It's made pretty clear in game that they get their forces by
1. Recruiting from sympathetic populations
2. Press-ganging colonists
and
3. Indoctrinating both groups with Reaper tech in their skulls.
The numbers of Cerberus troopers is not, I repeat not an unbelievable 'Sith Empire' retcon, they don't really have that many that we see.
Thier ships and equipment, however, is another matter.
That can only be explained by finding the Star Forge.
Thier ships and equipment, however, is another matter.
That can only be explained by finding the Star Forge.
Ships? We see maybe a dozen small cruisers. Equipment? Guns and basic armor aren't expensive when you control the means of production. It's established that Cerberus has a shipyard, aerospace and weapons companies in their pocket. It's not that big a stretch. We're not seeing WH40k size fleets or anything. Don't forget, TiM has gone 'all-in' on this endeavor and can spend his resources entirely on military and research projects without having to worry about budgets, debts or pensions for his people.
How many ships do they actually have? (I can't remember the upshot of the last time this came up) In the base game we see a handful of cruisers. Haven't played Omega.
In the cutscenes we see maybe 3-4 cruisers patrolling around Omega.
What I find interesting is that to some extent, Cerberus troopers 'care' about each other. At least tactically. They're not aiming to lose so many, but Shepard pushes forward and annihilates them all 
. (By this I mean that they're not mindless fodder like husks.. to each other. To TIM they may be, to an extent, but to others, they might be 'taught' to try to avoid casualties and work together in ways they otherwise wouldn't.)
I see it as another example of 'forced uplifting'. So many of these guys were just civilian refugees or gung-ho idealists. Sure, Reaper tech put them into the 'right' overall mentality to fight, but they didn't have the dedication and talent to face certain situations.
When I detach myself from Shepard's slaughter of Cerberus troopers, I see that they're not exactly mindless husks. They're only forcibly indoctrinated into Cerberus service, but otherwise seem to have some degree of personality. But again, this is covered up by the depiction of Shepard's slaughter of them.
TIM was crappy with how he used technology, but some aspects of the Cerberus troopers illustrate how, if used more carefully and compassionately, Reaper technology could one day assist humans/organics/sapients. One day.
The main story tone is against it though. I'm okay with that. But I don't want it in the next game as much. We have the tech and its dangers introduced to us - so why not discover its helpfulness? There's nothing innately evil with any of the technologies Reapers use, when it comes down to it. Its who/what is using it, and how they're using it, that's more automatically the problem.
The narrative does an extremly poor job at justifiying Cerberus' activities in Mass Effect 3 and as such many of the events surrounding Cerberus are highly contrived, totally unbelievable logistics.
The main problem is having them show up every other mission and having such a large footprint in the story (one that is arguably even bigger than the Reapers). Sure you can sit back, do some speculative math, and come up with the conclusion that their on screen presence doesn't necessarily match their off screen presence, but that would be missing the point. Cerberus is simply too big a part of this narrative.
Ships? We see maybe a dozen small cruisers. Equipment? Guns and basic armor aren't expensive when you control the means of production. It's established that Cerberus has a shipyard, aerospace and weapons companies in their pocket. It's not that big a stretch. We're not seeing WH40k size fleets or anything. Don't forget, TiM has gone 'all-in' on this endeavor and can spend his resources entirely on military and research projects without having to worry about budgets, debts or pensions for his people.
Cruisers are not small, except when compared to dreadnoughts. They have a crew number is the hundreds, making them order of magnitude bigger than the Normandy. Building the Normandy alone took two years and made a significant dent in Cerberus' pocketbook.
Cruisers are not small, except when compared to dreadnoughts. They have a crew number is the hundreds, making them order of magnitude bigger than the Normandy. Building the Normandy alone took two years and made a significant dent in Cerberus' pocketbook.
Sure, but the Normandy is an elite spec-ops frigate, not a line war-cruiser. Most of that time was likely spent building the improved Tantalus Drive Core which the standard cruisers don't have.
Sure, but the Normandy is an elite spec-ops frigate, not a line war-cruiser. Most of that time was likely spent building the improved Tantalus Drive Core which the standard cruisers don't have.
They probably don't have Tantalus drive cores, true. But they probably have bigger cores just to move such enormous ships, let alone doing it all stealthy-like.
Also recall that their ships are also reinforced with Reaper technology. So "fancy tech" is only an excuse to some extent.
The main problem is having them show up every other mission and having such a large footprint in the story (one that is arguably even bigger than the Reapers). Sure you can sit back, do some speculative math, and come up with the conclusion that their on screen presence doesn't necessarily match their off screen presence, but that would be missing the point. Cerberus is simply too big a part of this narrative.
That's really the bigger problem to me. Not the logistics otherwise.
They needed a few fewer missions and the geth needed a few more, IMO.
It came down to, in my opinion, a lack of ideas as to what to do with the reapers in missions.
I think a better idea could have been a subplot where you are trying to uncover the indoctrinated mole which could have been an excellent way if ramping up paranoia and despair (especially if you suspected the wrong person).
This could have even been a squad member; imagine having to kill garrus when you realise he's been sabotaging (unintentionally perhaps) the defence of palaven. Even TIM could have been brought on board with the alliance; you could have gad a much more gradual realisation he is indoctrinated happening towards the end as he tries to enact control.
A lot could have been done with that; instead we get more dull pop up mooks missions and the contrived mess that is galactic uber power cerberus.
That's another good point. Indoctrination was an interesting that could have been used for something else instead of creating the ivory mook brigade.
We fight Cerberus mooks. Then we fight reaper mooks. Then we fight Geth mooks... wait the Geth are good guys, except they sided with the reapers again... but we can fix that...., but after Rannoch it's only Cerberus and reaper mooks.
They could have given us Batarian mooks... oh wait.
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