I don't disagree with the concept that individual gateways can be disrupted in the way you describe it. I just don't think that is the most effective way of doing it.

You used the aircraft analogy in an earlier thread, in response to Jordan's use of the comparison.

Having to use one channeler to target each individual gateway is not nearly as effective as anti-aircraft artillery would be in the real world, which blankets the entire area with anti-aircraft flak. In the real world, your attacking aircraft take a long time to arrive at the target, and are exposed to a heck of a lot of anti-aircraft fire to arrive at their destination.

In the Travelling example, the opposite is true. Targeting a gateway is relatively time consuming, whereas creating one is instantaneous. The advantage lies with the attacker, rather than the defender. And if a gateway is disrupted, you don't lose an expensive aircraft. It is no loss, as you simply weave another one immediately. It is the timing issue again. It is just so quick to weave a gateway. What's the loss if one happens to wink out? You just make another one immediately.

What I think needs to happen, to balance out this picture, is for the defenders to weave SOMETHING around the battlefield, which makes it more difficult for attackers to get through to that area of the Pattern in order to make gateways into it.

Something which slows down the process of gateway creation. Maybe the "vibration" of the Pattern threads in that area means that a channeler has to work his way around the protection, which in turn alerts the defenders that someone is trying to get through and open a gateway.

In other words, the gateway making process needs to SLOW DOWN, and some kind of battle needs to be engaged in at the level of the Pattern, not on the physical level. This "metaphysical" contest first needs to be won, before attacking gateways can succeed in either boring a tunnel through to that location (saidin), or making that location identical to the departure point of the attackers (saidar).

THEN, if the attacking channeler has succeeded in penetrating this first line of defense, I foresee the more chaotic, and much more desperate defensive situation where defending channelers frantically try to extinguish individual gateways where they open all over the battlefield.

But then it would probably be a Last Stand at the Alamo kind of fight, where your outer wall is already breached, and you are putting out fires in a final attempt to stave off defeat.

The concept of a "battle at many levels" seems to hint at a more subtle contest at Pattern level, before you get into the slugfest with gateways opening all over the place.