Sauron's Armies

[Boromir88]

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:

'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."

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.