So in a campaign that I am planning, my PC's go to the planet Elom(http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Elom_(planet)), which has very large frozen deserts with a few more temperate zones. I was wondering how many Snowtroopers would be on the planet, or would more of them be regular Stormtroopers or Army troopers? I was thinking that there would be a legion of Stormtrooper corps on the planet, about 10,000 troopers according to the Imperial Handbook, but on a cold planet like this would most of them be Snowtroopers instead on Stormtroopers (such as over 75% of them), or would they be limited to those deployed to the frozen deserts, and Stormtroopers handle the more "temperate" plains?

There isn't one answer for this. As can be seen in many prior threads, uses of the Imperial Stormtroopers and existence of Imperial Army Troopers is up for debate. Thus, go with whatever you want.

That being said (you can ignore this for your own preferences) I would probably not go with such a large number of Stormtroopers on a single planet. If you want those numbers, I would probably go with Imperial Army Troopers (if you want them to exist in your campaign), then add a smaller amount of Stormtroopers. If it's a smaller amount of Stormtroopers, then I would see no problem with them being Snowtroopers. If it's a large unit, I personally wouldn't go with so many if you consider them specialized troops. There might not be so many to go around. If you want a very large Snowtrooper unit I would go with the idea that they are just normal Stormtroopers in snow gear like some have suggested.

I would also consider what sort of naval presence there is in the system before determining number of Stormtroopers. Again this depends on what the Stormtroopers are in your SW universe. SD's carry 9,700 Stormtroopers per FFG and many previous resources. So, that's around a legion of Stormtroopers. If you want a large amount of Stormtroopers and consider them "marines" as some do, then you could justify the large number by permanently placing an SD in orbit above Elom.

Is there snow on Elom? Frozen deserts are still deserts, so there's likely little to no snow. If no snow, then why snowtroopers?

ALL OF THEM!!!!

No seriously. The Empire is .... well ..... huge. And well armed. And well staffed. In theory, it likely wouldn't have any problem fielding as many Snowtroopers as it deemed necessary to pacify a given planet.

And since Snowtroopers, all things considered, are not really all that different from normal Stormtroopers it really doesn't matter how many there are. I mean basically, they're just Stormtroopers outfitted for cold weather.

As for how many, as many as you need. If you as the GM think the planet needs 10,000 then set it at 10,000. If you think 2,500 is a better number go with that. In the grand scheme of things unless you intend for the PC's to kill every last Imperial on the planet the actual number of troopers is somewhat immaterial.

For most logistics questions like this, the real answer is, as many that are needed of the type that makes for a good and fun adventure.

Generally speaking the garrison on most planets would be imperial army, not stormtroopers, who are elite troops that get deployed from Star Destroyers, and are usually only assigned to planets when there is something genuinely important to guard. The bulk of the empires garrison forces are imperial army, which can be conscripted anywhere, are often equipped with whatever the planet they are on produces rather than any kind of standard equipment, and usually are never actually moved off world.

The one big thing to keep in mind is that the empire, as huge as it is, has much too few ships and stormtroopers to keep every single system in line. Because of this they don't unload a huge contingent of stormtroopers on every single planet. They find someone who's willing to act as a governor for them, help them consolidate power, and then leave them in charge to raise their own force of imperial army troopers to keep order. Stormtroopers tend to be reserved for things that aren't just important for planetary control, but have significant strategic value to the fleet as well. Shipyards, holonet relays, communications posts, or areas where the fleet is conducting operations.

As a rebel you don't run into a lot of imperial army usually because you're a spaceborn fighting force fighting a galactic war. Stormtroopers are everywhere you want to strike. The actual dirty fighting in the trenches and clearing out every last imperial crony on a planet rarely falls to the rebels with spaceships.

Is there snow on Elom? Frozen deserts are still deserts, so there's likely little to no snow. If no snow, then why snowtroopers?

