Thanks @beowulfoflegend, that's really nice feedback. So, yeah, confusion is kind of the effect I was going for. I wanted the reader to have that feeling of being stuck, the whole time, in the room with the main character as he watched his carefully laid plan come apart.
But, at the same time, that's a bit of a cop-out because I find it much easier to write a 'this is confusing' scene than a scene where exciting stuff is happening, but you still know exactly what's going on. In general, I just think it's hard to convey lots of information, quickly, without overloading the senses. If you think of action movies now, it's hardly ever possible to see what's going on, but that confusion just gets covered up with a lot of pyrotechnics. That's what made Mad Max: Fury Road such a masterpiece: so much going on, and you knew what was happening all the time. It was incredible, and I guess that's the model I'd aspire to when writing an action sequence - it will take a lot of practice, though.