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Military theorists recomended reads.


Brother Raul

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Hello Brothers. Have noticed a bit of a drop off in tactics/ strategy from the initial rush after the new codex was released. In an attempt to help revive these gems (I am looking at you Jolemi and Remtek) I thought I'd share a few good reads I have enjoyed by Military theorists that might help.

 

Prob the best I've read so far for w40k would be Antonie Jolimi. Napoleonic aid de camp and master tactitian has great philosophies that translates into w40k quite easily.

 

Claude Clauswitz has some great ideas too but isn't as relivant to w40k but will make you a good tabletop decision maker.

 

Omar Bradley is solid too and that english guy bruce hamley is simular to Jolimi.

 

So brothers, who have you read that has helped youn on th table top? Emperor protect you.

Regarding the articles that I have been doing, I have two new ones brewing (and plans for a few more) but real life is being a harsh mistress at the moment. I've also got to find the time to update the older ones following FW's website revamp...

 

As for inspiration, I've never read anything like that. As sad as it sounds, I just pay attention to what others say on internet... That said, a few years back one of the museums in London had a showcase display of the Terracotta Army, along with a lot of information regarding the dynasty at the time. That was fascinating and helped me revive a flagging guild on a certain MMORPG. Point is, I agree that this type of inspiration can work rather well depending on the frame of mind you are in.

May the Emperor bless you Brother Raul. I have been wondering what some good reads would be for growing may tactical acumen. I will try to find some find some some of the texts you mentioned. Thank you. I've really only read The Art of War, but there are long stretches of that piece that don't apply to 40k. 

Certainly these works have a lot of knowledge that would be fascinating to an interested reader, but I don't know how applicable these lessons and philosophies would be to tabletop board games. These board games make a certain set of implicit assumptions that very often differ from the real life circumstances many of these works were written with in mind, so I probably wouldn't turn to them for strategic and tactical insights for 40k.

 

That said you can look anywhere for inspiration, but personally my tactical and strategic decision making skills come from hard fought experience on the "field" and advice from fellow battle commanders.

Claude Clauswitz has some great ideas too but isn't as relivant to w40k but will make you a good tabletop decision maker.

Who is this guy? Are you sure you don't mean Carl von Clausewitz?

 

Isn't the first author's name Antoine-Henri Jomini?

 

Sun Tzu also has lots of interesting maxims, but implementing them in the tabletop might be difficult.

Playing lots of games vs cheese and good players is a great way to improve strategy fast, but reading a few good strategy books seems like a good idea! It's easy to get stuck in a specific mindset and a narrow point of view. I'm curious what the books touch on, but for 40k i think most games are usually won in the movement phase, and of course building lists that synergize well. 

Quixis you have found me out, I was on my phone during a long comute and did'nt check the spelling. Yes It is Carl Von Clauswitz, middle name Maria funnily. And my spelling on Jolimi is wrong but french isn't a strength of mine.

 

I would ignore Sun Tzu at all costs unless you plan on declaring total war against your opponent and want to win by getting a mate to burn his house and models down.

I really need to learn how to quote. I am a little bit dumb.

 

Brother Mike, I do agree that experience is the best teacher but IMO there are great bits of practical advice that help on the table top from the authors I have mentioned. Some lists/ codices are quite Napoleonic or WW1.

 

Fantasy (rip) probably is more Napoleonic but these writters I mentioned influenced war as we knew it for centuaries to come. West Point only taught Jomini's doctrines exclusively at one stage. Von Clauswitz 's doctrines were the basis for Germanies WW1 campaign.

I really need to learn how to quote.

If desktop, look to the bottom right of the post you want to quote. If mobile, when you select the post it gives you the option (at least that's the case on Andoid).

 

To do it manually, copy what you want to quote and use the following bbcode

paste text[/quote ] without the spaces.

Quixis you have found me out, I was on my phone during a long comute and did'nt check the spelling. Yes It is Carl Von Clauswitz, middle name Maria funnily. And my spelling on Jolimi is wrong but french isn't a strength of mine.

No problem, it happens. I had never heard of Jolimi or Jomini, so I tried to look him up and didn't find anything. Then when I loked over the Clausewitz article, I found Jomini.

My forum handle is Quixus by the way.

Yeah Maria was quite popular as second name for men and women at the time (and for some time later). I think the French and Spanish speaking countries also do this.

 

I would ignore Sun Tzu at all costs unless you plan on declaring total war against your opponent and want to win by getting a mate to burn his house and models down.

[joke]What that isn't the SOP for a game of Warhammer 40K?[/joke] That's why I said implementing his ideas on the tabletop can be difficult. The whole idea of deception is not really good for a game, on the other hand deceiving and cheating in war is a very valid technique.

 

 

To do it manually, copy what you want to quote and use the following bbcode [ quote ]paste text

[ /quote ]

without the spaces.

Or if you want to include the author you could use (quote name="author name")paste text(/quote) but replace the parentheses() with barackets[].

I really liked reading the Sun Tzu's Art of War and I think that parts 6-9 are pretty useful things to read when trying to devise strategies in 40k. Most military strategy books are going to be the same way I'd think. Jomini's first two sections in his Art of War, for instance, can be ignored if you are reading these to better yourself in 40k for instance. I assume all strategists of note only write very shortly about actual battles as they are only a small part of the actual waging of war. 

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