"Viisting in turn" is one fatal vulnerability the thugs can never adequately defend.
Such transportation and communications necessary
already have failure modes "ready to trigger".
I am not sure what you mean here. What I mean is, the govt thugs can be a small minority but through proper centralized maneuvering have majority where it matters most at all times.
Transportation can be fickle and communications can always fail at unfortunate moments, especially when assisted... People make mistakes all the time, especially when they get drunk.
Any large scale operation shuffling a group of thugs from one theatre to another is vulnerable. Repeatedly invading too many "someone's hometown" is how militaries repeatedly fail.