Could well be. I'm inclined to think one of the reasons for his early assaults was that he didn't have enough men to properly cut the city off. He was hoping to overwhelm the small number of defenders before they got enough to properly defend it.
>For 1619 Fazzur planned to gain sea access (Karse) and a permanent
>military base from which to take the Heortland Plateau (by 1620). Esrolia
>was not (yet) on his schedule.
>
>The Provincial Army doesn't have much use for siegecraft, usually, and
>what siege (assault) experts Fazzur had he took to Karse, for a decisive
>victory there. IMO Fazzur's greatest strength was his blitzkrieg movement
>of cavalry units, and then to consolidate. For him Whitewall was nothing
>but a cyst that he could allow to fester for a while before lancing it
>out. His strategy to deal with the besieged was to reorganize the Volsaxi
>(and Kultain) lands, removing much of the power base of the besieged by
>supporting their rivals, or importing new rivals. Sartar Rising: Barbarian
>Adventures and Dragon Pass: Land of Thunder show how much he impacted the
>region while Broyan still had nominal sovereignty. All "free" Volsaxi were
>those inside the fortress. Politically, the region was pacified. Taxmen
>could come and go with less fear than in occupied Sartar. Revenues went to
>Fazzur's ventures and the Imperial coffers, not to Broyan.
>
>So: who brought the Bat in, and why?
>
>It would have been a convenient end to both the temple and the free
>Volsaxi (leadership). It should have satisfied Heartland hunger for
>destruction of Orlanth.
>
>It failed. Who failed?
>
>Jorkandros was declared guilty of the failure. Tatius comes to Sartar, and
>takes over the siege of Whitewall, making it a magical venture.
>
>Did Tatius' plans require the Bat to fail? Was it sent there to be overcome?
As Dean of the CoM he must have known and possibly approved of it's use. My instincts suggest it was a two way bet. If the Bat succeeded Tatius could step in and claim success for the CoM. If not he blames failure on Jorkandros and by implication Fazzur. That implies he knew the result wasn't certain but predictive magic could have given him that clue.
>There is some disagreement about who was in charge of Sartar and Heortland
>between the Batblat and the Fall of Whitewall. Tatius is in charge of the
>Whitewall operations, while Fazzur has card blanche for the conquest of
>Heortland and manpower drain to Nochet. He even prepares a "Lunar Temple"
>there, razing an entire city quarter.
>
>Was he in league with a rival Reaching Moon Temple building association?
>(Moonboat building is distributed to two associations, too...)
>
>As far as I am concerned, Tatius did not become governor-general until
>after the Fall of Whitewall. He did take command of the Whitewall
>operations from Fazzur after the Batblat, and probably started an
>interservice competition for resource allocation with powerful imperial
>backing.
I think you're right. KoS refers to the final assault on WW and adds "Fazzur, Tatius's nominal commander, had no part in this battle."
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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