As I understand it, "snowtrooper" is more of a nickname than an official designation. They're stormtroopers with specialist training and equipment for operating in very cold environments. In the old WEG system, regular stormtrooper armour could keep the trooper alive in quite a wide range of temperatures. Snowtrooper armour could handle much colder temperatures but in warmer climates it would overheat long before the standard armour. Similarly, sandtrooper armour could handle much higher temperatures but would freeze much more quickly.

And for the record, Antarctica is considered a desert, because there's virtually no precipitation (rain/snowfall). When a blizzard happens in Antarctica there's very little fresh snow falling from the sky, what you're seeing is old snow being whipped up off the ground by high winds and blown about. That's why Antarctica can be so hard to move around in. The snow crystals have been blown around so much that they've been smashed to pieces, so they look more like grains than the usual snowflake. That means they don't lock together when you step on them (which is why snow normally becomes firmer as you step on it). Most Antarctic snow behaves more like loose, dry sand than the snow we're used to.

Don't sweat the details.

Remember this is a game, so the number of what will depend on what you need for the encounters. The players are unlikely to get 7,000 detailed confirmed kills in a single encounter. So just saying "There's 10,000 Stormtroopers here, with the majority being Snowtroopers due to the climate" will be totally fine for most purposes. If the player encounter Stormtroopers or Snowtroopers will depend on where they are, and what you as the GM want to throw at them.

Also considering where the canon is going lately (Deathtroopers and Shoretroopers) don't hesitate to mix, match, and modify to fit what you need specifically. Statistically Snowtroopers only differ in the form of a couple extra group skills and equipment. If the regular troopers are more what you want for an encounter, and the only thing making you hesitate is the cold, just add the cold weather armor attachment to regular troopers and call it good.

In my mind that's the thing that makes Stormtroopers "elite" compared to regular troops. They aren't really any better when it comes to raw naked capability. They are "elite" because they are unswerving loyal and are qualified in the use of, and have access to, the equipment needed to operate in almost any environment. So like when you get an Imperial Army Platoon you get 40 guys with duffelbags and a shipping container of gear that covers all the "big stuff". With Stormtroopers you get 40 guys with duffelbags, and several containers of that cover pretty much everything but the most specialized environment (like Submersible, Rad, Deep Space). Everything else is covered. Need a vacuum operation? The troopers seal their armor and don rebreather packs. Cold weather? They put on the the cold weather helmets, heaters, chest plates and white suit covers. Hot? They pull out the armor with the heat reflective coating (that's also really hard to clean sand out of apparently). Not only that, but in may cases the troopers will comes with designated mission packages of special equipment and sometimes vehicles. And that's actually part of the "prestige" of having a stormtrooper detachment under your command. Not only do you get guys that can do almost anything almost anywhere, but you also have the logistic support and mission importance to keep them equipped to standard.

Thanks for the advice.

The way that I'm thinking of the planet is that because of its mining, it's so valuable that it has mostly stormtroopers/snowtroopers rather than army troopers. Since the way I think of army troopers is that they guard the unimportant planets, and thus are not seen in films and shows. It sounds like whatever would make it interesting for both me and the players is what would work best (as long as it sounds reasonable). What makes it odd to work out in my mind is that most of the planet is freezing, thus snowtroopers who have equipment designed for those conditions. But then there is the more "temperate" regions and the underground areas of the planet, which while I would presume they are still cool, but not so cold that snowtroopers are needed.

When I plan something I like to work out all the numbers. So since, unless something goes very wrong, the campaign will end with the liberation of Elom (I intend to spread out the in-game time) even though the PC's will most likely be in space I wanted to have both ground and space forces worked out for both sides, so that any reports on the ground battle could be made clearer. It would also make air support roles less improvised on my part.

I will probably end up with a lot on snowtroopers for the campaign, but not exclusively since stormtroopers still make sense in certain situations. Plus there's others like scout troopers and incinerator troopers.

I use Imperial Army as locally recruited. This means they are usually only present on loyal (and usually human-dominated) worlds. When that doesn't apply, the Stormtroopers get shipped in.