How did he cripple himself? The only thing I can think you are referring to is the small number of troops he took on the campaign with him. Rand's shortcomings and problems on that campaign had nothing to do with insufficient numbers. He didn't take that many troops, because he was moving fast and light. As we see in Perrin's PoV in tGS, size of a group still matters even when you are Traveling, because of the strain on those making and holding open the gateways. Rand was using smaller and mobile forces, operating at distances from one another, complicating coordination and communication. More troops would have just got in the way. As it turned out, even the Seanchan countermove of consolidating their force to prevent Rand from defeating them in detail was checked by Rand's use of Callandor. He not only had a good plan, he had a contingency that worked just fine. The consolidation of the Seanchan forces made them vulnerable to a single-source weapon of great power like Callandor. Rand THINKS he lost because of what he suffered, but unbeknownst to him, he inflicted great damage on the Seanchan, and permanently stopped them from repeating their attempted invasion.

I just say "wetlands." That's the only canonical name given.



Except the Seanchan have vastly superior organization, communication, logistics, standardized procedures and institutional memory. The wetlands lose a Great Captain like Pedron Niall, and they have been dealt a serious blow. The Seanchan lose a Kenner Miraj and they keep right on rolling along. All the organizational things the Seanchan do as a matter of course require great efforts on the wetlander's parts. They might make a massive army, like the invasion force for Illian, but that is a unique undertaking, that required months, had variable quality units, and little or no coordination between the national components. The Seanchan pull that kind of organizational feat off all the time! No wetlander force could have suppressed the news that they had taken a major city like Tanchico. No wetlander army could have come upon a city like Ebou Dar or Amadicia as suddenly and with as much surprise as the Seanchan did. We see that a man of the right rank or authorization can simply walk into a headquarters and take command. A wetlander situation would require tons of what modern military types would call "dick-beating" to settle that out. Contrast Karede's experience in the other general's tent in KoD with Mat's first encounter with the future Band in tFoH. Karede had a much easier time getting what he needed from strangers than Mat did with people who knew exactly who he was and how well connected.