 January 28, 2017 - 12:57pm | Youngest has suddenly taken an interest in Star Wars after playing a game on line. I told her to start with episode IV. Watching it with her I noticed that the Stormtroopers in the boarding action at the beginning shot up the Rebel defenders pretty good. Perhaps there is something to them pulling their shots at other times intending to let the Rebels to think they got away with something? Or was it that the Stormtroopers in the boarding action had Vader breathing down their necks and thus were well motivated. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 January 28, 2017 - 3:42pm | Troopers going in with Vader are likely to be elite/veterans etc. Troopers hunting droids on Tattooine were a special detachment from Vader's star destroyer, the Devastator - which would be why their blast points were so accurate on the Jawas. Other stormtroopers might be green troops right out of Imperial Basic which didn't even get their marksman badge. |
 January 28, 2017 - 6:53pm | They were definitely hitting their targets in Rogue One. Their aim declined as time progressed from there. ;) But never mind the aim, for once I just want to see stormtrooper armor do its job. They might as well be wearing cloth suits and ski masks, at least that would shield them fromt he colder weather. |
January 28, 2017 - 7:34pm | Well you have to imagine that the loss of the Death Star gutted the corps of elite troopers... |
January 28, 2017 - 8:02pm | Well you have to imagine that the loss of the Death Star gutted the corps of elite troopers...
Which might explain "an entire legion of my best troops" being defeated by a bunch of rock throwing teddy bears. After the destruction of the Death Star the bar for "best" was lowered significantly, and then that Death Star was summarily destroyed as well. |
January 28, 2017 - 8:46pm | And that's the thing, the Hollywoodness of the Star Wars franchise has left us figuring out how elite troops can't shoot hit the broad side of the barn. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 January 29, 2017 - 9:37am | I covered this is a previous post about how in the first movie (Episode IV) the Stromtroopers were under orders to miss. We know this because Princess Leia told us "That was too easy they let us escape." This did not only mean the the four TIE fighters but the whole dang Death Star had to be involved. Ever wonder why all those turbo lasers failed to fire on the Falcon as it escaped the Death Star? Episode V nobody ever seems to mention how a small group of Stromtroopers (Snowtroopers?) defeated an entrenched group of Rebels rather quickly. This was basically a D-Day invasion with few casualties on the Imperial side. Episode VI The Myth of the Ewoks. Think Vietnam. A regular army tried to fight against a native force who are expert trap makers. We get introduced to the Ewoks by a trap and then they use several traps in the battle. They might have been short and cute but that does not mean they are not deadly. BTW how long do you think it took them to get those two tree trunks hauled up in the air to smash that one walker or to rig the rolling tree log trap? People seriously underestimate those guys.
Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
January 29, 2017 - 10:40am | Ever wonder why all those turbo lasers failed to fire on the Falcon as it escaped the Death Star? They must have had their orders mixed up then, because that same ship returned when fighter craft were navigating the trench and they all missed again. They even allowed the ship to target the guy who initially gave the "don't shoot them" order and sent him spiraling out of control. Episode V nobody ever seems to mention how a small group of Stromtroopers (Snowtroopers?) defeated an entrenched group of Rebels rather quickly. That one's easy, it was preceded by a small group of AT-ATs with armor too thick for blasters. Not to be confused with the unarmored AT-CT we saw in Rogue One.
Episode VI The Myth of the Ewoks. Think Vietnam. Bad example, the VietCong were not using rocks and stone weapons, they had rifles that were more often than not a better design than the hold-over WW2 rifles that our troops had (I refer to the M1 Garrand and M-14, not the M-16 which, by some accounts back then, was also an inferior design). Also another prime example of what I said in an earlier post about the uselessness of stormtrooper armor. |
 January 29, 2017 - 12:24pm | We are talking storytelling vs reality... Reality Indiana Jones would never have escaped all the scenarios... even in the beginning of the first movie, I think he would be dead in reality land just by accurate shooting mob of natives... those guys in real life are deadly. Let alone the traps or in II the raft out of an airplane. Star Wars is just more of the same, when it is good for the story for the bad guys to be competent than they are, when it is good for them to not be able to hit the side of a barn door than they don't. Die Hard franchise is another example of "No Way!" he would be dead in RL, but still fun to watch. The "Luck" factor in reality does happen but not as extreme as it happens in storytelling. Often skill and people paying attention does more than "luck" to win the day in RL. But yes that Stormtrooper armor should work for a change... make it harder to kill them at least.  "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
 January 29, 2017 - 2:28pm | It's not just the luck factor. The powers of the Force (i.e. George Lucas) sided with the Rebels and the Imperials turned to margarine. Joe Cabadas |
January 30, 2017 - 1:00am | Ever wonder why all those turbo lasers failed to fire on the Falcon as it escaped the Death Star? They must have had their orders mixed up then, because that same ship returned when fighter craft were navigating the trench and they all missed again. They even allowed the ship to target the guy who initially gave the "don't shoot them" order and sent him spiraling out of control. As you know solar radiation blocks radar which is why the Falcon coming out of the sun meant no one could shoot at it.
Episode V nobody ever seems to mention how a small group of Stromtroopers (Snowtroopers?) defeated an entrenched group of Rebels rather quickly. That one's easy, it was preceded by a small group of AT-ATs with armor too thick for blasters. Not to be confused with the unarmored AT-CT we saw in Rogue One. You forgot that the entire Rebel plan was for the leadership to run away while the grunts got sacrificed. Episode VI The Myth of the Ewoks. Think Vietnam. Bad example, the VietCong were not using rocks and stone weapons, they had rifles that were more often than not a better design than the hold-over WW2 rifles that our troops had (I refer to the M1 Garrand and M-14, not the M-16 which, by some accounts back then, was also an inferior design). Also another prime example of what I said in an earlier post about the uselessness of stormtrooper armor. The American forces were vastly supplied with all kinds of firepower from rifles and machine guns to tanks, artillery and airpower. Let us not forget the Americans also had a complete edge in electronics for communication and intelligence. So it was like one side had rocks and the other side lasers. Oh then there was the whole will to fight thing. US did not lose the war but more like took their ball and went home. Ewoks committed to the fight since they had no choice and saw the arrivals of the Rebels as their best chance to get rid of the Empire. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 January 30, 2017 - 2:05am | Another thing to keep in mind is that regular soldiers in the real world aren't "one shot one kill" accurate either. Even in OIF we were sending 1000s of rounds downrange per enemy kill. And before anyone brings up training qualifications and range scores those are on an otherwise peaceful and unthreateneing range, not in combat. |
January 30, 2017 - 7:44am | This is an aside but since we're discussing Viet Nam, I was getting by Dad to tell me more of his experiences in Thailand during that conflict. He quoted someone< cant for the life of me remember who at this point, RE the best jungle fighters: Australians, because Americans remove the jungle then they fight. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
