One big cloud over M is that rpietila (ZECHARIAH) holds over 900,000,000,000 M out of 4,000,000,000,000 total. If a significant portion of the debt is settled in terms of M and the creditors dump M well do the math. This is why the outstanding B1 and E1 debt is a very significant cloud over M even after rpietila's administrative privileges in the game were revoked. The aftermath of this attempted manipulation / pump of M is far from over.
This may have been Risto's plan all along, no retreat possible!
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The burn the boats strategy works only if the boats in question are the only means of retreat for the soldiers, officers etc. It failed in this situation because the boats in question were not the only form of retreat for the soldiers officers etc, which in this situation in many cases ended up with a significant victory with limited risk / cost to themselves. The question that does remain here is: Were the boats in question the only form of retreat for the commander?
In this case a very significant portion of the soldiers, officers etc., did not buy at all into the battle plan and believed that victory could be achieved using a longer term strategy with much lower overall risk, and furthermore had previously achieved major victories using a similar low risk long term strategy in other battles.
Edit: Sun Tzu's
The Art of War teaches a lot more about war and strategy than burning boats.