In this thread I will list 36 stratagems from the chinese war classic "36 stratagems" in the hope that it will help the developer with some new ideas on how to improve the AI. For each strategem, I will post a description and a adaptation on how it might be implemented in the game.
I hope that the developers will take a serious look at the stratagems (if not my suggestions, then at least another war theory book they deem worthy). Thanks ^^
source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-Six_Stratagems
1) Deceive the heavens to cross the ocean
Mask your real goals, by using the ruse of a fake goal, until the real goal is achieved. Tactically, this is known as an 'open feint': in front of everyone, you point west, when your goal is actually in the east.
Adaptation: The AI will use small stacks to raid your a province farther from the wargoal and will quickly retreat back to his own province once your army gets close. while your army pursues the smaller raiding stack, the AI will start raiding and sieging provinces closer to the wargoal.
2) Besiege Wèi to rescue Zhào
When the enemy is too strong to be attacked directly, then attack something he holds dear. Know that he cannot be superior in all things. Somewhere there is a gap in the armour, a weakness that can be attacked instead. The idea here is to avoid a head-on battle with a strong enemy, and instead strike at his weakness elsewhere. This will force the strong enemy to retreat in order to support his weakness. Battling against the now tired and low-morale enemy will give a much higher chance of success.
Adaptation:
-The AI will avoid confrontation with stronger stacks of your alliance but will try to target smaller stacks.
-Add feature where marching troops through a province lowers morale by a percentage
-The AI will actively use smaller stacks to cause you to march your army to lose morale while a larger reserve stack waits to ambush
3)Kill with a borrowed sword
Attack using the strength of another (in a situation where using one's own strength is not favourable). Trick an ally into attacking him, bribe an official to turn traitor, or use the enemy's own strength against him. The idea here is to cause damage to the enemy by getting a 3rd party to do the deed.
Adaptation: When the AI is at a disadvantage militarily against a hostile neighbor, it will prioritize using sabotage reputation/support rebels/sow discontent to weaken them. especially so if the neighbor has aggressive expansion penalty applied.
4) Wait at leisure while the enemy labors
It is an advantage to choose the time and place for battle. In this way you know when and where the battle will take place, while your enemy does not. Encourage your enemy to expend his energy in futile quests while you conserve your strength. When he is exhausted and confused, you attack with energy and purpose. The idea is to have your troops well-prepared for battle, in the same time that the enemy is rushing to fight against you. This will give your troops a huge advantage in the upcoming battle, of which you will get to select the time and place.
Adaptation: The AI will try to avoid war with a strong country with full manpower reserves and low war exhaustion. The AI will actively seek war with a country low on manpower and high in war exhaustion.
5) Loot a burning house
When a country is beset by internal conflicts, when disease and famine ravage the population, when corruption and crime are rampant, then it will be unable to deal with an outside threat. This is the time to attack. Keep gathering internal information about an enemy. If the enemy is currently in its weakest state ever, attack it without mercy and totally destroy it to prevent future troubles.
Adaptation: The AI will try to go to war with countries experiencing disasters, revolts, low legitimacy/prestige, financial troubles etc...
5) Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west
In any battle the element of surprise can provide an overwhelming advantage. Even when face to face with an enemy, surprise can still be employed by attacking where he least expects it. To do this you must create an expectation in the enemy's mind through the use of a feint. The idea here is to get the enemy to focus his forces in a location, and then attack elsewhere which would be weakly defended.
Adaptation:
-The AI will seek to use fog of war and avoid having his army seen when making maneuvers.
-The AI will raid with smaller forces with high maneuverability generals and hide larger reserves inside fog of war.
-Smaller raiding forces will try fake retreats and ambush with larger reserve force from fog of war
6) Create something from nothing
A plain lie. Make somebody believe there was something when there is in fact nothing. One method of using this strategy is to create an illusion of something's existence, while it does not exist. Another method is to create an illusion that something does not exist, while it does.
Adaptation:
Allow the feature of creating fake armies that cant move and disappear after a certain duration of time by using gold. The AI will try to use this feature when it is outnumbered by hostile neighbors to delay war.
