Star Wars Stormtroopers in Real Armor [Ultratech]

[AlexanderHowl]

Just out of curiousity, what happens if you give Star Wars Stormtroopers TL 11 Combat Hardsuits with TL11 Combat Infantry Helmets? Other than extremely dead teddy bears in the third movie?

[Say, it isn't that bad!]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Just out of curiousity, what happens if you give Star Wars Stormtroopers TL 11 Combat Hardsuits with TL11 Combat Infantry Helmets? Other than extremely dead teddy bears in the third movie?

You get ST 40 teddy bears. :P :D

[Phantasm]

Speaking from experience: You get nigh-unstoppable soldiers the Rebel forces with their pistols need to outthink rather than blow away with a single shot.

In my first GURPS Star Wars campaign, I gave the stormtroopers an effective HT 12 (including Fit) and Combat Hardsuits. It took the players by surprise when the troopers didn't fall over with one shot; most of the troopers shrugged off the PCs' guns.

[weby]

They become less mobile due to the weight.

Overall if you are going to equip them to such level, you may want to also protect their heads and go for the Space Combat Helmet.

They become a lot harder to kill overall. Heavy Blaster Pistols no long work against them and Blaster Rifles are questionable. Heavy Blaster is the lightest blaster weapon reliably injuring them properly except for head shots.

[Say, it isn't that bad!]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Speaking from experience: You get nigh-unstoppable soldiers the Rebel forces with their pistols need to outthink rather than blow away with a single shot.

In my first GURPS Star Wars campaign, I gave the stormtroopers an effective HT 12 (including Fit) and Combat Hardsuits. It took the players by surprise when the troopers didn't fall over with one shot; most of the troopers shrugged off the PCs' guns.

Part of it is peoples' misunderstanding of what is happening. The jawa sandcrawler's treads got blown apart with precision shots between the treads; C3-PO and R2D2 were not targets of interest in the battle on Princess Leias' ship (meaning that both attackers and defenders were extremely accurate); the Millenium Falcon had a tracker on it, and so Darth Vader wanted Leia and company to *escape.

People strong in the Force (Leia, Luke, Han, and Obi-Wan) have at least subconscious precognition; note Obi-Wan deliberately choosing the exact right moments to move to avoid (stormtrooper) notice in the Death Star.

For that matter, the speeder chase on Endors' moon would require incredible reflexes to survive; both Luke (a Jedi, of sorts), and Leia (strong in the Force) survive. The stormtroopers do rather well, considering they're probably going ~200 mph through dense forest, but it's hard to compete with precognition, even if subconscious.

Also, Luke would have had no idea how to turn the helmets' integrated HUD on, and if I recall correctly, just slapped it onto his head and complained of the visibility. Han showed no such problems or complaints, and was an Imperial officer at one point.

* Both to track down the rebel base, and, perhaps, subconsciously.

Edit: Broken italic.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Just out of curiousity, what happens if you give Star Wars Stormtroopers TL 11 Combat Hardsuits with TL11 Combat Infantry Helmets? Other than extremely dead teddy bears in the third movie?

You go broke trying to outfit that many soldiers. Seriously stormtrooper armour isn't supposed to be the good stuff. That's ten thousand bucks a trooper and the stormtrooper armour has obvious chinks that a hardsuit doesn't.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Say, it isn't that bad!

Part of it is peoples' misunderstanding of what is happening. The jawa sandcrawler's treads got blown apart with precision shots between the treads; C3-PO and R2D2 were not targets of interest in the battle on Princess Leias' ship (meaning that both attackers and defenders were extremely accurate); the Millenium Falcon had a tracker on it, and so Darth Vader wanted Leia and company to *escape.

Of course, the fact that nearly every piece of Star Wars media since A New Hope also forgets the stormtroopers are meant to be elite and their poor performance was an act doesn't really help matters (there's a humorous exchange in The Mandalorian when someone is introduced as a former imperial sharpshooter and Mando responds with "That's not saying much," for example).

