Imperial Forces Structure

By RebelDave, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Been digging about alittle bit, but I figured I would ask anyway.

Does anyone have a more comprehensive/condensed/consolidated explanation on how the Empires Military Forces were organised?

From what I can gather from Wookieepedia, the smallest Infantry unit was a Squad. Eight troopers led by a Sergent (included in the 8), and four of those made up a Platoon, led by 2 officers. But wookieepedia disagrees with itself.

The Entry for a Platoon says its 4 Squads Plus 4 Sergents, PLUS 2 Officers, for a total of 38.

But the entry for the Imperial Army just lists 32 men in a Platoon

Nor does it seem to indicate if the same structure was used for Imperial Infantry AND Stromtrooper Corps.

It also does not give a structure (That I can find) for the Imperial Navy.

Now I know, things will vary depending on the role of the troops/ships in question, and what they are armed with etc.

But just for fun.... whats everyones thoughts?

Unfortunately like many things in Star Wars, it will vary by author and plot convenience. I suggest that if you need a structure (I don't bother since it's never come up in my games) you pick a military you are most familiar/comfortable with and copy that.

Or check the old West End Games Imperial Sourcebook. It had both ground and space force organizations.

There are 32 troopers in an Imperial Army Platoon. Add officers to that, one sergeant for each squad, one lieutenant in command and a sergeant major as a second-in-command, and you have 38 men total.

I went to the trouble of breaking down the Orders of Battle for the Imperial Navy and Imperial Army . More detail can be found on Wookieepedia or the Imperial Sourcebook.

The main differences between the Imperial Army and Stormtrooper Corps is that the largest unit within the Stormtrooper Corps is the Legion, equivalent to the Army battlegroup and Stormtrooper units lack support personnel.

Edited by Lord Zack

First link does not work for me.

I think I've found as much detail as I need for the Army and Stormtrooper corps, but im now looking for information on how TIE squadrons are organised.

WEG only talks about Capitol ships.

I would follow the rebel organization.

2 fighters per element (2 fighters)

2 elements per flight (4 fighters)

3 flights per squadron (12 fighters)

3 squadrons per wing (36 fighters)

# of wings deployed varies

Most TIEs are assigned to a base or starship, given that most models lack hyperdrives. The Imperial Sourcebook describes the Imperial Army ground support wing, which is part of the auxilary battlegroup of a corps or the compliment of a standard garrison base. The Star Wars Sourcebook describes the TIE wing that is assigned to a Imperial-class Star Destroyer. It's similar to the Rebel wing that Edgookin describes above, but consists of 6 squadrons.

WEG Imperial Sourcebook is probably the best source for comprehensive info, but there's been enough back-forth-and-madeup throughout the sourcebooks and EU that nothing is going to be consistent....

Also, the Imperial Handbook is a pretty good resource. It concentrates on the larger ships and their organization for the Navy rather than the Ties. It does go into more detail regarding squads, platoons and such in regards to Army and Stormtroopers.

The eight person squad easily divides into 2 x 3 minions and a Cpl and a Sgt rival. That's why I like it.

Edited by Grimmerling

The best way to look at it is the size of teams, squads, platoons, companies and battalions will be whatever number is needed to perform the assigned task of the unit. The typical unit that PCs will encounter will be infantry. The US Army uses the following and I would assume the FFG writers stole the idea for Storm Troopers. Infantry Teams of four troopers made up of three Privates and one Corporal are the backbone of the unit. Two Teams make a Squad, one of the Team's Corporals will become a Sargent. Four Squads make a Platoon which is led by a Staff Sargent and a Lieutenant. Four Platoons make a Company which is led by a First Sargent and a Captain.

Now, the Marines follow the same pattern with a modification. When a Company is assigned to a Navy vessel the Captain is "promoted" to a Major so there isn't two Captains on a ship. I never said it was logical....

Now, if we start talking about an Armored Company the Team is whatever it takes to run the vehicle. If it takes a Driver, Co-Driver, a pair of Gunners, an Engineer and a Commander then the Team size is 6. A Squad could be two vehicles or they might make the smallest unit a Squad instead of a team. Depends on how they want to do it.

Flight units get even weirder.

After reading all of this, Jem'Hadar numbering ranks suddenly make a lot more sense.

The eight person squad easily divides into 2 x 3 minions and a Cpl and a Sgt rival. That's why I like it.

Except the sergeant isn't supposed to counted as part of the eight troopers.

The eight person squad easily divides into 2 x 3 minions and a Cpl and a Sgt rival. That's why I like it.

Except the sergeant isn't supposed to counted as part of the eight troopers.

Yeah... it would be 2 minion groups of 4, plus a Rival Sergent. For a total of 9 soldiers.

I'm sorry, Dave...

but you did include the sgt in your OP, so do the Wookiee and the US military expert above.

My apologies, but I'll stay with 2x3 +2.

Ahh... I see the confusion.

My point was Wookieepedia was disagreeing with itself.

It lists a Squad as 8 Men, Including a Sergent.

While a Platoon was 4 Squads and 2 additional Officers. Totaling 28 Men.

But 4 Platoons of 8 is 32, plus 2 Officers is 34.

Due to late night posting, I seem to have made an erroneoous assumptiuon that a Squad is 8 Men (Of which one is a Corporal), PLUS a Sergent in command.... which breaks down nicely into 2 Min groups of 4, plus a Sergent as a Rival.

