Imperial Soldier

The simple answer has already been posted by myself and at least one other person. Stormtroopers are shock troops and a force to strike fear into the heart of the populace. They are trained to strike fast and hard, hopefully eleminating all oppsition within a short amount of time or to at least so unsettle them as to be fairly ineffective during battle. As a force to strike fear into the populace, they are to be seen as highly trained force who may or may not be human. That is to say, by stripping them visually of their humanity, a stormtrooper's expression can not be read. And without any identity other than their armor, they can be an intimidating presence.

 

We discussed the shooting-abilities of Stormtroopers before and if we take a closer look at the circumstances, their markmanship is excellent.

Besides, i think it to be somehow unfair to compare the best the rebels have to offer with average imperial soldiers.

 

Going back to the WEG RPG stats on the typical stormie and army trooper, the marksmanship difference is only like 2 pips. (Pips seem to be what make up a dice. 3 pips equals one die. They can improve a skill check up to 2 points. That is, you add the number of extra pips to the total you roll on the die or dice. So if you have a blaster skill of 3D+1 and you roll a ten, you add the +1 to get a total of 11.) Looking at that small a difference, we can go back to what FTeik said about the circumstances. Stormies are usually firing on the run, not taking time really to aim as well as they might if the were standing still behind some cover or if they were merely walking. So while the stats point to the army troopers being better marksman, we should take into acount that they are not expected to fire on the run. This would certainly raise their targeting ability.

 

Why don't we see Imperial Soldiers in the OT?

 

Cuz then people won't like the movies as much.

 

As to why we never see Imperial regulars in the movies, remember all we've seen in the movies are situations in which the Emperor or Vader has personal interest. We have yet to see a "typical" battle between Rebel and Imperial forces.

For a real world comparison, I think the Waffen-SS in WWII would be a better match than the Marine Corps, as the Fleet Troopers seem to fill that role.

In the Technical Journal of the Imperial Forces put out by Starlog magazine back in '94, the section on Stormtroops includes this tid-bit:

"It must be emphasized that stormtroopers operate independently of the military and answer directly to the Emperor. They have thier own chain of command and follow the Imperial Army and Navy at their 'discretion'."

About the Waffen-SS, www.feldgrau.com states:

"The Waffen-SS, formed in 1940, was the true military formation of the larger SS, and as such, it is the main focus of this section. Formed from the SS-Verfungstruppe after the Campaign in France in 1940, the Waffen-SS would become an elite military formation of nearly 600,000 men by the time WWII was over. Its units would spearhead some of the most crucial battles of WWII while its men would shoulder some of the most difficult and daunting combat opertations of all the units in the German military. The Waffen-SS is sometimes thought of as the 4th branch of the German Wehrmacht (Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine) as in the field it came under the direct tactical control of the OKW, although this notion is technically incorrect as strategic control remained within the hands of the SS."


I was thinking that in Episode II it would be cool if Palpatine creates the Stormtroopers/Clonetroopers as an alternative to the regular Republic army, which may not be as cohesive as it should be due to the rivalries within the Senate. You know, sort of like Federal troops vs. State National Guard. In his desire to centralize his control over the Republic, Palpy goes and creates an unquestionably loyal private army.