I never really liked the idea of Stormtroopers as an independent Corp (like the Marines, or SS troops), mostly because we never see anyone else,

I was a loyal arguer for the Imperial Army existing for decades. I have several pro-Army arguments up my sleeve. But, the counter reasons I debated against for years finally won me over. We never see the WEG olive drab wearing Imperial Army on the screen, ever, not even for a glimpse, because the Imperial Army is on the screen constantly, in full view, wearing white. That doesn't mean they aren't a cut above local defense forces. They are still obviously elite in training and equipment. The Empire only recruits (or grows, depending on your beliefs) the best for their shock infantry. Yes, they are only shock infantry. Front line charges. The Empire doesn't have much need for occupiers and long-term siegers, as already noted above.

I'm fairly certain the people manning the likes of AT-ATs on Hoth were Imperial Army, given their uniforms matched the art of Imperial Army troops.

I never really liked the idea of Stormtroopers as an independent Corp (like the Marines, or SS troops), mostly because we never see anyone else,

I was a loyal arguer for the Imperial Army existing for decades. I have several pro-Army arguments up my sleeve. But, the counter reasons I debated against for years finally won me over. We never see the WEG olive drab wearing Imperial Army on the screen, ever, not even for a glimpse, because the Imperial Army is on the screen constantly, in full view, wearing white. That doesn't mean they aren't a cut above local defense forces. They are still obviously elite in training and equipment. The Empire only recruits (or grows, depending on your beliefs) the best for their shock infantry. Yes, they are only shock infantry. Front line charges. The Empire doesn't have much need for occupiers and long-term siegers, as already noted above.

Actually, we do see one olive drab-clad Army soldier - General Veers.

I never really liked the idea of Stormtroopers as an independent Corp (like the Marines, or SS troops), mostly because we never see anyone else,

I was a loyal arguer for the Imperial Army existing for decades. I have several pro-Army arguments up my sleeve. But, the counter reasons I debated against for years finally won me over. We never see the WEG olive drab wearing Imperial Army on the screen, ever, not even for a glimpse, because the Imperial Army is on the screen constantly, in full view, wearing white. That doesn't mean they aren't a cut above local defense forces. They are still obviously elite in training and equipment. The Empire only recruits (or grows, depending on your beliefs) the best for their shock infantry. Yes, they are only shock infantry. Front line charges. The Empire doesn't have much need for occupiers and long-term siegers, as already noted above.

Actually, we do see one olive drab-clad Army soldier - General Veers.

Who is clearly in charge of the entire ground combat operation. Which is even stronger support the snowtroopers answer directly to him, under normal chain of command. i.e. If he's army, the Snowtroopers should be army.

I never really liked the idea of Stormtroopers as an independent Corp (like the Marines, or SS troops), mostly because we never see anyone else,

I was a loyal arguer for the Imperial Army existing for decades. I have several pro-Army arguments up my sleeve. But, the counter reasons I debated against for years finally won me over. We never see the WEG olive drab wearing Imperial Army on the screen, ever, not even for a glimpse, because the Imperial Army is on the screen constantly, in full view, wearing white. That doesn't mean they aren't a cut above local defense forces. They are still obviously elite in training and equipment. The Empire only recruits (or grows, depending on your beliefs) the best for their shock infantry. Yes, they are only shock infantry. Front line charges. The Empire doesn't have much need for occupiers and long-term siegers, as already noted above.

I'm fairly certain the people manning the likes of AT-ATs on Hoth were Imperial Army, given their uniforms matched the art of Imperial Army troops.

These are army to me. However, the important element is that they are not infantry . The question essentially is if the Empire has any infantry that are not stormtroopers. For reasons given by myself and others earlier, I think that the answer is no. Other than local armies belonging to the subject planets of the Empire, obviously.

According to this article :

I never argued that the EU didn't make them separate.

Interestingly, according to this article on the Canon Imperial Army, the Stormtroopers are part of the Army. It's one thing they appear to have actually have changed in the new canon.

I'm fairly certain the people manning the likes of AT-ATs on Hoth were Imperial Army, given their uniforms matched the art of Imperial Army troops.

Are you speaking of the WEG Imperial Army Trooper art?

Actually, we do see one olive drab-clad Army soldier - General Veers.

I agree. When I said Imperial Navy + Stormtrooper Corps up above I wasn't arguing there is nothing that could be named an, "Army". I just meant the Stormtroopers are the only infantry. There isn't another force of Imperial Army Troopers like those created by WEG from Veers' uniform.

