davecake

They'll mix rune magic and spirit magic, but a magician that can't deal with the spirits directly is only half a magician. So they mostly have shaman-priests, as you say like the Animal Nomads or the Grazers. They do have the equivalent of God-Talkers, people who have some good magic but are not dedicated magicians, usually people who manifest the gods power on earth and so have earthly responsibilities - like the Chief or a (female) household leader, or a great warrior. And, of course there are plenty of people around who have good magic but don't aspire to the High Shamanic Ideal at all, the Pamalt shamans might say they are foolish or wicked but they are still there.

Continuing the idea that we actually have a fair idea how 'regimental' magic works in RQG game terms now, consider She That Strikes From Afar in the RQ Glorantha Bestiary. Now, I'm going to add as a caveat that the rules part of how wyters are described is a bit messy. The MindLink spell is mentioned, even though it isn't in the core rules. We can assume that it is the same as in RQ2 (the RQ3 version didn't differ much). I'm also a bit vague on what 'A wyter spends points of its characteristic POW instead of Rune points when casting Rune spells with a chance of success equal to its CHAx5.' means in practice - for one thing, it isn't clear if this is simply a permanent loss of POW that needs POW Gain rolls to replace (which would make wyters casting rune magic a desperate act that permanently weakens it) or if it is restored more in the manner of Rune Points or similar, for another thing She That Strikes From Afar has a separate number of Rune Points listed in the stats, which is confusing. But ignoring the possibility of mass Rune Magic casting for the moment (though that seems rather the point of wyters). I am assuming that STSFA can use the Rune Points of her priests to cast spells via the Mind Link, and their magic points. MindLink allows the sharing of spells, and magic points, and at least 7 priests of the Minor Class unit are directly linked to She That Strikes From Afar. She That Strikes From Afar has the special ability to cast Madness using magic points, and on multiple targets using multiple magic points, and can take on a material form. So an attack from a Minor Class unit generally probably starts with the Discorporate Lunar magicians scouting the enemy, and then She That Strikes From Afar manifests. The physical form of STSFA appears as a red woman with 14 arms, but for game rules purposes is a huge (3x12x3) Lune. Not only can STSFA use the MPs and probably RPs of her Mind Linked priests, but priests can also cast Visibility on themselves, and manifest in the material world, and then cast spells on STSFA or others. They can probably do this with relative safety as long as STSFA has eliminated any major magical defences. As a Lune, she is quite physically vulnerable, so her Chief Priest will buff her with magical defences - probably something like a Shield 6. And STSFA can also use her priests Rune Points and MPs to heal herself, or they can heal her directly - and also shore up her defences. She is enveloping multiple people per round. Most of those enveloped will fall catatonic (POW vs her POW, which is likely to be either 31 or 46), a sizable minority (special attack) will fanatically attack someone, usually their colleagues. She is also spirit attacking, and slowly MP draining, those who resist the Lune Madness. And is able to draw on her Mind Linked priests for other attack spells. She is also blasting Madness spells all over the place - STSFA can cast these with magic points, and can grab magic points from her priestesses for this purpose. So basically STSFA can hit potentially dozens of people with Madness a round, and a few of those are attacking each other. The discorporate priestesses, at least those that have become Visible, can follow behind the wave of madness (the ones that aren't visible are supporting STSFA directly, and/or defending against attacks on the spirit plane. They can magically attack the few that have resisted STSFAs Madness, hitting them with spells like Befuddle just to stop them taking effective action, or Mindblast for a more permanent take down. And they can cast other magic. I suspect the Lunar minor elementals are popular - a small elemental isn't normally very dangerous, but in a camp full of people that are mostly catatonic or distracted, it can kill a lot of them quite quickly, and wreak other havoc (such as setting fires, or collapsing structures). They may have a few other surprises with them, such as Lunar demons. So what can their opponents do? Well, they can work out a well coordinated response, such as magicians dedicatedly dispelling defences while melee forces rush her, and hope to take STSFA out with hit point damage - but STSFA probably just heals herself if this doesn't succeed very quickly. They can have enough magical counter defences on their troops to deal with the Madness, and hope to fend off STSFA physically. They can desperately dispel or take out fanaticised madmen, and deal with follow up attacks, and hope to just outlast the attackers magic point supplies. Some units may be able to send in their own summoned creatures against her. Most of these tactics aren't great, but they might stop STSFA from effectively destroying or disrupting the unit before her entourages MPs have been deleted - and very soon afterwards the catatonic recover, so there is a fairly short window for STSFA to convert her wave of madness into lasting harm. The best tactic is probably to unleash their own wyter or similar level magical force, but most units will have a weaker wyter than a specialist magician unit. A very well prepared group of sorcerers could make a giant Neutralise Moon Protective Circle or something, and hope to get everyone in it in time, and that the collateral damage isn't too high. So thats what a 'Dragon Pass' magician unit attacking looks like. For other units, consider how much more or less effective the unit is, and who the magicians who make it up are. Other wyters have different abilities, and quite likely a wider range of them. Some will be even less subtle (the Eaglebrowns wyter is Thunderbird, who is going to raining down thunder and lightning, and his support acts will include a lot of Praxian shamans and air spirits, the Earth Twins are going to have a lot of Earth Quakes and malevolent earth elementals), some will require a bit more creativity in describing the magical effect in game terms (the Eleven Lights Starfire power is definitely not standard Orlanthi magic, but the description in The Eleven Lights is fairly vivid), some might be quite subtle, wreaking havoc on the minds of a units troops and morale and cohesion as much as physical damage. Some of the SMU will use draconic effects. Most will have a wider variety of magicians in the attack than I've represented here, in the SMU often including tricksters, sorcerers, a few mad Illuminates wielding unusual magic.

