[beloved trope] flamethrower troops

[u/Raul_Rendon]

If man instinctively fears fire, what reaction can be expected from a high-speed jet of flame (whether liquid fuel or gas)? Unfortunately, flamethrowers are impractical—for various reasons—yet they remain impressive nonetheless.

1. Flamethrower Clone Troopers – Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In addition to their distinctive Geonosian-camouflage armor, flamethrower clone troopers make their debut against a Geonosian colony (with the expected results).

2. Flamers and melta weapons—Warhammer 40k: to hunt the alien, purge the unclean, and slay the heretic, flamers are a more than acceptable choice—available in all sizes, from hand-held flamers to heavy flamers that spew vast quantities of promethium. And for those requiring greater armor penetration, there are meltaguns—a sort of hybrid between a flamer and a plasma weapon capable of melting through the heaviest armor.

3. Greek fire—the real life: the ancestor of the flamethrower and one of the secret weapons of the Byzantine Empire—or rather, the Eastern Roman Empire. It was key to maintaining its naval supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean, to the point where its production was a state secret.

[u/Tjtod]

IRL Flame thrower tanks:
Churchill Crocodile

Also all US medium tanks leading up to WW2 and during WW2 had a flamethrower variant
M2, M3 and a few M4 variants as well. Reddit only allows one photo so the rest are hyperlinked

Battletech:

Firestarter), a light battle mech mounting 4 flamers which instead of firing flaming fuel they vent hot gases/plasma from the mech's fusion engine.

[u/Zakal74 → u/Tjtod]

I remember reading that after the war the British army did a cost analysis of all weapons used and the Crocodile won hands down. When one was on the battlefield the enemy surrendered MUCH more easily, and the flamethrower itself gave off an insanely menacing sound when it fired so everyone knew it was there. The idea of dying to this thing instead of a bullet or bomb turned the tide of a lot of battles for just having one relatively cheap piece on the field. I assume there were similar results for other flame throwing tanks as well.

[u/Tjtod → u/Zakal74]

Two things that are missed in a lot media are how far they can shoot and that flamethrowers and flame tanks were mainly used for anti fortification. The smoke and oxygen depletion were as much a danger as the fire.