Size of armies in SW?

[Smiling Bandit]

How big would an army be in Star Wars? We're talking ground-based forces and support only, not fleets in any way, shape or form.

Evidence:

1) Rebel Army @ Hoth

2) Imperial Army @ Hoth

3) Imperial Army @ Endor

4) TradeFed Battledroid Army

5) Clone Army vs. the SuperBattleDroids.


We can take a guess at what size an army would be for a given mission and given resource level (i.e., planetary, galactic, etc.)

The rebels enjoy some low-level support from many worlds, apparently, but only a few can really offer significant aid. Unfortunately, we don't know who or how much. Yet they are certainly less well equiped than the Empire in every respect.

Therefore, we can take reasonable guess that even hodge-podge armies with secret support across the galaxy can afford good-quality anit-armor weapons (though not enough to punch through the Empire's finest heavy iron). All the troops at Hoth seemed to have aweaponry, so they were not destitiute, but there were a wide variety of weaponry used, as opposed to the Empire's standardized equipment. The size of the army is significant. There appear to have been only a few hundred men on the Rebel side - a thousand at most, even if we assume there were large numbers not shown.


The Imperials at Hoth had a clear advantage in Heavy Iron. The size, armor, and weaponry of the AT-AT's smashed the laughable Rebel force, despite there being only three or so big walkers. Even the covering fighters could not make much headway.

There were an unknown number of Stormtroopers involved.

The Imnperials at Endor seemed to have at most 5 AT-ST's (one AT-AT was shown earlier but most likely would not be effective in the underbrush or was too far away.

The Emporer reffered to a 'legion' of troops. Taken literally, this means 1000 men, but I have my doubts as the accurate usage of Roman military terms, particularly since the word is heard nowhere else in the series. In any event, there were several squads of Stormies engaged at the minimum.

Anyone else care to continue the analysis?

[Master of Ossus]

1. Rebels probably had between 1 and 2 divisions at Hoth.
2. Imperials probably had 2 divisions, total (though the force with General Veers was only part of that)
3. Imperial Army at Endor was likely 3 regiments, with only a fraction of those engaged around the bunker.
4. Total Trade Fed army was probably 20-30 divisions, with 2-3 engaged with the Gungans and a few regiments remaining in Theed (many moved with the rest of the fleet).
5. Clone Army appeared like it was made up of 75-100,000 soldiers at Geonosis.

[Aaron2]

Couple things:

There were at least six AT-ATs present at Hoth (at least that's the most shown at one time). Each carries a platoon of stormies. That is about a Battalion size. (Two infantry companies plus an "armored" company).

The Rebels on Hoth appeared to have only several hundred troops. Nowhere near a full division strength.

An entire "Legion" of Imp troops were present on Endor. Of course, that doesn't help much. A roman legion was, at most, 1,000 soldiers but that doesn't really help. I've always assumed a Legion is equal is size of a Division, or the number of troops that one ISD could carry (three regiments).

In AOTC, Taun We states that the first Battalions are ready. This puts an upper limit on the number of clone troopers present on Geonosis. A Battalion (if used in the strictest sense) is anywhere from 250 to about 600 troopers. Plus HQ elements. Maybe 1000 total each. The script mentions "thousands" of clones which would match. 75,000 is probably too high. Of course, I think there were at least three Acclamator ships shown on Geonosis. Their capacity is unknown but they should be able to carry more than a Battalion each considering they are supposed to be troop transports.


Aaron

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Each Aclamator carriers 16 000 troops FYI.

[Aaron2]

Each Aclamator carriers 16 000 troops FYI.

I don't really trust the ICS numbers (ack, sacrilege). I wish they gave troop capacity is a usable form, such as Divisions or Regiments. Does that 16,000 include only front line soldiers? medics? signal corps? droids? logistics? mechanics for all the gunships? We just don't know.


Aaron

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

I don't really trust the ICS numbers (ack, sacrilege). I wish they gave troop capacity is a usable form, such as Divisions or Regiments. Does that 16,000 include only front line soldiers? medics? signal corps? droids? logistics? mechanics for all the gunships? We just don't know.


Aaron

Passengers: 16,000 clone troopers and support personnel

[Master of Ossus]

Remember, though, that at Hoth we only saw a small portion of the total battle. From some of the EU material it seems like the Rebels were under attack the entire time. This is reinforced by the timing of Imperial troops entering the base when compared with the time that the Alliance troops we saw retreated from the trenches, and when Luke actually took off in his X-Wing.

[Crazy_Vasey]

Doesn't an ISD carry like 30K troops on its own?

[Kuja]

Quote: Doesn't an ISD carry like 30K troops on its own?

Uh, no. VSDs carry 2,000 ground troops. ISDs carry 9,700 ground troops. SSDs carry 38,000. Eclipse carried 150,000.

[Crazy_Vasey]

Oops

[Kuja]

glad to be of assistance.

[omegaLancer]

The Battle at Hoth had to be fought wiht less than 2,0000 on each side. The Empire mostily deploy a hand few of AT-AT, As and scout bikes ( soo maybe less than 500 stroom troopers,) in attempt to quickily seize and destroy the Power Generator.. While the rebel merely were fighting a delaying action, and must have deploy at least 1500 or more troop in attempt to slow the walkers long enought to launch all the frieghters and fighters...

The Rebel could have deploy more, but with several star destroyer the Empire could eventually land over 20000 stroom troopers with their Walkers, assaults shuttles.. The rebel would have been eventually over whelm, so the rebel main effort was in the evacuation..

Endor would have been a larger action ( in the number of troops), since the AT-AT could not be effectively deploy in the jungle, So there must have been maybe a thousand troopers deploy on the battle, with a third of this number manning roving patrols on endor ( we seen that the Imperial maintain dozen of patrols using hoover bikes on endor.) and must have felt comfortable that could handle the hand full of rebel troopers.

There must have been at least 3 to 5 thousand Ewoks facing off against 700 storm troopers, with 100 storm trooper guarding the base and 200 troopers on patrol over the entire moon..


The Battle in AOC was a full scale battle and the republic would have deploy whatever clones were available, but I cannot see any less than 50,000 Clones. We know that the Seperative had millions of Droid troopers and only a massive first strike with everything that the republic could deploy..

[NecronLord]

I thought a roman kegion was 5000+

[nightmare]

A Roman legion was originally 5000 soldiers. Somewhat larger with auxilliary troops. At the later part of the Roman era when the empire dwindled, the size was reduced to 1000.

A Stormtrooper battallion is 820 troopers. If I recall correctly, a platoon is 40 troopers. A legion is almost certainly division sized.

[Master of Ossus]

I thought a roman kegion was 5000+

It was about 5000 legionaries, and then they had light troops and support staff. By light troops I primarily mean conquered peoples who would use their own weapons (bows, slings, light cavalry, etc.) The ones that were destroyed in Teutonic territory with Varus numbered about 40,000. There were three legions, but that also included all of the settlers and engineers that they were bringing along.