War of Rights – Basic Guide to Strategy in Warfare

A basic guide surrounding basic strategies in war, taking inspiration from the likes of Che Guevara, Sun Tzu, and specific historical battles.

Resources

Basics of Resource Warfare

The vital aspect of any great commander is their ability to wisely manage their resources and to not just destroy, but rather manipulate the enemy’s resources to their own advantage. An example of destruction versus manipulation is when one will use a more valuable resource to dislodge the formation of the enemy team, rather than using the formation to their own advantage.

For example, in this Chess move, you can see that the bishop can dislodge the entire structure of White’s plan, yet eliminate a vital piece in exchange for a less valuable one. Thus, once both sides are worn down to their final breath, one will realize that in reality, they have less than the enemy. Rather, take inspiration from the stratagem of Nuaym ibn Masud Al-Ghatafani during the Battle of the Trench, who tricked the enemy into believing the numbers of a certain regiment were higher than they actually were, thus leading the enemy to divert their resources away from important points. This dislodged a big formation with little resources. As Sun Tzu once said, “if we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he is sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need do is attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve”.

In summary, the central strategy to resource warfare is to avoid large-scale warfare at all costs, as it means death to the resources of both sides.

Guerilla Tactics

Another example of the small resource, big formation doctrine in warfare is in Guerilla Tactics, which have been used by everyone from Fabius Cunctator to Che Guevara. In warfare, one cannot wait for their resources to be at their culmination to strike, as each second that passes is a new casualty, a new piece of equipment destroyed, a piece of land taken, etc. The answer to Guerilla’s proposal to this issue is to use this march of time against the enemy by consistently dispatching waves of small, mobile infantries that can use petty tactics to slowly wear down the resources of larger infantries, which require more time to amass resources and to organize. Similar to a bunny using his speed to outrun a bulky, slow bear. Why devise a massive defense against the bear once it does finally reach you when one could simply ensure that it never reaches you in the first place?

An example of this rule not being followed to disastrous effect was in the Battle of Tanga, in which Commander Francis Wade Caulfeild gave the virtually unprotected city of Tanga one hour to surrender, thus allowing the city to militarize. In this scenario, resistance to striking instantaneously gave the enemy breathing room to mobilize and once Caulfeild’s army reached Tanga they were decimated, resulting in three hundred British casualties over the German one hundred and forty-seven.

Formation

Basics of Formation

Now that you understand the basics of utilizing resources, now it is time to grasp how to form those resources into usable forms. The formation of your resources should always borrow from the basics of resource warfare and tactics such as diversion and petty warfare.

There are multiple example formations you can use that align with both. For example, for petty warfare one may use two regiments at a time, each taking turns to fire and then retreating to reload, thus creating a constant bombardment on the enemy. For diversion, two infantries may consciously attempt to retreat in opposing diagonal directions from pursuing enemies, thus creating an exploitable gap in the center of the enemy formation. This tactic was used by the French in the Battle of Marne which is the map below.

These formations are quite offensive, however, and in certain cases, one must create formations that are defensive. A good defensive formation is a formation that threatens the enemy with extreme violence if an opportunity at offense is taken. For example, the Persians often placed two cavalries right behind defensive lines, thus exposing the enemy to a flank from the side if they attempted to attack said line. This defense is the image below.

Charging and Defensive Formations

The key to a successful charge is the lack of a successful defense from the enemy. If one is to charge, one must charge when the enemy is reloading or in an otherwise vulnerable position. Why this is such an opportune time is because the threat of violence central to a good defense has been neutralized by their own doing.

The second situation in which a charge is an applicable strategy is when one has the opportunity to surprise the enemy. Surprise dislodges the plans and formation of the enemy’s threat of violence.

Grand Strategy

Grand strategy is the overall scheme that those on the battlefield execute to achieve victory. If a formation is a set of resources then the grand strategy is a set of formations. Grand strategy is unique compared to other items on this guide, as opposed to other aspects of warfare which focuses on inevitabilities, grand strategy focuses on movement and change. While others focus on what to do in a specific scenario, grand strategy is how that scenario came to be.

The key to a successful grand strategy is awareness of the enemy’s reasoning for executing an action and the ability to provoke the enemy into executing an action.

For example, if you want to provoke the enemy into defense, one’s first thought would be to execute a series of organized volleys against their forces. While volleys are effective for massive, powerful blows to enemy forces, the one fallback of volleys is that the downtime in which one reloads and the commanding officer reorganizes his troops gives the enemy the time to regroup for a counter-attack. Rather, a long free fire campaign actively makes it impossible for the enemy to regroup as instead of one short burst of fire it is a maintained flurry of violence.

For offensive provocations, one might think holding defensive positions is the correct method. Yet as already established, a good defense is one that stops advance through a threat of violence. Therefore, the proper way to provoke offense is to trick the enemy into believing that you’re vulnerable. Emphasis on the trick.