Another note on Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-earth. She remarks that 45,000 is
'a very conservative estimate'.
We know where the 18,000 Haradrim number came from, the other two numbers she gives as a rough estimate.
The 20,000 (which is the host from Minas Morgul and Barad-dur) number she refers to this:
Quote:
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'greater than any army that had issued "from that vale since the days of Isildur's might;... and yet it was but one and not the greatest of the hosts that Mordor now sent forth."
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And she roughly gages that this was the greatest host to march out since Isildur's might, would be about 20,000.
And then the 7,000 is more of a filler, to make up the reserves that Gothmog threw into the fight. It is those who came from Rhun and Khand, and acts more as a filler. We know that the force sent to siege Gondor was not Sauron's greatest yet. It seems as if say she had lowered the Morgul/Barad-dur host to say 15,000 than the number of Gothmog's reserves would have been upped to 12,000. As she had deemed roughly a 4:1 ratio between the Free People's force and Sauron's force.
So, because she calls this a
'very conservative estimate', and that she really is unsure about the force Easterlings and the force from Khand that Gothmog threw into the battle, personally I would up the number to about 50-60,000.