7) Openly repair the gallery roads, but sneak through the passage of Chencang
Deceive the enemy with an obvious approach that will take a very long time, while surprising him by taking a shortcut and sneak up to him. As the enemy concentrates on the decoy, he will miss you sneaking up to him. This tactic is an extension of the "Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west" tactic. But instead of simply spreading misinformation to draw the enemy's attention, physical baits are used to increase the enemy's certainty on the misinformation. These baits must be easily seen by the enemy, to ensure that they draw the enemy's attention. At the same time, the baits must act as if they are meant to do what they were falsely doing, to avoid drawing the enemy's suspicion.
Adaptation: same as 5
8) Watch the fires burning across the river
Delay entering the field of battle until all the other players have become exhausted fighting amongst themselves. Then go in at full strength and pick up the pieces.
Adaptation: The description is fairly self explanatory
9) Hide a knife behind a smile
Charm and ingratiate yourself with your enemy. When you have gained his trust, move against him in secret.
Adaptation: The AI will seek to improve relations with all neighbors, even those they have plans to invade. The AI will declare war against countries if it is strategically profitable even if relations are mutually friendly.
10)Sacrifice the plum tree to preserve the peach tree
There are circumstances in which you must sacrifice short-term objectives in order to gain the long-term goal. This is the scapegoat strategy whereby someone else suffers the consequences so that the rest do not.
Adaptation: When an AI is struggling in a war, it will seek peace as soon as possible before provinces are taken. This can be done with military strength, discipline, army traditions, general pips comparisons.
11) Take the opportunity to pilfer a goat
While carrying out your plans be flexible enough to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself, however small, and avail yourself of any profit, however slight.
Adaptation: While at war, the AI will actively raid your provinces as much as is strategically advantageous.
12) Stomp the grass to scare the snake
Do something unaimed, but spectacular ("hitting the grass") to provoke a response of the enemy ("startle the snake"), thereby giving away his plans or position, or just taunt him. Do something unusual, strange, and unexpected as this will arouse the enemy's suspicion and disrupt his thinking. More widely used as "[Do not] startle the snake by hitting the grass". An imprudent act will give your position or intentions away to the enemy.
Adaptation: The AI will carry out fake invasions with high maneuver generals to gain information about how big your army is to improve its calculations.
13) Borrow a corpse to resurrect the soul
Take an institution, a technology, a method, or even an ideology that has been forgotten or discarded and appropriate it for your own purpose. Revive something from the past by giving it a new purpose or bring to life old ideas, customs, or traditions and reinterpret them to fit your purposes.
Adaptation: not sure
14) Lure the tiger off its mountain lair
Never directly attack an opponent whose advantage is derived from its position. Instead lure him away from his position thus separating him from his source of strength.
Adaptation: The AI will seek to lure your armies away from provinces with strong defense modifiers and forts with raids on provinces with less advantageous terrain,
15) In order to capture, one must let loose
Cornered prey will often mount a final desperate attack. To prevent this you let the enemy believe he still has a chance for freedom. His will to fight is thus dampened by his desire to escape. When in the end the freedom is proven a falsehood the enemy's morale will be defeated and he will surrender without a fight.
Adaptation:
-When a defending army is cornered, it should get a morale bonus.
-Pincer attacks and flanking should cause morale penalties if the defending army can retreat
-The AI should try to employ these morale bonuses and penalties
16) Tossing out a brick to get a jade gem
Bait someone by making him believe he gains something or just make him react to it ("toss out a brick") and obtain something valuable from him in return ("get a jade gem").
Adaptation:
The AI will actively try to sell unwanted provinces but will want much larger sums of money in exchange than it does currently
17) Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief
If the enemy's army is strong but is allied to the commander only by money, superstition or threats, then take aim at the leader. If the commander falls the rest of the army will disperse or come over to your side. If, however, they are allied to the leader through loyalty then beware, the army can continue to fight on after his death out of vengeance.
Adaptation:
-Add a parameter for general loyalty, add an option in espionage for bribing generals. Bribing generals will cause the entire army to defect to your side.
