EVE-Mag.com

The 36 Strategems of War – Part 2

Published on 07. Feb, 2009 ... written by Black Claw.

Strategems for Two Equal Forces

I’m back! Some of you didn’t even know I was gone, I’m sure. Well, I hope you had a good xmas and New Year, and now we (I?) can get back into the swing of things. For me, that means continuing the Art of War series with part 2 of the 36 Strategems of War.

Now, these following strategems focus on the immediate options you might have at hand. Using what you already have or what exists in your your environment, creating illusions, making new weapons, or forming new and creative plans. They require that you look at your situation with fresh eyes and understand how your opponent looks at your same environment and arsenal, so that you can create convincing illusions.

7. Create something out of nothing

Get what you need by trickery or illusion. If you need to make some ISK very quickly but you don’t have the resources with which to do so, you can do so by trickery. Find someone to sell a Caldari Navy Raven to, and offer it for a price that’s cheaper than anything else out there. Create a contract for them and name it Caldari Navy Raven (CNR), but put a normal Raven in there. Do it using a trade window only, and ask for the amount that you want. They’ll see the name of the contract, and the item, and won’t have the time or the curiosity to examine and take in that you’re actually selling a normal Raven instead of a CNR.

It won’t work all the time, as some people will actually look properly before they buy, but it will work often enough for you to make a good amount of money from almost nothing.

Just remember that doing this too often will give you a bad reputation, so you might want to use an alt. The money you raise from naive buyers can help you fund your war.

8. Use a well-known path to advance by a hidden path

Use the commonly expected strategy to hide the real strategy. Military tactics, applied to certain systems, suggest certain obvious attacks. It’s said in ancient texts that before Hitler invaded France, the French knew he was building up his military, but they believed that no army could penetrate their famous “Maginot Line.” They instead made their preparations for Hitler elsewhere. He used their understanding of military theory to further this illusion, but then used a lightning fast attack force never yet seen, called panzer units. These armoured tanks burst through the defenses of the Maginot line, doing what a normal army couldn’t, and what France never expected.

Similarly, the D-Day invasion of the same war was expected by the Germans, but they assumed it would occur near Calais, which was a place more hospitable to a large force trying to land quickly. The rough seas and long, exposed stretch of Omaha Beach, fronting onto miles of confusing “lanes” that could mislead invading soldiers, was considered unlikely because it offered so little advantage, so it was lightly guarded. However, this is where the main invasion force came in.

Try to use the enemy’s expectations against them. If they think a particular strategy is foolish, then use it, as they will not be expecting it and will not have planned for it.

9. Watch the fire burning across the river

Use delay if it enhances in-fighting within the enemy alliances. If you have an egotistical opponent or somebody who tries to advance by abusing others, then time is on your side. The wise fighter waits to let a foolishly aggressive or egotistical opponent alienate those around him and creates problems within his own administration. If things work out, the in-fighting that a manipulative, cruel, or controlling leader creates in the alliance will eat up his energy and resources and increase the wise opponent’s advantage over him.

10. Conceal a dagger in a smile

Never express anger, and never express sarcasm – no smack talking! They show weakness, and they show a hastiness in revealing motives. Concealing a dagger with a smile may be taken as advice to be treacherous, but it also has an honorable side. You can be powerful and dangerous – and polite.

The kindly person who suddenly and decisively reveals the dagger sheathed in his belt is going to be taken more seriously than the fool who brandishes a dagger on any provocation. Threats, sarcasm, and open hostility serve no good purpose, no matter what your goal. Disassociate yourself from your ego and strike hard because you know it is time to strike, not because your anger is gratified in striking. Do this once in front of others, and your smile will be respected thereafter, because everybody will know there is a dagger behind it.

11. Cut down the plum tree to save the peach tree

When you cannot avoid losses, sacrifice the lesser for the benefit of the greater. The saying comes from the problem of blight infesting fruit tree groves. Farmers would decimate the blight by removing the plum trees, thus allowing the peach trees to get all the benefits of the nutrients in the soil.

Leaders have been called upon to sacrifice one band of men to save another. In everyday life, recognizing that one cannot have his cake and eat it too forces us to choose our priorities. The person who knows that he must engage in struggle sets up a hierarchy of goals so that he knows ahead of time what he can sacrifice and what he cannot.

A leader who takes his fleet back into battle to save one or a few, can lose the entire fleet. That is the mark of stupidity.

