Size of the BA (at its smallist and largest)

[Nova_Dew]

After looking at a few posts here and reading some of the books what would the size of the BA have been at thier largest and at their smallest? Ignoring for the most part all the problems of "what are the size debates as to the full size of a legion IE 10K to 250K."

 

We know they lost a force at one planet from "False Gods" and "Fulgrum" IIRC, I dont know the size as i do not have the books on me at the moment.

 

From HH:CV we know that there was BA deaths in the thousands befour the final fight where 10 companies of veterans plus Dreadnoughts and Terminators faught with Sanguinius but dont know the casulties in them and that the Bloodthirster killed 500 on the way out

 

And finnaly if we take the list of Second founding succesor chapters as being at full strength at their inseption thats 5K at their possible lowest even after the defence of Terra

 

and to think they may have lost any where from 5K to 10K+ during the defence of Terra and Signus

[Yogi]

ADB has mentioned the official size of a standard legion is 100k.. This appears to be a retcon, so there are many conflicting accounts.

[ANCIENT FALOR]

I think at it's height the ba were at 100,000 or a little less. After signus prime and the battle on Terra probably 5,000- 15,000. I'm just guessing. They definately took a mauling.

[Julius Firefocht]

The Blood Angels Legion was often described as a mighty legion, and in the Horus Heresy:CV, Dorn was described as hoping for the Blood Angels to stand with him for the upcoming defense of the Emperor's Palace. Perhaps more tellingly, Horus was concerned about the Blood Angels enough to send them to Signus Prime, in order to neutralize them.

 

The Blood Angels suffered heavy casualties at Signus Prime, but won and fought their way to Terra before taking part in the defense of Terra against the Chaos Legions. And of course, the Blood Angels took part in the Scouring that chased the Chaos Legions into the Eye of Terror. At the end of it all, the Blood Angels Legion still managed to found a minimum of 5 Chapters, with most other loyalist Legions managing 3 or 4 Chapters on average.

 

So yes, it would be a fair assumption that the Blood Angels were a large legion, certainly not as large as the Ultramarines, but large enough to survive the worst of the Horus Heresy and still split into a respectable number of Chapters.

[Gv0zD]

The Blood Angels suffered heavy casualties at Signus Prime, but won and fought their way to Terra before taking part in the defense of Terra against the Chaos Legions. And of course, the Blood Angels took part in the Scouring that chased the Chaos Legions into the Eye of Terror. At the end of it all, the Blood Angels Legion still managed to found a minimum of 5 Chapters, with most other loyalist Legions managing 3 or 4 Chapters on average. 

Nothing to add here. According to the latest fluff BA had gave birth to 4-5 Chapters, so they should have at least 5,000 marines. Add their losses during the Great Scouring (I don't know the exact numbers, but I assume they lost nearly 30-40%), and you get approx 7,000-8,000 marines. They definitely suffered heavy losses during the Siege of Terra, so I'd add approx 5,000-8,000 marines, hence you get 12,000-16,000 marines. BA also lost many good men on Signus Prime, a few thousands, if memory serves, so this adds up another 2,000 (I doubt they lost more). So before the Heresy began BA could have up to 14,000-18,000 marines. Of course those are only my assumptions. We'll need to wait until HH BA-novel gets released, where the 'official' numbers may be specified.

[Nova_Dew]

The Blood Angels suffered heavy casualties at Signus Prime, but won and fought their way to Terra before taking part in the defense of Terra against the Chaos Legions. And of course, the Blood Angels took part in the Scouring that chased the Chaos Legions into the Eye of Terror. At the end of it all, the Blood Angels Legion still managed to found a minimum of 5 Chapters, with most other loyalist Legions managing 3 or 4 Chapters on average. 

Nothing to add here. According to the latest fluff BA had gave birth to 4-5 Chapters, so they should have at least 5,000 marines. Add their losses during the Great Scouring (I don't know the exact numbers, but I assume they lost nearly 30-40%), and you get approx 7,000-8,000 marines. They definitely suffered heavy losses during the Siege of Terra, so I'd add approx 5,000-8,000 marines, hence you get 12,000-16,000 marines. BA also lost many good men on Signus Prime, a few thousands, if memory serves, so this adds up another 2,000 (I doubt they lost more). So before the Heresy began BA could have up to 14,000-18,000 marines. Of course those are only my assumptions. We'll need to wait until HH BA-novel gets released, where the 'official' numbers may be specified.

 

IIRC they lost the "few thousand" on signus prime before Sanguinus' fight with the Deamon and then we dont know how many fell from the 10 veteran companys, dreadnoughts and terminators that was with him for that one when they were fighting the blood letters and other stuff

 

And thank you all for the replies and a merry xmas to all

[Cyrox]

I thought the standard Legion size was around 10,000 during the time of the HH, with some having a few thousand more here or there

 

The only exception was Guillimans lot who had approximately 250k marines

 

Has this been retconned now?

[ANCIENT FALOR]

I believe so. as far as the hh novels go it is 100,000 now.