User blog comment:Tanooki1432/The Questions of the Age (Warning! May result in Nerd Rage!)/@comment-217683-20100819200015

We actually do have a very good idea of how large the Federation and Starfleet are. The Federation is described as consisting of 'over one hundred and fifty' star systems, '[s]pread accross eight thousand light years'. (Star Trek: First Contact) It's also known that Federation shipbuilding is rather... limited. It took thirteen years to build the first three Galaxies, after all. And the six-hundred ship task force you mention was two entire fleets, compressed into one unit, with many of the Galaxies you mention being part of the 146 ships that were rushed into service partially completed. And, you also have to recall, and this is key, when you hear of Starfleet ships numbering 'X hundred ships', they include fighters. Yes, fighters. The 600 ship fleet I mentioned? 600 counting fighters.

You seem to be operating under the impression I considered it to be the Reapers vs a weak peace-time Federation. I didn't. I considered it to be the Reapers vs a powerful wartime Federation, using their fleet strength in the Dominion War as an example. That's what I did with all the ones I answered. I didn't cherry-pick weak enemies.