why starfleet lose so few people in The Siege of AR-558

[Jasonb]

When Sisko and his shipmates arrived from the Defiant 43 soldiers holding communications relay. Most of the 43 soldiers latter be killed in final show down between the Jem'Hadar and the Federation foot soldiers. If the Jem Hadar foot soldiers attract four times with same amount of forces. The Federation would ran out foot soldiers hold Communication relay. I thinking the Federation might have used phaser drills or and some other weapon might have given them long rang.. That they either ran out of or destroy before Sisko and his shipmate arrived

[Sideswipe]

The Jem Hedar didnt know the ammount of Federation forces until the second to the last attack when they sent in holograms to test the fortifications. By the time of the last attack Sisko had repositioned the mines to even the odds.

[The Dude]

Lose so few? They started out with 150 IIRC, and had 43 when Sisko got there, thats a horrible number of losses by any standard. In fact it's a wonder they could function at all.

[SailorSaturn13]

I thinking the Federation might have used phaser drills or and some other weapon might have given them long rang.. That they either ran out of or destroy before Sisko and his shipmate arrived

As seen in "Nor the battle for the strong" the whole problem of cave warfare is that if you as much as hit a wall at high phaser setting, the cave can collapse. Drilling through walls, as you suggest, is fully out of question for the same reason.
Another problem, of course were the supplies which had to last for months. Originally those troops were assumed to hold the position again for some time. Thus by supplies the edge was on long-lasting things (such as phaser energy cells).

[Khas]

So few people? I don't think that losing 71% of your forces counts as "few people".

[Mike DiCenso]

According to the episode, when Sisko and his team first landed, the troops there had taken "two thirds" and at the end of the episode, we learn tha the total casualties there were "seventeen hundred and thirty" (it is unknown if that list includes wounded as well as dead, or simply KIA/MIA).
-Mike

[Enterprise E]

Actually, I think that the final casualty report was for all of Starfleet on that day or week, not just on the Siege of AR-558. I believe that the initial force on AR-558 was 150 personnel. If they lost two-thirds of their forces before the final fight, then they had 50 personnel left before Sisko arrived. Also, they had been there for months without being reinforced or resupplied while the Dominion had launched a number of assaults on the Communication Relay before the last attack, so that could explain the high number of casualties.

[Mike DiCenso]

You're right. The initial force was 150, but was reduced down to 43 over five months of near constant fighting.
-Mike