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In the Clone Wars, we see the Separatists use mostly droids in their army. The droids are a cheap and efficient force to field, but they have shown some weakness in combat with clones. In some instances, we see people fight alongside the Separatists, inflicting serious damage on the Republic Army, one such example is the battle(s) on Geonosis.

Why are they not drawing more troops from their liberated world(s), especially later in the war when stronger droids were too expensive to manufacture? Doing this would have bolstered the separatist army on the battlefield.

The question can be asked of the GAR. Why utilize a predominantly clone army rather than using the huge population of the Republic?

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    There are situations where there were non-droids used. Umbara was a mix of droids and the native umbarans. But think about it this way: If you want to look like liberators to a planet, why would you force the liberated people in the army when you can just constantly manufacture them.
    – CBredlow
    Commented Jun 14, 2016 at 20:04

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In-universe, you do see other species fighting for the CIS in the Clone Wars, but just in their homeworlds: Genosians and Umbarans are the two who come to mind. However, from a logistical standpoint why use the combined droid armies of the different members of the CIS (the Trade Federation, the Intergalactic Banking Clan, the Techno Union) who are designed for almost any environment, already trained, quick to manufacture, and require very little for support. An army of citizens would require training, weapons, armor, food, and lodging.

Also, you're missing the entire point of the Separatist army: it's there to distract the Jedi, create an army for the Republic, and make it easy for Sidious to take over. In the final scenes of the war, Sidious orders Vader to have the droids shut down after executing the CIS leaders who were assembled on Mustafar. A non-droid army would have made the Republic -> Empire transition much harder and Tyranus or Sidious didn't want to deal with quelling those planets (who would have had an army) PLUS the Rebellion planets.

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  • This would make sense if the separatist were not in a total war. At the start of the war I can see your reasonning work as they need to have an army quickly. But as the conflict goes on they have time to train new recruits and use their vast ressources . Plus in the end of the war the separatist grow more desesperate so the fact that they do not use every ressource at their disposal doesn't make sense to me.
    – Tchaokko
    Commented Jun 15, 2016 at 9:40
  • @Tchaokko But why take the time/spend the money to build the facilities to train troops and support them when they could just build another droid. It's still an instance where they can still quickly produce an army of droids faster than a bunch of recruits.
    – CBredlow
    Commented Jun 15, 2016 at 16:22
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    @Tchaokko Also, the CIS wasn't really 'desperate' at the end of the war, as they were still pretty evenly matched (hell, they managed to attack the capital of the republic, and snag the chancellor!). The only reason that the war was ended was that Grievous was killed, Order 66 was issued, the heads of the CIS were killed, and the droids were ordered to be shut down.
    – CBredlow
    Commented Jun 15, 2016 at 17:46
  • I see your point now. I guess I tought the Clone Wars was a total war like WW1 or WW2 for the galaxy as both side would put all their ressources in the fight.
    – Tchaokko
    Commented Jun 16, 2016 at 14:11
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The only real explanation is that the people of the each separatist world are not completely aware of the take over of the Federation and its transition into the Empire. Droids are also easy use in space as they do not require oxygen, food and water as well as waste and other life support systems. This would explain why you only see them fighting on there home planet.

Another point is that each separatist world seem to be very primitive and reasonably peaceful (probably the only reason they still exist in terms of civilisation status). Although they have advanced tech like space travel and energy weapons they seem to be at around the level of development of our real world ancient civilisations. This would also go with reason that the separatist army does not use any non-droid soldiers as they have not actually been created by the different civilisations as a soldier like a clone would be beyond there development.

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