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Strategies



  1. Give it all you got. The blitzkrieg method of warfare (quick, sudden, and overwhelming military offensive strikes) was based on concept. Below are some more examples:
    a.  Utilizing all available energy for/in a strike.
    b.  Launching weapons of mass destruction (e.g. nukes).
    c.  Using all the weapons and explosives you can get your hands on.
    d.  Using the above sorts of strategies while focusing attacks to a fine point.
  2. Find a weakness. Another name for a weak point is called an Achilles heel. Many applications of this strategy have been used both in fiction and in real life. Below is an early story of how this strategy was used and is, incidentally, where the term “Achilles heel” comes from. Of course, sometimes finding and exploiting a weakness is easier said than done. But the strategy below can sometimes be applied. This strategy does not focus on an objective weakness, but weakness relative to one’s own abilities and resources.
    a.  Relative weakness. At times only relative weaknesses are necessary (your opponent is weak relative to your own abilities in a particular area) and you can simply attack in those cases where you have the advantage. For example, suppose an enemy’s troops have superior close-range fighting abilities but are only moderately skilled in long-range combat, whereas your army possesses greater skills in long-range attacks. In this instance, your forces would constantly keep their distance and attack only at longer ranges.
        •  European History: Belisarius (505-565 A.D.) was an Eastern Roman General who had to defend against the Goths, who outnumbered the forces of Belisarius many times over. The Goths had spears and swords for their horsemen but no other weapons, including bows and arrows. So, Belisarius had his army keep their distance while assailing the densely packed Goth army with a multitude of arrows, and nothing else. When they ran out of arrows, the fled to the safety to their Roman walls, for the Goths were inept at besieging walled cities. When the Gothic Calvary got to the walled city, they recoiled before the cities defenses: arrow-firing catapults and bowmen. The strategy caused huge Gothic losses despite the enemy’s vastly superior numbers.
    Once a weakness is found, sometimes one has to wait for it to be exploited, as in strategy 3a. In many cases, there are actually physical weaknesses that can be used. Indeed, there exists ready-made physical weaknesses for many a foe, as the list below demonstrates.
    b.  The heart. (e.g. vampires.)
    c.  The head. (e.g. the zombies in the House of the Dead video game.)
    d.  The eyes. (e.g. escaped souls from hell in Brimstone, and lower level demons in Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight.) Even if it doesn’t vanquish the enemy, it can at least impair its ability to function.
    e.  Decapitation. (e.g. Highlander, Immortal Combat.)
    f.  Dismemberment. (e.g. Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2.) Sometimes decapitation is not enough.
    g.  Fire. (e.g. in Aliens.)
    h.  Electricity. Intense electric shocks defeated such foes like Bane (in a Batman episode called “Over the Edge”) and Inque (in a Batman Beyond episode).
    i.  The source of power. (e.g. Star Wars and Return of the Jedi, attacking the energy source of the huge and powerful Death Star with merely a squad of fighters.) In various invasion scenarios, vanquishing the leader (perhaps because he is the only one who controls his troops) destroys the invasion (e.g. in The Faculty aliens were talking over people’s bodies, and the head alien or “queen” needed to be destroyed so that the alien-infected people would return to normal; some vampire stories require the head vampire to be destroyed and then all the other vampires die/return to normal human form etc.). Cutting enemy supply lines and communications can also hinder fighting effectiveness. Another tactic is switching the real source of power for a fake.
        •  Japanese History: Yamato Takeru was sent to defeat a bandit swordfighter of exceptional skill. One day Takeru took the time to befriend the bandit, and one day he replaced the bandit’s sword with a wooden one. When Takeru revealed his true intentions, the bandit tried to get his sword, but all he found was the wooden one. Tekeru took the bandit’s head off with one stroke.
    j.  Continuous attacks. (e.g. acid bath, consistently firing weapons) can work well with regenerative enemies (e.g. setting the hydra on fire in a Hercules: The Legendary Journeys episode, where the fire continuously attacked the hydra by scorching the body down to its very roots). This is related to strategy 2f. In Return of the Living Dead the zombies needed to be utterly destroyed until there’s nothing left of them.
    k.  Anti-incarnate. This means to use an “opposite” of the essence of an enemy, such as grounding out electricity dependent foes with water (in Virus) or using ice to fight fire-based enemies.
    l.  EMP weapons. EMP (electromagnetic pulse) for foes that depend on electronic circuitry (e.g. robots). In The Matrix this was done to destroy the “sentinels” that would attack their ships.
