Sun Tzu

Overview

The most famous book on medieval (and nowadays) warfare. But how does it apply to Age of Empires II?

Historical Background

The Art of War is a Chinese military treatise that was most likely written by Sun Tzu in the 6th century BC. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it is said to be the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time, and still one of the basic texts. The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy. It has had an influence on Eastern military thinking, business tactics, and beyond. Sun Tzu suggested the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that environment. He thought that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations.

Source

The Art of War

Deception

All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. – Sun Tzu

The most important rule on top level gaming. Make nothing appear as it is. Play tricks on the enemy. If you always play the same game over and over you’ll never make it and the enemy will know you. Do something unexpected and he’ll be forced to react. Make the enemy always think the opposite of what you’re planning to do. And this game perfectly proves this way of thinking. The game is DriNkY_T vs DauT (as L_Clan_Shmeker). DauT went for a trush and totally surrounded DriNkY_T’s economy, blending in archers to make it even worse. But DriNkY_T sent a few villagers forward early on and started to use DauT’s stone to pay for the tower defenses at home. In the meanwhile he gathered a band of scouts to raid DauT’s unprotected economy. I must be honest that I didn’t even notice this the first time I watched the game. And judging from DauT’s reaction, it was clear that he didn’t expect it either.

Aftermath: DriNkY_T lost so many villagers at home and above that, lost half of his farms to ranged enemy fire. He seemed weak and seemed to suffer the ruling of DauT, but it turned out to be the other way.

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Psychology

If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. – Sun Tzu

Between players of an equal level and especially on the highest levels, standard matches aren’t decided anymore by who has the best build up or best tactic. Expert players are so experienced that even micro isn’t much of a hassle anymore. Then what decides a top match on a standardized map? Mainly macro and reading the opponent’s mind. However, if you’re really good, you might as well toss in some psychology.

I’d like to bring up a game between RiuT and Tim, most likely the best active players at the time of writing. RiuT is a beast when it comes to resource balance and rushing on open maps. While Tim lacks a bit in this department but largely makes up with his ability to read the game and wait for the exact moment to strike. The game I’d like to share is an Aztec war, those games generally don’t stand out in originality but it’s a good portrayal of the principle I’d like to explain.

Both players decided to go for a drush + archers. However, both players did a defensive drush, just waiting for the enemy to arrive with his 5 militia. RiuT made 8 militia however and as soon as they both hit feudal, they went aggressive and Tim’s town faced 8 men at arms, while Riut only had 5 banging at his door. Since they all walled off completely, the game went into a slower pace from now on, Riut managed to sneak in some archers in early castle but Tim did everything to keep his town inside a concrete wall. This proved to be the turning point of the game. Riut had an advantage after the initial castle age raid but decided to persist. He kept making crossbows and mangonels, even though he was facing a pure mangonel defense. However, he still held an advantage and imped sooner too. But he kept banging blindly on Tim’s buildings, while Tim quietly built up an army large enough to pulverize Riut’s eagles and crossbows. As an aftermath, you could read the quote from Sun Tzu again and see how it perfectly describes the flow of the game. Apparently Tim is more knowledgeable with his fellow countryman’s literature than the temperamental Brazilian.

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Calculations

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

This site was initially built up as a reaction towards existing build orders and the way everyone just copied them to get a high rating. However, having some kind of build order is not wrong, it’s even necessary. (It is just that skill must not be mistaken by being able to copy whatever someone else does).

I’d like to give a good example of how a player made great calculations and even told his enemy he’d delete his TC once he entered the castle age. Confident about his calculations and tactic, he deleted his TC in the castle age, and won. The game was between Lahmacun and CarlosFerdinand. Both 16xx-17xx players at the time of writing. CarlosFerdinand had Byzantines and went for a flush with skirmishers and spears while Lahmacun(WhereIsMySheep) had Mayans and went for a KLEW. As promised, Lahmacun deleted his TC and won nevertheless.

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Haste

Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays. -Sun Tzu

A very common mistake is to think “I’m strong now, but my enemy isn’t attacking me, so I can grow even stronger now!”. This doesn’t mean you must storm into an enemy’s town with whatever you have, but there’s a certain balance you must abide to. I could give an example from my personal experience. I was Mayans vs Britons on a game of arena. Mayans simply rule Britons in early imp because the elite eagle upgrade is acquired much faster than the champions upgrade. Besides that I knew he was investing in his archers first. I blasted a hole in his walls but then started to hesitate and think “I could buy the upgrades for my plumed archers too and totally blast my enemy to oblivion”. This was wrong however. He kept his army as a very tight package, so whenever I tried to launch an attack, his longbowmen would outrange me. If I tried to get to the archers with my eagles, his champions were in the way. But if I launched the attack earlier, he would not have any notable counter for my eagles, and his economy would have been numbed. I lost the game because I hesitated.