Your method works as well, and its not wrong (I never said it was), im just trying to work out if there was a 'standardised' structure, since Wookieepedia disagrees with itself.

Comparing to real world militaries is all well and good.. but which one? They differ.

There is no such thing as an imperial army trooper.

Never seen them in anything other than craptastic weg. Why ffg kept them i don't know. Stormtroopers are the infantry - they are recognizable by people and people want to fight them. They are the infantry, but at most i would say the army troopers are the vehicle crews.

As to squad size, don't think too hard on it. I do squads in sizes of four usually. Watch the film and Television shows - there is no rhyme or reason, do what works for your group.

There is no such thing as an imperial army trooper.

Perhaps not at your table, and thats fine.

Personally, I prefer to see Stormtroopers as the Shock Troops, the Elite and hard hitting guys, while the regular Army Troopers are those who do the bulk of the everyday military work.

As for why I want an idea on structure? Well... because I like that kind of detail, and so does my group. Order and Structure five me a sense of organisation that gives me peace of mind. What works for my group, is that kind of detail.

So at my table... there are such things as Imperial Army troopers. They are the rank and file military.

The Stormtrooper Corps is the elite military fighting force.

At my table.

There is no such thing as an imperial army trooper.

Never seen them in anything other than craptastic weg. Why ffg kept them i don't know. Stormtroopers are the infantry - they are recognizable by people and people want to fight them. They are the infantry, but at most i would say the army troopers are the vehicle crews.

As to squad size, don't think too hard on it. I do squads in sizes of four usually. Watch the film and Television shows - there is no rhyme or reason, do what works for your group.

Saying there's no such thing is just blatantly untrue, and "blaming" that on WEG (your opinion of their stuff notwithstanding, is also objectively incorrect, since we see non-stormtrooper members of the Imperial Army on-screen in the OT: Veers, the AT-ST drivers, etc.

If you want to say you don't like the in-universe existence of a separate army apart from stormtroopers, that's fine, but to just say that don't exist only serves to muddy the matter more for people trying to learn something from the thread. It'd be like me saying, "Ahsoka Tano never existed." because I personally didn't like the entire Clone Wars animated series storyline. Kinda silly taken alone, but kinda misleading if I posted it in a discussion where, say, someone was asking about Fulcrum from the Rebels series, not having seen the Clone Wars.

There is no such thing as an imperial army trooper.

Never seen them in anything other than craptastic weg. Why ffg kept them i don't know. Stormtroopers are the infantry - they are recognizable by people and people want to fight them. They are the infantry, but at most i would say the army troopers are the vehicle crews.

As to squad size, don't think too hard on it. I do squads in sizes of four usually. Watch the film and Television shows - there is no rhyme or reason, do what works for your group.

Saying there's no such thing is just blatantly untrue, and "blaming" that on WEG (your opinion of their stuff notwithstanding, is also objectively incorrect, since we see non-stormtrooper members of the Imperial Army on-screen in the OT: Veers, the AT-ST drivers, etc.

If you want to say you don't like the in-universe existence of a separate army apart from stormtroopers, that's fine, but to just say that don't exist only serves to muddy the matter more for people trying to learn something from the thread. It'd be like me saying, "Ahsoka Tano never existed." because I personally didn't like the entire Clone Wars animated series storyline. Kinda silly taken alone, but kinda misleading if I posted it in a discussion where, say, someone was asking about Fulcrum from the Rebels series, not having seen the Clone Wars.

Yeah. from what i can tell imperial army are the ones who operate AT-AT and AT-ST and various other vehicles.

I said there is no imperial army trooper - everything in canon seems to agree with that.

Stormtroopers are the infantry. Ezra from Rebels was training to be a stormtrooper. I do agree that there are vehicle crews. But every current canon, that i am aware of, makes Stormtroopers the infantry. Officers have a seperate academy. Lost Stars shows us that.

General Veers is interesting, as seberal of the generals we see are just given those titles. General Solo, General Calrissian, Generals Skywalker and Kenobi from the clone wars. General seems to be a title given to officers (or jedi) who are strategists - planning assaults.

I Think so much of this contention is people who are applying real world ranks and military structure to the galaxy far far away. It doesn't necessarily apply.

Let me put this way: there IS an imperial army - these consist of vehicle crews, officers, and the infantry or stormtroopers as they are called.

I suspect that the imperial academies sort out applicants based on initial test scores - the best go to become officers, those with piloting talents become vehicle crews, the rest become stormtroopers.

Most of the imperial military seema to be focused on the atarships and crews.

So.... I'm not allowed to have Imperial Army Troopers who are not Stormtroopers?

Officially there is an Imperial Army. There are such things as Imperial Army Troopers . But on the other hand Stormtroopers are the "iconic" infantry everyone knows and loves so they're the ones we see most. In theory they are the elite infantry that are used a shock troops, but all this was only invented later on, in ANH we see Stormtroopers patrolling the streets of Moss Eisley and in ROTJ nobody is surprised to see them on guard duty in a bunker, hardly the duties of shock troops. Outside of the films Stormtroopers are still the infantry we see almost exclusively doing even menial duties.

So my advice is use whichever bits of the canon you want to use and suits your story and forget the rest. If someone questions your choice just say that it's a huge galaxy and in different sectors the rules and structures are interpreted differently.

Personally I use 2 groups of 4 minions as a Stormtrooper squad and save for Sergeant Rival as a Platoon level Staff Sergeant. I don't bother with Imperial army Troopers because my players want to play Star Wars and Star Wars means Stormtroopers.