  3. Change the opponent’s protective condition. There are various ways to weaken the enemy (see also strategy 15) or make the adversary more vulnerable by altering its condition, such as pulling the enemy out in the open or making them disoriented. For example, in X-men they froze a powerful robot, which made it more brittle, then attacked to rip apart its armor. Also, Freddy Krueger was pulled out of the dream world into reality where he was vulnerable and where he was finally killed in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. In The Mummy a spell was cast to make Imhotep mortal. In Independence Day the alien spaceships were protected with a powerful shield that not even nuclear weapons could breach. The humans inserted a virus into the alien’s computer network to disable their shield generators and make them more vulnerable. Sometimes active involvement is necessary to weaken your opponent.
    a.  Loot a burning house. On the other hand, sometimes one simply needs to be patient and wait for the right moment or occasion. The Chinese named this strategy and the generals used this sort of idea in attacking other countries (when a nation is beset with internal conflicts, such as when suffering from rampant corruption and crime, when disease and famine ravage the population etc. it is less able to deal with an outside threat).
    b.  Lure the tiger down the mountain. Another strategy the Chinese named. Instead of attacking a well-trenched opponent, lure the enemy away from the stronghold then attack.
        •  Chinese History: In the year 199, Sun Ce wanted to expand his territories to the North where the well-defended Lujiang was at. Sun Ce sent an emissary with lots of gifts praising their military skill and begging for military assistance, claiming that by defeating his “enemy” (one that Ce made up) Ce would give assistance and Lujiang could annex the territory for itself. The flattered and greedy king of Lujiang took his army out of the capitol and Sun Ce attacked the almost defenseless city.
  4. If you can’t destroy ’em, trap ’em. If you can’t vanquish the opponent, put them in a condition where they cannot do any further harm. In X-men, a villain called Omega Red had built-in armor that could not be damaged, but getting frozen into suspended animation stopped him.
  5. Freeze the enemy, then blast ’em. Similar to strategy 3, here the idea is to stop or slow down the enemy, so you can successfully attack. It can also impair the enemy’s ability to damage your forces. This can work especially well on adaptive/regenerative/absorbing foes.
  6. Indirect Attacking. This can be used for adaptive/absorbing enemies (e.g. in Star Trek: First Contact, the borg on the main deflector dish were released into outer space, then the dish was blasted from a powerful pulse of a phaser rifle; whereas the borg adapted to the direct blasts of the phaser). Another example is shooting a stalactite so to have it fall on an antagonist.
  7. Kill with a borrowed sword. When you do not have the means to attack your enemy directly, then attack using the strength of another. Trick an enemy’s ally into attacking him, bribe an official to turn traitor, or use the enemy's own strength against him. (See below.)
    a.  Use their own energy against them. This is a classic technique used in certain martial arts. One application is the short circuit (i.e. a connection of two points on a circuit where the current does not normally flow) such as was used in an Iron Man episode against the Mandarin. Another tactic is to move out of the way of enemy fire just in time so that it attacks another foe. See also a historic example in strategy 2i.
    b.  Attack using the strength of another. Such as by turning enemies against each other. In Enemy of the State, Robert Dean (played by Will Smith) tricked mobsters and a rogue NSA group (led by a man named Reynolds) to thinking that they’re enemies though neither group was aware of the others’ real identity (the rogue NSA group wanted to obtain a tape that proved Reynolds killed a congressman, while the mobsters held a copy of a tape that implicated one of their mob buddies; Robert made the corrupt NSA agents think that the mob had the video of the murder, and he also made the mob guys think that the NSA was the one who created their own incriminating tape “This is the guy you wanted to see,” Robert said to the mobster, referring to Reynolds. “He wants the tape back”). Both sides shot each other to death while Robert hid under a table for safety. A real life example of cunning below:
        •  Chinese History: A traitor named Chang Tuo defected from Western Zhou to her enemy, Eastern Zhou. Minister Feng Chu of Western Zhou gave thirty catties of gold and a letter addressed to Chang Tuo that read, “This is to remind Chang Tuo that you must complete your mission as soon as possible for the longer the delay the more likely you will be found out” to an agent. The minister sent another agent to tell Eastern Zhou that a spy would come across the borders. Eastern Zhou reacted by searching everyone that came across the borders. When the minister’s agent (the one who had the gold and the letter) came across the border and was searched, the traitor Chang Tuo was summarily executed.
