Why Stormtroopers are superb marksmen

[Mamatried]

If the stormtroopers were as "bad" as the memes, then how could the empire even maintain control?

manpower alone is not enough,.

Now I found this.......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2TA9coGLzM

However, what they say here.......
If we look to the actual numbers of shots to hits, then les see how superior the stormtroopers are to anything else in the galaxy.

All hail the Emperor!

[TheEvilDM]

lol good video. Thanks for that link. My troopers are better then the average ones, because well, I want them to hit and give the players a challenge.. but I normally have them in small groups, not an overwhelming amount
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[garhkal]

So you follow Wu's law of ninjas.. The more there are, the suckier they are. The less, the more bad-@$$ they are.
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[Mamatried]

Numbers alone don't make the Stormtrooper the "elite".....just the masses.

When they are described in the books, in comics and when it is actully Canon that they were odered to allow luke and han escape the DS1, then I would argue that there is no evidence to support the the memes around them.

In my games I use the imperial army for most military operations, and the stormtroopers as the FIST and as shock troops, the Elite that destroys the enemy.

it is to me an engma how people can see the stormtroopers as so incopetent....and yet not question how can someone with 100% incompetent soldiers control a galaxy for 25 years?

[Whill]

[Mamatried]

The issue I have with the "bad aim stormies" is this.

they use a weapon that is not the most accurate, it can be compared to the AK 47, being somehwat accurate and "enough accurate", not that that matters much, though it is worth noting.

If we read books like Twilight Company, we hear of Stormtroopers going through years of training, I doubt this is marely "ideology" and suspect this to inculde extensive military training.

While the Imperial Army naturally does the main fighting , the Stormtroopers are described as and referred to as "elite" forces, now if they could not aim worth anything then sorry to say they will not be much elite, and their armor would not not invoce as much fear as it would redicule and laughter.

We also have to consider what we compare Stormtrooperss with, we don't compare them on a one to one basis with boba fett, luke skywalker or han solo, but we can and should compare them to the general Rebel and the various palnetary forces out there.

Now if we do consider for the sake of argument that the stromtroopers are among the best of what the empire caan field , then with an order to let Like and Leia Escape to track them to the rebel HQ, we could not expect such a task to be give to soldiers not knowing how to aim, as this would easily cuase the death of the "heroes" and maybe years more of trying to locate the rebel HQ, again a task only givent to troops with the skill to make sure their shots appear to miss.

As to Obi Wan, he has spent the better part of 20 years on tattooine, where there are stormtroopers garrisoned, and where they would be depolyed against criminal elements and sand people. So he would be quite familiar with them, now this without speculating what future live action and comics/books would have old man ben do while basking in the sand.

Further more if we do look at the sandcrawler, and the disabling yet "minimal" damage to the vesslel speaks of at least some skill, this too impressing Luke , who would also at least have seen what sand peaopl are capable of and what criminal elements some most likely ex military are capable of, and still "only stomtroopers are that accurate"

Now if we consider a fresh out of training stromtrooper then we have a soldier with at least 2-3 years of military training, with a 4 year traning span total.
They would reasonbly with the "elite" label be considered a step above the best trained regular military, the Imperial Army.

If we think the deiffernce between Marines and Army, then for the most par Marienes are considered "elite", and trained to be a bettel combatant than their army counterpart.

An army mechnaic is a mechanic first and may have no more his basic training weapons qualifications.
A US Marine is a rifle man first and then a mechanic second, being first trained and qualified to "par" as a combatant and then trained as a mechanic.
THis on average make the US Marine a better shot than their army Counterparts, and it would make sense that this applies to Stormtroopers.

While I agree that the video have flaws, we can however count the hit to shot ratio, where the stormtroopers in this case is 3x as accurate compared to the rebel troopers.
The stomtroopers also breach through a bottleneck agaist a well defended and partially covered opponents, a very hard thing to pull off, yet they suffer only 4 casualties inculding the one killed by Leia, to the clsoer to 12-15 rebels.
Agian this tells me that they are quite impressive combatants.

If we have a 1-10 scale of troop tiers, I would deem rag tag groups as a 1, and criminal elements 2-3 with the planetary forces and imperial regular military (army) rating 3-5 with the imperial being on the higher end of that.
Stormtroopers would IMO rate 4-6 with very elite stormtroopers like the scar suad rating as a tier 7 and the commandos/guards and special forces would hold the 8-10 tiers.

I too however use stormtroopers as mooks but maybe more deadly ones, but they fall in droves, even as elite troops compared to what else is out there

[Akumakaji]

I like my stormtroopers a bit more acurate, too. I think giving them 5D in blasters makes them a reasonable dangerous foe without overblowing it (and dont forget the -1D for the armor).

The second video, posted by Whil, is amusing, but only showcases the thicc plot armor, that protects our beloved heroes ^^ Not a singel one is hit between that 300 shots fired at them, but thats ok, they are the heroes of this story.

I always forget that there is a regular imperial army, and that the storm troopers are sort of the fear inducing elite.

[garhkal]

[Bren]

[Raven Redstar]

[Whill]

[Mamatried]

removing armor penalty is not "increased skill"

meaning that removing the armor penalty does not make stormtrooper better, this puts them at PAR, but they are supposed to be the "best" the "elite" if this a mere "being upto par" then ok, if being best or elte means a cut above the norm, then sorry to say the stormtroopers even with 0 armor bonus is still not a good enough soldier not even in numbers to allow the empire to have control and not be laughed out of the galaxy

[garhkal]

True. As i showed a while back, General army troopers, have higher base skills even without storm troopers suffering no armor penalties.. IMO they need to be 1 possibly 2d higher in both blaster and dodge..
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[Mamatried]