Siege of Terra numbers too small?

[bluntblade]

It could well be more Astartes than that by the time of the Siege proper. The Fists and then Scars have their numbers built up aggressively

[Nuttyer1st]

 

So my estimate puts that at 195-230,000 space marines on Terra

 

 

What about the Traitor Legionaries?

 

 

 

Emperors Children - 75-80,000 (No involvement in any major campaigns that I remember)

Iron Warriors - 70-75,000 (I've assumed 50% losses at Tallarn and also attacking key loyalist worlds)

Night Lords - 40-50,000 (Heavy loses in the Thramas Crusade  + loses at Sotha and fragmented warbands)

World Eaters - 75,000 (Losses in the Shadows crusade and lack of self preservation)

Death guard - 85,000 (Involved in Battle of Molech)

Thousand Sons - 20,000 (Not sure about this one I'm sure I read somewhere they were of a surprisingly large size in the late heresy so this is a total guess)

Sons of Horus - 90-100,000 (loses at Battle of Molech and Dwell)

Word Bearers - 80-90,000 (lost a third of their legion on Calth, plus other loses in the Shadow Crusade)

Alpha Legion - 75-80,000 (losses at Battle of Paramar and Pluto)

 

 

total: 610-655,000 Traitor Legionaries present

 

How I've worked out these estimates:

I'm using lexicanum for some of the legions sizes as i don't have all my books to hand.

I started with the legions pre heresy size (for a ranges ie. Iron Warriors are estimated 150-180,000 I've used the midpoint in this case 165,000)

Then assumed a 25% loss from purging loyalists at Istvaan 3, I'm sure there is an accurate number of this in one of the forgeworld books, but i cant find it at the moment

Then looked at major battles they have been involved in (though I've probably missed some events) and make a rough estimate of there losses

And finally I removed 5-10% for general attentional loses in skirmishes and raids against shattered legions etc.

 

If anyone wishes to point out any mistakes in my assumptions, I'll edit my estimates

[karden00]

Had a thought from the discussion down on the Wolfsbane discussion. 

Should we not consider that perhaps there is only so many people the resources on and coming into Terra could support? 

Astartes would be given priority, but perhaps Dorn reasoned that given supply lines, Terra could only realistically support a certain number of troops under arms? Especially once Horus actually arrives, all incoming shipments of food/water would be severely compromised (assuming Horus has, if not total, than at least considerable control of Terran near-space) and so every fighting man and woman would only have X amount of days for which they can be accommodated, even with stockpiles being vigorously built up in anticipation of just such an eventuality. 

Maybe the authors wont touch this aspect, but I think it is a perfectly legitimate explanation as to how the numbers at Terra were smaller than we may think they should have been for such a dramatic moment. 

Sure, the Imperium of Man could muster untold billions (I agree, trillions are not impossible given the scope of the Imperium), but maybe Warzone: Terra was not the best place to hold that many people under arms for any considerable length of time. The area that would have to be given over to storing just the water for billions of soldiers alone would constitute a very significant proportion of Terra, and may have been target #1 for the traitor fleet.