Originally Posted by Say, it isn't that bad!

Also, Luke would have had no idea how to turn the helmets' integrated HUD on, and if I recall correctly, just slapped it onto his head and complained of the visibility. Han showed no such problems or complaints, and was an Imperial officer at one point.

IIRC, that line wasn't even scripted - Mark Hamill was complaining to Harrison Ford about how hard it was to see in the prop helmet, not realizing the cameras were still rolling, and they opted to keep it in. But, yeah, pretty much.

As for what the 'troopers might be wearing, something like a tacsuit (or maybe just a skinsuit, both UT178) would work for the "body glove," and the rigid armor panels would probably give 5/6 protection to most of the hit locations. Their helmet is probably a Combat Infantry Helmet. I'd design their armor using the relevant Pyramid articles.

[awesomenessofme1]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Of course, the fact that nearly every piece of Star Wars media since A New Hope also forgets the stormtroopers are meant to be elite and their poor performance was an act doesn't really help matters (there's a humorous exchange in The Mandalorian when someone is introduced as a former imperial sharpshooter and Mando responds with "That's not saying much," for example).

And from that same show, a comedic scene where two bored Stormtroopers shoot at a piece of trash from about 10 feet away and repeatedly miss.

Another piece of evidence from the Disney canon in favor of normal armor being pretty useless is that the armor that actually does block blaster bolts (whats-her-face's silver armor from the movies, beskar from The Mandalorian) is a big deal.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Just out of curiousity, what happens if you give Star Wars Stormtroopers TL 11 Combat Hardsuits with TL11 Combat Infantry Helmets? Other than extremely dead teddy bears in the third movie?

In my Experience, the troopers return from battle in only one of two states - without a scratch or dead. They have DR100 on their Torso and DR60 on their limbs, extremities, 'Groin', and neck, which is pretty good even vs light blasters. However they only have DR38 on their skull (counting their DR2 noggins) and DR24 on their face and eyes.

Thus their torsos are nearly immune to even heavy blaster pistols, their limbs take little damage from them and even less from normal blaster pistols (and take little damage from Rainbow Lasers, even rifles), but even a normal blaster pistol will cause major wounds on a face hit and more than their HP on a skull hit. A heavy blaster pistol to the face means ~10HP damage, and one to the skull means ~28HP and a death check.

If you want serious hard armour protection, you need to use a Visored Space Helmet at the very least, and you really should have a Space Combat Helmet. However, equipping Storm Troopers as you suggest should work well thematically - their armour stops most damage from normal opponents who will lack the skill to hit them in the head reliably, but heroes should be able to head-shoot them reliably, making them far less dangerous to characters with good guns skills - as long as you remove lasers, or solidly nerf their Acc. Acc12 laser rifles will make head shots way too easy any time someone can risk a turn of aiming.

[Say, it isn't that bad!]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Of course, the fact that nearly every piece of Star Wars media since A New Hope also forgets the stormtroopers are meant to be elite and their poor performance was an act doesn't really help matters (there's a humorous exchange in The Mandalorian when someone is introduced as a former imperial sharpshooter and Mando responds with "That's not saying much," for example).

IIRC, that line wasn't even scripted - Mark Hamill was complaining to Harrison Ford about how hard it was to see in the prop helmet, not realizing the cameras were still rolling, and they opted to keep it in. But, yeah, pretty much.

Yeah... a lot of what people think they know about various popular works of fiction is/was false, then goes into further instances of that fiction as fans turn into writers, which then changes to match those ideas...

...for example, the nuStar Trek movies completely missed Captain Kirk's skill at chess (being a rated Grandmaster on Vulcan); his love of retro in general (antique glasses, antique books, replicas of sailing ships; a replica (probably not a restoration, after all that time) of the Commodore PET); or that he only bluffed when all other feasible and palatable options were unavailable.

Captain Kirk's Commodore PET, and other retro things:

https://imgur.com/gallery/pjcNPjt/comment/629824738

...But I digress.