No. He didn't. He completely succeeded. As a result of the work he performed, the Empire has gained what it needs to reverse engineer skaven tech.
I don't think that I'd credit Johann with deciphering Skaven tech. If people have captured Skaven tech before but gotten nowhere with it, then the reason it worked this time will have been Mathilde's deciphering of Queekish. If people have never captured Skaven tech before, then I have a feeling that Mathilde is much more responsible for the success of their tech-stealing expeditions than Johann is. If the key was that one book we found with the library of Skaven tech, then I'm pretty sure that that was also Mathilde's find, and it may even have been a solo Mathilde outing. Johann certainly
contributed, but I think he's probably second author.
We don't actually know her magic score, but I think you're dead on with her being in third place. But I would point out that's inj a field where most of the local Wizards have Magic 4 or less. And when we get to spells, as far as we are aware, right now she has nine spells to Johann's 10, which while a numerically small, is not a sign of a steeper magical trajectory given the fact that Johann still does out spell her despite having a massive limitation to the number of spells he has available to learn, I think would indicate that he was far more eager in his pursuit of them, as if he were not, then that disadvantage should see him solidly losing (Or outright a perpetual).
The thing is, Johann's at 10 spells despite having been a Magister since before the start of the expedition, and I suspect that he learned those 10 spells before he hit Magister. Panoramia's still actively learning spells, including breaking through to FC which probably involved a +Magic somewhere. Johann's certainly putting in a spectacular amount of effort, but I'm not sure I'm seeing spectacular
results. I'm not sure I've seen his capabilities transform the way Mathilde's or Panoramia's have. I guess he's gotten a lot better at punching things and not dying from being shot or gassed?
But it's also one that would have gotten done without her.
Hah, serendipitous. I already argued that I think it
wouldn't have gotten done without her.
Link here. Summarized, the halflings cite her as one of two things that made it possible (alongside the corpses of our enemies), and she says that the Eastern Valley's agriculture succeeds or fails entirely due to her performance.
In command? She's was hired by the Halflings, that doesn't make put her in charge of "A whole Chunk of the Karak". I'm not saying she doesn't have a position of authority, I don't know where you are getting Learning and Stewardship advisor from. But even if she was that'd still put her at
Belegar->Edda->Hludwica->Panoramia
I think that I saw something more like:
Belegar -> Edda -> Panoramia
Elder Hluodwica -> Panoramia
Guess it depends on where Hluodwica is exactly. Either way, see above about Panoramia being responsible for the success or failure of agriculture in Karak Eight Peaks. Theoretically she's "just" been hired to fix the soil, but in practice that means she's ultimately responsible for coordinating everything that goes into, comes out of, eats off of, or poops on the ground in the region. I'd have to go through quoting things, but IIRC her updates at the Duckling Club indicate that she's also been getting steadily more involved in the demand side of things and the planning and orchestration of the whole agriculture affair. I'm having trouble coming up with an equivalent that'd illustrate the principle outside serious-business engineering. Maybe think of her as the lead architect at an engineering company - the CEO can set a direction, the CFO handles the high-level budget strategy, the CTO can choose what market segment to target, but ultimately speaking she's the one that's actually doing all of the engineering and saying whether something can or can't be built.
edit:
This is one of the components of my impression that Panoramia's trajectory is steeper. Johann started out being able to cast Breach the Unknown and punch okay. He's now able to cast Breach the Unknown and punch impressively well. Panoramia started out being able to cast MC spells and make things grow. She's now able to cast FC spells and orchestrate agriculture for an entire region. And given that Panoramia is going to get involved in Waystones I have a feeling that she's going to keep going up like that.
I'm losing steam here, so apologies if I get brief.
No worries. I'm only going to reply to a few points here because the post size is getting unmanageable anyway. Sorry. >_>
