Way of the Warrior Part II force sub: Imperial Stormtroopers

[l33telboi]

Well, a lot would depend on how you go about quantifying the two sides. Do you take the 'visuals override everything' method or do you inject some common sense and logic into the equation? I'd prefer taking visuals a little less rigidly, because if you don't, both sides end up looking like complete idiots (stromtrooper effect, anyone?).

Basically, I'd suggest taking stormtroopers and assume they're competency is what a highly trained human combatant's would be, and so on and so forth for all parties involved.

This is of course already done to a degree in debating, inject the kind of logic I just used when quantifying the side you're arguing for while going the ultra-rigid road when it comes the opposing side.

When it comes to weapons, it seems to come down to blasters vs. phasers, if the boarding of Tantive IV is of any indication. How powerful they are? Given by what I've seen of both, the ST phasers seem more powerful, they can blow up rocks and blow head sized holes in people (although at a higher setting then the normal one). Dialogue places them in the megajoule range (IIRC), but what kinds of time-intervals we're talking about, and what setting that's on, I don't know. I see no particular reason stormtroopers should fare better then they do against blasters, at least. If all else fails, just up the setting to an appropriate one.

Accuracy? Don't think that matters too much when we're talking about the interior of a relatively small space-station. Well, not if we're willing to inject some common sense into the equation, at least.

As for semi-automatic vs. automatic, the carbine-sized thingies the stormtroopers used never did show any great rates of fire. The clonetroopers had maybe one or two instances where they came somewhat close to the rates of fire in normal weapons, same with the droids, but that’s about it. I suppose if you want to go technical about it, you could claim the phasers are automatic, at least according to “Return to Grace” and the stated three millisecond refresh rate. That’s technically 333.333 rounds per second (or 20,000 rpm). Though ‘rounds’ per second probably doesn’t apply. In any case, that’s about four times higher then modern day miniguns.

But putting aside the technical details, beams are the ultimate form of automatic fire (unless you take things like the enemy being able to pinpoint where the fire is originating from into consideration.) Doesn’t matter if we’re talking about a short burst over a period of one second vs. a beam over a period of one second, or if we’re talking about a sustained beam vs. full auto for a prolonged period.

The stormtroopers should have the edge when it comes to training, but given that the defenders probably also have training (although probably not as much) and the fact that they’re holding positions and defending familiar territory, the difference might not even be noticeable.

The fighting on the bridge could probably be won, if the stormtroopers open fire as soon as they beam over.

After all is said and done, I'd say it comes down to numbers. So without anything more conclusive, there's no way to tell.

EDIT: Bleh, the topic was Stormtroopers for defenders, not stormtroopers for attackers. I blame the confusing posts posted before I did. :P

[TheRedFear]

Read what I said, the basic kill settings of almost any weapon in star trek appears to be burnt fabric, we even see people dying without a trace of a hit sometimes.

The staandard "kill" setting on a Blaster is burnt fabric, and those go through storm trooper armor like a hot knife through butter.

Hell, Ewok Arrows penetrated Strom Trooper armor on at least one occasio, so those Klingons who DO manage to close in to melee range will cut the Stormies down like wheat before the chaffe.

That being said, the Stormies win, though they do no better or worse than the Federation/Bajoran teams did.