Thank you, FFG, for giving us a T-21 repeating blaster option on the Dewback, but please give us Stormtrooper players more opportunities to field the T-21. A Sandtrooper officer in A New Hope carries one, several Stormtroopers escorting the Occupier tank in Rogue One were equipped with the T-21, and they have long been featured in Star Wars games and comics. It's a big, mean looking, "I mean business", "that's a helluva gun" type weapon that I've always enjoyed seeing in movies and comics and playing in games. Playing FFG's Imperial Assault, my army always included two squads of elite Heavy Stormtroopers whose minis were depicted as carrying T-21's.

Stormtrooper squads could get a new heavy trooper option that would have a Stormtrooper with a T-21. A Sandtrooper Officer with a T-21 could be designed along the lines of the current Imperial Officer mini, used individually as the Commander of your army or joining a squad as its Leader - though taking up a heavy trooper slot instead of the trooper slot. Future Sandtrooper squads could have T-21 options.

The T-21 is based off an actual gun used in World War One and Two called the Lewis gun. Look up "soldier millions" on Wikipedia and it'll tell you the true story of Anibal Milhais, a Portugese soldier in WWI who used a Lewis gun to such great effect that he is credited with almost single-handed turning the tide of two battles which both involved thousands of troops. The Lewis gun looks badass and, in real life, WAS badass!!!

There is a card game about Milhais which I have actually. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/192203/millions-last-soldier.

2 hours ago, Stormtrooper721 said:

Thank you, FFG, for giving us a T-21 repeating blaster option on the Dewback, but please give us Stormtrooper players more opportunities to field the T-21. A Sandtrooper officer in A New Hope carries one, several Stormtroopers escorting the Occupier tank in Rogue One were equipped with the T-21, and they have long been featured in Star Wars games and comics. It's a big, mean looking, "I mean business", "that's a helluva gun" type weapon that I've always enjoyed seeing in movies and comics and playing in games. Playing FFG's Imperial Assault, my army always included two squads of elite Heavy Stormtroopers whose minis were depicted as carrying T-21's.

Stormtrooper squads could get a new heavy trooper option that would have a Stormtrooper with a T-21. A Sandtrooper Officer with a T-21 could be designed along the lines of the current Imperial Officer mini, used individually as the Commander of your army or joining a squad as its Leader - though taking up a heavy trooper slot instead of the trooper slot. Future Sandtrooper squads could have T-21 options.

The T-21 is based off an actual gun used in World War One and Two called the Lewis gun. Look up "soldier millions" on Wikipedia and it'll tell you the true story of Anibal Milhais, a Portugese soldier in WWI who used a Lewis gun to such great effect that he is credited with almost single-handed turning the tide of two battles which both involved thousands of troops. The Lewis gun looks badass and, in real life, WAS badass!!!

To be fair, almost every weapon from the Original Trilogy was based off of real world guns. The Stormtrooper blaster was based on the British Sterling. The blaster used by the fleet troopers was based off of a British trials submachine gun (not sure if it ever got a real name or saw more development, but barrel is pretty distinct and hard to miss). The DLT is just an MG-34 (get's commonly mislabeled as a 42, but barrel jacket on the 2 weapons is how you tell the difference at a distance). Han's blaster was based off of a Mauser C-96. The Rebel Hoth trooper blaster is a model of AR, although it's hard to tell which one (I'd guess AR-10's as they sold poorly and would've been easy to pick up on surplus around that time and still have the core AR visuals). It's one of the reasons why the tech in Star Wars at the time looked more "down to earth" than most of the more outlandish sci-fi that was generally on offer.

Also, the Lewis is a pretty cool gun in terms of development history. If you have an hour to burn, this is the best video I've ever seen on how that process went down:

The T-21 has also been one of my favorites. Kinda disappointed that it's basically a mini-cannon in the new EA games, but it looks like FFG is making it more like the original Lewis than that. I'd love to see another specialist type pack released, but this one including more heavy weapon options. The T-21 would be a great choice in a pack like that.

4 minutes ago, MasterShake2 said:

The Rebel Hoth trooper blaster is a model of AR, although it's hard to tell which one

I believe the Hoth versions were built off of STG-44s, while the ones used in RoTJ were based on plastic molds of the M16. The newer films have kept this up by making most Rebel weapons in Rogue One being obviously ARs, while the Resistance rifle in the ST are based on the G36.

