General_W
Councilor & Merlot Noble
Grand Strategy Room
The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War
The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War
In the first MTDG, team MIA had a Grand Strategy thread that I think was a key part of developing our winning strategy. I didn't see anything like it as I browsed through the other team forums.
Essentially, the object of this thread is to try to pull together all the disparate parts of our game play, and make them work together towards the larger goal… ie, a way to create synergy.
Of course we'll have a thread to talk about the next few turns, and threads on Domestic policy and military policy and foreign relations… but how does all that come together in the larger picture to secure our victory?
Hopefully – that's where the Grand Strategy thread comes in.
Even if our "Grand Strategy" changes many times (and it likely will) – I still believe there is immense value in crafting a vision of where we are going, so that all the short-term tradeoffs we'll face each turn can be weighed against the larger vision of how we'll win.
I think the first step is to talk about how we want to win and what we expect our enemies to do.
Looking forward to a great and thought-provoking discussion with all of you!