Turning Japanese

Everyone loves eastern tactica. When I think about where military strategy comes from I think of China and Japan because of the long tradition. I think there is a lot to learn from Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings. Here is my top three things and how they apply to 40k.

First up is the idea that a commanders main role and skill is in "making a monumental icon from a minuscule figure". This is my first principle. Look into the detail of things and make it work for you. For me in 40k this is two things - first points and second anticipated friction, both of which appear as ideas in earlier posts. I think if you just look at the bigger picture of units and army books you are bound to miss things, things which could win you games.

Second is the idea that you practice all of the things involved and not just the most difficult. If you just focus on complicated ideas like deployment to the detriment of things like target priority your mind will ignore simple solutions and present complex ones - and complex solutions are often fragile. The classic example is people going into autopilot for model spacing and arrangement. You need to place your special weapon and power weapon well and if there are no opposing templates a tight formation is best so why go 2" apart?

Third is the idea of "swordlessness". This means to use what you have and not over specialise into a perfect solution. You need to be familiar with your units and their ability in all capacities to do this, something I covered in my last blog post somewhat. This will win you a lot of games for two reasons - one you will see solutions even when plan A goes wrong and two you won't get mad when your units required for plan A die.

So that is it for today. I've tried to be in keeping with the tradition of eastern strategy and keep it brief but thought provoking. Next time I'll be talking about Marker Lights.

James