In battle, numbers count. In Prax, the real competition is competition for food, and food for mounts, not battle. Different mounts need different food sources, and different amounts of it. A giant of double the height would surely easily defeat that opponent only half their height. But that giant would also have eight times the mass, and probably require 8 times the food. Would that giant defeat 8 opponents all half his height, and armed with missile weapons? Probably not. It's usually not that extreme, but maybe that is a hint why the Impala people, who often outnumber their opponents two to one, survive in battle. Not only do they require less food, but the type of grazing lands they require for their impala are easier to find. The differences between the animal food requirements, both in type and quantity, determine the balance of power between the tribes as much as anything. And also the shifting alliances, because the tribes are not all competing for the exact same lands. And if you aren't competing for the same exact grazing lands, then if you have the advantage of speed you can usually avoid confrontation if you want to. But yeah, the Ostriches and Bolo Lizards are at a big disadvantage, but mostly because they do not share the same full blessings of Eiritha and so their animals do not thrive, and they must eke out a living around the edges of the other tribes. Maybe their tribes will become extinct in a few centuries, or maybe their tribal magic will keep them from quite disappearing. But its mostly NOT about who would win in a direct battle, its about who thrives in the wastes.

Are you sure Glorantha is for you? There is literally an entire second age Empire based around the idea that magic is logical and can be treated as a predictable technology, and they all died horribly because of it. The message about assuming magic works that way in Glorantha is not subtle. Assuming that magic is logical and predictable works to a point - but only to a point, and then it goes terribly wrong, and this gets demonstrated not only with the fall of the God Learners, but over and over again. It's not that magic is illogical per se, it is more that the rules are both subtler and deeper than is easily known, and subject to creative change, and is as much art and religion as technology.

You mean like Plant or Beast magic? I guess, but I don't think I'd equate it with the sort of direct physical effect implied by DP Physical Magicians. And we don't really have evidence of that sort of magic, while we do know of elemental magic used for warlike magic. {on the Stormwalkers_ I agree it is 'exotic' in the DP sense and not to be confused with the sort of physical magic talked about, but I don't think that means it has to be mystic in nature (and I think most DP Exotic magic is not in any way connected with mysticism). I find this image hilarious but implausible.

That is a pretty normal part of Doraddi religious practice for many deities. It's pretty much theism, except the priests are also shamans, IMO. I think the Near Ones are mystics and are able to approach the holy mountain of Um in the spirit world, a thing normally forbidden. This is, of course, a powerful metaphor for mystic attainment. But also an actual thing some of them can do.

Interestingly, the only mention of a flying carpet in Glorantha that I can recall is Ernalda magic (Orane weaves wove Dumela, the carpet that flew her and Durev out of the clutches of Endon the Cruel. I'm guessing it might involve some Storm magic from Durev too).

While clearly there are a lot of augmentation spells, I think "Strike enemy combatant dead" from that spell list strikes me as a pretty flashy direct attack spell.

