"Favorite SF Infantry?" Topic

Science Fiction, not Special Forces (though there may be some overlap).

Ron

Herbert's Dune---the Fremen
Not that the movie was any good, but in my mind a whole division of troops shouting Muad'dib into the voice weapons would be just too cool

Falkenburg's Mercenary Legion.
1st runners-up: the Dorsai.
2nd runners-up: the Covenanters.

Another vote for Falkenberg's Legion

@Random Die Roll: The weirding way didn't involve sonic weapons in the book (books, I guess -- I only read the first one).

Fremen were all blade and Maula pistols. A couple of centuries later, things changed. Anyways, the infantry components of 'Hammer's Slammers' is pretty interesting.

Heinlien's Starship Troopers. Not the ones from those awful movies from which Mongoose produced figures.

I second starship troopers from the book. After that GW space marines.

Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers. They're iconic even if they don't usually hit what they aim at.

Lieutenant-Colonel Anton "The Variag" Vereshchagin and his command, the 1st Battalion, 35th Imperial Infantry, from Frezza's A Small Colonial War.

And Heinlein's M.I.

Imperial Marines from Traveller. Your players know they messed up when the red Battledress guys show up

3rd real starship trooper in ape suit.

Ouch! Embarrassing for an old Heinlein fan, but I forgot the M.I. Certainly a good pick.

Gaunt's Ghosts

M.I.
Falkenberg's Legion

I second Micman.

From books: Hammer's Slammers

From Movies/TV: I love the look of the MCRN and MMC from The Expanse. The shipboard marines especially look very near-future to me.

From a miniatures standpoint, the GZG, 15mm, UNSC Hardsuit Marines, since they look to me like Traveller Imperial Marines.

Followed closely by the Light, UNSC troops.

The marines from The Expanse look very similar to them as well.

For light troops, the Marines from Aliens, as shown above.

Zhodani power armor infantry from Traveller, with the weird helmet that split down the middle and hinge out to the sides.

The reason for this design is one of the brilliant touches of Traveller world-building.

The Fifth Foreign Legion from the books by Andrew & William Keith.

Books:
Gotta start with Heinlein's Mobile Infantry.
A fun second is the troops from Jay Posey's Outriders series.
Third is probably Hammer's Slammers.
I don't remember the Imperial Legions showing up in any of the Eldraeverse stories yet, but they would also fit in nicely.

Visual media:
For sheer iconic stature, definitely SW Stormtroopers, but the Clone Troopers are much more competent.
Then the MCRN Marines from The Expanse.

If we're getting to game settings:
Well, the big Heavy Infantry from Infinity: Azrail, Al-Fassed, Yan Huo, Daiyokai, Taskmaster ESWAST, Kriza Boracs, and Sogarat.
I also like a lot of the regular power armored troops from Infinity, but the Silhouette 5 troops tend to look cooler. And a lot more imposing.

Star Wars stormtroopers and Aliens colonial marines.

I like the Junkers from Void

Heinlein's MI. Star Wars Stormtroopers, Hammers Slammers. GZG's Stargrunt series. The Mongoose Starships Troopers figures are great sci-fi figures and the animated series was pretty good, shame they couldn't afford to finish it.

I liked the design of the infantry in Verhoeven's Starship Troopers. While not at all a representation of the MI from Heinlein's novel, the armour went on to be re-used in Firefly for the Alliance soldiers.

Ron

Call me biased but I like the Space Gorilla Force.

After Mantic, I have a preference for AT-43…prepainted variety.

Second vote for Dorsai – though how to represent them is another matter.

Yeah, I liked Colonial Marines, Movie Starship Troopers (book were tactical nuke launcher suits), Clone Troopers and Storm Troopers. I also like the Planet of the Apes Gorilla Army. I love the Slammers. But they aren't really an infantry force. Fifth Foreign Legion are also cool! Love those books.

I like the Legion from the William Dietz Legion of the Damned series. I've been meaning to do them in 15mm for a long time.

This is a tough one. I guess that overall I'll vote for the Zhodani Consular Guard.

Those cool clamshell helmets:

link

Grav robots:

link

Available in 25mm (ignore the bipedal robots):

link

And all Consular Guard troops are psionic adepts!

Still partial to Warframes, even if they are more space ninja than standard infantry.

link

There's a pretty good argument that any 'space marines' (or whatever you call them, 'espatier' seems to be the other leading candidate) will be more like space ninjas (or covert operations troops) than WW2 ground invasion marines.

There's a pretty good argument that any 'space marines' (or whatever you call them, 'espatier' seems to be the other leading candidate) will be more like space ninjas (or covert operations troops) than WW2 ground invasion marines.

In 40K lore, Space Marines are indeed the elite special forces of mankind, genetically engineered supersoldiers without equal. Their latest offshoot, the towering "Primaris" space marines, are even more so.

The basic space infantry in the 40K universe is the so-called "Astra Militarum," formerly known as the Imperial Guard.

I like Starship Troopers from the cartoon.

Jem'Hadar

Predators

Cylons

British Light Infantry

1st Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment

Dorsai would dress much the same as the units they're commanding. The real indicator of their presence is the string of victories.

Megaforce.

Hammers' Slammers of course ! My Slammer Grunts …

Cybermen

Daleks

BattleTech, Clan Elementals

P.S. You forgot to put the thread title in the form of a Poll suggestion!

Imperial Panzer Grenadiers of the Lohengramm Dynasty.

Unlike the Empire in star wars, these guys actually win.
Sieg Kaiser Reinhard! Sieg neu Reich!

40k Marines in Mk6 armor w/ Beakie helmets.

Runners up: 30k Marines in Mk4 armor with Sarum Pattern helmet.