12. Steal any passing goat

Make use of everything you get from the other side. Sun Tzu advises to “forage on the enemy,” and we can do this by looting his ships, but also by hoarding the information that he might carelessly provide.

Look at how an opponent treats others. Note where he makes trouble for himself or where he has blinded himself. Look at where he smacktalks and why. Take inventory of what irritates him and what frightens him. What the opponent views as inconsequential and the things he lets slip can provide you with valuable material for managing your side of the conflict.

Coming soon – Strategems for Direct Attack

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The 36 Strategems of War

Published on 16. Dec, 2008 ... written by Black Claw.

Picture credit: roBurky

As a continuation of my Art of War series, I’m ‘translating’ the ancient texts of Sun Tzu’s Art of War into something applicable to Eve Online. On my blog you can find the current Art of War translation for Eve , and I have been doing supplementary posts in EVE-Mag.com. These will continue until the current Art of War series ends, but in the meantime, I have decided to start a new series to continue providing you with information on how best to conduct war in Eve Online.

There are 6 parts to the 36 Strategems of War. These were touched upon in The Art of War: Attack by Strategem, but we’ll go into more detail with this series of articles. The 6 parts are:

1. Strategems for the Stronger Force
2. Strategems for Two Equal Forces
3. Strategems for Direct Attack
4. Strategems to Confuse the Enemy
5. Strategems to Gain Ground
6. Strategems Before the Last Stand

I hope you enjoy these continuing articles on The Art of War.

Strategems for the Stronger Force

1. Deceive the sky to cross the sea
Conceal your preparations by being completely open and public.

For example, an anti-pirate corp was looking for a pirate that continually struck at targets within their area. Finally, after failing to catch him after weeks of trying, they set up a watch in every system that he was known to roam. The fleet members were ordered to note his arrival and departure in every system, so that they could pinpoint his movements. And yet, the attacks continued for several days without the fleet being able to pin him down, until one observant member realised that all the attacks occurred in the same systems that had a particular person in them at all times, a non-pirate alt.

They were able to shut down the pirate’s activities by attacking the alt, and eventually driving them both out of the region. Yet the pirate had succeeded for so long because he had made his alt an acceptable part of the scenery while still engaging in piracy with his main character.

Another form of ‘deceiving the sky to cross the sea’ is to make open preparations for war without ever actually going to war – until the enemy no longer takes you seriously. And then you strike.

2. Besiege the Wei Alliance to rescue the Zhao corp

To draw off the energy of an attack against an ally, let the enemy fully commit himself against his prey, and then – instead of rushing to the rescue – attack the enemy’s dearest possessions.

When the small Zhao corp was attacked by the mighty Wei Alliance, they fortified their POS’s and became a corp under seige. They managed to get messages out to ask for help from their allies, but the Wei forces had come prepared for a long seige, so they dig in around Zhao stations and fortified the the two entry points into the system.

The Wei force camping Zhao was huge, so Zhao’s allies decided not to confront the Wei ships in that system. Instead, they flew to the Wei home system, which had been left with very light defenses. Panicked messages were sent to the main Wei force that their home POS’s were under attack.

The Wei fleet quickly broke up their camp and began returning to their home system to defend it. As soon as they embarked on their hasty withdrawal, the Zhao corp members undocked from their station and pursued and harried their former attackers. Meanwhile, Zhao’s allies laid ambuses against the returning Wei forces and raided them along the flight path back to Wei home space.

Then the allies of Zhao who had attacked the Wei POS’s met the Wie forces head on, while the Zhao forces attacked from the rear.

Thus the might Wei Alliance forces were decimated and harried back to their home system, rendering it unable to carry out another massive seige.

3. Kill with a borrowed knife

Convince others to fight your battles for you. The most masterful strategists have used deception to convince enemy CEOs that their best directors or Fleet Commanders were about to betray them. So the CEOs would order all their own directors and FCs to be immediately kicked out. Thus the enemy did to himself what would have taken months or years to accomplish on the battlefield.

Another way to use this strategy is to cause discord between your enemy and another party. Your enemy exhausts himself and spends up his resources, so that he’s decimated by somebody else’s fleets while you conserve your resources.

The enlightened fighter lets somebody else do the fighting for him and can either watch the battle to its conclusion or else enter at the end and win.

4. Wait at ease for the enemy

Sun Tzu wrote these three maxims:

If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them.

If the enemy is taking his ease, he can harass him; if well supplied with food, he can starve him out; if quietly encamped, he can force him to move.