As for the Lewis, it's a very cool gun as well. I'll take the BAR over it any day of the week, but the Lewis is a great gun. I got to fiddle with one at an event a while back, and it was cool. Deceptively heavy for its size though.

38 minutes ago, Alpha17 said:

The T-21 has also been one of my favorites. Kinda disappointed that it's basically a mini-cannon in the new EA games, but it looks like FFG is making it more like the original Lewis than that. I'd love to see another specialist type pack released, but this one including more heavy weapon options. The T-21 would be a great choice in a pack like that.

I believe the Hoth versions were built off of STG-44s, while the ones used in RoTJ were based on plastic molds of the M16. The newer films have kept this up by making most Rebel weapons in Rogue One being obviously ARs, while the Resistance rifle in the ST are based on the G36.

As for the Lewis, it's a very cool gun as well. I'll take the BAR over it any day of the week, but the Lewis is a great gun. I got to fiddle with one at an event a while back, and it was cool. Deceptively heavy for its size though.

Yeah, I guess all the reference photos I was seeing of the 280s were the later ones. The Hoth ones are definitely STGs. I did definitely notice that Bistan's Ion is an M-60, the stock and heat guard are pretty distinct.

So, sandtrooper squad with T-21 and DLT-15 heavy options? Maybe differentiated by having two slots for them? ^^

You can always collect the Imperial Assault ones and start testing house rules.

The critical key word would be cool to interact with the stormtroopers surge to hit ability

18 minutes ago, chr335 said:

The critical key word would be cool to interact with the stormtroopers surge to hit ability

It already does on the Dewback, but yeah.

On 5/24/2019 at 10:51 AM, aniron said:

So, sandtrooper squad with T-21 and DLT-15 heavy options? Maybe differentiated by having two slots for them? ^^

I am quite confidant sandroopers will never happen as a separate entity to stormtroopers. Gear wise, all they need are the environmental gear upgrade.

Model wise, with the dlt, and squad leader we already have troops that look like sand troopers.

If we can't have modified models that can can confuse players between what they are, I'm sure FFG will not make them.

Hope is not lost, with sprues incoming possibly, we may get a reissue of stormtroopers with new bits.

A T-21 trooper could easily show up in a pack similar to the Specialists - call it an armory pack.

41 minutes ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

I am quite confidant sandroopers will never happen as a separate entity to stormtroopers. Gear wise, all they need are the environmental gear upgrade.

Same would apply to snowtroopers, no? And rebel veterans.

41 minutes ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

Model wise, with the dlt, and squad leader we already have troops that look like sand troopers.

If we can't have modified models that can can confuse players between what they are, I'm sure FFG will not make them.

Hope is not lost, with sprues incoming possibly, we may get a reissue of stormtroopers with new bits.

A T-21 trooper could easily show up in a pack similar to the Specialists - call it an armory pack.

A definite possibility.

We might see some sandtrooper optional bits added to the stormtrooper models when they are remade in polystyrene.

Then again, dewback.

50 minutes ago, aniron said:

Same would apply to snowtroopers, no? And rebel veterans.

The difference is, if I look at a snow trooper corps, I can't think they are a stormtrooper corps, or a Shoretrooper. They are visually distinct. But to someone a sandtrooper looks virtually identical to a stormtrooper. This could cause confusion in game.

Now. While rebels do have some very similar looking units, they at least, come with a distinct alien amongst the humans to differentiate them. The rebel veterans are visually different to rebel troopers.

By that logic, all sand troopers having a big pauldron should serve well enough to identify them.

3 hours ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

I am quite confidant sandroopers will never happen as a separate entity to stormtroopers. Gear wise, all they need are the environmental gear upgrade.

Model wise, with the dlt, and squad leader we already have troops that look like sand troopers.

If we can't have modified models that can can confuse players between what they are, I'm sure FFG will not make them.

Hope is not lost, with sprues incoming possibly, we may get a reissue of stormtroopers with new bits.

A T-21 trooper could easily show up in a pack similar to the Specialists - call it an armory pack.

