Book I: Calculations

Translated by Nicholas Novitski

Notes:
Sun Tsu is also spelled Sun Zi. Briefly, "Zi" is his name according to the more current romanization system of the _Chinese_. "Tsu" is romanizing the _Japanese_ version of his name. His original name was Sun Wu (don't ask me why it changed). For the purposes of approachability, I will spell his name Tsu in this work, though readers should note that, since he was Chinese, it makes sense to refer to him by his actual name.

It occurs to me that you might want to say on the same page that there is an important distinction between "tactics" and "strategy." You could give a simple definition of the two terms, followed by an example or analogy. For example, you could say that, in football, completing a play or drive requires tactics, while winning a game requires strategy.

Furthermore, a great deal of the commentary is in the following format: " means ." This is because Chinese is a pictographically-based language, and ancient Chinese was the kind of language that had a simple five-stroke character mean "The color of the Sea of Japan after a great storm," or "The ability to know what it is that your superiors need and desire of you and do it, thus gaining great favor." It doesn't lend itself to translating. Thus, I have tried to make the translation use as appropriate a single word I can think of when a single word or concept was expressed in the original, and then a more complete explanation in the commentary.

Hmm. Brief note: Like so many other authors of what the Japanese considered classics, the guy was Chinese.

My format idea:

This is followed by more general commentary, un-indented.

-Which is followed by more game-specific stuff, indicated by a hyphen.

A possible Preface, and a true story:

Preface:

1. Calculations

The "ground" refers to the actual physical location of battle, a place where the path out might be life or death. The "path" is an interesting word-concept that has it's roots in Daoist and Buddhist philosophy. It refers to the correct path through a given situation. In a deeper sense, it has connotations of constant change: Your way though the world is not the same as anyone else's, nor is it the same at all times. It twists, turns, and changes from moment to moment.

-It seems very obvious to me that Shogun will involve battle and War. If you take any lesson away from this simple and clear preface, remember that every decision you make affects your chance of victory, and that you must be clear in mind while considering your situation. I.E., don't start a war with someone just because he's a prick.

These calculations are meant to be made before an actual battle, sometimes before an actual war. When you know who is superior in these five aspects, you can see who is more likely to win. (By the conditions of war, I mean it in the sense of "weather conditions," not "terms and conditions of surrender." I thought that might be unclear.)

-"Before a battle" means "on the strategic screen, when it seems that war might be likely or a bad idea," not "while he's putting his troops in formation on the other side of the valley." The first few chapters are more strategy-centric in their concern.

"Way" can best be understood, in this context, as equivalent to "Moral Cause." If you can give the people a belief that fighting for you is fighting for themselves (i.e., "Do it for the children"), they will follow to the limit of their abilities.

-This seems to be a non-issue from what what we've heard of the game. I don't know about you, but "peasant revolutions" wasn't on the feature list last time I checked. Still, it's an important consideration in the real world.

In ancient times many soldiers lost their fingers to frostbite on campaigns against the Huns, and many soldiers died of plague on campaigns against the southern tribes. This was because of carrying out operations in winter and summer. This is related to Situation, but not the same.

-We already know that snow in a tactical situation will affect the movement and tiring of troops, but frostbite might be a bit beyond the strategic simulation. But hey, you never know.

When you know the distance to be traveled, you can plan whether to proceed directly, with shortcuts, or by more roundabout paths. When you know the difficulty or ease of travel, you can know the advantages and disadvantages of various possible routes and troop types. When you know the "dimension" of an area, you can make more tactical considerations. When you know the relative safety of terrain, you can know whether to fight or disperse. Yes, you heard me. Running away is often the best option in real life.

-The usefulness of this advice depends on how much you can tell about a possible battlefield from the strategic viewpoint. We shall see.

Intelligence means the ability to both form and change (especially change!) plans effectively. Confidence means the ability to inspire confidence in others about your ability, not your own confidence, which is something to be avoided. Compassion means being aware and (somewhat) sympathetic to the situation and problems of the people under your command. Courage means being able to seize opportunities for victory when they happen, and not later. Sternness means what it sounds like: being able to establish discipline with a strict adherence to strict punishments. For all you Shakespeare scholars out there, King Henry V (not Prince Hal) exemplifies all these qualities perfectly. He's smart enough to see strategy and deception, his troops love him, he loves his troops, he fought alongside them without fear of death, and he had one of his great friends executed when he (the friend, Bardolph) broke the rules that had been set down.

-You'd think that compassion wouldn't enter into it, since the troops themselves aren't real. You'd be wrong. Remember, one of the goals of the team is to accurately simulate individual intelligences (or soldiers, as it were :). Your troops will run if faced with impossible odds or situations, and you must not allow that to happen. If you make the attempt to imagine yourself in the ranks with your men, you will be better able to see what might make them break and run. Of course, you should avoid coddling your men. First of all, it's unsound strategy. Second, they're not real. Who cares if a few of them die? See, the trick is to remember that while you don't care about them as people, you _do_ care about their ability to fight battles for you, which they can't do when dead.

Therefore, Discipline means discipline for both your troops and yourself. Organization can mean formations, in addition to the beauraucratic-type organization of the army. Chain of command (in this case) means paying close attention to your officers. Remember to delegate! Logistics means the procurement, care, and transport of all supplies.