To be near the goal while the enemy is still far from it, to wait at ease while the enemy is toiling and struggling, to be well-fed while the enemy is famished:–this is the art of husbanding one’s strength.

It’s always an advantage to be one step ahead of your opponent, and it’s a benefit for you to get to the location of the planned battle ahead of him. But if speed is not your gift, you can also simply force or entice him to come to you, where ever you are. An opponent who must destroy you to get his reward will come after you where ever you go, so cover hard ground that is unfamiliar to him. Lead him through awkward and expensive situations. Keep evading him and force him to tire himself to reach you.

The commentators on Sun Tzu recommend that if you have a small force and your enemy a strong force, encamp your ships in different safe spots so that you force the pursuer to break up his fleet while looking for you. Thus, you create confusion in his troops, and he loses the advantage of being able to fight you with a single, massive fleet.

5. Loot a burning house

If your opponent suffers an adversity not related to your battle, you can use the diversion of his attention, energy, and resources to further weaken him.

Stratagems advise that you actually create any diversion possible to divide your opponent’s focus, apart from the standard fleet diversions of the battle field: force him to camp a gate that’s patrolled by the local alliance; alert his CEO about the unfavourable actions of his fleet commander (even if they’re lies); warn local anti-pirates about his shady dealings.

When his attention is divided and his spirits low, you can force him to compromise and make peace. Use the misery and distress of your opponent to bring him to terms.

6. Make a feint to the east while attacking in the west

The pre-requisite for this stratagem is that your opponent must have no real insight on what you are about to do. If you have been predictable in the past, then be very cautious of trying to fool an enemy who has already succeeded in out thinking you and correctly guessing your plans.

But if you know that your opponent is information hungry and has a healthy fear of what you might do, the situation is ripe for creating a diversion.

You can spread false news, information or rumors that will dictate your enemy’s movement. By using misleading information, you make your enemies vulnerable. This tactical diversion will make your actions unpredictable.

By making a feint, you lure your enemies out, making them vulnerable as you attack where they least expect you. Information can be manipulated to dictate your enemy’s movement. It is a great tactical diversion used to divert your enemy’s attention as you strike where they are weak. The element of surprise will be in your favor. That is what it means to “feint to the east, attack in the west”.

Next chapter coming soon: Stratagems for Two Equal Forces

Related articles:

• A Guide to the Art of War
• The Art of War: Waging War
• The Art of War: Tactical Dispositions

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EVE Bloggers

Published on 15. Dec, 2008 ... written by Black Claw.

by Black Claw …

If you’re reading this, you’re probably aware that there’s quite a large blogging community centred around Eve Online. Of course, if you’re not aware of this, then you’re about to be!

While Eve blogging has been around for quite a while, with probably the most famous being Innominate Nightmare and his 0.0 Experiment, we’ve never before had such a community that Crazy Kinux has worked hard to help create. Thanks to his hard work at blogging and online promotion, the Eve Blogging community now consists of over 130 blogs, with more popping up on a daily basis!

There are all kinds blogs dishing out all kinds of different stories that include piracy, trading, and running missions. We have character blogs (written as if the character is writing his story) and descriptive blogs (written by the player to describe what they do in-game). We have stories of victorious battles, and tragic losses; exploration of the galaxy, and explorations of the soul; of individuals running from fleets, and fleet participants protecting their space from the enemy; of traders engaging in ‘battle’ on the market, and pilots who rid the asteroid belts of pirate cartels.

There are blogs that include articles to help others play the game better, and blogs that include articles to explore the features and events within the game. They provide news and updates on the characters and events that are in Eve Online, from the famous players who make a name for themselves, to the great alliances losing their Titans in battle.

Whatever your interest, there are blogs that will intrigue you, educate you, enlighten you, maybe even make you laugh out loud to yourself. Some of them will inspire you to join the game if you’re not already in it, or to change your career path, so you can enjoy it in a similar fashion to those that you’ve read about.

There are tools used by the bloggers that help them communicate with each other and share information, stories and their blog posts with each other. They use Google Reader (or other RSS readers) to subscribe to each other’s blogs and stay up to date with new blog posts. They comment on each other’s blogs where they feel inspired to, and offer their own opinions or advice, or just share their own similar experiences.

They use Twitter to provide ‘updates’ about what they’re doing with their blogs, in-game, or just share what they’re doing with their lives outside of the game. As a community, they care about each other, and they’re there to support each other in game and out. The common theme – Eve Online.