QuickSilver ninja'd my linking of the new canon tab for the Imperial Army. It implies Stormtrooper are part of the Imperial Army.

One of my favourite topics. I thoroughly reject, and always have rejected, the idea of a separate army. It was thought up by WEG, who i hold no nostalgia for. Part of the reason you never see army troops anywhere but the RPG, is that people want to shoot stormtroopers. That is why they are in every novel I've read, every video game I've played. Not some other imperial soldier. Now, you might say, "well TB, what about the guys in the grey jumpsuits in the AT-ST?" Look at the new Rdbels show. These seem to be vehicle pilots, not some regular army. Stormtroopers are the foot soldiers of the army, the vehicle crews are the mechanized troops. Now, in rebels we ses these vehicle crews wearing armour, but they don't later. I'm thinking it is either cutbacks (Death Stars are not cheap) of the improving military hardware. AT-DP to AT-ST.

There is also the lack of needing a military police force. Let the worlds govern and protect themselves, a la Cloud City until they do something that requires an actual military presence. Lothal in rebels has this as it seems to be becoming a major industrial hub.

Also no need to deploy troops when you can just Base Delta Zero the dissidents into line. Unless you need to keep the infrastructure. Then send in the troops.

So I will never use a separate army. It is more fun and keeping with every media, outside the RPG, to shoot Stormtroopers as the basic imperial troops. There is also the advantage that if every troop looks the same, regardless of skill, your opponents won't know until as the saying goes, the Fit hits the Shan*

* Shans are a creature I created, prone to violent and spontaneous tantrums when spooked suddenly. Think a furry, land dwelling hippo.

The problem I've always had with the idea of stormtroopers being the regular army infantry is that it means that you have non-stormtrooper officers in command of stormtrooper grunts. Now it could be that the officers were in fact stormtroopers but once they reached a certain rank they wore a uniform rather than armour when on duty outside of combat, but why wasn't Veers wearing stormtrooper armour when leading the assault on Echo Base, or the Imperial officers at the bunker on Endor?

To me, it makes perfect sense that we don't see regular Army troops in combat during the movies - every situation where we see ground troops in the movies is atypical, where you would expect superior troops to be employed if available:

Episode 4:

- Boarding the Tantive IV , a Rebel ship carrying absolutely vital intelligence, where the boarding party will face skilled and highly-motivated opposition. Also, that boarding party is drawn from the troops accompanying the Emperor's right-hand man.

- Mos Eisley. Again, the troops looking from R2 and 3PO are those who were accompanying Vader, who are unlikely to be random goons.

- The Death Star. Other than the Imperial Palace on Coruscant, if there's a facility more likely to be defended by elite troops, I'd like to know what it is.

Episode 5:

- Echo Base. Any attack on the central HQ of the Rebellion is going to be made with the best troops available.

- Cloud City. Again, the troops deployed there are drawn from the contingent accompanying Vader on his Luke-hunt.

Episode 6

- Endor. The Emperor specifically refers to the unit defending the shield generator as being a legion of his best troops.

- Death Star 2 - same as Death Star 1.

We never see the regular Army because we never see the characters we're watching in a situation where the regular Army would be employed. I like the idea of the separation between Army and Stormtroopers, because it's a very simple visual shorthand - if the PCs see white armour, they know Things Just Got Serious.

This (the battles in the movies required only the elite troops) used to be one of my signature arguments. Now that I've gone full circle, I think it pales against us never seeing even one Imperial Army Trooper on screen. What we do see is what has later been called Naval Troopers and Death Star Troopers. To me they've become Imperial Security Troopers while the infantry are the Stormtroopers. Note that on Endor what do we see guarding a SURFACE shield bunker in the jungle? The black clad mook troopers. Given the opportunity to see Imperial Army Troopers on the surface of a planet guarding a bunker, we don't see them but the Naval Troopers. To me it's because the mook Army Troopers don't exist. There is only one Imperial mook, the security guys.