However, since a game of me losing isn’t very interesting to watch I’ll share a game of DauT vs kkab in their training games for BBC2. These games are not as cutting edge as you’d expect from rated expert games but they’re still awesome nevertheless. The game is played on arena, Daut has Byzantines versus kkab’s Aztecs. Kkab decided to boom while Daut expected a monkrush and made his own monks and a stable. The hostile monks never came and he boomed instead. However, Aztecs simply outboom Byzantines, and with DauT spending resources on army first he was behind quite a bit. Daut knew the strength of early imp Aztecs (eagles) and decided to react accordingly. He put up some castles at his front and started to make cataphracts. Elite ones even.

Now you can see something that should not have happened for kkab. Despite all the advantages he lost the game to the massive cataphracts fielded by the Serbian general. cataphracts are very hard to beat by infantry based civs but they also take a long time to mass and cost fortune to upgrade. And kkab gave DauT all this time, making him lose the game. He did not abuse his early imp strength and let DauT deploy the Byzantine imperial strength.

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Conquered lands

Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy… use the conquered foe to augment one’s own strength. -Sun Tzu

Half of this one only applies  to AoC, since villagers don’t have to carry resources with them to build something, everything is taken straight out of your repository. But you can build up an economy around your enemy’s resources! A notable example that has been added to Aocbox before is the Fast Ca(stle/valry Archers) game where _DauT_ simply sent his villagers out to occupy JorDan_23′s gold with a TC.

But since we like to think out of the box, it’s also time to share a game that is played out of the box. No RM, no DM either, no Regicide, not even a King of the Hill. But Turbo RM. This game is from the ABC-Tournament finals between some quite known players. It’s just a quick and fun game but it’s a relief to see that even the greatest players do some funky stuff too. Chris lands on _DauT_’s island whereas the latter tried to catch the sea with a fast castle. The Serb took the sea but with Chris slowly expanding on his island, he soon noticed this was a dumb mistake. Chris deployed a full army and even 1/4th of his economy was on hostile ground. Despite not even reaching the imperial age, he cornered his enemy. And since villagers can’t swim away, _DauT_ offered his resignation.

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No fighting

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. -Sun Tzu

The hardest one to get and nearly impossible to achieve. This game is a game of warfare so forcing the enemy to resign without killing a single unit is quite rare. But rare doesn’t mean it can’t happen! And in fact, a rec of this has been posted here on Aocbox in the past. Even a 2K player can be forced to resign even when he hasn’t lost a single unit yet. If you have more recs where this happens, feel free to share!

Bad Neighbour JorDan_23 vs KotB| FuTuRe

Know your enemy

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. – Sun Tzu

Knowing your enemy is probably one of the most important parts of anticipation. If you’re playing vs Terror on arena while he has a monk civ, you can bet your head on it that you’ll be swarmed with wololo’s soon. And that’s what happened in this game between Terror ([RoR]Green_Day) and Wakko ([CL's]wAkKo), although the funny part is that both players know each other so well, that the anticipation takes weird forms. The game did not start out with a regular FC, but instead Wakko went archers to avoid an aggressive monkrush with castledrop from Terror. The latter saw this coming too and had a few spears and skirmishers ready to tackle Wakko’s archers and scout. Terror won the first little skirmish over the center and made his monks and siege ready for assault. Wakko had something else in mind though and launched a counter attack. Which turned out to be the right choice since Terror was obviously aiming for a FI. So now he had to pull back to secure his town instead of being able to push back Wakko. The game went on for a while but Wakko eventually picked the longest straw and could read Terror’s mind better. Making it a very sweet victory. A nice one to watch too!

