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From http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Space_Marine_Legions

Exact figures for the martial strength of the Alpha Legion at the outset of the wars of the Horus Heresy are impossible to obtain. Sources and estimates vary wildly, some making extravagant claims which may both overestimate or undervalue the Alpha Legion's manpower. Most contemporaneous account around the time of the Dropsite Massacre put the Alpha Legion at between 120,000 and 130,000 Legionaries strong, placing it within the middle tier of Legion strengths. Some theorists have pointed the figure as far lower, somewhere in the 90,000 range based upon the largest concentration of Alpha Legion forces ever seen in operation in a single theatre. With hindsight and diligent corroboration however, evidence of multiple simultaneous battle-groups operating in far distant locales suggests a far higher figure than either of these estimates, well into the range of 180,000 Legionnaires which, if accurate, would make it one of the most formidable Legions in sheer size alone, a factor unguessed by both sides of the war that was to follow.

And I don't believe the Alpha Legion have lost that many marines since; The Faithless and the Shadowed Ones are the only splinter warbands afaik, AND they still have a minimum of one primarch. Counting later absorbed chapters (Emperor's Swords, Crimson Consuls) and more recruits, would I be correct in assuming the Alpha Legion numbers might actually be equal to that of the entire loyalist SMs?

Also, I'm wondering how you hide over 100k Alpha Legionnaires.

Alpharius. That's the exact answer

True dat.

given the whole "super DNA" stolen in "Deliverance lost" one could assume they're pretty damned big

Billions and billions of them.

Every Space Marine is Alpharius. It's all an Alpha Legion plot. Everything. Even the Tau are actually Alpha Legion Marines. The Hive Mind? Alpharius. Thrakka? Alpharius. All the Necron Phaerons? All Alpharius. That cat over there? Also Alpharius.

The Imperium, the Eye of Terror, the Tau Empire... the whole galaxy, basically, is AL-TV. Alpha Legion Television. All Alpharius, all the time.

I am Alpharius.

No, I am Alpharius.

10 SM. Or 10 billion. I don't know.

There are absolutely 0 Alpha Legionnaires, I can tell you without a doubt, because there is no such thing. Don't listen to people who tell you otherwise, it's just wishful thinking on their part, by trying to patch together a lot of half truths the believe they can twist the evidence into proving the AL's existence. So you might as well just move along, otherwise I your Commissar Lord may have to shoot you for disobeying an order.

According to the Imperium, the Alpha Legion's been wiped out.

....three times!

Trying to pin a figure on the number of Alpha Legionnaires is an interesting problem in quantum mechanics.

If you observe Alpharius, then you find that the person you thought was him really isn't. However, if you don't observe Alpharius then he is everyone.

Who again?

There's no telling how many there are and they like to keep it that way. As for how you could hide 100k Space Marines? Quite easily. The galaxy is massive. Millions of worlds with trillions of people. 100k is nothing, especially considering how secretive they are.

The Alpha Legion: Schrödinger's space marines.

I don't believe them to number up to that many really, otherwise they would be causing much more trouble than they are currently. Or perhaps the Alpha Legion themselves are split, fighting an underground civil war, some allied with chaos, others with their Primarch/Cabal and others still operating for the good of the Imperium.

 LumenPraebeo wrote:
I don't believe them to number up to that many really, otherwise they would be causing much more trouble than they are currently.

Well, if they're doing they're job right, they don't want you do think they're causing much trouble.



The truth may be that they are.



Or not.



Or both.

The better question to ask is "How many Alpha Legionnaires can dance on the head of a pin?"

The Alpha Legion actually outnumbers the Black Legion ten times over.

But Alpharius likes to dick around the galaxy.

All of him.

More than you know, but less than you hope.

Don't forget the 55(or more) regiments of alphaic hydras!

Firstly, remember there's ~ 1 million loyalist Marines galaxywide, which presents all sorts of fluff quandries, as the Traitor Legions can't muster a fraction of that, but GW finds numbers hard.

The Alpha Legion is completely unknowable, however. We've got their "canonical" Heresy strength, but current fluff indicates the legion isn't as united as it once was, with some splinter factions falling wholly to Chaos, and other remaining the ambiguous 3rd party, loyal to one one save themselves and whatever their actual objective is. The most recent Heresy book by FW indicates that the AL set up a number of bases beyond the frontiers of the Imperium in the leadup to the heresy; safe redoubts and manufactories to support the legion wholly separate from everyone else. Chances are the core legion is still quite powerful, quite possibly the single largest cohesive astartes force in existance, working out of their own little empire beyond the light of the Astronomicon. That being said, 10,000 years is a very, very, very long time, and there's no saying what's really happened to them in all that time.

 PaperworkNinja wrote:
The better question to ask is "How many Alpha Legionnaires can dance on the head of a pin?"

as many as want to infiltrate onto the pin

They've stayed out of the Eye, mostly...

...so, really, who knows?

We'll have a better picture once BL actually finishes the HH Series and moves on to The Scourging.

But there have certainly been VERY heavy handed hints about a Civil War in the only Legion to have 2 actual brothers in it...

The Imperial Inquisition would like to remind you that there is no such thing as the "Alpha Legion". Any evidence, statements, records or pamphlets pointing towards the contrary are heresy and should be burned. All those who have participated in this discussion have had their names and citizen numbers logged. Any further discussion will result in capital punishment. You have been warned.

 Alpharius wrote:
They've stayed out of the Eye, mostly...

...so, really, who knows?

We'll have a better picture once BL actually finishes the HH Series and moves on to The Scourging.

But there have certainly been VERY heavy handed hints about a Civil War in the only Legion to have 2 actual brothers in it...

There's actually a disturbingly decent amount of evidence at traditional games that Omegon became the first Grey Knights grand master. Though the list is probably mostly just for fun and highly unlikely to end up being the case (but not completely impossible), it's an interesting list of coincidences.

I like to believe it is around 200k. As it is quite good at keeping its members alive.

None at all, there is no Alpha Legion.

This guy names Alpharius, or maybe it was Omegon, told me so.

If Mister Farius, Mister Al Farius, tells you something, it must be true!

 welshhoppo wrote:
No, I am Alpharius.

I'm Alpharius and so's my wife!

 Kain wrote:
The Alpha Legion actually outnumbers the Black Legion ten times over.

But Alpharius likes to dick around the galaxy.

All of him.

There is no Black Legion.
They are just a cover for Alpha Legion operations.