User blog comment:BrowncoatMando/Community Project- homeworld/@comment-24753384-20150126194520/@comment-25491017-20150129034621

invader numbers- thinking a couple hundred thousand- both sides started the war woefully unprepared. The Wel'Kor'cha figured that would be enough. Leads to a long slow grind as both sides keep constantly reinforcing their armies as they try to wear each other down over the decades(roughly 90,000 Fidea vs a few hundred thousand at a time across each planet WW1 trench warfare kinda stuff for years on end). got another idea- the Fidea bought trading ships at some point- being underground means they have easy access to mineral wealth, they even go so far as to trade their mushrooms an fresh water to hive cities that need food and water. Anyway- they converted their trading ships into troop transports before they counterattacked Fidea 2.