Medieval campaigning offers the same warning about imported assumptions as modern procurement. Armies sometimes framed victory in religious terms, yet outcomes still favoured larger, better-trained forces with workable logistics. Saladin's advantage, in this account, included treating access to water as an operational necessity for both soldiers and horses. European opponents accustomed to plentiful rivers and streams could be caught out when they campaigned where water was scarce. Strategy and force design fail when planners carry expectations from one environment into another.
Notable Point · 12:48-15:49
Saladin and the logistics of water
A medieval aside uses Saladin's attention to water supply to show how armies fail when they carry familiar environmental assumptions into an unfamiliar campaign.