First off I want to say this concerns only Tarmon Gaiden itself. Not the events leading up to it. Not the rushing for more troops. Just the battle itself.

As for where it occurs. most likely in and along the Blight. By my count the humans have Trollocs so HUGELY outnumbered the only way it can be a fair fight is if its in the blight where a touch can kill and the Trollocs have all the advantages.

As for tactics the blights mostly hostile so maps are sketchy at best and frankly everyone knows where they're going.

Step A) get in the blight

Step B) Head North

Step C) Arrive at an unholy Bastion of Darkness where:

1: you're late we've already won join the celebrations

or 2: Your not late, get slaughtered by Shaidar Haran.

Now then we consider the major players left in the game.

Forces of Light Forces of Darkness

Rand Dark One

Mat Shaidar Haran

Perrin Hunter



etc. (I just realized how very many there are O_O)

For the forsaken one or two are probably gonna get knocked out of the running before Tarmon Gaidon, I think the Gholam will too (he almost has to or it's an auto win for forces of darkness. So long as he runs away from Mat he can kill everyone else and no one else can scratch him.)

Okay in the battle itself we might as well face it. The Forces of light have three main contenders (The ta'veren) and a lot of distractions. Don't get me wrong. The Asha'man, Aes sedai and assorted love interests are great characters; but if they had a direct hand in winning Tarmon Gaiden THEY would be the ta'veren.

So lets examine the Ta'veren.

Rand-Channeler with lunatic channeling genius residing in his skull. Lunatic feels at home there because Rand is more than a bit loco himself. Blademaster Quality swordsman.

Mat-Great General. Fights with knives, and asha..asher...spear. Effectively immune to the Power. Possessed of Battle luck. Probably the best physical fighter of the lot. (fought and defeated both Galad and Gawyn when he was recovering from healing and they were near the end of Warder training.)

Perrin-Wolf-brother. Wields a hammer. Can't channel. Has trouble fending off 1 person who's good with a sword (case in point: Aram). Can command(read: ask) wolves. Wolves near useless against formation fighting...or any kind of coherent fighting. Probably th smartest of the three but not the fastest thinker.

So Rand is the best channeler by virtue of being the only channeler amongst them, Mat is the best fighter, but what about Perrin?

Well it seems he has an overwhelming advantage in Tel'aran'rihod. He can talk with wolves. Wolves have pledged to fight in the last battle. Dead wolves live on in Tel'aran'rihod. He can go to Tel'aran'rihod via wolf dreams.

Perrin has his own personal army of furry doom-bringers in the world of dreams.

The forces of darkness have been seen to use the world of dreams. Therefore it's likely the battle ground will extend to there too.

So each hero represents a battle ground. rand's got the channeling fight, Mat has the physical, and Perrin has the Dream world.

Rand's opponent is the hole in reality that the dark one is leaking out from.

Shaidar Haran seems to be the DO's physical agent(given supremacy over the forsaken name literally means hand of the dark)and has a channeling power thats not channeling(which Mat is probably STILL immune to)(On a side note he was immune to that lightning bolt Ravin threw too. Jut not to the purely physical sledge hammer of rapidly expanding air and temperatures rising into the thousands of degrees that result when ground level atmosphere comes into contact with lightning.) so Mat's probably going to fight him.

That leaves Perrin, with no "final" opponent(I'm aware he'll probably fight Mogheiden and Darkhounds but since all three together are needed to seal the DO therre should be someone in the World of Dreams to match up with him).

So who does that leave? A figure who's steeped in darkness, associated with the world of dreams and isn't one of the forsaken (I'm sure its supposed to be even ground throughout the whole thing so whoever it is can't channel).

Off the top of my head the only one I can think of is Hunter/Isam/Luc. Doesn't seem to be to strongly connected to the DO himself but I'm sure possession is possible.

So the three of them win. most likely simultaneously or Rand last with the other two about the same time. The he finally manages t seal the gate probably at the cost of lots of blood and consciousness maybe life depending on how you read the assorted prophecies.

As for why I choose those enemies Min's viewings clearly states that with with just one of the Ta'veren the sparks of light are swallowed by the darkness, with two they hold ground and with three they push it back.

Since its the same darkness around all three it' the same enemy, or spirit thereof. We KNOW Rand's final enemy is going to be the DO so by extrapolation so is Mat's and Perrin's...in spirit at least.