Non-Stormtrooper officers commanding Stormtroopers? If you call the black uniformed guys Stormtrooper officers, we do see an instance of that. Recall the officer on the Tantive IV that is wearing a black uniform that we can speculate is later the Stormtrooper officer we see on Tatooine (Darth tells him to see to the mission himself). He's obviously an infantry officer. But, we later see an olive drab officer on Cloud City directing Stormtroopers. It can easily be explained that once an officer reaches a certain "command" level, he starts wearing the olive drab command level uniform. That actually explains some of the color changes we see throughout the movies. Or, perhaps if you are moved into command/admin you now wear the olive drab even if you aren't command rank yourself. It's not untold throughout history that a commander (Darth) grabs someone trusted from his command staff to go get something done. That olive drab officer on Cloud City could have been a trusted high ranking aide of Darth's that he sent out to make sure that small squad of stormtroopers (no officer rank amongst themselves) got that escort missioned accomplished.

For me the Stormtroopers will always be the Elite of the Empire, clad in pure white to be easily identifyable. White Laminate running around? Get the hell out of there. What is the first thing we see them do? Board a ship, taking out the defenders while suffering minimal losses and capturing the princess. They are killers.

So i do not mind the WEG team coming up with normal Army troopers. They do what the Stormtroopers don't do, like maning the vehicles, doing more regular assignments, and being more 'normal' than Stormtroopers. Without the Army and only Stormies running around they would loose that special scariness and sense of danger they should cause in the heroes.

Not being seen on the big screen? So what, that goes for most of the material we use nowadays, literaly hundreds of ships, guns, characters, equipment and such.

I never really liked the idea of Stormtroopers as an independent Corp (like the Marines, or SS troops), mostly because we never see anyone else,

I was a loyal arguer for the Imperial Army existing for decades. I have several pro-Army arguments up my sleeve. But, the counter reasons I debated against for years finally won me over. We never see the WEG olive drab wearing Imperial Army on the screen, ever, not even for a glimpse, because the Imperial Army is on the screen constantly, in full view, wearing white. That doesn't mean they aren't a cut above local defense forces. They are still obviously elite in training and equipment. The Empire only recruits (or grows, depending on your beliefs) the best for their shock infantry. Yes, they are only shock infantry. Front line charges. The Empire doesn't have much need for occupiers and long-term siegers, as already noted above.

Actually, we do see one olive drab-clad Army soldier - General Veers.

Don't forget the AT-ST operators on Endor. Granted, they're wearing grey, but they're obviously not Stormies or Navy.

Imperial Army Troopers as depicted in canon, were largely vehicular crews and officers, with Stormtrooper Corp acting in Infantry roles very similar to the Marine Corp.

The fact that line Imperial Army troopers is never depicted in the films does not mean it would not exist, we never see a refresher or Bothans in the original trilogy yet we accept their existence on much less visual evidence that we have of a non-Stormtrooper Imperial Army force. Why do we see Stormtroopers in almost all media sources? Easy its iconic, the same reason we hear the soundtrack for the Imperial March constantly throughout the movies.

Stormtroopers maintain strict height-weight requirements that the Imperial Army and its officer corp do not meet again as depicted in the movies, this is not unheard of even in a modern military though it is largely limited to units that carry out ceremonial duties. Which means absent Imperial army soldiers the Imperial Army only produces vehicle crews and officers? yeah okay.

The other thing to consider is the Imperial Army is primarily a garrisoning force on Imperial controlled worlds drawing its ranks from within planetary forces, where the Stormtroopers are more likely to act as first response force and travel with the Imperial Fleet as well as acting as a garrison force.

You know what we do see on screen, in canon? Kids being trained to be stormtroopers. Watch Rebels.

To be honest, in general, the Imperial Military appears to operate under a unified command structure, like the Grand Army of the Republic did. (Which makes some sense, being it's a direct successor/rename). I mean, we never see an enlisted who isn't subordinate to the officers around him, etc.

You know what we do see on screen, in canon? Kids being trained to be stormtroopers. Watch Rebels.

and this has what do do with the canon existence of a separate branch of the Imperial military? Stormtroopers may very well be the defacto line infantry units of the Empire but movie canon already depicts non stormtrooper Imperial Army soliders

Imperial Army Troopers as depicted in canon, were largely vehicular crews and officers, with Stormtrooper Corp acting in Infantry roles very similar to the Marine Corp.

The fact that line Imperial Army troopers is never depicted in the films does not mean it would not exist, we never see a refresher or Bothans in the original trilogy yet we accept their existence on much less visual evidence that we have of a non-Stormtrooper Imperial Army force.

