I'm still not following you. Which plan? Eliminating the wolves?
I have no opinion whether if Shai'tan or Ishamael is behind it. Would it matter?

Or did you mean my reference to the two weird DH in Rhuidean? Those I'm pretty sure were able to resurrect from a puddle only because they were directly controlled by Shai'tan, lord of the grave. It's an old theory that got ridiculed before, but Graendal's use of the TP to control an animal in the prologue, and the confirmation the True Power is Shai'tan, his essence, suggests Shai'tan could take control of a Shadowspawn and make it more powerful through his will and essence if he so wishes.

I think he did that to ascertain what was up with Asmodean losing his filter for the taint, yet not coming to him, or to verify the claim, probably from Lanfear, that Asmodean had gone to serve Rand and that she'd deal with him, and bring Rand to serve the DO.

Armies of Shadowspawn in the South? That doesn't seem to jive with Moridin's reminder to the Chosen (in KOD), which comes after the DH were seen and not very long before Trollocs are seen in Altara that Shadowspawn are forbidden outside the Blight. Of course, that wouldn't touch any Shadowspawn Moridin sent on missions, nor those who were sent against Rand in Tear. The Trollocs near Ebou Dar, IMO, were lost. This happened mere days after the attack on the manor, and I'm quite convinced these were SP that got lost in the Ways and exited at the Waygate at the ruins of the capital seen by Mat days north from Ebou Dar. The Shadow would have to be utterly mad to send Shadowspawn anywhere near the Seanchan... anything that could incite the Seanchan to give up and join the Westlands against the Shadow is utterly mad.

There's not much point I can see to "building" armies in the South... all Demandred would have to do is secure Waygates to move his armies out the Blight to the locations he wishes. Just look how fast 100,000 Trollocs were moved from the Blight to Tear. A lot of Waygates are simply guarded, and it's not impossible the Shadow has a few collected "keys" with which it could undo what Loial has done before the Waygates died.. at least to key Waygates (I don't think the Shadow did, mind you... RJ did that so the Shadow would be forced to advance from the north for the most part, overun the Borderlands (except perhaps the nation in which Lan will be) but then meet resistance)

Murandy isn't so strategic to the Shadow. It's actually surrounded by Andor, in which Aes Sedai are welcome and will be called for by Elayne if a Shadowspawn invasion begins in the South, long before the Trollocs reach the major cities and armies which are in the north (Travelling beats running Trollocs), by Rand's Asha'man in Illian, and by the Seanchan massive armies in Altara watching the only pass north into Murandy (which is beyond the Manetheren beside - Trollocs don't pass water. The other pass south into Altara has been blocked. There's only the way to Far Madding open, and there are most likely Waygates there (easier to use than a base in Murandy). Perhaps Demandred has planned a trap for the Bordermen in Far Madding, attacking with Shadowspawn or Asha'man when their channellers will be unable to defend, and the Bordermen have no way to retreat, but I seriously doubt this would be more than one little campaign Demandred has planned, in a much vaster plan...

It's still makes the most sense to me that Demandred will lead the Shadow's channellers in battle. It's even immaterial for now if he's behind the creation of the Black Tower or has been ordered recently by Moridin to take command of the army Taim has built and of the BA (not an assignement Demandred would refuse - not that he could, really - and not one Taim could refuse him either. Demandred the envious caught with an unreliable, envious and jealous second who seeks to undermine him... that sounds Jordan-like irony to me). That's the sort of armies Demandred had in the WOS (you don't fight LTT with Trollocs.. we saw what just a bunch of channellers made of 100,000 Trollocs with Myrddraal... Trollos are to overwhelm non-channelling populations and armies. It's mostly armies of minor Chosen, with Shadowspawn support, Demandred must have lead against LTT. It's also channellers for the most part he lead while he was under LTT too, obviously. Unlike the WOS armies, the non-channellers today stand barely any chance against channellers not afraid to use mass destruction weaves... a bunch of Asha'man staying outside bow range could destroy a massive non-c. army in minutes using the sort of weaves Rand used in Tear)

I don't see why Moridin or the DO would place Taim in charge of its only elite army, when it has a military genius like Demandred available. The strategic importance of Demandred is steadily on the rise in the series. First, the fact Rand wouldn't use the BA infiltrated WT but was building his own army of male channellers. Then, there's the fact Rand would use Travelling with his male army, and then, Egwene went and rediscovered Travelling too - multiplying the Light's Travelling capacity manifold. Then, Egwene too started recruiting and augment the numbers of female channelers. And Elayne brings the Kin out of secrecy, and the Sea Folk are forced to unveil its channellers (the Shadow might have counted on them staying on the side). The next major blow was Logain and Cadsuane bringing together de facto, by accident, mixed gender circles soldiers into the equation, and this is spreading fast. And then, Rand goes and share WOS mass destruction weaves with this army. The greatest advantage of Taim's "special classes" may already be undermined. They might still be better, but they didn't have women, and they're not soldiers as dedicated as the Asha'man. They're men who've been promised all sort of things, and who wish to stay alive to reap their rewards. A Chosen at their back won't be a luxury.

