I felt like doing a little theory-crafting about how to load out Stormtrooper squads. With the cards revealed so far, you could fully deck out a squad like this:

Stormtroopers (44 pts)
Extra Trooper (11 pts)
HH-12 Trooper (34 pts)
Targeting Scopes (6 pts)
Concussion Grenades (5 pts)
TOTAL: 100 pts

However, it would probably be very inefficient. The problem is that you can only take two actions a turn, so it is not possible to move + reload + aim + attack, in order to make use of all your upgrades. Therefore, I would propose three configurations for the three kinds of preferred turns: move + attack; aim + attack; reload + attack.

Move + Attack (Close Assault Troopers)
Stormtroopers (44 pts)
Extra Trooper (11 pts)
Concussion Grenades (5 pts)
Optional: DLT-19 Trooper (0 or 24 pts)
TOTAL: 60 or 84 pts

These troopers want to close into range 1 and fling a bunch of cover-ignoring black dice, in order to take mission-vital locations. The optional DLT adds some punch, but you may want to keep these guys cheap and expendable.

Aim + Attack (Fire Base Troopers)
Stormtroopers (44 pts)
Extra Trooper (11 pts)
DLT-19 Trooper (24 pts)
Targeting Scopes (6 pts)
TOTAL: 85 pts

These troopers want to stand behind cover and chuck a pile of dice with a 4 re-rolls, in order to damage and suppress the enemy.

Reload + Attack (Anti-Armour Troopers)
Stormtroopers (44 pts)
HH-12 Trooper (34 pts)
Optional: Extra Trooper (0 or 11 pts)
TOTAL: 78 or 89 pts

These troopers are a meta call, in order to deal with armoured vehicles. The optional extra trooper adds some staying power but may not be essential.

I could see a full army using 2-3 Close Assault units in cooperation with 2-3 Fire Base units. The Fire Bases soften up positions, and the Close Assaults capture them. Substitute 1-2 Anti-Armour units for the Fire Base units if armour is big in the meta.

Any other ideas for how to use Stormtroopers?

I think you pretty much covered all the options for the upgrades we know about. The only one that you missed, I think, is the 4-5 basics squad. This squad would be used as points filler or in a pure murder squad as six of these units is only 330 points this leaves you plenty of points for a kitted out Vader and some vehicles or specialists.

Aim+Attack stormies seem like the "natural" choice, considering stormies come with Precise 1. Move+Attack stormies, only taking these options into account, will probably be inferior to their Rebel counterparts.

(I know I'm harping on this while everyone else seems to have moved past it, this topic is near and dear to my heart)

Feeling like the DLT-19 will be an insta-take. Two reds for 24 points is just too good. Same for the extra trooper. 11 points for +1 Atk and +1 HP.... I might be thinking too "X-Wing" there.

34 minutes ago, juxstapo said:

(I know I'm harping on this while everyone else seems to have moved past it, this topic is near and dear to my heart)

Feeling like the DLT-19 will be an insta-take. Two reds for 24 points is just too good. Same for the extra trooper. 11 points for +1 Atk and +1 HP.... I might be thinking too "X-Wing" there.

I second the DLT, thing seems to be amazing in every way, range 1-4, cheaper, and statisticaly nearly equal to the HH in average hits(HH ofcourse has potential for more). Though the 11 points you are paying mostly for your DLT to have one more hit point , which honestly seems fine :3 Ofcourse if Armour is rampant, you gonna want some sweet HH to knock them down a peg. Can't wait to start marching these guys about

On 27.08.2017 at 5:39 AM, Manchu said:

Aim+Attack stormies seem like the "natural" choice, considering stormies come with Precise 1. Move+Attack stormies, only taking these options into account, will probably be inferior to their Rebel counterparts.

Stormtroopers have slightly better armour than rebel troopers. So in range 1 with grenades or in melee combat they are better both in attack (black die with surge VS black die without surge) and defence (red die (3 block results) VS white die with surge (2 block results total)).

