military opportunities missed.

[Brown Ajah]

Frankly, I've been disappointed at what I consider to be very limited use of and coverage of the Black Tower and the Asha'men throughout the series, I mean they're the most powerful wagers of war and it seems like Rand has neglected them for the most part, aside from the one major engagement with the Seanchan. He let it drop and we've had limited information on Black Tower events and the Asha'men in general. I feel like Rand dropped the ball and has neglected the whole Black Tower mess far too long and obviously needs to deal with Taim. With the astounding growth of the BT and asha'men numbers in general, Rand could be using them to do incredible things and really force the Seanchan into a corner. So I agree, many missed military opportunities and I can't wait to finally have TAim dealt with and see how the whole thing plays out.

[asha man]

Again, I think the biggest problem isn't that the Asha'man couldn't properly stomp the hell out of the Demane, just that Rand wouldn't have ordered a strike on women until TGS. (And by that point he was first determined to make peace with them, and later decided to wipe out Ebou Dar by himself using the Chodan Kal.) With gateways, the element of surprise, and the demane unable to see their weaves, the Black Tower could lash out at the Seanchan with something like a one power boosted guerrilla warfare. Send in channelers that they can't detect to gather intelligence. Strike (ambush) and melt into the shadows (gateway the hell out of there). Repeat until the Seanchan surrender.

Even better than killing the demane though, locate the nobles and generals and cut out the leadership. The Seanchan forces fall into disarray and their morale goes to zero.

(Of course this would have been to the DO's benefit overall, since the Seanchan controlled lands would have erupted into chaos and civil war.)

[GregDietzFla]

Speaking of Missed Military Opportunities...

Why have the borderland monarchs, over the last 3,000 years only managed what i would call mediocre defenses against the blight. Now granted Maradon was fairly well secured, however you would think that they would have built up the defenses even more. It is stated that the only entrance into Saldea from the blight has to go through their lower camp, why not have built a "great wall" across that gap. Saldea in my mind had the best defenses in the borderlands, but still not sufficient.

Now let us speak of the others. Why is Tarwin's Gap, noted by many characters as a major staging point for trolocs coming out of the blight, not reinforced in similar ways that maradon was. This seems to be a huge mistake by the Shienrans in my mind.

The same goes for Kandor and Arafel. I believe it is Kandor that has built a series of Forts that are their defense, which is all well and good, but once again, is that really the best that could have been done in 3,000 YEARS. I know little of Arafel's defenses, but judging from the fact that they were overrun rather quickly it seems that they were not that good either.

Now if these Monarchs had been unaware of the fact that the last battle would eventually come, i would forgive them their retardedness, however, they have known good and well what was coming, and even given a "sneak-peak" with the Trolloc Wars. Are you telling me that a few forts is the best that could have been done?

Please help me to understand...

[Terrel88]

A lot of people have been saying Rand was a fool not to use the Asha'men on raids against the Seanchan in force. When he had the Choedan Kal, he was pretty confident he could destroy them by himself, so not really a chance missed there. In fact, in tGS, when he loses it, he plans to crush the Seanchan solo and seemed pretty capable of it. I agree, perhaps he should have hammered them much earlier in the plot, before he realised he could not fight them and the Shadow at the same time, eg tPoD. At the end of the day, if everyone had taken their chances, the book would be pretty crap as Ishamael coulda just murdered Rand in his sleep in the TR

[stoneface]

Most of the Ashaman in the Black tower are a missed opportunity! Surely Rand must have heard us muttering (or yelling) at him to take out Taim while he still could. Oh, wait, Rand did hear that...