Quote Originally Posted by Talakeal View Post
Now, IMO, the takeaway is that it is best to go with a simple adaptable plan rather than a highly orchestrated plan with multiple points of failure, but my players took it as an accusation and fixated on finger pointing.
That it is realistic to come up with and reject dozens if not hundreds of plans over the course of several days before going into combat and that it is in fact always the DM who gets bored or frustrated with multi hour planning sessions that dominate the entire gaming session, and therefore entirely the DM's fault if the players ever go into a situation without a complete plan.
Traditional pacing IME has had one big fight as the climactic point towards the end of every night's session. But if the party really likes to do planning and prepwork before, ask them if they'd be happier ending the game right before a big set piece battle so they can plan to their heart's content over the week. They get to overthink and work through all the contingencies, and then everyone gets to do their stuff once you're all together again.