-The AI will actively try to bribe low loyalty generals
to be continued...
I hope that the developers will take a serious look at the stratagems (if not my suggestions, then at least another war theory book they deem worthy). Thanks ^^
source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-Six_Stratagems
1) Deceive the heavens to cross the ocean
Mask your real goals, by using the ruse of a fake goal, until the real goal is achieved. Tactically, this is known as an 'open feint': in front of everyone, you point west, when your goal is actually in the east.
Adaptation: The AI will use small stacks to raid your a province farther from the wargoal and will quickly retreat back to his own province once your army gets close. while your army pursues the smaller raiding stack, the AI will start raiding and sieging provinces closer to the wargoal.
2) Besiege Wèi to rescue Zhào
When the enemy is too strong to be attacked directly, then attack something he holds dear. Know that he cannot be superior in all things. Somewhere there is a gap in the armour, a weakness that can be attacked instead. The idea here is to avoid a head-on battle with a strong enemy, and instead strike at his weakness elsewhere. This will force the strong enemy to retreat in order to support his weakness. Battling against the now tired and low-morale enemy will give a much higher chance of success.
Adaptation:
-The AI will avoid confrontation with stronger stacks of your alliance but will try to target smaller stacks.
-Add feature where marching troops through a province lowers morale by a percentage
-The AI will actively use smaller stacks to cause you to march your army to lose morale while a larger reserve stack waits to ambush
3)Kill with a borrowed sword
Attack using the strength of another (in a situation where using one's own strength is not favourable). Trick an ally into attacking him, bribe an official to turn traitor, or use the enemy's own strength against him. The idea here is to cause damage to the enemy by getting a 3rd party to do the deed.
Adaptation: When the AI is at a disadvantage militarily against a hostile neighbor, it will prioritize using sabotage reputation/support rebels/sow discontent to weaken them. especially so if the neighbor has aggressive expansion penalty applied.
4) Wait at leisure while the enemy labors
It is an advantage to choose the time and place for battle. In this way you know when and where the battle will take place, while your enemy does not. Encourage your enemy to expend his energy in futile quests while you conserve your strength. When he is exhausted and confused, you attack with energy and purpose. The idea is to have your troops well-prepared for battle, in the same time that the enemy is rushing to fight against you. This will give your troops a huge advantage in the upcoming battle, of which you will get to select the time and place.
Adaptation: The AI will try to avoid war with a strong country with full manpower reserves and low war exhaustion. The AI will actively seek war with a country low on manpower and high in war exhaustion.
5) Loot a burning house
When a country is beset by internal conflicts, when disease and famine ravage the population, when corruption and crime are rampant, then it will be unable to deal with an outside threat. This is the time to attack. Keep gathering internal information about an enemy. If the enemy is currently in its weakest state ever, attack it without mercy and totally destroy it to prevent future troubles.
Adaptation: The AI will try to go to war with countries experiencing disasters, revolts, low legitimacy/prestige, financial troubles etc...
5) Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west
In any battle the element of surprise can provide an overwhelming advantage. Even when face to face with an enemy, surprise can still be employed by attacking where he least expects it. To do this you must create an expectation in the enemy's mind through the use of a feint. The idea here is to get the enemy to focus his forces in a location, and then attack elsewhere which would be weakly defended.
Adaptation:
-The AI will seek to use fog of war and avoid having his army seen when making maneuvers.
-The AI will raid with smaller forces with high maneuverability generals and hide larger reserves inside fog of war.
-Smaller raiding forces will try fake retreats and ambush with larger reserve force from fog of war
6) Create something from nothing
A plain lie. Make somebody believe there was something when there is in fact nothing. One method of using this strategy is to create an illusion of something's existence, while it does not exist. Another method is to create an illusion that something does not exist, while it does.
Adaptation:
Allow the feature of creating fake armies that cant move and disappear after a certain duration of time by using gold. The AI will try to use this feature when it is outnumbered by hostile neighbors to delay war.