The argument of just because we don't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist, is the Teapot Fallacy. (AKA "Russell's Teapot"). We have no evidence that there isn't a teapot orbiting one of Jupiter's moons, therefore there is such a thing. Now obviously lack of evidence doesn't mean there isn't something there. But what it means is that you need some reason to suppose that it is . We never see Bothans but they are explicitly referenced so we know there are such things. We never see someone go to the toilet, but we can reasonably suppose that there must be such things because the implications if there aren't are radically at odds with other things we know. Several times we see people eat so if there are no toilets they either just progress until they turn into huts, or there's a room in the Falcon you really don't want to go to. There are no such strong reasons for a non-Stormtrooper infantry. Moreover, we don't see them in some situations we would probably expect to. Instead we get stormtroopers.

Why do we see Stormtroopers in almost all media sources? Easy its iconic, the same reason we hear the soundtrack for the Imperial March constantly throughout the movies.

Don't confuse meta-reasons with in-universe ones. If George Lucas had had the budge to go with his original plan, Jabba the Hutt would have been a hairy wookie-like creature and the entire Hutt race would never have been. But that didn't happen. So should we go with intent and meta reasons or what makes sense in-universe. Point of it is that what we see is what we get and even if Stormtroopers are chosen to fill all these roles in the setting because they look cool, the fact remains that they fill those roles in the setting.

And the Imperial March is actually only used in a very few places, if you actually listen for it, not "constantly".

Stormtroopers maintain strict height-weight requirements that the Imperial Army and its officer corp do not meet again as depicted in the movies, this is not unheard of even in a modern military though it is largely limited to units that carry out ceremonial duties. Which means absent Imperial army soldiers the Imperial Army only produces vehicle crews and officers? yeah okay.

You're arguing that there must be a regular army because some of the commanding officers we see are a little short to be a stormtrooper, and therefore must have come up through some other ranks? Novel, I'll grant you. But where did you come up with such pre-conditions in order to make such an argument work? Because the only thing I know is Leia's cutting remark to Luke. Is that an authoritative statement on Imperial height-requirements? Or a sarcastic put-down? Time will tell. She also said she'd rather kiss a wookie than Han Solo...

The other thing to consider is the Imperial Army is primarily a garrisoning force on Imperial controlled worlds drawing its ranks from within planetary forces, where the Stormtroopers are more likely to act as first response force and travel with the Imperial Fleet as well as acting as a garrison force.

Uh, says who? You can't throw in statements that aren't cannon / made up and then use them as the basis for argument!

You know what we do see on screen, in canon? Kids being trained to be stormtroopers. Watch Rebels.

and this has what do do with the canon existence of a separate branch of the Imperial military? Stormtroopers may very well be the defacto line infantry units of the Empire but movie canon already depicts non stormtrooper Imperial Army soliders

It depicts them as vehicle pilots and commanding officers, you mean. We don't see any non-stormtrooper infantry anywhere. And as to the significance of training children to be stormtroopers, well if stormtroopers are some Special Forces equivalent, one would expect them to be drawn from the existing army not selected during childhood. It's not a scientific proof, but it's one more piece of circumstantial evidence amongst many. Given there's no explicit statement either way, we should go with the side that has overwhelming suggestions that it's the case.

You know what we do see on screen, in canon? Kids being trained to be stormtroopers. Watch Rebels.

and this has what do do with the canon existence of a separate branch of the Imperial military? Stormtroopers may very well be the defacto line infantry units of the Empire but movie canon already depicts non stormtrooper Imperial Army soliders

You know what we do see on screen, in canon? Kids being trained to be stormtroopers. Watch Rebels.

and this has what do do with the canon existence of a separate branch of the Imperial military? Stormtroopers may very well be the defacto line infantry units of the Empire but movie canon already depicts non stormtrooper Imperial Army soliders

What does it have to go with it? It points out the infantry of the empire is the Stormtrooper, not something that only ever showed up in a WEG product. No movie, whether official or fan film, comic, video game, etc uses these army troopers. But they use stormtroopers. As the lowliest combat troop you get. That alone leads me to believe the basic troop is a stormtrooper - because that is what most people want to see.

These army troopers are only ever seen driving a vehicle like an AT-ST or standing at attention when their Emperor shows. Even then, stormtroopers outnumber them, and we never see a single one fire a weapon.

Veers' uniform on Hoth is the same he wears on the Executor, but with a helmet and chest armour. Tarkin does the same thing in rebels. I find it hard to believe the elite branch of the imperial troops would shake down a merchant or be deployed to transport food and standard issue weapons.

