Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-2113806-20131221211104/@comment-8881468-20131223011152

the BL/Sons were never close to the number that you think..

legions were several thousand astartes, yes with alpha and thousand sons numbering the least.. if we say somehting between 10000 (thousand sons) and 250000(ultrasmurfs) astartes, we are right for most of them..

at the start of the crusade, most legions had ~ 10000 astartes (ultramarines article) the biggest ones were smurfs and word bearers at ~ 25000 after uniting with their primarch, thousand sons, emperor#s children and alpha legion had much less astartes prior to meeting up with their primarch)

then cone the ~ 150-200 years of the crusade which see them swelling in size ( some do, some don#t)

then come phall, calth,istvaan and so on.. the traitors shed ~ 30-50% of their whole manpower at calth and istvaan alone.

for more scrutiny on the fluff http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?382194-SM-Legion-sizes