chen@mitre-gateway.arpa (09/10/85)
From: Ray Chen (MS W420) <chen@mitre-gateway.arpa> Personally, I the stormtrooper armor makes a fair amount of sense once you consider what stormtroopers might have been meant to do. I think that stormtroopers are combination ship, space station, and garrison troops. Stormtroopers seem suited (if you'll pardon the pun) for corridor fighting and storming space ships, space stations, or fortresses is basically corridor fighting. Sure, the armor can't stop a direct hit from a high-powered hand blaster or blaster rifle, but it'll help a lot in space-oriented and garrison/defensive fighting. The armor will stop things like small metal shards or light splashes of molten metal which result when a blaster bolt hits two feet from your head. It should stop fists and your standard battle cutlery (although I wonder how it's do against a claymore). I think it'd also stop deflections off walls and things. In addition, the communications facilities in the helmet provide everybody with the means to talk to each other without having to scream over the sound of the fighting. Look at the weapons. Blasters are good medium-distance weapons. As someone already indicated, though, a lightsabre is probably better than a blaster in hand-to-hand combat. The standard, stormtrooper weapons seems to be geared towards standing off at 20 feet or so, and shooting at each other. This makes a lot of sense, though, because in corridor fighting, facing blasters, unless you're a Jedi knight (or insanely lucky), hand-to-hand fighting isn't possible because in order to get within range, you've got to charge down 20 feet of straight corridor with no cover against an enemy who has blasters. I think you can also see why Imperial stormtroopers don't carry grenades. Detonating grenades on board a ship can be a very dangerous proposition for all concerned. The main disadvantage of the armor, as far as I can see, is that the silly thing is white, a little clumsy, and restricts your vision. The color doesn't really matter in close-corridor fighting and white is actually a pretty good color under those circumstances anyway as a lot of walls will tend to be painted a light color. If you're not planning on running the 100m dash, doing acrobatics, or getting into hand-to-hand combat, you can live with being a little clumsy. Restricted vision (e.g. no peripheral vision) doesn't really matter in corridors either. All in all, I think the armor makes for a good set of trade-offs. I think the idea of stormtroopers as indoor/corridor fighters makes a lot of sense. A high tech, space-faring empire needs indoor fighters. Ground and airborne assault troops will still have their place, but when the chips are down and the enemy is standing firm in a city, you send in the stormtroopers to dig them out house by house. This also explains why stormtroopers are so feared. They, by temperment and training, are so mean (and stupid, probably) that they'll stand off at 20 feet in close quarters and trade blaster shots until somebody backs down. Most infantry hate indoor assaults as the terrain gives the defender a huge advantage. Stormtroopers, though, are the exception. Now, I know somebody's going to ask, "Well, why are there so many stormtroopers? It seems like all we see are stormtroopers." Answer: Navy ships-of-the-line carry more stormtroopers than any other type of infantry. Since the situations we've seen are situations where the Navy comes sailing in with Destroyers to do something, of course, most of the troops you'll see should be stormtroopers. So, enough already about stormtrooper armor. I think the armor makes a lot of sense once you consider exactly what kind of fighing stormtroopers might be geared to do. Ray Chen chen@mitre-gw
chris@leadsv.UUCP (Chris Salander) (09/11/85)
According to rumors I have heard, if you removed the stormtrooper's armor, you would see that they are all CLONES! (And that Obi-Wan is really OB1, original body one!) stay tuned!
tom@utcsri.UUCP (Tom Nadas) (09/14/85)
The idea of all the stormtroppers being clones of Obi Wan presents two difficulties: 1) we clearly see in the deathstar docking bay that the troopers, when lined up, are not all the same height. I suppose the clones could have been raised on worlds with different gravities, but ... 2) Han and Luke mug two stormtroopers and steal their uniforms. Surely they would have noticed if a) the two storm troopers were identical and b) that both storm troopers looked like Obi Wan. RJS
sas@leadsv.UUCP (Scott Stewart) (09/19/85)
In article <608@leadsv.UUCP>, chris@leadsv.UUCP (Chris Salander) writes: > > > According to rumors I have heard, if you removed > the stormtrooper's armor, you would see that they > are all CLONES! > > (And that Obi-Wan is really OB1, original body one!) > > stay tuned! > But I thought Stromtroopers came from the Acadamy. Biggs, Luke's best friend graduated from the acadamy, and he told Luke he was jumping ship to join the rebelion (You have to have read the book). I thought Biggs was going to become a Stormtrooper on the ship. The only problem with this is taht Luke was also going to go to the Acadamy. Later when busting into Leia's cell, sh memtions that he looks to small to be a Stormtrooper. So if Luke was to short to be a Stormtrooper, and Stromtroopers came from the Acadamy, and Luke was going to go to the Acadamy, what type of Imperial Personel does the Acadamy churn out. Scott A. Stewart LMSC - Sunnyvale
sas@leadsv.UUCP (Scott Stewart) (09/21/85)
In article <1392@utcsri.UUCP>, tom@utcsri.UUCP (Tom Nadas) writes: > > The idea of all the stormtroppers being clones of Obi Wan presents > two difficulties: > > 1) we clearly see in the deathstar docking bay that the troopers, > when lined up, are not all the same height. I suppose the clones > could have been raised on worlds with different gravities, but ... > > 2) Han and Luke mug two stormtroopers and steal their uniforms. > Surely they would have noticed if a) the two storm troopers were > identical and b) that both storm troopers looked like Obi Wan. > > RJS I didn't think the author said that the stormtroopers were all clones of the same person, or that they were even the same clone as Obi Wan. He implied that the stormtroopers were clones, but they could be many gene bases to start with. But this talk reminds me of an article I read from, I think, Starlog back after EMPIRE. The author was specualating on the many possible plotlines left open at the end of the 2nd movie and what we might see in the 3rd. He talked a bit about the Clone War mentioned in A NEW HOPE, speculating things like that all Jedi's were made of a special genetic makeup, and that the old Jedi force was made of many clones, who fought the bad clones, those who turned to the dark side for the Empire. One basis for this idea was that in EMPIRE the emperor was also played by Alec Guiness. Well, Lucas opened a can of worms with the one little mention of the Clone Wars, and I sure hope he finally tells us what happened. Scott A. Stewart LMSC - Sunnyvale