In a movie involving US military troops you might see,

This (infantry): http://www.defense.gov/dodcmsshare/newsphoto/2009-12/hires_091130-F-9171L-362.jpg

which reminds me of this: http://www.jeditemplearchives.com/galleries/2010/Review_SCSandtrooperSquadLeader/Review_SCSandtrooperSquadLeader_still.jpg

...plus this (vehicle crew): http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.69830.1273636818!/image/3496288980.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_804/3496288980.jpg

which reminds me of this: http://www.jeditemplearchives.com/galleries/2012/Review_EndorATSTCrew/Review_EndorATSTCrew_stillA.jpg

...but nothing else. It would be a leap to then say that first link is not the regular infantry, but elite forces, since their uniform looks different then the vehicle crew. It would be another leap that the regular infantry would thus look like that vehicle crew....but with a green colored version of the breastplate of the elite infantry's cold uniform. LOTS of leaps going on there for the WEG version to be correct. It COULD be that all of those leaps are the case. But, the safer argument through 3 movies of seeing no other infantry would be the Stormtroopers are the only infantry of the Imperial Army.

To each his own you can argue it either way and obviously it's YOUR Star Wars universe so please do as you wish. But, for me it works out much simpler (less, in fact no leaps) to just make the Stormtroopers the infantry of the Imperial Army. And they are still elite. Best equipped. Superior training. A very large population to pull recruits from.

I've recently reread the Thrawn Trilogy(Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command) and found something interesting. In The Last Command, Niles Ferrier, a renowned ship thief, tips off an Imperial Garrison that Talon Karrde and other smugglers would be meeting on the planet Trogan. Despite direct orders from Thrawn, the commander of the garrison, Lieutenant Kosk, led a raid that resulted in the deaths of "four Imperial Stormtroopers and thirty-two Imperial Army Troops..."

Despite the Legends classification of the EU, the Thrawn Trilogy was the start of a new era of EU works. And while not considered canon in the film sense, it is/was very much considered canon among the works of the EU.

The graphic novel of The Last Command also clearly depicts Stormtroopers and the Army Troopers as two distinct types that Thrawn had spoken of, the black/dark grey clad troops with clamshell-like helmets fighting alongside the Iconic Stormtrooper. The link of the page in the graphic novel is here: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ambush_on_Trogan?file=Ambush_on_Trogan.jpg

I think this provides the greatest evidence that Stormtroopers exist alongside regular Army troops as a separate division. This may have been influenced by WEG but the fact that the concept of Army Troops exist in the novel in writing and as images in the graphic novel implies there was some approval given by Lucas or someone regarding it.

And another thing to ponder regarding the new Canon and the films. Since the Republic became the Empire, it stands to reason that a volunteer/conscript corps could also be created to serve as local garrisons to keep valuable combat Stormtroopers from getting complacent on guard duty (with the exception of Very Important Locations). It is very possible that this volunteer/conscripted corps could be called Imperial Army Troops.

Because of the lack of information on the star wars universe at the time (it was before lucusfilm maintained a datanbase) Zann used the WEG materials to fill out the universe as nessisary. It actualy wasn't until after Heir to the Empire was published that Lucusfilm started to maintain a record of canon.

My two cents, worth perhaps half that in todays currency, is this: your cannon, use what works for you. Me, I like extra crunch and fluff. The Imperial Sourcebook to me was one of the best rpg sourcebooks of the 80s and 90s. I use it heavily even today. Sure, the vehicles in it do not for the most part match up with the orders of battle, which sucked, but what are you going to do? The old EU started with Zahn and Thrawn, and Zahn liked the WEG stuff enough to use it as background. I happen to agree. I use the Imperial Army, which can run from second string militia to crack veteran troops, and COMPFORCE assault, as either hilariously incompetent goons or the frighteningly deadly fanatics of veteran outfits, and I use stormtroopers. I tend to amp up stormtroopers a tad to make them just a tad scarier. Sure, Han and Leia and Luke mow them down in job lots to little personal risk, but they are the heroes of the galaxy. My ingame rational? Stormtroopers are much like the US Marines. They guard important facilities, like embassies or special weapon armories. They provide security for important, or politically important, people. They look great as show troops. They deploy quickly to hotspots. They kick ass as light infantry. Their heavy equipment, like walkers, are limited in number, they have trouble when it comes to long term logistics, and there are fewer of them so they tend to move to the new hotspot and not get bogged down once the heavy fighting is done. The Army provides greater numbers, greater logistical tail, and far more heavy equipment. And COMPFORCE? Cannon fodder, and 'Atrocities'r'us'.