And that's not the end of it.... The Seanchan vs. Tower/Rand war has taken forever to heat up, and the blow to the Tower wasn't crippling (the greatest defeat is the likely gift of Travelling to the Seanchan)... but wait... Rand's army, Tuon's armies and Egwene's armies are all pretty much intact... and they all know Travelling, and the Seanchan are expert at mixing channelling and non-channellers in battle. Rand is coming down from DM likely with all the memories of LTT, who can bring his military genius Mat up to speed on all channellers can do, and Mat is extremely innovative and may well come up with mixed tactics and strategies unknown in the WOS. The military situation is changing day by day... and the inconceivable is happening... Sammael, Be'lal, Rhavin had ruled out male channellers and dismissed the women as barely trained girls (which they were, to their standards). Then Rand found a teacher, but thankfully it was inept Asmodean... I like to believe Demandred has been much, much more cunning and has kept studying his foe and adapting his plans... because at the end of the line, what we have is a sizeable mixed gender army, with Rand would can teach the men very dangerous weaves and tactics, and who can explain to the men how best to use saidar in the circles... The Green Ajah may be outclassed as weavers, but they're still trained for the battlefield, and can be major assets in the military circles, so are the WO, unruffled by battles and not afraid to die... and there's many, many of them. If the Light pools the WOand the Tower women, using the non military trained like KIn and novices for support, that's not that far for a full circle of thirteen for each of Logain's Asha'man (and dedicated... perhaps not for each soldier - I don't recall how many of those he has)....

Every step of the way, Demandred's value augmented (and the likes of Taim and Alviarin became outclassed). It's hard to see who but Demandred has the knowledge, experience and genius to adapt the battle's plans every step of the way, especially that lately the situation is changing damn fast: Semirhage gone, the Seanchan attack not crippling, the BA ousted, the Tower reunited behind a friend of Rand, mixed gender circles.. Ishamael had never planned for the BA to have to fight the AS... he built them up as political agents and terrorists, to destroy the Tower from the inside. They almost succeeded... but not quite, and now it will be open war. If not for the Asha'man of the Shadow, Verin had made the BA a triffle to be easily wiped out by Rand's forces.


Demandred won't have to fight the early WOS-style warfare, with bombs and shocklances to make even non-channelling soldiers extremely dangerous, but he's gonna have to fight late WOS-style warfare... mixed gender circles, with huge support armies with mostly mêlée weapons and bows. To face that, Demandred has far more limited élite forces, and massive massive armies of Shadowspawn with nowhere the mobility of the Light's armies. And many serpents in the bosom, to spread chaos and eliminate key players they can get at. Another blow to the Shadow, likely, is that the Light is about to find a solution to one of its major weaknesses: the rapidly vanishing food reserves. Shadowspawn will feed on the enemy until there's no enemy, and the Shadow's human forces are limited. The Light has a problem, though... its food producing areas are spread out, and not easy to defend. The Seanchan control many of these lands too. It sounds like the Leafers, and their Sung Crops, are more and more badly needed. But it sounds like Aviendha in Rhuidean could be about to solve this, while Tuon has put a large group of Tinkers under her protection. They need the crop songs, now - then concentrated food producing areas will need to be set up, and protected, otherwise the Light will run out of livestock and starve in the middle of the LB.. then feed the Trollocs.

Demandred wants to defeat Rand, and he's no fool. He must have a fairly clear picture of the sort of forces he must have for that (or else, he isn't at all the man he's reputed to be... and if he's so close to LTT in military talent, than he is the man he's reputed to be...). At this point, Demandred needs a mixed gender army.. that is, if he's not planned for one from the start. The major armies of the land were not all that important to the Shadow once... there were enough Shadowspawn to overwhelm them - and the most dangerous, the Bordermen - were split so that not enough were left north to fend the initial invasion..., the Light also had the Seanchan in their back to keep them busy and Semirhage to ensure no alliance would come until way too late, and Rand wasn't expected to field enough, and trained enough, channellers to both face the Shadow's channellers and protect his non OP armies... But now the Light still has huge armies still in the field, a deal with the Seanchan is still quite possible, and it has enough channellers to build mixed armies (Seanchan style, but with circles instead of damane), and elite, mostly channelling task forces.... An Andoran army wouldn't last long facing alone hundreds of thousands of Trollocs... but give it a few circles and the battle's likely to end like the Tairen manor one, if the Shadow can't spare channellers to support the Shadowspawn.

Moridin has other plans. It's rather obvious that for him the military aspect isn't the primary one and the real battlefiled is Rand himself. But the Shadow can't take the chance not to oppose the Light in the field for all that, and the Shadow's primary hope not to have its ass kicked fast in the field is Demandred.

As for the strategic targets... they are the big cities the Light can defend and use as power-bases, and the food producing areas. The mistake the Shadow might try to make the Light make is to force to spread out, attempting to defend too many cities suffering from raids. If Rand decides to concentrate his forces on the frontline and in two, three main cities (Tear, Caemlyn, Tar Valon, for example) the Shadow would struggle to defeat these power bases, and have no forces to destroy the countryside beyond the frontline of the Shadowspawn. Of course, that would mean leaving cities like Bandar Eban, Cairhien, Jehannah be razed by raids from Taim and co., hundreds of thousands to die. Not sure Rand is cold-blooded enough for anything like that.... But then... the Finns told him the world needed to be "as one", and we have seen the signs this will be a war of anihilation, in which even farmers, women and kids might need to fight. The Shadow has only SG to defend, the Light has way too much...

The big question to me isn't if Demandred will lead the Shadow's channellers into battle, it's more a question of what other forces he might have managed to assemble. It's not impossible there are other hidden "Black Towers" - in Shara for example.

But national armies, like Murandy's? I don't really see the point. These armies will abandon Demandred as soon as they realize they're fighting for the Shadow. If Demandred has armies, they need to be armies of DFs, most likely DF channellers.