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Lay of the Land

It is in the best interest of the general to understand the form of the land. – Sun Tzu

It’s possible to write a whole article about this subject, but let’s keep it short with an example. The reason monks and ranged units work so well on arena is because the map is so compact. A monk can pretty much convert every unit between your and the enemy’s wall. On mongolia on the other hand, distances are vaster. Even if you fully wall up monks and ranged units won’t be so powerful. Even if your initial push works out, he still might spread out all over the map. And the power of monks and especially archers lays in their masses. Long story short: you must study the dynamics of the map before you can decide on a tactic. A good example can be found in this Regicide Fortress game between L_Clan_Chris and L_Clan_Terran. You can see how the vastness of the fortress map (which is larger than any other 1v1 map) gave Chris all possibilities to expand his economy. Aided by goldless blacksmith upgrades, Terran’s strategy had quite a few loopholes. A very interesting game however and you might learn something new too! (Brace yourself for a dark age trush.)

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Micromanagement

Fighting with a large army under your command is nowise different from fighting with a small one: it is merely a question of instituting signs and signals. – Sun Tzu

This topic is actually too extended to be handled in one small paragraph. But it’s nice to see Sun Tzu already had a clue about micromanagement 2600 years before AoC was released. You can see various aspects of micromanagement in pretty much every expert/pro record on the box.

Macromanagement

In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack – the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle – you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination? – Sun Tzu

Technically this quote is about macromanagement of armies, but macro is used in many more aspects of the game, including economy balance and building placement. However, I got the perfect rec for you to show some nearly perfect macromanagement. The game is a 3v3 teamgame between L_Clan_Hackl, Ruso and _DauT_ on one side against L_Clan_Chris, Geek and L_Clan_2Scared on the other side. The map is unknown and resembles arabia with some very dense forest around the players’ bases. In other words, each base is easy to wall and the game is bound to end in an imperial showdown.

This proved the first difficulty for DauT’s team however: their civs are good but nothing compared to the imperial strength of Chris’ team. Spanish, Franks and Huns vs Koreans, Turks and Mayans. However, nothing is impossible if you can command your troops well and that’s exactly what happened this game. Enjoy how DauT commands the armies of himself and his teammates around the map to secure a very hard fought victory.

Even though it must be noted that some big credit must be given to Ruso too because he had to cover up for the one big mistake that DauT made. Sit back and enjoy!

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Lead the dance

The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy’s will to be imposed on him. – Sun Tzu

This one speaks for itself. If you attack first with the right units, your enemy is forced to adapt to your army. Whoever goes aggressive has the lead, it’s simple as that. Does this mean aggression always wins? No, blind aggression doesn’t win. But at one point in the game, may it be early or very late, you must take the lead and strike back. Games are barely won from a defensive position.

Don’t mistake this statement by Sun Tzu as a pledge for aggression. You can easily play from a defensive position and still master the situation. In that case it’s usually a matter of keeping cool.

The game to portray this statement is from BBC2 where poZ_Tammy and L_Clan_Alive met each other in the league stage. The game is Teutons vs Franks where Alive has to keep the French honour high. He plays an extremely defensive game with fortified walls and resource walling all over the map. In the meanwhile poZ_Tammy does a picture-perfect boom with his Teutons and goes for a very unconventional army combination. Totally ridiculing Alive’s defensive structures. Check out the rec to see how it goes!

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Unexpected

In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them. – Sun Tzu

Another great example of pulling off a very unexpected tactic. Continental is often played as a watermap, because controlling the fish heavy waters is a great advantage to hold. RiuT thus went for a grush, but DauT knew there are other ways to secure water. Or even, that there are tactics that barely need food. I’m talking about a mini monkrush with onagers of course! If there would be a top tier of civs that you should not monkrush, it would probably be Aztecs, Mayans, Britons and Teutons. RiuT was Mayans and thus had all the perfect counters to monks on his side. However, there was one little problem. DauT was in the castle age, and feudal age Mayans only have archers, which obviously die a horrible death against onagers. A short but great game! You might want to change the POV to DauT to see how he pulls it off.

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Adaptation

Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards… Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain. – Sun Tzu

The perfect example on how people stick to their tactics, no matter what. Huns rule land maps because of their good economic bonuses and their cheap cavalry archers. But what if the enemy finds a way to delay this early Hunnic advantage and makes a counter to your cavalry archers? Sure Huns still rule on landmaps, but you must adapt your tactics if your initial one failed. The best example can be found in a record that has been already posted on the Aocbox a long time ago: the game where DauT beat Chris’s Huns with Koreans. Chris kept going on stubborn with his cavalry archers and Daut had a response to them with war wagons. Nearly any Hunnic unit beats war wagons, but not cavalry archers.