  8. Use multifarious attacks. This worked well on some Star Trek: the Next Generation episodes regarding the Borg, which were highly adaptive enemies. In this instance, they used fluctuating phaser frequencies. Also, using multiple strategies rather than just one can enhance chances of success. In case one doesn’t work, you would have others to fall back on, though some tactics should be avoided in strategy combinations depending on the circumstances. For example, an often useful strategy in the Twisted Metal video game series on various levels is to use hit and run attacks (strategy 29) to avoid damage and let the various drivers fight themselves (an application of strategies 7 and 16) rather than continuously attacking enemy drivers (strategy 2j). For more information on using multifarious attacks correctly see strategies 16 and 19.
  9. Use your surroundings. In Terminator 2, the T-800 used a liquid nitrogen tank to freeze the T-1000. In a Star Trek episode, captain Kirk combined materials (potassium nitrate, sulfur and coal) to form gunpowder. He then used it and other materials (diamonds as the projectile that were shot through a hollow plant tube, and some stuff to ignite the gunpowder) to form a weapon against a tough lizard creature.
  10. Leach energy. Can work well against those who absorb it. For example, freezing (the extraction of heat energy) an energy-absorbing foe, as was done in X-men.
  11. Sour the milk. If an enemy is taking in energy, give them something (perhaps a certain type of energy) they can’t digest. This idea was used in a Star Trek: The Next Generation against an alien that was leaching the ship’s power. The idea was also used in the original Star Trek series on a giant amoeba like creature that was sucking away all forms of energy including the ship's power source (and hence life support systems). Kirk reasoned that they needed to use “anti-power.” The alien creature couldn’t swallow anti-matter, so they sent out an anti-matter bomb to destroy it.
  12. Intercepting/detonating weapons before they attack. The survivors of the alien attack in Independence Day used this technique to destroy the giant spaceships. Once the spaceships were about to fire their main weapon, a missile launched at the place where the weapon is discharged effectively destroyed the craft. Also, if a torpedo is armed as soon as it fires, one can try to attack and detonate it as soon as it leaves the enemy.
  13. If they don’t know they’re in trouble... In Superman III, Superman battled a computer. He said its defenses were great, so long as it didn’t know it was in trouble. Superman obtained a chemical that, once sufficiently heated, could go through anything. He used this chemical to destroy the computer, and the computer wasn’t aware that the chemical posed a threat to its existence. As a result, the computer didn’t do anything about it and was destroyed. As the folk tale below illustrates, it can pay to have the threat out in the open while disguising its dangerous nature to the adversary (see also strategy 14). Hiding behind various screens can easily attract suspicion, whereas making the threat plainly visible (feigned as something else of course, such as putting the threat in the guise of everyday activities) will make it more likely for enemies to let their guard down.
  14. The Trojan horse. The name of the strategy comes from Greek mythology, where the Greeks come up with an idea to build a horse in the guise of it being a peace offering to their enemy, the Trojans, in the city of Troy. They took the large wooden horse inside their city walls, and the Trojans decided to celebrate. Thinking that the Greek army ran away, the whole city was in a drunken uproar by nightfall. Early morning, while everyone was drunk or asleep, the Greeks unsealed the belly of the wooden horse and climbed out from it. They killed all the Trojan sentries at all the city gates, and the gates were opened to the Greek army, which successfully captured the city of Troy.
  15. The rope-a-dope strategy. This is the technique of having the enemy expend its energy needlessly, such as on wasted attacks. Boxers have used this method by dodging their rivals’ punches, such as by leaning back on the ropes when the blow is thrown, instead of blocking them (when they punch and miss, they use energy to stop their fist and pull it back for another punch, whereas when you block a punch you stop the fist for them and they don’t use as much energy). Once the adversary is tired out, attack.
  16. Divide and conquer. This has basically two forms. One is to divide your adversaries, then attack. Facing them one at a time, for example, can be easier than facing all of them at once. A mundane application of this is to carve up a problem into more manageable subtasks, such as doing an essay paper one page at a time instead of all at once, or by creating the right subroutines for a computer program. If stuck on a problem, one tip is to try to think of anything at all that can make even the least bit of progress and see what one can do from there (perhaps by repeating this procedure again). Sometimes it’s best to use multiple resources, using each tool according to their effectiveness with the proper subtask(s), and then layering all the subtasks together at the end (this is also a form of strategies 8 and 19). For example, the best way to make an image I once created was to separate the text and objects in the image (using individual gifs for the various objects and html text for the words) and putting them all together with the use of an html table. This significantly improved both memory efficiency and the quality of the image. The second form is to have enemies divide their focuses of attention or resources. This can be done by secretly causing discord between the enemy’s individual members (commanders, troops, advisors, etc.), allies, or even other enemies (see strategy 7b). While being preoccupied with settling internal/external disputes, the adversary’s ability to attack or defend will be compromised.