So overall Empire has better infantry - at range 2-3 stormtroopers and rebel troopers have same chances to hit each other, at 0-1 range stormtroopers definitely better. Imperial heavy weapons seem to be better also.

The heavy weapon is autoinclude, which is always a sign of bad design, by the way. As the defender chooses the casualties, the standard trooper is a hitpoint for the heavy weapon. With every casualty you loose fire power which can make you unable to hit anything behind cover. Having a heavy weapon mitigates this significantly. Choosing DLT or HH may depend on what is likely to come at you, but one of these it will have to be.

41 minutes ago, Rumar said:

The heavy weapon is autoinclude, which is always a sign of bad design, by the way. As the defender chooses the casualties, the standard trooper is a hitpoint for the heavy weapon. With every casualty you loose fire power which can make you unable to hit anything behind cover. Having a heavy weapon mitigates this significantly. Choosing DLT or HH may depend on what is likely to come at you, but one of these it will have to be.

We can't say it exactly without knowing about objectives and mission system. Maybe numerous mobile cheap units of infantry will be very useful for points control.

Also I can imagine how unit of 'assault stormtroopers' closes to heavy on points unit of stormtroopers with heavy weapons and blast it with grenades.

40 minutes ago, bernh said:

We can't say it exactly without knowing about objectives and mission system. Maybe numerous mobile cheap units of infantry will be very useful for points control.

Also I can imagine how unit of 'assault stormtroopers' closes to heavy on points unit of stormtroopers with heavy weapons and blast it with grenades.

If terrain outlay and objectives make a "just sit on the objective" squad viable, I'd rather take the vanilla squad of four without extras for 44 points.

10 hours ago, Rumar said:

The heavy weapon is autoinclude, which is always a sign of bad design, by the way. As the defender chooses the casualties, the standard trooper is a hitpoint for the heavy weapon. With every casualty you loose fire power which can make you unable to hit anything behind cover. Having a heavy weapon mitigates this significantly. Choosing DLT or HH may depend on what is likely to come at you, but one of these it will have to be.

I don't see how you draw this conclusion. The dlt is 24pts and the hh12 is 34pts. For those points you could almost run another unit of basic troopers. Also the heavy weapons still have to go through cover.

7 minutes ago, Orcdruid said:

I don't see how you draw this conclusion. The dlt is 24pts and the hh12 is 34pts. For those points you could almost run another unit of basic troopers. Also the heavy weapons still have to go through cover.

Enemy behind hard cover. Two squads of Stormtroopers roll 8 dice minus 4 hits from heavy cover. DLT squad rolls 5 dice plus DLT dice minus 2 hits from heavy cover. Do the math.

39 minutes ago, Rumar said:

Enemy behind hard cover. Two squads of Stormtroopers roll 8 dice minus 4 hits from heavy cover. DLT squad rolls 5 dice plus DLT dice minus 2 hits from heavy cover. Do the math.

8-4=4 5-2=3 how bout you do the math.

Just now, Orcdruid said:

8-4=4 5-2=3 how bout you do the math.

Could it be that you did not consider the dice for the DLT?

17 minutes ago, Rumar said:

Could it be that you did not consider the dice for the DLT?

Could it be that you aren't considering other game factors like suppression and objectives?

Don't make me make you two sit at the 6x3 table closest to the bathroom.... (my nearest flgs has a drain-vent problem)

Impact... what does Impact signify again? Piercing is the one that ignores cover right?

3 hours ago, juxstapo said:

Don't make me make you two sit at the 6x3 table closest to the bathroom.... (my nearest flgs has a drain-vent problem)

Impact... what does Impact signify again? Piercing is the one that ignores cover right?

He started it ?

Impact x -turns up to x hits into crits when attacking a unit with the armor keyword.

Pierce x -cancels x block results

Blast- ignores cover.