-The importance of Self-Discipline is obvious: You have to be good at the game, man! Having Discipline would mean concentration and seriousness. Don't think about other things, as they are of far lesser importance than the fate of you, your nation, and your followers. Organization/Formation is similarly obvious. Understanding the natures and uses of all the formations is one of the most obvious ways to heighten your "level of play" on the battlefield. Of course, it's fairly simple to remember "Wedge to charge, Tight to hold, and loose in the hearts of his countrymen." Whoops, that should, of course, read "loose to avoid letting the enemy light samurai use your men's torsos as a chance to test their skill, as in: 'Hey Togusa, betcha can't hit that big-shot on the horse.' 'You're on, buddy. Get your wallet out.'" Ahem. Anyway, the point is, of even greater importance is an understanding of the "Group Formations" (Center Skirmish, Left-hand Offensive, which sounds particularly suggestive). The role of Logistics is unclear as of yet, but I'm sure that you will, at the very least, need to spend some kind of resources to create your armies. I personally hope that the armies will require some kind of support, just for the strategic depth and realism, but that's just a hope.

Very true. It's interesting to note that Sun Tsu does a lot of self promoting like this ("Follow my rules and you will never loose," "All this is necessary to victory," etc.). Of course, it's almost all well-deserved. Quick story: One of my copies of the Art is actually a comic, drawn by a famous Taiwanese illustrator, Tsai Chih Chung. He's made a fortune changing all of the classics of Ancient Chinese Literature into easily readable and understandable comics. This is an understandable profession when you realize that many people can't understand what is being said in Shakespeare, which is five-hundred-odd years old, and the Art (to take one example) is almost two _thousand_ years older than Shakespeare! Anyway, in this comic version of the art of war, the phrase "Those who don't will be defeated!" is put in it's own panel, with the comic Sun Tsu making the kind of face you or me might make when we say "No soup for you!" He is surrounded by shocked and embarrassed students of military theory. It is astounding (to me) to imagine Sun Tsu's directness, especially when you consider that he was writing this for an Emperor (the title of any ruler of a "State" was called this, easily confusable with the "Real" Emperor, the Mikado or "Son of Heaven"). Of course, those of you who read my little story at the beginning know very well that certain parts of Sun Tsu(those un-discussable in polite conversation) were almost certainly made of bronze.

There's an ancient Chinese proverb taken from another treatise on war: "The one who treats me well is my leader, and the one who treats me cruelly is my enemy." A government that is more humane on some issues can have an advantage.

-Of course, you can probably see that several of these questions are moot points.

Sometimes Sun Tsu seems to waste time to tell us the completely obvious. This is often not the case. Consider this scenario: The man who holds your purse strings asks you do make his son a prominent officer, despite his incompetence. Or maybe your situation requires you to loot a nearby village for supplies, but it just happens to be the hometown of your best friend, or maybe even you! The Lesson is: It's obvious what a truly great commander would do in such a situation, but it's not as easy to tell what mere mortals like ourselves would do. Still, we can try.

-This is one of those rare passages that can truly be said to apply in all situations. I am reminded of a joke from a book by one Terry Pratchett: "Vimes had checked General Tacticus' book to see if he had anything to advise on a situation where one of the armies had to sit in a dangerous, exposed place while the other was able to hold up safely in a castle or other reinforced structure, and all he could find was one sub-paragraph that read, in entirety, 'Be the one on the inside.'"

Activate meaning organize, prepare, and use. It should be noted that deception should be reserved for your enemy. Truth generally gets better results with your own people.

-Assuming you'll be fighting any battles with real people, deception can be _very_ important. So pay attention! :)

Another quick story. Once, when the states of Yue and Wu were at war, Sun Tsu released three thousand criminals from jail, dressed them in soldier's uniforms, and set them up in a camp near a pass through which the army of Yue was sure to pass. Seeing the kind of confusion you'd expect to see in a mix of hardened criminals and petty bandits, Yue laughed itself silly, and then proceeded to attack. Some of the criminals ran, and some of them gave up. When the the _real_ army of Wu saw Yue embroiled in this fiasco, they attacked. Yue, tired, smug, and unsuspecting, was defeated easily.

-Quick and dirty example of "gain" and "confusion." Put your archers on the military crest of a hill (see archery guide on this site), fairly separated from the main battle happening on the plain. Allow them to be separated from you and flanked, and let the enemy charge up the hill, death in mind, only to be driven six feet under by the cavalry and/or spearmen that had been hiding in the woods nearby. I'm sure that you can think of a more workable example in your particular situation.

One of the great general-leaders of Japanese history once said "The most efficient of movements is the one that is unexpected, the best of plans is the one that is unknown."

-Pretty straightforward...Though as an example of an unexpected movement, I give you this: Two opponents share a border, and a seashore. If one of them thinks to send his armies on boats to the other side of the opposing country, it is doubtful they will find as great resistance as they would in the DMZ on the border. If they have the time and luck to be able to reinforce their position, then they will have forced the enemy to fight a war on two fronts which, as any student of WWII can tell you, is a bad thing. ;)

This is a very figurative translation. More literal readings can give something like "The formation and procedure of the military should not be divulged beforehand." This actually means that, in a sense, the military should not _have_ a specific formation or procedure that they use "by default" as it were. The commander considers tactics constantly, and once he decides, he can tell those under him. This way, you can avoid allowing your enemy to espionage-ify your plans, and you can avoid confusing your troops. It's very hard to tell a bunch of people "Remember all those plans and maneuvers you've been practicing for months? Forget 'em."

-Ahh, This is the heart of the matter: Flexibility. Remember, if the designers have their way, regardless of whether you're playing a computer or a human who's also read this guide, no one trick or manoeuvre will work forever.

Yeah, that bit at the end is a stretch, but I'm a sucker for puns, and that is what he was saying.

-"Sun Tsu teaches us that great generals first seek victory, and then seek battle." :)