  17. The overlapping effect. This can be a benefit of swarming. Some of the units’ attacking ranges overlap with another’s to increase efficiency. This is a more specific use of strategies 1 and 21.
  18. Divisions. Having divisions in your fighting force is an ancient idea. The Greek phalanx was tough, but the small divisions of the Roman legion made it more flexible and mobile to defeat it. Having small groups maneuvering or defending can make the army more useful, especially if it is well ordered (see strategy 19).
  19. Balance multifarious attacks correctly. One application of using multiple resources is divide and conquer (see strategy 16). A similar idea is to use the strengths/specializations of some resources/fighters to cancel out or at least somewhat offset the weaknesses of the others. For example, suppose that your enemy can attack from far away but a large portion of your army can only attack at closer range. Thus, the quicker your forces move against the enemy the better because you will be able to be within attack range sooner and spend less time in areas that you are attacked but cannot return fire. Also suppose you have these three units: In this case, you would have the knights in front of the archers. Since the barbarians travel at the same rate as the archers, it will be practical to have the barbarians cover the archers and attack while the archers strike from longer distances.
  20. Concentrate on enemies one at a time. Contrasted with spreading out your resources, this can be a good “divide and conquer” strategy. One of the reasons the British army lost the war for independence in the colonies was that it was spreading itself out too thin. France had allied itself with the colonies. In addition to the war in America, Spain declared war with Britain in 1779, as did the Dutch Republic in 1780. The combined French, Spanish, and Dutch fleets outnumbered Britain’s warships. Luckily for the colonies, the British military could not focus on its enemies one at a time.
  21. Swarming. Can be thought of as a form of strategy 1. Don’t give your opponent the benefit of strategy 20. Many small units can attack better than fewer large units if all other factors are held constant (e.g. the group of small units and the group of large units are equal in their total armor and firepower). A swarm can be more difficult to hit if the opposing forces can only focus on a few enemies at a time, enabling the rest of the swarm to attack unharmed (at least for a little while). This principle can be seen as an application of strategy 28a. (Consider having a loaded .357 magnum rifle, and you have the option of facing either a large bear or a huge swarm of killer bees, both being of equal mass.) Another benefit is the overlapping effect (see strategy 17). See also strategy 19.
  22. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If your opponent concentrates his or her fire at your basket, you’re in trouble. Spreading them out over a large region can be safer, even if your opponent uses smaller area-based attacks (attacks that strike over an area rather than a single point, such as weapons of mass destruction). This strategy can be particularly beneficial if there are other resources out there for you to exploit if you spread yourself out more. In the movie Eraser, Lee Cullen gave a CD that incriminated a criminal to the feds and a copy of the CD to herself (good thing she did, otherwise the bad guys wouldn’t have been caught). As a more mundane example, have several copies of a valuable document (e.g. one saved on a disk, one saved on a hard drive, and one printed on paper) to decrease your odds of losing it.
  23. Set up a trap. Here are some helpful tips and applications:
    a.  Surround them and then use strategy 1.
    b.   Use bait (wealth, power, combat gains etc.) to lure them in and then use the above.
    c.   If you can, luring them to put all their eggs in one basket can increase the effectiveness of traps even more.
    d.  If possible, have your attacking forces in the trap be protected with some sort of cover.
    e.   See also strategy 27. Many traps involve the element of surprise.
  24. Strike from the inside. Double agents are a classic example. This might prove useful if you have too much difficulty attacking from the outside.
  25. Make them visible, then attack. If you enemy is invisible, try using paint, explosions, etc. to make them visible. The main theme here is to have them stand out against a background.
  26. Know what the enemy is up to. Knowledge is power. You can use the information to your advantage, such as having time and data to find a weakness.
    a.  When you cannot detect the opponent's plans launch a direct, but brief, attack and observe your opponent’s reactions. The enemy’s behavior may reveal his strategy.
        •  Chinese History: To catch a thief, magistrate Chen laid a trap for those he suspected. He explained to them that if an innocent man touched a magic bell it would remain silent, but if a guilty man touched the bell it would ring out. Chen told the assistants to secretly put ink on the curtain surrounding the bell. After he told all of the suspects to touch the curtain at the same time, he examined all their hands. The one without the ink was the culprit, for that one would not touch the curtain because he feared it would ring.
