High TL 9 vs TL2+RPM

[Andreas]

The possibility of getting energy from sacrifices means that very powerful spells would be available to them regardless of skill level. Something would be needed to prevent the mages from just using this to overwhelm the TL 9 force.

Perhaps the mages don't understand the enemy and the structure of their society is such that they can't effectively make use of the information they get from scrying (perhaps they don't trust each other for example).

Another possibility would be that they got a critical failure from one of their powerful spells, which caused massive damage to their own side. Or perhaps they are unwilling to use powerful spells due to the danger of critical failures even if it means defeat in the war.