In the game, a number of bloggers have corp or alliance chat rooms that they hang out in together, and chat with each other about the game while they’re playing it, or about real life issues and events. They form fleets together, and spread chaos through the systems they fly through – and then they blog about it!

There’s even a channel specifically for all the bloggers to hang out in, which is called EVE-BLOGGERS. And no, you don’t need to be a blogger to hang out there. If you’re not a blogger, but you’re interested in chatting to those who are, drop in and say hi. If you want to become a blogger yourself, they’ll have some good advice for you about how to get started, how to write posts that people will enjoy reading, and how to become an active member of the community if you want that.

A community is all about people coming together for a common purpose, or a common interest. They share with each other, and support each other, and together they promote what they’re passionate about with the rest of the world. I’m a part of the Eve Bloggers community (also known as a blogosphere), along with well over 100 others – there’s room for plenty more!

So come on, join in. Become an Eve Blogger and help us all see the game from your perspective. Describe to us in your own blog the events you experience, and the passion you feel, as you explore Eve Online for yourself. Share it with us.

See you in the blogosphere!

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Whining about Nerfs

Published on 05. Dec, 2008 ... written by Black Claw.

by Black Claw …

Picture credit: Michael Bravo

If you look on the Eve Online forums, you can find all manner of people having a good whinge and whine about how their game doesn’t work for them any more. Most of them are still complaining about the ‘nano nerf’, how their speed and advantage was taken away from them.

You know what? Seriously, they should have a cry. Oh, that’s right – they already are!

On the first page of the General Discussion forum (as of this writing) I can see people whinging about scan probing being nerfed, nano’s being nerfed, missiles being nerfed, Jita too busy, Eve dying, people saying ‘goodbye cruel Eve’ (I’m paraphrasing that bit) because they can’t handle it any more, whinging about low security statuses, and Caldari being the worst race in the game.

Oh.My.Gods. The amount of whinging going on by all these supposedly elite capsuleers is just mind boggling. Elite? More like little girls crying about their doll being taken away from them. There’s so much crying, my brain bleeds just reading it! As a result, I no longer have any interest in reading the general discussion forums …

Look, you pathetic, whining, little girls … it’s a game! As a game, it has certain rules and features within it that are all OWNED by the developers, CCP - not by you. They make this game for their own enjoyment, because they like creating a universe that a lot of people can enjoy being part of. As the owners and developers of this game, they can make it however they want. If they see something they want to change, for their own reasons, they can certainly do so.

Naturally, they try to change it in a way that the majority of players will appreciate, because it’s a business which requires customer satisfaction for the business to continue operating. But there’s a saying: You can’t please all the people all the time. So don’t try.

As a subscriber to Eve Online, you agree to play according to the rules and features of the game, and you accept that CCP can change and modify the game at any time they like, for any reason they like. Well, that’s what you signed up for when you accepted the terms and conditions of playing.

When supposedly adult people start crying about how they lost their advantage, all it does is show them to be ’sore losers’, angry that suddenly they can’t have the advantage over others that helped them so much before. When they spend so much time and energy trying to get CCP to change the game just for them, they show that they are incredibly selfish, wanting everyone to cater to their individual needs.

Here’s a nice little poem I hold dear:

“Gods, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Show some wisdom, capsuleers! Accept what you can’t change, have the courage to change what you can, and show that you’re wise enough to know the difference.

Failing this, just stop playing. Don’t bother the rest of us with your whiny, pathetic crying about how much you want CCP to change the game back just for you.

Oh, I know there’s all manner of ‘justifications’ for the whining. But I don’t want to hear it. I want to play the game, and I accept that the game will change.

I will change my tactics, my strategies, my ships and my equipment to follow suit. I do not want to play the same game forever. I want to play a game that’s dynamically evolving, and I embrace the challenges of being on a more level playing field with everyone else. If CCP get things wrong as they evolve their game, I trust that they will change it so that it’s right. But I shall continue playing accordingly.

I’m a pirate. I can see that solo piracy is slowly being discouraged by CCP. I accept this. I can see that they are encouraging fleet warfare, teamwork, joining up with others to achieve common goals. I accept and understand this, and I actually see it as a challenge to find new and successful methods of continuing in solo piracy.

You can suck it up and play the game, or you can quit. But don’t bother us with your whining, the rest of us that just want to play the game don’t want to hear it.

Thank you for reading. You’re welcome to discuss, but please remember – whining turns you into a little girl, and I’m sure you don’t want that.

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