I guess what I was trying to get at above, is that just about any book I've ever read in the fantasy genre seems to eschew the "lucky shot," or at least makes it seem like there was a higher reason for a supposedly random event to happen. It doesn't strike me that Amber is unique in that regard. Take "The Worm Ourobouros" by E.R. Eddison as an example - everything happens because it's supposed to happen, the good guys win in the end because they are supposed to win, because they are the best at what they do. In scifi, look at Asimov's original "Foundation" trilogy as examples - Seldon figured everything out millennia ahead of time. I understand the argument, that the best swordsman (or whatever) isn't going to be beat at his own game due to some random occurrence, but, as I said, this doesn't seem to be something confined to Amber at all.