I believe that we will get Sandtroopers as a separate unit and they should have a completely different "feel" to them. In "A New Hope" it seems that there are a LOT heavy weapons being carried by Sandtroopers: RT-97C's, DLT-19's, and T-21's. Sandtrooper units should look like this:

* 4 base unit with E-11's and white dice with NO surge to hit (balance issue)

* two heavy trooper slots with an RT-97C or DLT-19 as options

* unit leader upgrade with T-21 but if chosen takes up a heavy trooper slot

* red defence dice with surge to block

* Endurance (remove surge at end of activation stage) as innate ability

* Movement 1

* 1 wound and 2 courage

This will give them a different feel from other core units and still be a lot of fun to play. I do agree that the DLT-19 Stormtrooper should NOT have had a backpack. Future heavy trooper options for normal Stormtrooper should NOT have backpacks and future Stormtrooper officers should NOT have pauldrons.

10 hours ago, Stormtrooper721 said:

This will give them a different feel from other core units and still be a lot of fun to play. I do agree that the DLT-19 Stormtrooper should NOT have had a backpack. Future heavy trooper options for normal Stormtrooper should NOT have backpacks and future Stormtrooper officers should NOT have pauldrons.

What does it matter if future upgrades have or don't have backpacks or pauldrons? At worst, Someone unscrupulous could intentionally deceive someone based on the unit appearance, at best someone could make a mistake activating them.

Thematically it makes NO sense to have seperate sandtroopers. They are just stormtroopers with extra gear. Why shouldn't they just do what you say and add more options to the regular corps unit?

The way I see it, there are so many variants on basic stormtroopers that don't require a separate unit.. otherwise we need magmatroopers, and mine troopers, and the countless other minor variants of the basic stormtrooper armour. I'm sure FFG understands this too. With an equal number of Imperial armour designs that are ACTUALLY distinct, such as range troopers, it makes more sense to have them as a sculpt than basic stormtroopers with a backpack.

I understand that we see sandtroopers on screen, but there is nothing to suggest they are any different that stomtroopers other than they carry backpacks. We also see spacetroopers in a new hope. But all just variants of a basic stormtrooper gear.

Having a t-21 heavy option for a basic stormtrooper makes more options for the ubiquitous stormtrooper corp squad that it honestly makes more sense than a minor visual distinction new unit that is ALREADY represented in the basic stormtrooper. Again with mudtroopers, Range troopers, Jumptroopers (that admittedly are very close to stormtroopers, but DO have enough differences - from the Rebels variety), patrol troopers, navy troopers, etc., that deserve sculpts more that a full squad of stormtroopers with backpacks.

Again, and finally, I'm not saying that we shouldn't get options that visually add the backpacks (re-issued sprue based stormtroopers certainly SHOULD) but it doesn't warrant a full separate release when other Imperial armoured troopers can provide a visual and thematic distinction.

I would rather see the T-21 introduced with another specialist pack that adds generic heavy weapon options for each faction. It could also add a generic operative (much like we already got a generic commander)

For a long time (until tabletop gamers got ahold of them) snow troopers were just stormtroopers with extra gear.

On 5/24/2019 at 2:49 PM, MasterShake2 said:

To be fair, almost every weapon from the Original Trilogy was based off of real world guns. The Stormtrooper blaster was based on the British Sterling. The blaster used by the fleet troopers was based off of a British trials submachine gun (not sure if it ever got a real name or saw more development, but barrel is pretty distinct and hard to miss).  The DLT is just an MG-34 (get's commonly mislabeled as a 42, but barrel jacket on the 2 weapons is how you tell the difference at a distance). Han's blaster was based off of a Mauser C-96. The Rebel Hoth trooper blaster is a model of AR, although it's hard to tell which one (I'd guess AR-10's as they sold poorly and would've been easy to pick up on surplus around that time and still have the core AR visuals). It's one of the reasons why the tech in Star Wars at the time looked more "down to earth" than most of the more outlandish sci-fi that was generally on offer.

Its weird though, because the FFG DLT-19 trooper is carrying a weapon whose barrel has much more in common with the MG42.

In ANH, almost every sandtrooper we see on screen is armed with a heavy weapon. Reflecting that in game would in itself make for an interesting unit worth making a separate kit and cards for.

1 hour ago, Jedirev said:

Its weird though, because the FFG DLT-19 trooper is carrying a weapon whose barrel has much more in common with the MG42.

That's more because of how they modified it. Like the Sterlings they modified for use as E-11's they put fins on the barrel, but for the DLT, that made it look more squared and boxy similar to the jacket on the 42. You can also kind of tell that's what's going on with the Legion ones if you're looking for it (although the smaller scale makes a detail like that less distinct).