7) Openly repair the gallery roads, but sneak through the passage of Chencang
Deceive the enemy with an obvious approach that will take a very long time, while surprising him by taking a shortcut and sneak up to him. As the enemy concentrates on the decoy, he will miss you sneaking up to him. This tactic is an extension of the "Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west" tactic. But instead of simply spreading misinformation to draw the enemy's attention, physical baits are used to increase the enemy's certainty on the misinformation. These baits must be easily seen by the enemy, to ensure that they draw the enemy's attention. At the same time, the baits must act as if they are meant to do what they were falsely doing, to avoid drawing the enemy's suspicion.
Adaptation: same as 5
8) Watch the fires burning across the river
Delay entering the field of battle until all the other players have become exhausted fighting amongst themselves. Then go in at full strength and pick up the pieces.
Adaptation: The description is fairly self explanatory
9) Hide a knife behind a smile
Charm and ingratiate yourself with your enemy. When you have gained his trust, move against him in secret.
Adaptation: The AI will seek to improve relations with all neighbors, even those they have plans to invade. The AI will declare war against countries if it is strategically profitable even if relations are mutually friendly.
10)Sacrifice the plum tree to preserve the peach tree
There are circumstances in which you must sacrifice short-term objectives in order to gain the long-term goal. This is the scapegoat strategy whereby someone else suffers the consequences so that the rest do not.
Adaptation: When an AI is struggling in a war, it will seek peace as soon as possible before provinces are taken. This can be done with military strength, discipline, army traditions, general pips comparisons.
11) Take the opportunity to pilfer a goat
While carrying out your plans be flexible enough to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself, however small, and avail yourself of any profit, however slight.
Adaptation: While at war, the AI will actively raid your provinces as much as is strategically advantageous.
12) Stomp the grass to scare the snake
Do something unaimed, but spectacular ("hitting the grass") to provoke a response of the enemy ("startle the snake"), thereby giving away his plans or position, or just taunt him. Do something unusual, strange, and unexpected as this will arouse the enemy's suspicion and disrupt his thinking. More widely used as "[Do not] startle the snake by hitting the grass". An imprudent act will give your position or intentions away to the enemy.
Adaptation: The AI will carry out fake invasions with high maneuver generals to gain information about how big your army is to improve its calculations.
13) Borrow a corpse to resurrect the soul
Take an institution, a technology, a method, or even an ideology that has been forgotten or discarded and appropriate it for your own purpose. Revive something from the past by giving it a new purpose or bring to life old ideas, customs, or traditions and reinterpret them to fit your purposes.
Adaptation: not sure
14) Lure the tiger off its mountain lair
Never directly attack an opponent whose advantage is derived from its position. Instead lure him away from his position thus separating him from his source of strength.
Adaptation: The AI will seek to lure your armies away from provinces with strong defense modifiers and forts with raids on provinces with less advantageous terrain,
15) In order to capture, one must let loose
Cornered prey will often mount a final desperate attack. To prevent this you let the enemy believe he still has a chance for freedom. His will to fight is thus dampened by his desire to escape. When in the end the freedom is proven a falsehood the enemy's morale will be defeated and he will surrender without a fight.
Adaptation:
-When a defending army is cornered, it should get a morale bonus.
-Pincer attacks and flanking should cause morale penalties if the defending army can retreat
-The AI should try to employ these morale bonuses and penalties
16) Tossing out a brick to get a jade gem
Bait someone by making him believe he gains something or just make him react to it ("toss out a brick") and obtain something valuable from him in return ("get a jade gem").
Adaptation:
The AI will actively try to sell unwanted provinces but will want much larger sums of money in exchange than it does currently
17) Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief
If the enemy's army is strong but is allied to the commander only by money, superstition or threats, then take aim at the leader. If the commander falls the rest of the army will disperse or come over to your side. If, however, they are allied to the leader through loyalty then beware, the army can continue to fight on after his death out of vengeance.
Adaptation:
-Add a parameter for general loyalty, add an option in espionage for bribing generals. Bribing generals will cause the entire army to defect to your side.
-The AI will actively try to bribe low loyalty generals
to be continued...
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