The Art of War

I've been an avid follower of Sun Tsu's Art Of War. I re-wrote it as a guide for my corp and its activities during war, and use it as the foundation of my strategy.

Some people seem to feel that the 'art of war' is to go toe to toe with your enemy, engage in battle and may the better pilot win. Nope, that's not the case. In fact, the main proponents of such a foolish strategy are usually those who think they have the biggest dicks... I mean, the biggest ships.

Instead of comparing dick sizes... I mean ship sizes, I instead try to follow Black Scorpion's Art of War. Contact me if you want a copy.

I'll go through some of it here. Maybe it'll inspire other corps to engage more in strategy than in tactics, especially if the tactics can be stomped on by the enemy.

It was obvious to me that Darkside had the military and tactical advantage. Therefore, I needed to outwit them instead of outfight them.

In the wise leader’s plans, considerations of advantage and of disadvantage will be blended together.

The enemy's strengths were the size and technology level of their ships, and the skills and experience of their pilots. They had been fighting much longer and much harder than most of the members of Black Scorpion Ltd. Therefore, we had to turn their strengths into weaknesses.

A clever leader will avoid an enemy when it is strongest.

Since their strength was their combat ability, we had to avoid combat. Since they relied on tactical superiority to achieve their goals, we had to deny them tactical opportunities.

Their strength became ineffective.

Another strategic move is based on this: If your opponent angers easily, seek to irritate him. When you anger him, he makes mistakes. Well, we certainly angered Darkside.

The highest form of leadership is to prevent the enemy’s plans. The next best is to prevent the gathering of the enemy’s fleets. The next in order is to attack the enemy’s fleet in space, and the worst policy of all is to besiege stations.

The skilful leader subdues the enemy’s fleet without fighting. He captures their stations without laying siege to them. He overthrows their leadership without lengthy operations in the field.

With his fleets intact, he will dispute the mastery of the Empire, and thus, without losing a single pilot, his victory will be complete. This is the method of attacking by stratagem.

When you are unable to succeed engagements of tactics, you must instead engage with stratagem. Once you know the Art of War, you can use that knowledge to aid you in the fight.

Where the enemy was strong, we avoided them. Where they were irritable, we angered them. Where they were weak, we hunted them.

This is the art of war, and ignoring it results in defeat.