  27. The element of surprise. Such as using concealed soldiers for an ambush or using booby traps. Also, using stealth forces when attacking. The element of surprise can prove useful because it catches the enemy off guard.
    a.  Make the same feint twice. The enemy may think that the next strike is simply another feint and you can catch your foe off guard (confer The Boy who Cried Wolf tale).
    b.   Make an enemy think you’re foolish, insane, weakened, injured etc. (when you’re not) to create confusion about your intentions, motivations, abilities, and the like. The enemy’s guard will be let down or misdirected and you can strike (in the movie Solo this was done against an evil robot).
    c.  Another way to do this is by creating a diversion (see strategy 28).
  28. Create a diversion. Below are a couple examples of using this strategy.
    a.  Draw their fire or attention elsewhere so at least some of your fighting troops can strike without being attacked (at least at first). For instance, make the enemy think you’re going to attack from one side (e.g. with the use of a feint), then attack from another direction.
        •  Chinese History: In 1560 one of Japan's greatest warlords, Oda Nobunaga, then still a minor commander, marched his force of 2,000 men to stop the incursion of a rival warlord Imagawa Yoshimoto. Nobunaga placed numerous flags and made straw dummies to give the impression that a large army had arrived. Imagawa's forces thus expected an attack to come from that direction because of its scouting reports. When a downpour came, Nobunaga took advantage of the foul weather and suddenly attacked from the opposite direction.
    b.  Create confusion to weaken the enemy’s perception and judgment. Do something unusual, strange, and unexpected to disrupt his thinking.
        •  Chinese History: Chu sent an envoy to Jin requesting to fight a chariot duel the next day to which the Jin ruler, Duke Wen, agreed. Wen ordered numerous trees to be cut down and attached to various vehicles. While the chariot duel was under way the Jin made a sudden attack but then pulled back and put up the retreat pennets. The Chu eagerly charged forward, but the Jin dragged behind the trees and it sent up a great cloud of dust. When most of the Chu army was enclosed in the dust could they were unable to see that the Jin army had split up into two parts for a classic pincer attack on both sides.
  29. Hit-and-run attacks. Using a sudden and swift attack and then immediately pulling back after the strike can make enemies less able to retaliate in such battles. Such tactics are often used in guerilla warfare.
  30. The virus strategy: I discovered this strategy while playing a real time strategy game, and named it after the way viruses invade the body. A virus attacks a cell, uses the cells machinery to produce more viruses like itself, and the whole process repeats (as often as possible) with those new viruses creating even more viruses by attacking other cells. As one can imagine, the rate of viruses formed increases exponentially, at least under ideal conditions. The application? Use the initial resources to create a number of units, including mobile builder units if possible. Have those builder units (or have the initial builder units go around the area if one cannot construct further building units) to go out and repeat the process (to use the resources in other nearby areas to create more units). As with viruses, it may be necessary or desirable to produce stationary builder units at the new sites one is “invading” for the production of more units. If possible (e.g. in real time strategy games), produce upgraded units at an appropriate time before moving on. A few things to consider. One is that, if used correctly, the eggs are not all in one basket (strategy 22). Also, be careful not to deploy your units without the required protection (if protection is needed or is advantageous) and do not spread them too thin. Use the virus strategy by expanding at a proper speed and area size. In addition, if it is necessary to go out to utilize all the available energy/resources, one is adopting a form of strategy 1a if such resources are adequately put to use.
        •  In the movie Phantoms, the “ancient enemy” was a creature responsible for many vanishings and disappearances in scattered, relatively small events in human history. Chemicals (acids etc.) and nukes did not seem practical. One would need a truckload of chemicals, and how would one deliver it all to the target (the “mother mass”)? Nukes suffered a similar problem, how to locate the target, deliver it, and be sure you got it all? However, the basis for the “ancient enemy” was petrolatum and hydrocarbons. It was vulnerable to biosan fourteen, a genetically engineered bacteria that voraciously devours crude oil, and reproduces itself every 11 seconds. This way a “truckload” of the weapon was not necessary (it reproduced itself, self-replicating more units to achieve the task), could be easily delivered (shot from tranquilizer delivery type rifle) and one would not have to worry about radiation or fallout. The bacterium was delivered to the mother mass and subsequently destroyed.



Thanks in part to the Thirty-Six Strategies of ancient China. The first historical mention of the Thirty-Six Strategies dates back to the Southern Chi dynasty (489-537 C.E.), but I got the info off of this website.