Does it matter? Not really. If you want a simpler game, use stormtroopers for it all. Folks that have seen me on the Only War forum probably know I'm that guy that likes things more complicated when it comes to the troops. I think it adds more flavor, and doesn't leave the empire populated purely by mustache twirling villains. Some are just troops.

If you don't have access to the Imperial Sourcebook, a typical by the book sector has 64 divisions of Imperial Army to 3 divisions, or legions, of stormtroopers, and three regiments of COMPFORCE to every four divisions of Army. The stormtrooper legions are assigned one each to the sector Moff, the senior Navy commander, and the senior Army commander. In my mind (this part not being clearly stated), the Moff's troops secure political sites, provide security to government officials and anyone the Moff decides is important enough, or needs to THINK they are important enough, to rate the protection of the Emperors elite. These detachments can be as small as a ten man squad. So, the Moff's legion tends to be spread thin. I also assume stormtroopers assigned to Imperial Customs come from this legion.

The Navy's legion provide the troops for the Star Destroyers and the other ships. These are the rapid deployment boys. Say a platoon for frigates, a company for heavy cruisers, and a battalion for a Star Destroyer. I make the assumption that unless there is a specific need, or the ship in question is the designated rapid response force, a ship will not necessarily have it's maximum troop capacity filled. That is just inefficient, and needless expensive. If more than a battalion is called for, there should be warning enough to gather the necessary troops.

The Army is of course different. Unlike the Navy or the Moff, the Army has raw numbers to hand. They use stormtroopers as heavy assault troops, and keep them massed up. The Army would never deploy its stormtroopers in smaller than company groups, and that rarely. I see them using battalion and regiment sized formations, or the entire legion. Anything smaller, and the Army would just use its own troops, and maybe some COMPFORCE to soak up the initial enemy fire.

In a game, PCs would usually hit the prime targets, usually going head to head with the Moffs legions, stormtrooper supported Customs, or Naval installations. If PCs see the Army show up, they should run. Stormtroopers should for the most part be far superior foes. But the stormies are normally in smaller numbers. If the Army showed up, sure the troops are likely of a lower quality. But the Army probably has them outnumbered a couple hundred to one, and outgunned by a far larger margin. And they will have more coming. It's a matter of scale.

Anyway, that's my two cents, before adjusted for inflation

Despite the Legends classification of the EU, the Thrawn Trilogy was the start of a new era of EU works. And while not considered canon in the film sense, it is/was very much considered canon among the works of the EU.

The Thrawn trilogy came out during the heyday of WEG. The author even wrote for WEG publications. It's no wonder said author used WEG's interpretation of the Imperial Army. Some of us are suggesting WEG (the source) may have gotten it wrong.

I think this provides the greatest evidence that Stormtroopers exist alongside regular Army troops as a separate division.

No one was proposing that the EU didn't allow for Imperial Army Troopers. It obviously did. Some of us are saying it was a huge leap on WEG's part to do so. Then other EU material included it.

This may have been influenced by WEG but the fact that the concept of Army Troops exist in the novel in writing and as images in the graphic novel implies there was some approval given by Lucas or someone regarding it.

And yet afterwards Lucas made two more movies which included an Army of the Grand Republic (direct predecessor of the Imperial Army) with the only infantry being Clone Troopers (direct predecessors of Stormtroopers).

Lucas allowing the EU to exist doesn't imply he approved of it all other then from a $-making source. Do you think Lucas approved of these (artisically) in his Star Wars universe?:

• World eating ships that pooped TIE fighters.
• Force-using droids.
• Centaurs and Werewolves, oh my.
• Magic.
• and many, many, more.

ETA: But of course everyone should use what works for them. My past Star Wars campaigns have used Imperial Army Troopers. It actually helps in a Star Wars RPG campaign to have a "lower level" troop for the PCs to engage with before meeting the "upper level" Stormtroopers. But, to me, it just makes more sense with what we see in the movies that Stormtroopers are the only Imperial offensive infantry and the black clad troops are the only defensive security guys.

No army may cling tighter to what we see on screen, but I firmly feel that WEG had a more thought-out model than Lucas.