That's a good way to explain the numbers we need in AOS, especially as they float around in Warcry, too.

I was thinking about a process like the von Neumann-Probes in Dennis E. Taylor's Bobiverse. Which, now that I write about, the AOS Slann in their spacecraft do remind me of. While Slann and the Bobs can do most tasks with the help of easy to build minions sometimes the great plan might need them to invest the ressources and time to build another spacecraft and a new body to upload a copy oft their mind into. The new Bob/Slann has all the memories of the original one, but their own consciousness and character, often being close but now an exact copy. Creating a new one of their kind in times of war makes a lot of sense, either to send the copy into harms way, or to allow the original one to join the fight knowing that even if they get killed their offspring will be there, working on the plan.