Fighting is Babeester Gor's job - most Ernaldans do not even own an axe, or have the faintest idea how to wield one in combat. And everywhere but Esrolia, Babeester Gor is a tiny minority cult of miserable fanatics. There are the Maran Gor axe maidens, but again a tiny minority most places (except Old Tarsh).

Their job is also to respond to enemy magical attack, not just buff. But they do have Range, so while they probably want to be in sight of the battle where possible, they don't need to be very near it.

Whenever there is a line of reasoning that is basically 'if you just make this particular weird set of assumptions about how spell casting works then Gloranthan life would be changed forever', I tend to reject those weird assumptions. I think it is implied that Warding stakes are placed by the caster, and it's a Ritual that takes a little time, rather than a normal cast. Not really for open battlefields - all it requires is one well defended leader type (eg with a lot of Shield) to pull out a stake, and it will be pretty obvious (and risky) to have your priests performing Warding rituals in view of the enemy. But for an already defensible position, absolutely. Enough that a crucial job of magicians in any assault on a well defended position is to be ready to take down Wardings.

I've assumed that was the primary use of the spell for ages. Wrestlers who have been searched for weapons also become pretty scary.

Who died at the Dragonrise? I know that Tatius, Scarlet Enerian, Kangharl, all died. I've heard the Seven of Vistur died. I gather Appius Luxius, Head of the Provincial government, dies. Who else? Does Icilius Overholy die? Does Quinscion the Patient die? Which other local Kings die? Which regimental commanders? Anyone have a bigger list?

Never read it. It's unclear whether that incident is quite the same thing, though it is certainly something along the same lines. Why? Do we have the stats of any warlocks? Couldn't the wyter cast the necessary magic? I don't really know what you are insisting on - we have a fairly complete description of the process, plus we know the details vary considerably between groups, so what would one set of stats really prove? They are just suggestions. There are multiple ways it could happen. A shamanic group can already become discorporate, sorcerers could have some form of equivalent spell, the wyter could do it, they could have items or special group ceremonies. I really think the details vary by group and sometimes individual practitioner. There is no real suggestion anywhere that that happens for any of them. But sure, if you want that to be a thing for some groups, write it into your Glorantha. Again, sure, nothing in the material really suggests that, but if you want it for some particular unit. why not write it into your Glorantha? It's pretty much the same as being on the spirit plane, only there is a big collective spirit everyone is linked to (which you already have a description of for most of the SMU). Rules wise, it is spirit combat and magic casting. There is plenty of material you can read for descriptions of vision quests (of various kinds) if you want inspiration. This isn't something the rules are ever going to be able to fix for you.

Totally. Some sorcerers rely on that sort of magic heavily (I always think of Protective Circles as a bit of a Zendamalthan specialty, but it is too classic a trope). I think it could happen, but its fairly rare for sorcerers too. It implies an elemental specialist school, and there actually don't seem to be too many of those about in Orthodox Malkionism. And once again we are back to the trope of sorcerers doing quite well when they are able to prepare and have the battle go according to plan, and vulnerable when they have to improvise. Which seems appropriate. The Loskalmi sorcerers are generally armoured cataphracts. But yeah, I think the Brithini and Rokari don't go in for any kind of tank tactic that I've heard of. I assume the zzaburi mostly stay away from the battle front.

I would disagree. We don't have full game rules, but in the GSB pg 211-212, we have quite detailed description of how warlock magic manifests in a game situation. it is based around meditative techniques a warlock can be part of almost any magical tradition it includes Illumination or draconic Illumination as a crucial part of the magic they create a wyter for the group they discorporate, leaving their bodies, and are in magical communication with the wyter the wyter travels a significant distance from the location of the magicians bodies, up to 30 km the wyter is accompanied by the discorporate souls of the magicians. While every regiment is unique, I think three things are relatively clear. The magic of warlocks is collective, not individual - we don't need to concern ourselves with the additional powers that warlocks may have, beyond those we associate with mysticism/Illumination, and there is enough variance there as to include almost every known mystic tradition somewhere. The other powers and traditions of warlocks differ very radically, so as to have no defining powers. And while we might not have every set of rules we might want for a full simulation of the entire warlock experience, we do know a fair bit about wyters and we have the Discorporation spell, add a Mind Link and a bit of Extension and we have a pretty good idea what being involved in a unit of the SMU is going to be like in game terms. I certainly feel I have enough information for either being attacked by a unit of the SMU, or a PC warlock, without feeling I was having to hand wave the combat much.

