Most overated book of all time: Sun Tzu's The Art of War
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Honestly, I didn't know that this version of the Strategikon existed, so I'm happy you posted this. I think I'll put it on my 'get this' list. Is there a similar translation of Taktika that you are aware of?
_____________________________ _____________________________ It is better to hack the code than to curse the darkness.
I didn't know there was another translation of Strategikon or do you know Latin or Greek (whatever it was written in originally)? I've heard of Taktika but never read it. Checked gutenberg.net and no luck but I found this on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Taktika-Leo-Dumbarton-Oaks-Texts/dp/0884023591/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271867821&sr=1-1[^]
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Most of the stuff is obvious TODAY because of this book. At the time it was not so, and in writing these things it made them better known. The book details unconventional warfare tactics. Overloading a side, using terrain to bolster a side or dictate the enemies' actions, and attack tactics are all in there. The fact that you won't know what an army of the time looked like is a good thing. It means this can be used in almost any formation. Hell, I read the book, picked up a Tau army for Warhammer 40K and proceeded to use the tactics to good effect. If a book can give you a good idea for how to use terrain, conserve strength and how to strike, it is probably a good book to learn for warfare.
ragnaroknrol wrote:
Most of the stuff is obvious TODAY because of this book. At the time it was not so, and in writing these things it made them better known.
While I agree that many things seem obvious in hindsight I have disagree this time. Every civilization seems to have arrived at the same basic conclusions and strategies independantly. Even in the first battle ever recorded in detail the battle of Kadesh they clearly understood many if not all of his basic ideas. And I doubt Maurice knew anything about Sun Tzu and yet his book doesn't even bother explicitly stating many of the things that Sun Tzu says but instead goes strait to how best to acheive the objectives because he clearly assumes you already know the importance of things like secrecy/disinformation ect... .
ragnaroknrol wrote:
The book details unconventional warfare tactics. Overloading a side, using terrain to bolster a side or dictate the enemies' actions, and attack tactics are all in there.
I'm not sure what's unconventional about that, hasn't every half way competent general in history done that.
ragnaroknrol wrote:
Hell, I read the book, picked up a Tau army for Warhammer 40K and proceeded to use the tactics to good effect. If a book can give you a good idea for how to use terrain, conserve strength and how to strike, it is probably a good book to learn for warfare.
Never played that game, I'll have to check it out :)
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I didn't know there was another translation of Strategikon or do you know Latin or Greek (whatever it was written in originally)? I've heard of Taktika but never read it. Checked gutenberg.net and no luck but I found this on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Taktika-Leo-Dumbarton-Oaks-Texts/dp/0884023591/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271867821&sr=1-1[^]
No, it's all greek to me. :laugh: Thanks for finding that one as well. I think Leo's is the more definitive Taktika since Ourano's is supposedly more derivative. But I don't have that first or second hand. A friend told me about the two of them years ago but I never ran into either and had kind of stopped looking. This one came from the same conversation which I also haven't seen a copy of: http://www.amazon.com/Rommel-His-Greenhill-Military-Paperbacks/dp/1853675431/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271879624&sr=1-1[^] The discussion was about great books of military strategy. Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, Vegetius, Napoleon's Maxims, Jomini's Art of War, Hart, and du Picq's Battle Studies. I guess what one might call 'the standards'. My own library tends away from the great works and toward logistics and non-traditional war, since that's where my personal bent wanders. Van Crevald's Supplying War, and similar items. And Luttwik's Coup d'etat. Eclectic in choice. He didn't have copies of Strategikon or Taktika and all I ever found were books by other military authors who had used Strategicon in the title but were their own thoughts.
_____________________________ _____________________________ It is better to hack the code than to curse the darkness.
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I've only got about 50 pages to go, and can't even remember 10 pages back. ;P