"An entire Legion of my best men awaits them."

Back in the days when I was part of West End Games and we were developing The Imperial Sourcebook, we wanted it to be clear that the Stormtrooper Core was a distinct part of the Impeiral War Machine, separate from the armed forces of the Imperial Army and Navy.

When we listed the Stormtrooper Core's Order of Battle, we used many real world militaries as reference - from Imperial Rome's legions to World War II Wermacht formations to NATO's modern day (at the time 1990's) unit sizes.

Modern day armies are more streamlined of course, smaller fire teams of today accomplish with more efficiency and speed what much larger units of our forefathers bled for.

While I am quite proud of what we came up with for the Impeiral Sourcebook and I still use those unit numbers when I run my games, it appears Disney has now changed the Impeiral Order of Battle.

Here now is be new Canon Stormtrooper Core unit numbers.

10 Stormtroopers per squad.

5 Squads in a Platoon.

4 Platoons form a Company.

4 Companies make up a Battalion.

4 Battalions in a Regiment.

4 Regiments comprise a Legion.

12,800 Stormtroopers in an Imperial Legion.

A couple of things; could you site the sources of these new numbers?

Are you stating that you are, or were, directly responsible for the creation of the Imperial Army Trooper? If so, I'm glad said trooper has seemingly been disposed of, with stormtroopers taking their place, also I may almost hate you for their creation.

My your bedside manner would do a member of the Imperial Inner Circle and Canted Society proud ...

This list comes from the newly released Star Wars Super Graphic which I proof read a few months earlier.

As to the Imperial Army troopers, I assume in your above articulation you mean the rank and file of ground/planetary troops.

The Imperial Army has always been part of the Star Wars Saga. They are prevalent in the original Star Wars novelization and screenplay, before 'A New Hope' was even called that and was simply 'Star Wars.'

You see them in the movies, the officers on board the both the Death Stars, some have been named and are part of fan lexicon like Lt. General Tagge, or Major Generals Bast and Veers, for example.

We have Army officers who commandeered the search of the captured Falcon or who used Princess Leia as a shield in Cloud City.

You see them pilot AT ATs and AT STs and man the shield bunker on Endor's moon.

Militaries throughout our own worlds history have distinct specialized and elite units that stand apart from the regular army, there is no reason a war machine as immense as The Empire's would not follow this practice.

As an aside, I would like to point out here that the people that brought you the classification of the Imperial Army, in the same source book, also first created, detailed, and developed the Victory Class Star Destroyer, how many TIEs in a fighter Wing, COMPNOR and the Imperial Security Bureau (which uniforms are worn by Colonel Yularen and Director Krennic) and defined what a Grand Moff officially was.

West End Games kept the Star Wars fan base alive before Wookieepedia, Knights of the Old Republic, the Extended Universe and the Prequels.

Authors such as Timothy Zahn and Michael A. Stackpole used our reference books for their own work.

And finally yes, Pablo Hidalgo worked at West End Games too.

4 hours ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

If so, I'm glad said trooper has seemingly been disposed of, with stormtroopers taking their place

Sorry dude, the grey suited troopers are still around, stuff like Rebels and Rogue One just like to use our white armored pals because of course they do. As the material continues to reexpand I suspect we'll see more of the grey helmets.

3 hours ago, Ghostofman said:

Sorry dude, the grey suited troopers are still around, stuff like Rebels and Rogue One just like to use our white armored pals because of course they do. As the material continues to reexpand I suspect we'll see more of the grey helmets.

Yet, in several novels, Twilight Company for example, there are planetary conscripts, local population, stormtroopers.

9 hours ago, Imperial Advisor Arem Heshvaun said:

"An entire Legion of my best men awaits them."

Back in the days when I was part of West End Games and we were developing The Imperial Sourcebook, we wanted it to be clear that the Stormtrooper Core was a distinct part of the Impeiral War Machine, separate from the armed forces of the Imperial Army and Navy.

I want to sincerely thank you for developing my favourite of the WEG sourcebooks! That RPG was a huge part of my teen years.

I still love those guys...

1 hour ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

Yet, in several novels, Twilight Company for example, there are planetary conscripts, local population, stormtroopers.

And in the propaganda book there's Grey Helmets.

For what it's worth, I like what they are doing to Stormtroopers about as much as you like Grey Helmets. The original WEG stuff just "works better" for story purposes. The dehumanized, emotionally restrained, cannot be bribed or convinced to betray, separate command, equipped for anything Stormtrooper represents, implies, and functions as so much more than a simple grunt in full armor can.

1 hour ago, Ghostofman said:

And in the propaganda book there's Grey Helmets.

For what it's worth, I like what they are doing to Stormtroopers about as much as you like Grey Helmets. The original WEG stuff just "works better" for story purposes. The dehumanized, emotionally restrained, cannot be bribed or convinced to betray, separate command, equipped for anything Stormtrooper represents, implies, and functions as so much more than a simple grunt in full armor can.

And that role can still be fulfilled, but now by Deathtroopers. As to the story potential, I think the anonymity that the Stormtrooper armour affords, both for the wearer and the faceless gears of war opponent angle, where as a rebel you never know if a family member or friend is in the armor is just as, if not more poignant that the "they are pure evil" because they wear stormtrooper armour.

I don't remember seeing the grey helmet in the book, apart from a vehicle trooper, but I admit I may not remember.

I don't disbelieve in the imperial army, only the rank and file trooper. The helmet is fine, as worn by officers in the field (general Veers) and vehicle crew.

STORMIES are amazing, and look forward to their arrival!

Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't actually find an Order of Battle for Stormtroopers anywhere in the WEG books.

The numbers you are quoting for the new Canon seem to have first appeared in Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide, which was Legends, but in this book they were just an upper range.

On 9/12/2017 at 6:01 AM, That Blasted Samophlange said:

A couple of things; could you site the sources of these new numbers?

Are you stating that you are, or were, directly responsible for the creation of the Imperial Army Trooper? If so, I'm glad said trooper has seemingly been disposed of, with stormtroopers taking their place, also I may almost hate you for their creation.

Wow you're a rude individual aren't you. Time to block you.

1 hour ago, Lord Zack said:

Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't actually find an Order of Battle for Stormtroopers anywhere in the WEG books.

The numbers you are quoting for the new Canon seem to have first appeared in Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide, which was Legends, but in this book they were just an upper range.

Chapter 8 of the 2nd edition Imperial Soucebook covers the Imperal Army Order of Battle, along with a breakout box noting how the Stormtrooper Legions differ.

Short answer is Stormtroopers are organized the same, generally speaking, but are more likely to vary in squad size, cap out at the Battle group (Legion) level, and have no obvious non-direct-combat members, not even staff officers. They also pull less logistical resources and supplies than they should given their perceived size.

While some of this was likely WEG writers like the OP dealing with limitations placed upon them by LFL, ("keep Stormtroopers mysterious!") when applied to the new prequel material, it's actually pretty easy to keep it consistent, and makes some nice, if originally not intended implications.

Considering how the Clone Army came to be, the level of secrecy given to Kamino, and so on, Stormtrooper details being classified isn't a stretch. As a bonus you can extrapolate that much of that secret logistical backing is still around, explaining Stormtrooper resupply, but also creating some really interesting story ideas. Imagine a highly classified logistics base on an unknown planet, that is still cranking out supplies for the brave clones fighting the Separatists in this war that, as far as they know, been going on for nearly 30 years.