FWIW, one of the favourite RQ games I ever ran ended with a huge plot around the Lunars invoking Daga in Prax - they (mostly the Red School of Masks at Moonbroth) adapted the Daga myth, so it became about using the power of the Sun Eagle (as analogue for Yelm) to imprison the Thunder Bird (as analogue for Heler) within the Sea Dragon at the centre of the Puzzle Canal. The PCs did a mighty version of the Aroka myth, travelling around Pavis in a giant spiral that saw them collect the various winds and other ritual items from various opponents (defeating Lunar shamans, Gagarthi bandits, chaos vermin, and various others along the way), and then their Wind Lord leader defeated the dragon by unleashing the gathered elementals and spirits on it, while the rest of the PCs battled the Coders attempts to interfere in the fight. But I very much had Daga as a long term strategic threat (that was keeping all of Prax in drought so everyone not near a water source was suffering, which meant all the Praxian tribes were kept out of Prax but the Lunars could survive near the Zola Fel and Moonbroth), the PCs defeated Daga the same way Orlanth did - not by direct confrontation which always failed, but by freeing a powerful Water power. I do think that most Gloranthan army level battles tend to see the summoning of high powered magical entities, be they god or spirit or demon, as the ultimate trump card (despite my scepticism about Daga or Tarumath being particularly good choices), and the cornerstone technique of magical warfare. I think that an organised group of sorcerers, by they orthodox or heterodox, is ultimately pretty likely to base their war strategy around something like that (though there are a few rare war magician orders who focus on buffing troops, for sure). Summoning giant magical entities is something that comes up all the tine in Gloranthan sources. I think they are far more likely to do that that do attempt elaborate bureaucratic schemes for trying to cope with all contingencies by trying to have just the right set of buffs known by some otherwise barely competent soldier somewhere. In short, I think large groups of sorcerers involved in magical warfare mostly do the same things other magicians do - concentrate on techniques around collaborative collective magic and the summoning of powerful magical entities. Wyters (or whatever the sorcerous equivalent is), major summonings, coordination of long range attacks, regiment level magic, etc. My examples of magic that sorcerers would find hard to cope with (an attack of spirits, etc) aren't really intended to show that sorcerers are vulnerable to attacks - its intended to show that sorcerers are likely to behave like normal magicians at war (collaborating to create regimental level magic defences, or coordinate powerful magic assaults utilising many spirits/etc) rather than in coordinating bureaucratic army level buffing schemes. The question is how would they create those magical defences? I do not think it is by managing to keep high powered Spirit Warding on all their soldiers at all times, or even usually a low level one - they have bound entities on watch, are prepared to cast large Protective Circles to protect troops, and similar means. (not that sorcerers don't spend magical effort on buffing their soldiers - for the Brithini in particular, it is the core of their strategy - but when they do its a core group of sorcerers casting on a core group of soldiers, not a Fordist army wide magical assembly line)

To be honest I have doubts about both of these specifics. Daga is a god whose powers do not exert themselves instantly or directly - a might foe of the Orlanthi it is true, but one with strategic value rather than tactical. And Tarumath... well, I don't think is easily contacted by sorcerous means anyway, as Tarumath is a fundamentally mystic entity, and it is a fairly close contest between even Lokomayadan and Garindarth - sure, Lokomayadan defeats Garindarth, but at a huge cost to his army. And thats with the greatest follower of Tarumath who ever lived, backed by thousands of followers- just summoning up Tarumath by sorcerous means and hoping for instant victory probably isn't terribly reliable.

