid collateral damage to the extent that harmless droids got missed crossing the hall in the midst of all that.
2) Hoth, but that's an armor action vs a trooper action.
3) Endor is the stand out, but there accuracy, training, etc weren't so much the question as the bigger battle raging in the force and being prepared for the wrong enemy at the wrong location(fighting a large force of indigs with lots of prepared traps, not a small force of commandos). Notice they were seriously winning that battle til they pursued too far while Chewie managed to get his hands on a walker.

Everywhere else, it's the force. Even with Han and Chewie who call it luck.

It's always amusing when one considers Palpatine bragging about "an entire legion of my best troops" on Endor. . . .then watching them get clubbed to death by chubby teddy-bears.

With all due respect, saying something like "This is why ground combat games based on Star Wars are always doomed to fail" can only refer to the sales figures of such games. It certainly doesn't apply to the enjoyment level.

Because frankly, we still play Star Wars Miniatures Battles from West End Games; we're going to use it to play the Battle of Hoth (for a sixth time) this Columbus Day weekend, and we use it almost exclusively for sci-fi ground combat games, whether we play Rebels vs. Stormtroopers or not.

And just because Stormtroopers LOOK like they suck in the movies doesn't mean they have to suck on the game table. Ask anybody whose fought against mine or Phil Pournelle's.

Stormtroopers may seem like faceless initimidation troops but in fact they ARE shock troops and they are extremely effective when used correctly; most people just can't be bothered to learn how.

Star Wars background talks about ground battles all over the Empire between Imperial troops and Rebel forces. There are "Hoths" all over the place; wherever the Empire finds Alliance forces, and wherever Alliance forces feel they can engage the Empire, and for any number of purposes. The only reason to limit battles solely to skirmishes in a starship corridor is a lack of imagination on the part of the players.

Any game is only as enjoyable as the people we play it with, and while I really love the new X-Wing, I don't think it's as good a game as the old "Star Warriors". In fact we've used the figures as much for that older game as for this new one, which is, let's face it, a lot more "Just-get-it-out-on-the-table-and-play" Style than it is "maneuver-like-a-Star-Wars-fighter-pilot" Substance.

That's not a criticism, per se; simpler can be better because it is more accessible, but simpler is not always better just because it is simpler.

If people aren't having fun playing ground combat in the Star Wars universe, and not JUST the Clone Wars (which in fact we DON'T play because of its over-the-top glut of marketable alien and vehicle toys), but the period of the Rebellion – then frankly, they aren't playing it right.