Research Question: Stormtrooper unit sizes

I'm doing some research for an upcoming fanfic that will involve Stormtroopers. Wookepedia has a lot, but not all details I'm interested in. So, how big would you say squads, platoons and companies would be, respectively?

The Wookepedia entry lists a battalion as 820 soldiers, so that leaves me with the impression that a company could be 100-200 men strong. Does that seem reasonable? And what about squads and platoons?

Thank you for your time!

 

I suggest looking under U.S. army in wikipedia they give a good break down and a nice model for any type of troop numbers. You can of course modifiy it to fit a GFFA but it should work better then using ancient Roman battle formations as a standard of comparasion. I hope this helps

 

Well, by Legacy a stormtrooper squad consists of 4 troopers and a sergeant.

The info on this is pretty vague. I've looked for it, as well as a nice list of ranks in various navies, armies, etc, and they seem hard to find. The canon sources don't address the ranking systems very explicitly I suppose, or no one has compiled the information into a nice accessible list.

 

12 troops in a squad led by a Sergeant
4 squads in a platoon led by a Lieutenant, 48 troops
4 platoons in a company led by a captain, 192 troops
4 companies in a battalion, led by a major, 768 troops
4 battalions in a regiment led by a Commander, 3072 troops

That's about the breakdown

 

Ooooh, I got different info.
Went to look things up because of the CW movie.
Let's see.

A Squad: 12 men
Platoon: 36 (4 squads)
Company: 144 (4 platoons)
Battalion: 576 (4 companies)
Legion: 9,216 (16 battallions)

It might be confusing that Clone Commandos are referred to as 'squads', too. Like Omega Squad, and they are only four men. But then, five suqads of that kind form a
Troop: 20 (five Clone Commando Squads).

All clarities removed?

 

12 x 4 = 48

That's how your numbers are wrong

 

Tell the wook?
It says that a squad is made up by 10-12 men, but to have four squads make up one platoon, there'd need be 9 men in one squad. *shrug*
I'm a fanficcer not a mathematician.

Anyway, there's so many special cases listed in each entry that it probably doesn't even matter how many men you put inot any unit.

 

There isn't a set number of troops that make up a squad, so I guess it could be 36 men

 

Actually, being in the military myself, the breakdown would be as follows:

A Fireteam: 4 men
A Squad: 13 men (12 soldiers and 1 sergeant)
Platoon: 3 squads (39) + 5 command staff (Led by a Captain)
Company: 180 (4 platoons with command staff) Led by a Lt Col
Battalion: 730 (4 companies with command staff) Led by a Col or low ranking Brig General

But that's by US military standards. The command staff can always vary too

 

UrbanJedi: Why is a captain leading a platoon? Shouldn't it be a lieutenant (1st or 2nd) in charge of the platoon, with a captain leading the company, the light colonel in charge of the battalion, and the bird colonel in charge of the brigade? Unless this change is recent ...

Back in the day ('90-'94) when I was active duty (Army infantry, hoo-ah), it was more akin to

A Fireteam: 3-4 men
A Squad: 9-12 men (8-11 soldiers and 1 sergeant)
Platoon: 3 squads (27-36) + 2 command staff (Led by a 1st or 2nd Lieutenant and a Sergeant First Class or Staff Sergeant)
Company: 116-152 (3 line platoons + support platoon) Led by a Captain and a First Sergeant. Company XO is the support platoon leader and is generally a 1LT.
Battalion: 580-912 (4-5 companies with HHQ company) Led by a Lieutenant Colonel and a Sergeant Major.

 

Awesome stuff, all of you! Keep it coming. Now, if we can only get some sort of consensus on the numbers, lol. For instance, Wookepedia mentions that a battalion during the Clone Wars was smaller than it later became during the Imperial age. Could that resolve anything?

 

Read it again!

12 troops in a squad led by a Sergeant
4 squads in a platoon led by a Lieutenant, 48 troops
4 platoons in a company led by a Captain, 192 troops
4 companies in a battalion, led by a Major, 768 troops
4 battalions in a regiment led by a Commander, 3072 troops

 

RL unit size don't necessarily resolcve any SW issues, Katana.

Though I'd say that looking for fixed number in SW isn't working anyway.
Too many different people said too many different things. I'd say just look through all of it and take what fits the story best.

 

Thanks all! Has been VERY helpful!

 

It was the clarify the officers who led particular groups as commented by Rigil

 

So what would Rex( from Clone Wars) be in charge of? A squad?

 

When he starts out it is a company (Torrent Company) with 144 troopers. (Don't nail me down on the number, okay? )
In the end, when' there's just six of them, I think he himself has to admit it's just a squad then. (in my HC version of TCW novel page 179 second to last paragraph:

Now that makes a squad anything from 4 to 12 people now. Wonderful.

Do i have to highlight that? Not sure.

 

Rex is a Captain, isn't he?

So he would have a platoon.

 

In rl or in SW, katana?

 

SW, see my post above with the group and officer designations.

 

Oh, okay.
In that case. read my post with all them wook-links in it and maybe follow one.

So Torrent Company is 144 troopers and their captain (Rex), and that is fine and correct.



sinre - I don't worry about numbers. I know I can get away with almost everything if the story needs it.

 

Imperial Source Book from West End Games:

Imperial Army Organization in brief

Squad: Eight Combat Soldiers plus a Sergeant
*Notes that during the Old Republic 10-12 man squads were common

Platoon:=4 Squads

Company:=4 Platoons

Battalion:=4 Companies

Regiment= Generally 4 Battalions

Battlegroup= Generally 4 Regiments

Corps= Generally 4 Battlegroups

Army= Generally 4 Corps

Systems Army= Generally 1 Army, but sometimes up to 3

Sector Army= 2 to 4 Armies

So the ISB which is dated for sure, lays it out like that. As a someone previous pointed out a Squad size in Legacy looks to be 4 troops plus a sergeant. So I guess its safe to assume sometime between the Palpatine Empire, the Pellaeon Empire and the Fel Empire the numbers changed.