Η Τέχνη του Πολέμου by Sun Tzu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Generally, in battle, use the common to engage the enemy and the uncommon to gain victory.
Those skilled at uncommon maneuvers are as endless as the heavens and earth, and as inexhaustible as the rivers and seas.
Like the sun and the moon, they set and rise again.
Like the four seasons, they pass and return again.
There are no more than five musical notes, yet the variations in the five notes cannot all be heard.
There are no more than five basic colors, yet the variations in the five colors cannot all be seen.
There are no more than five basic flavors, yet the variations in the five flavors cannot all be tasted.
In battle, there are no more than two types of attacks:
Uncommon and common, yet the variations of the uncommon and common cannot all be comprehended.
The uncommon and the common produce each other, like an endless circle.
Who can comprehend them?
“Read this”, Garret had said. “It will turn you into a better StarCraft player.” And he handed it to me. And read it I did. It is the kind of small ancient book filled with wisdom you might find yourself reading again and again throughout the years, seeking its advice time and time again, much like the Lao Tzu (or Tao Te Ching), which was interestingly supposedly written around the same period as The Art of War. It is interesting how Sun Tzu’s ancient writings are not only applicable to war-craft (heh, get it? :P) — I mean, I cannot imagine I’ll be leading armies of rice-eating dudes any time soon or, indeed, ever — they can be useful spiritual guidance to pretty much any conflict’s successful resolution, from playing StarCraft and other war games, like Europa Universalis, to trying to regain that girl’s attention: ‘all’s fair in love and war’, after all. It was also a satisfying experience to get a first-hand experience with such a widely quoted work, especially by games like Total War.
Read it here or here (public-domain-multiple-translations, yes! yes!) if you’re feeling like it.
It applies for almost any multiplayer game. When I first read it I was thinking of examples from World of Warcraft battlegrounds. Too bad in there you can control only your character. Second time I read it I was mostly thinking of SC2 examples. It’s a helpful manual and I like it a lot. And yeah, I believe it can make you better at SC.
I hope all this talk about rice will help me get over supply blockage. -_-“