BARC Troopers?

[David]

According to Hasbro's description on the box of the ROTS BARC Speeder w/BARC Trooper, 'BARC' stands for Biker Advanced Recon Commando. That name makes the BARC Trooper sound like an ARC Trooper on a bike, or basically an 'elite' class of clones that specialize in speeder bike patrol/reconaissance.



So why did these biker commandos seem to make up the entire basic fighting force of 'grunts' on Kashyyyk in the movie? I didn't see any other clone trooper armor designs in the battle there, except of course Commander Gree.

In a basic figure release a year later, Hasbro called it an 'Elite Corps' clone trooper. But if these clones are so elite, why did they pour a ton of them onto that beach? I would think that with the Republic spread thin across the Outer Rim, they would want to use their 'elite' forces a little more sparingly. And also, what happened to the bike thing? Weren't they 'Biker Advanced Recon Commandos' before?

Then they called the more recent figure a 'Kashyyyk Trooper,' from 'Sarlacc Battallions A and B.' That makes the guy pictured above sound more like just a basic grunt. But on the same packaging it says these clones are part of the '41st Elite Legion.' So just what does it mean to be 'elite,' and what happened to the BARC thing? Maybe BARC troopers are just an elite class within an elite class within 'Battallions A and B?' But wait...the 41st is an elite 'legion,' and isn't a legion bigger than a 'battallion?' My knowledge of names of soldier groups isn't too good, so maybe someone can explain that.

Oh, and let's not forget this guy...



It looks like the pic isn't working; this is the clone that came with Tsui Choi in the Order 66 pack. They're calling him a BARC Trooper. A Biker Advanced Recon Commando. Huh!?!

And I'm not even gonna attempt to go into the role of Imperial-era Biker Scouts and how they may be relevant to the BARC issue, I'll let someone else tackle that one. I'm already confused enough.


So, let's try to clear all this up. Your thoughts?...

[Jesse James]

A) I'd never trust anything Hasbro wrote on packaging...  The whole "BARC" thing is dumb to me.

B) Elite units describes a lot of different things.  It's broad/general enough to me that it could just describe unique training this 41st legion had that other legions did not (Like Obi-Wan's utapau group).

The 101st Airborne were considered "elite" in World War 2, but only because they had a unique training system compared to other WW2 era units.  That made the 101st PIR elite compared to the 1st "Big Red 1" or the 29th, but at the end of the day they still got used as just infantry regiments... 

The Waffen SS were "Elite" among the German military and they were used to punch through where other regiments couldn't or at least couldn't be relied on to do so...  They were also just full infantry regiments.  Sometimes they received special preference for equipment, but they were infantry.

The same could be said for the Rangers during WW2 as well...  They're more elite of a unit today than they were at that time, but during WW2 they still were far superior to the standard infantry due to training...  To the point they were actually allowed to choose the weapons they took into combat (so I've read).

Elite gets misconstrued sometimes I feel...  The term sort of gets thrown around more than it maybe should.  I'd classify them then as the "elite", and ARC Troopers maybe as the "elite of the elite"...  It all boils down to your training really.

There's basic infantry units, infantry units with advanced training, then there's smaller groups...  In Star Wars terms they'd be ARC Troopers, Republic Commandoes trained in groups of 4, Imperial Storm Commandoes, etc.

Even Stormtroopers are discussed as "elite" Imperial soldiers...  To me, they're elite in only that they receive more extensive training than the Imperial Army regular would receive...  From Stormtrooper ranks maybe it's easier to earn a commission, or to move into the Storm Commando ranks, or even up to the Royal Guards...  Stormtrooper implies a soldier with advanced training though, especially for offensive capabilities, and so they are elite (from that certain point of view), but they're also a dime a dozen.

Scouts would be then a slightly more elite branch of the Stormtroopers as they're Stormtroopers with yet another level of training.  An Aquatic Stormtrooper legion as well would be Stormtroopers with yet another level up, and Zero-G (which EU lists as the best of the best in the Stormtrooper ranks) are another step...

Ultimately, "elite" is watered down.