I absolutely think that yes, the temple-libraries are disorganised piles of things - not just scrolls, but collections of things that attracted the attention of a sage one time, historical artifacts that a sage absolutely intends to cast a lot of extended Reconstruction spells on some time, maps with scribbled geomantic notes, collections of rocks or pressed plants or foreign fabrics. Many of the books will be in languages most of the temple doesn't speak, some in languages no one speaks (and may not even be known, just bits filed away in the hopes someone will be able to translate them in the future). The grand Temple in Nochet has a bit of the feel of the Pitt-Rivers museum in Oxford, a grand collection of fascinating things all jammed in. But if the Buserian sages differ, its only in that they are less interested in foreign knowledge for its own sake. The Irippi Ontor sages, while they have no prohibition on foreign knowledge, have a far greater pile of 'official' Lunar knowledge to focus on - individually, they might be as curious about foreign knowledge as any Lhankor Mhy, in practice as an institution keeping on top of the great pile of Lunar and Solar knowledge keeps them pretty busy. Neither cult has modern organised libraries. My real point though is that none of these cults think of themselves as anything other than both rational and learned. They might scoff at the ways of the others, and certainly IO and Buserian scholars might make fun of a provincial hill clan Lhankor Mhy who mostly functions as a lawspeaker and handles difficult questions by dream interpretation after sleeping under a leather sheet - but a Lhankor Mhy sage from Jonstown or Nochet has the same attitude about their more rural cousins too. Lhankor Mhy especially is a socially complex that adapts to its social role, and includes many different 'archetypes' of scholar - philosophically sophisticated sorcerer, proto-scientist natural scholars, book learned sages, lawspeakers who are repositories of oral tradition and poetry, sword sage, economically prudent specialists in evaluation or document trading, etc. There is certainly a debate within the cult on what is the ultimate source of knowledge - empiricism, pure reason, or magical revelation - but in practice all three are used by most sages, and the same debate happens within Malkionism. The idea that any of the three is considered 'irrational' is very much a modern epistemological argument.

The Emperors, particularly Godunya, do not feel like Chinese Emperors at all, though - they are more akin to living Saints, religiously revered, like the Dalai Lama, rather than the much more political and secular Chinese Emperors. I agree. Kralorela needs to be less singularly Chinese in nature. It is also a bit more bland than China - China has competing religious traditions, for example, while Kralorela seems to be dominated by Darudism, with all other seriously competing traditions pushed outside of the Empire. The idea of a singular, unbroken, line of Emperors is clearly propaganda, with Sekever, Sheng Seleris, etc just written out of history as awkward interruptions rather than true breaks in Imperial rule.

I like them. I like to keep the Passions pretty fluid - a lot of the time they go up or down by more than a skill roll would (certainly major events get you bumps up and down like Reputation does), and it is pretty easy to gain a new passion from a significant event. I have a few quibbles - Man and Beast being opposed doesn't really work for me well, and sometimes you need to note that an elemental Rune is really a sub-rune - but mostly the Runes work very well.

The Blues mentioned in Pelanda seem to mostly be Waertagi who travelled up the Janube River. There are also some Kachasti around the place through Western Genertela. I'm guessing the 3EB are the latter, as they don't seem associated with Water. They don't seem to be Vadeli, as they aren't monstrous sociopaths.

The one thing I'd add to what has already been said, is that there is a LOT of great information in the HeroQuest books, most of which can be treated a lot like a statistics free setting independent supplement, and is easily adapted to RuneQuest. The Sartar:Kingdom of Heroes and Sartar Companion books have heaps of information about Sartar (including things like encounter charts, maps of major cities, etc) and adventures that are more or less 'just add stats' form. The Pavis book does the same for Pavis and Prax. The Coming Storm gets you an enormous amount of background about an area in northern Sartar, and the Eleven Lights gets you a multi-year campaign set there - again, effectively 'just as stats' material for RQG. Get the RuneQuest Glorantha stuff first, for sure, but if you are still looking for more info after that, consider grabbing the HQ books.

Generally speaking, active Mystic magic is really other forms of magic, only with all the rules broken where they inconvenience the Mystics (who, as Illuminates, can break the rules). The mystic magic itself is rules wise, more or less something very much like Illumination, not that powerful on its own. I generally treat Larnstings as having access to a wide range of Movement magic that goes beyond the limits of Orlanth etc. Probably just giving them access to any Movement/Change rune magic they want is a good call, and relating the shapechanging magic that is now associated with Mastakos to Sartars magic is useful. Its not a perfect system, but it will probably work well enough for campaign. It is worth remembering that there are many Illumination schools that may not know much about how to teach Illumination. Obviously the Nysalorans do, but I tend to think that groups like the Larnstings and Imarjans may not - they know how to become Illuminated via heroquest or other difficult and traumatic magics, but they usually don't know how to communicated it easily via words. Even the Lunars aren't very good at teaching Illumination themselves, which is why they sponsor Nysaloran schools. Revealed Mythologies talks about Austerities as a classic mystic magic. I'm not sure the Larnstings themselves do this, but its useful for thinking of how some mystics practice magic. It is basically taking on Gifts and Geases, like Humakt or Yelmalio. Then, because you are Illuminated, ignoring the Geases when it gets in your way. For PCs we sort of need a bit more rules than that to stop it getting out of hand, but that works pretty well for NPCs - just give them a few special magic skills or permanent Rune spells etc, and a few weird practices they follow most of the time but ignore when its inconvenient. A Larnsting might have a permanent movement blessing, for example, or mastery of Dodge, or heightened DEX, in addition to their normal magic.

