House Army numbers?

[Universal Sword Donor]

I don't think Staffords host would have been made up of the Lannisport Watch. Balon had not yet made his move on the North so it would have been dangerous for the West to take away Lannisports key defense.

Yeah including the Lannisport watch would be an ill-advised idea on Stafford's part. Other than Blackwater we've never seen a city watch actually fight. LF had a 300 GC escort. Bywater seized Tommen without a fight. Leaving a city like Lannisport with a weakened watch or no watch is too dumb, even for a man who doesn't set sentries.

[Ser Arthur Hightower]

It is important to remember that these Green levies were raised just from Lannisport, not from the whole of the Westerlands.

Stafford, like his counterpart in the North Rodrik, has a short time to raise a new army and does so.

"This lot will be sellswords, freeriders, and green boys from the stews of Lannisport."

Show some consistency, if you are going to allow for huge untapped potential amounts of manpower in the North then you should do the same for the West. The Crakehall, Banefort, Farman lands could well have a similar or more than the thousands you imagine to be hiding in the North.

I don't think they have anywhere near 60k. I'd guess between 40-45k.

The new world book alludes to it in the Stormlands chapter.

Sharing borders with both the Riverlands and the Reach most populated areas, have a huge city and a well populated coast that is easily accessible.

There were Crakehalls, Jasts and Vikarys in that host, so there were men from all over the Westerlands. I'd say maybe 3,000 from Staffords host, a similar number of decent(ish) men left behind in the initial march and the rest would be the scrapings of Lannisport.

Also since Ashemark fell to storm, and the Marbrands appear to be quite powerful vassals to the Lannisters that there were only minimal garrisons to all but the most vital castles.

The north is slightly larger than the west, you may have noticed. In the time it takes, for example, the Karstarks to gather all their men the Crakehalls have already arrived at Casterly Rock, since there actually were Crakehalls in Stafford's host it seems doubtful that there are many untapped men.

Also that fact that the west simply isn't that large or fertile and shouldn't have many more men (though they may have more knights, better equipment and training et cetera) than the Riverlands, Vale or north.

It is also important to note that the mentioned quote is questionable at best. GRRM clearly makes it on the spot, and it does not fit with the descriptions of Prester's force from ACOK to AFFC. If Stafford's host is made of slightly under 4,000 veterans, plus the sizable and well trained and equiped Lannisport city watch, plus sellswords, it can't possibly be called a host of raw recruits. At most the raw recruits would be comprising a third of the host. Considering how Catelyn describes Robb's army, that's about the same composition.

Prester clearly remains at the Golden Tooth with his host. Stafford raises a new one at Lannisport. Prester and some of his men form a camp with Riverlords at Riverrun. Daven forms a camp with forces from his father's host. Those 4,000 men are not counted twice.

The Lannisters pre-AGOT should have 50-60k easily.

The logic in that quote makes sense IMO, the Golden Tooth is never referenced as large, and as long as they have 1,000 men or so holding a commanding castle the west is fairly well defended from their point of view, the 2-3,000 men he sent down could have helped with training and strengthened the men under Stafford. As for the city watch there is no reference to them being in the army, as pointed out by others it would be stupid to leave Lannisport undefended. Even if Stafford did have a few thousand veterans they were taken completely by surprise, and the panicking of the green boys in the host probably made it more difficult for the decent soldiers to offer resistance.

As for Prester's men, unless the Riverlords brought -2,000 men then the south camp would have been twice as large as the north camp had he all of his 4,000 men with him: the Freys only had 2,000. The Riverlords were hardly committed but Vance (not sure if it was both of them or not), Piper, Lychester, Goodbrook and Roote were all there, suggesting at least 1,000 Riverlanders, Daven wouldn't have needed 5,000+ men south of the River when Jaime only had 4,000 there, the only conclusion I can draw is that many of Forley's 4,000 were dead, at home, or serving under Daven.

[Siddard Stark]

Daven Lannister is said to have half the number of freys besieging Riverrun. So what remained of Forely Prester's force was less than 1000 men.

I believe Stafford called most of the remnants of Jamie's former host at Oxcross. So between 3000 to 3500 veterans.

No City Watch wasin Staffords host.

So 3500 veterans, plus 2k men-at-arms, sellsords and free riders and remaining would be green boys.

[Nyrhex]

The logic in that quote makes sense IMO, the Golden Tooth is never referenced as large, and as long as they have 1,000 men or so holding a commanding castle the west is fairly well defended from their point of view, the 2-3,000 men he sent down could have helped with training and strengthened the men under Stafford. As for the city watch there is no reference to them being in the army, as pointed out by others it would be stupid to leave Lannisport undefended. Even if Stafford did have a few thousand veterans they were taken completely by surprise, and the panicking of the green boys in the host probably made it more difficult for the decent soldiers to offer resistance.

As for Prester's men, unless the Riverlords brought -2,000 men then the south camp would have been twice as large as the north camp had he all of his 4,000 men with him: the Freys only had 2,000. The Riverlords were hardly committed but Vance (not sure if it was both of them or not), Piper, Lychester, Goodbrook and Roote were all there, suggesting at least 1,000 Riverlanders, Daven wouldn't have needed 5,000+ men south of the River when Jaime only had 4,000 there, the only conclusion I can draw is that many of Forley's 4,000 were dead, at home, or serving under Daven.

The logic is beside the point. It is clearly made up on the spot, and it does not fit with the descriptions in the books before that quote and after that quote. It is also logical that a host is left to guard the pass to prevent Robb from entering the West, like the characters say in the books (Blackfish, Theon, Tyrion...). Prester was to hold off Robb from advancing into the West. The size of the castle is beside the point. Riverrun can only hold a few hundred, yet Edmure has ~11,000 men camped near his walls when he needed them close by. The way Prester's host is talked about paints a force that needs to be large enough to hold off an army. Theon hears the latest reports on Stafford's host, and tells his father that Lannisport would now be undefended.

At Riverrun at the siege Jaime also does not bring his father's remaining host. Because they simply don't need that many. The Lannisters did not bother to bring all of thier manpower from Daven's and Prester's hosts becuase they only needed a token force for the siege. That is not proof that the Lannisters don't have the men, that is proof that the Lannisters keep to thier known strategy of using others in order to weaken their enemies, and thier allies in order to preserve Lannister power and if possible even increase it in relation to everyone else. If Bracken can bring 500 men to siege Blackood alone, expect the other Riverlords to bring enough men for the siege of Riverrun. Of the 4,000 men who served with Prester after AGOT, and the remnants of Stafford's ~10,000 men, of Tywin's ~15-18,000 men left from his army, most are still alive and back home, instead of being used for what is a simple last siege at the end of a war.