Strategy

[modestyblase]

There are more books on strategy and its importance than is necessary, and I won't recount them; Amazon is a sufficient beginning for discovering them.
However, I will list three books that everyone alive should read. These are my bibles, and I owe a significant amount of gratitude to the wisdom they give.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/36_Strategies - Wang's the Thirty-Six Strategies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_of_war - Sun Tzu's The Art of War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince - Machiavelli's The Prince
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasker%27s_Manual_of_Chess - Lasker's Manual of Chess

Favoured Strategies from Thirty-Six Strategies:

8. Sneak through the passage of Chencang (Traditional Chinese: 暗渡陳倉; Simplified Chinese: 暗渡陈仓; pinyin: Àn dù Chéncāng)

Attack the enemy with two convergent forces. The first is the direct attack, one that is obvious and for which the enemy prepares his defense. The second is the indirect, the attack sinister, that the enemy does not expect and which causes him to divide his forces at the last minute leading to confusion and disaster.
This proverb is a shortened form of 「明修棧道，暗渡陳倉」, literally translated as "openly repair the gallery roads, but sneak through the passage of Chencang". The phrase originated from the Chu-Han contention, where Liu Bang retreated to the lands of Sichuan to prepare for a confrontation with Xiang Yu. Once he was fully prepared, Liu Bang sent men to openly repair the gallery roads he had destroyed earlier, while secretly moving his troops towards Guanzhong through the small town of Chencang instead. When Xiang Yu received news of Liu Bang repairing the gallery roads, he dismissed the threat since he knew the repairs would take years to complete. This allowed Liu Bang to retake Guanzhong by surprise, and eventually led to his victory over Xiang Yu and the birth of the Han Dynasty.

My input: 8 is good for confusion. Obvious and subtle forces, simultaneously, creates confusion in the short and long term. You can also launch multiple attacks, if in verbal battle, with no cost. Makes debates fun. 

I like mixing 8 w/ 6&7, or 11&13:
6. Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west (Traditional Chinese: 聲東擊西; Simplified Chinese: 声东击西; pinyin: Shēng dōng jī xī)

In any battle the element of surprise can provide an overwhelming advantage. Even when face to face with an enemy, surprise can still be employed by attacking where he least expects it. To do this you must create an expectation in the enemy's mind through the use of a feint.

7. Create something from nothing (Traditional Chinese: 無中生有; Simplified Chinese: 无中生有; pinyin: Wú zhōng shēng yǒu)

You use the same feint twice. Having reacted to the first and often the second feint as well, the enemy will be hesitant to react to a third feint. Therefore the third feint is the actual attack catching your enemy with his guard down.

11. Sacrifices the plum tree to preserve the peach tree (Chinese: 李代桃僵; pinyin: Lǐ dài táo jiāng)

There are circumstances in which you must sacrifice short-term objectives in order to gain the long-term goal. This is the scapegoat strategy whereby someone else suffers the consequences so that the rest do not.
Cao Cao of the Three Kingdoms Period demonstrated this strategy. During a siege, Cao supplies ran low so he called in the supply captain and told him to dilute the rice with water to save grains. When the soldiers started to complain, Cao ordered for the captain to be killed. He would explain to his troops that the captain has been selling supplies to the enemy. This raises the army morale and they were victorious in a few more days.

13. Startle the snake by hitting the grass around it (Traditional Chinese: 打草驚蛇; Simplified Chinese: 打草惊蛇; pinyin: Dá cǎo jīng shé)

When preparing for battle, do not alert your enemy to your intentions or give away your strategy prematurely.

I also enjoy 20&25-break routine, create confusion. Effective and widely utilised in business.

20. Catch a fish while the water is disturbed (Traditional Chinese: 混水摸魚; Simplified Chinese: 混水摸鱼; pinyin: Hún shuǐ mō yú)

Before engaging your enemy's forces create confusion to weaken his perception and judgement. Do something unusual, strange, and unexpected as this will arouse the enemy's suspicion and disrupt his thinking. A distracted enemy is thus more vulnerable.

25. Replace the beams with rotten timbers (Traditional Chinese: 偷梁換柱; Simplified Chinese: 偷梁换柱; pinyin: Tōu liáng huàn zhù)

Disrupt the enemy's formations, interfere with their methods of operations, change the rules in which they are used to following, go contrary to their standard training. In this way you remove the supporting pillar, the common link that makes a group of men an effective fighting force.

SO. For those who enjoy strategy and war and all that cruel stuff  What works are your favorites? Why? EXPOUND. EXPAND.

[Plane]

http://www.samurai.com/5rings/

[fatman]

On War

General Carl Von Clausewitz



"War is merely a continuation of politics"

[yellow_crane]

Attack the enemy with two convergent forces. The first is the direct attack, one that is obvious and for which the enemy prepares his defense. The second is the indirect, the attack sinister, that the enemy does not expect and which causes him to divide his forces at the last minute leading to confusion and disaster.

[/quote]


'leave and let them see you leave.  take out their archers.  I'll meet you in the middle.'   --William Wallace

[kimba1]

I`ve read art of war
I always feel most who claim to read it never learned from it(me included)
I stop people making mistakes that the book covers
my excuse is I can`t remember squat