We might reasonably say that Lhankor Mhy is more Aristotle than Plato or similar. But jumping from that to 'so, it's irrational' is wildly anachronistic. And, FWIW, I don't think it is very representative of LM either, as LM obviously is interested in sorcery, alchemy, and investigation of the true nature of things. I think LM knows both, to the extent that Heortling law works that way. But if we had to choose between the two, that LM lawspeakers literally recite the exact terms of the law before each moot would tend to indicate that they know them. You are not distinguishing between command and control, maybe? Esrolia and Dara Happa have centralised command, but they exercise command over a broad collection of independent authorities, who have their own privileges usually enabling them to control their own internal organisation. They can't, for example, demand the Granite Phalanx retrain as peltasts. I specifically think the Talars can order the zzaburi to help them defend against a threat, or even join them in a way, but I don't think the Talars can, for example, demand all the Debaldan school switch to learning Furlandan magic, no matter how terrifically handy it would be. I think even the implied central bureaucracy of the Lunar Empire, with its professional Buserians and giant logistics chain, is a bit idealistic, and is a continual struggle to make it work in practice. Mostly units struggle into town with a chest full of cash and begin buying and extorting what they need individually. Everything is a lot more devolved than the idea that the talars can order up a carefully balanced package of sorcery experts would imply. Often, control over an organisation is illusory - it relies on accepting that you can command what they have without expecting to change it, and knowing that there are many commands they will not obey, and might cause them to leave if you try. The God Learners had not one dubious, in hind sight heretical or unwise, idea, but multiple. I do not think the only God Learners that used some divine magic were the Malkioneranists, but that there were quite a few henotheists (largely those who combined worship of 'accepted' gods like Issaries or Lhankor Mhy), or others who interacted with Pagan deities. The Emanationalists in Pamaltela were not Malkioneranists, but they did deal with pagan deities, although only a few became full blown pure pagans (the Inflamers). There are plenty of Emanationalists following such marginally acceptable deities as Issaries and Lhankor Mhy throughout the Middle Sea Empire. It works excellently as long as the enemy doesn't do anything unexpected. Which they will be trying very hard to do. Specific Runic Protection is particularly fragile - it relies strongly on having a very good idea of your enemies magical resources, so one bunch of unexpected allies can be devastating. And any explanation of battlefield magic that doesn't include wyters as a major factor is going to be way off, especially for the Orlanthi. Plus we are simply dragging the rules into territory they are not expected to cover in detail. Push the rules into a corner case, they stop working well, especially when important rules are missing. For example, we literally do not have rules to cover how organised, coordinated long range magical attacks work from a rules point of view - and yet, here we are, arguing about the effects of magic on mass warfare, ignoring literally most of the evidence we have on how large scale mass warfare works in Glorantha! We *know* the Lunars and the SMU focus their magical efforts on long range coordinated magical attack. Maintaining big combat buffs on your front line troops does nothing at all to protect you from otherworldly long range bombardment - and for every sorcerer who has specialised in buffing your troops, that is one sorcerer less to work on magical defences. What really happens with our hypothetical unit of sorcerers with big Boon of Kargan Tor buffs and Neutralise Storm? Well, they might end up meeting a bunch of Orlanthi warriors in straight combat, and chew threw them. Or they might have a group of Windlords fly/teleport into their sorcerers stashed behind the lines and slaughter them. Or they might have the Snakepipe Dancers drop a horde of spirits on them from 20 km away. Or get an earthquake dropped on them. Sorcerers are absolutely great at developing perfect plans, as we have had several times explained. How often those perfect plans survive contact with the enemy is another thing entirely.