Traveling was a great tactical advantage for the AS, but everyone knew the Seanchan would eventually learn it. But there's a simple reason why the Aes Sedai still have a huge tactical advantage over the Seanchan: AES SEDAI CAN LINK, THE SEANCHAN CANNOT.
Learning traveling will not aid the Seanchan much. At least a quarter of all damane won't be strong enough to even open a gateway. Some damane will be able to open a gateway, but not make one big enough for a person to travel through. The remaining damane who can make a gateway big enough to travel through will NOT raise the Seanchan to an even playing field. Even if you have a damane of Alivia's strength, at best, any single damane can make a gateway large enough for 3 or 4 people to go through at once. Most damane that can make a gateway large enough to travel through will only be able to make a gateway large enough for 1 or 2 people to go through at a time. Thus, the Seanchan learning how to travel will not really help them move large numbers of troops.
Once the Seanchan learn to travel, their best use of traveling will be for surgical strikes by sending through a dozen or so sul'dam / damane pairs with an honor guard and hitting the enemy flanks. The mass of Seanchan soldiers will have to move the old fashioned way.
Compare what the Seanchan have (or will shortly have) with what the AS have. The AS can also travel, but because the AS can link, they can open 100 pace wide gateways and move tens of thousands of troops with ease. Imagine 6 sets of 13 women linked. That's 6 different gateways, each one 100 paces wide. The AS could move their entire army in less than an hour if they organized correctly and practiced the maneuvers to perfect it. In fact, considering Egwene has access to a couple thousand channelers, she could probably form a hundred companies of 13 AS each and make 100 gateways, each one 100 paces wide. She could move her entire army in 5 minutes.
So, to properly exploit traveling, the most important thing is the ability to link. The Seanchan will be limited to using traveling for surgical strikes and not much else.
The AS still have the main advantage. The question is, is Gareth Bryne smart enough to realize this? I doubt Captain Chubain is smart enough. Hopefully Gareth Bryne will take over command of all of Tar Valon's army now that Egwene is in control. Hopefully Gareth Bryne will also realize the potential that traveling has and hopefully he's smart enough to have his troops drilling and practicing moving by traveling on a regular basis. A good army commander has his troops practice the routine over and over again because the first time you don't realize what problems will crop up, so you practice it until you work out all the problems.
Learning traveling will not aid the Seanchan much. At least a quarter of all damane won't be strong enough to even open a gateway. Some damane will be able to open a gateway, but not make one big enough for a person to travel through. The remaining damane who can make a gateway big enough to travel through will NOT raise the Seanchan to an even playing field. Even if you have a damane of Alivia's strength, at best, any single damane can make a gateway large enough for 3 or 4 people to go through at once. Most damane that can make a gateway large enough to travel through will only be able to make a gateway large enough for 1 or 2 people to go through at a time. Thus, the Seanchan learning how to travel will not really help them move large numbers of troops.
Once the Seanchan learn to travel, their best use of traveling will be for surgical strikes by sending through a dozen or so sul'dam / damane pairs with an honor guard and hitting the enemy flanks. The mass of Seanchan soldiers will have to move the old fashioned way.
Compare what the Seanchan have (or will shortly have) with what the AS have. The AS can also travel, but because the AS can link, they can open 100 pace wide gateways and move tens of thousands of troops with ease. Imagine 6 sets of 13 women linked. That's 6 different gateways, each one 100 paces wide. The AS could move their entire army in less than an hour if they organized correctly and practiced the maneuvers to perfect it. In fact, considering Egwene has access to a couple thousand channelers, she could probably form a hundred companies of 13 AS each and make 100 gateways, each one 100 paces wide. She could move her entire army in 5 minutes.
So, to properly exploit traveling, the most important thing is the ability to link. The Seanchan will be limited to using traveling for surgical strikes and not much else.
The AS still have the main advantage. The question is, is Gareth Bryne smart enough to realize this? I doubt Captain Chubain is smart enough. Hopefully Gareth Bryne will take over command of all of Tar Valon's army now that Egwene is in control. Hopefully Gareth Bryne will also realize the potential that traveling has and hopefully he's smart enough to have his troops drilling and practicing moving by traveling on a regular basis. A good army commander has his troops practice the routine over and over again because the first time you don't realize what problems will crop up, so you practice it until you work out all the problems.
and YES to all of the above.
And I wonder what happens to a damane she's shielded and the Gateway closes and breaks the chain of the a'dam... I'd guess a very painful death
Domani Drag Queen in the White Tower ... Aran'gar watch out!
This message last edited by darius_sedai on 17/12/2009 at 01:32:44 AM
Learning traveling will help the Seanchan, but the AS still have the advantage.
17/12/2009 01:13:32 AM
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Bryne will without a doubt be in charge
17/12/2009 01:28:02 AM
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Re: Learning traveling will help the Seanchan, but the AS still have the advantage.
17/12/2009 01:39:32 AM
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Linking provides another benefit.
17/12/2009 02:02:05 AM
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Wow, if that happens, I will be her biggest fan *NM*
17/12/2009 02:10:01 AM
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Me too! Destroying the White Tower would make even me like Egwene. *NM*
17/12/2009 11:36:03 AM
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Ideally, both would be destroyed! Along with the rest of Randland. Muahahahahaha!!
18/12/2009 12:40:55 AM
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What an utterly stupid idea.
17/12/2009 11:35:24 AM
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Your facts are incorrect.
17/12/2009 02:41:42 PM
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They were losing at Dumai's Wells. That's why they had to tie off Rand's shield
17/12/2009 08:18:32 PM
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The army of Night, fighting against the Seanchan Empire, surely have linked channelers
18/12/2009 04:34:52 AM
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Is that the Superpower they're looking for all along? *NM*
17/12/2009 02:02:25 AM
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No, the superpower is the "atomic bomb-like" weapon at the Kin's farm that melted sand.
17/12/2009 03:10:01 AM
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another linking advantage
17/12/2009 02:10:56 AM
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All that will do is take the best fighters out of action.
17/12/2009 11:55:55 AM
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I have to agree with Cannoli on this, but with a twist.
17/12/2009 02:46:03 PM
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Why mace of air?
17/12/2009 05:58:32 PM
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I can't compete with deathgates to outer space, but damane can be rehabilitated.
17/12/2009 08:10:17 PM
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So can soldiers. Lots of Taraboners, Altarans, etc in Seanchan army.
17/12/2009 10:08:32 PM
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Oh, yes. Because damane NEVER fight soldiers, and would thus ignore them.
17/12/2009 09:00:41 PM
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Re: All that will do is take the best fighters out of action.
19/12/2009 06:10:26 PM
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Do you really think the Aes Sedai would let them control the circles if they had a say?
21/12/2009 08:23:46 PM
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Re: Do you really think the Aes Sedai would let them control the circles if they had a say?
22/12/2009 02:04:11 AM
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Why did you post this?
17/12/2009 09:35:09 AM
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What post are you talking about?
17/12/2009 04:57:14 PM
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thanks for the credit... PS I'm a guy *NM*
18/12/2009 12:10:56 AM
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Ooops
18/12/2009 12:48:22 AM
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I'm totally teasing you ... I added the "sedai" to be snarky
18/12/2009 12:55:51 AM
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Yeah, I don't get that: Fantasy gender-nuetral honorific, plus Real World male name = female?
18/12/2009 05:35:17 AM
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Asha'man can' link either and they didn't have a problem moving an army
17/12/2009 08:16:48 PM
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Rand's campaign lasted more than a week. The AS could move the entire army in 5 minutes.
17/12/2009 08:28:40 PM
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