Ah, I feel your pain! My dilemma was different - I took a ton of history classes (almost everything the department offered that had the word "war" in the title, because I am a Yoon) and Cornell at the time was really good at social history, and ASS at military history of the nitty-gritty tactics/strategy that I craved - a couple professors offered strategy & tactics but mostly it was social history. (I really think, in retrospect, that you'd have to go to a military academy for what I wanted, which obviously wasn't going to happen given that I've never in my life been able to do a push-up.) And, I mean, I was interested in the social history too because it's SO USEFUL as writing fodder, as you know, Telophase-Bob - but I would have liked a little more military stuff. XD

But basically, not just Extruded European Fantasy Product but authors like Guy Gavriel Kay and K. J. Parker were catnip for me, although Parker is a COMPLETE CYNIC and Kay gradually seemed to phase out of actually putting magic in his fantasies, which was the part that I really liked.