Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-64.121.236.162-20140910042956/@comment-109.146.66.125-20150118131028

I see that Neithan02 has his usual tip top grasp of organisational structure, genetics and logistics then...

I suspect that the Black Legion retain strong numbers by a combination of recruitment tools. They are known to absorb diseffected marines from elsewhere e.g. rebel marines. They are known to take over warhosts of defeated, chaos foes and I would not put it past them to also recruit in the usual sort of manner as other chapters, albeit in a smaller scale and less...friendly no doubt.

The are potentially quite able to harvest fallen gene seed and fix that into their own newbie marines, or even use the Iron Warriors methods.

Please don't forget that a stated source does not need to be made to allow the possibilty of something and if you bother to debate fiction so much as to almost try and make it real, then don't forget to temper some of your ideas with how it works in the real world i.e. rarely will a single method of anything be used as it is too brittle to last lifes tests.

Also the use of the 'lost and the damned' varies between legions/chapters lost to chaos, so potentially the BL could lose a enguagement or have a pyrhic victory but if they achieved it with a high percentage of mere humans, then there marine numbers could be maintained to a greater extent that a unit mainly formed of marines.

As with anything, allow shades of grey into your thinking, it's not all black and white and it certainly won't always have a stated source from the Black Library to back it up. Those are only a snap shot into the situation.