But since the Aocbox likes to share new thrilling records all the time, there’s more to give than just an old example! But we will give that in the next paragraph since these two lessons of Sun Tzu are very related.

Counters

So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak. – Sun Tzu

The first basic rule of playing AoC is knowing your counters. AoC is a very big game of rock, paper, scissors. Or if you wish, rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock. Now, in relation to the saying above, let’s take the following situation in mind. You play with an overpowered civ on a certain map. Let’s say Aztecs on arena. The power of Aztecs lays in 2 units, monks and eagles. But Aztecs have so much more to offer. If you go for a very predictable boom + eagles, then your enemy can anticipate and make counter units. And then it’s your turn to adapt again.

Anyways, long story short, watch this monstrous rec between Bsk__ChunYu and L_Clan_Chris to see even Aztecs struggle on arena.

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When to strike

He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign. -Sun Tzu

I will soon demonstrate this quote by a rec, but first by another quote. One of Arch_Koven, probably one of the best, if not the best, AoC player from the early days of the game. He said “Keep attacking your enemy, but don’t lose units”. There are a lot of records spread across the site to demonstrate this and if you’re an attentive reader you’ll see that this statement is actually a part of the micro- and macromanagement of armies. But Aocbox wouldn’t be Aocbox if we didn’t have a special rec!

Aztecs vs Mayans in the imperial age is usually a rough time for the Aztecs: their eagles are inferior, their trash units are weaker and above that the only real solution they have against plumed archers are siege onagers. So what does it take? An overdose of micro and slowly killing the eagles of the enemy while staying away from those pesky plummies.

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Think out of the box

To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence. – Sun Tzu

This whole site is built around out of the box thinking, so I might as well toss in an extreme example on “how to avoid a common tactic”. In a game of islands, most players will say you must grush. Even I sometimes fall victim to that narrow-minded trap. But fortunately, you can also win with other tactics! The game is once more between Tim and RiuT, facing off in a Spain war on islands. Dare to think out of the box and avoid the grush!

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Or for those who can’t view recorded games at the moment: a special YouTube commentary for this game!

Be a great person

If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete. – Sun Tzu

A little bit of moral to end this lengthy essay. There are many 2K players that will sure beat a lot of people, but won’t be remembered. Even amongst top players there’s a huge difference in being a great player or not. The difference is in being a great person too. If you flame and argue with everyone without showing any respect,you will not be remembered later on. This game is a game amongst people, not the greatest player will be remembered, nor the greatest person, but the greatest mix of those.

Written by Cysion

  • Wololo

    thanks a lot for these wonderful articles and recs.

  • DeadN00b

    How does one Dark Age Trush? I can’t seem to build towers in Dark Age.

    • Stryker

      If you start with towers (fortress, MegaRandom etc.), you can build more of them in dark age.

  • NaSH

    So, why you go grush then on maps like islands or continental, only to kill enemys fishing boats or to have sea control…?
    Because enemy can fc, build fire ships and totally kil your galleys.
    Or the enemy just go to your island and trush your unprotected economy.
    And grush really slows down your castle age time…

  • sfsd

    Awesome man you rock !!

    Keep up the great work really nice recs!!

  • Age2player

    Very interesting, to think a Chinese strategist had this sort of relevancy, I just found yet another reason for why I rank Chinese among my top 5.

    Also, Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock? I certainly didn’t expect finding a reference to “The Big Bang Theory” on a site dedicated to “out of the box thinking” for an RTS game.

    I literally LOVE “TBBT”, it is without a doubt the most hilarious of modern TV comedy, I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet.

    • GntlMn

      +1000 :D I like that show.

      • Age2player

        Really? Awesome.
        What’s your favorite episode? mine is the one where Sheldon has to meet for the traffic court, mainly becuase of Raj’s musical shirt.

  • Alexius

    Please, clarify further the matters of winning without fight!

  • Skanderbeg

    L_Clan_Terran aka rd_champion. And congratulations Cysion ;)

  • binh-an aka Viet_LovEr

    My eyes are slaves of your words…

    Great article and writing skillz. The recorded games attached are a perfect match.
    If you havent so far, you should make a living out of writing (articles).

    Keep up the great work!

  • AlexSupertramp

    Great recording! Great article!

  • DOOMPHANTS

    Great Recorded Game! :D
    The youtube one I have trouble downloading and viewing recorded games so this was one game I could watch and it was great. Thanks!

  • _II_Ice_II

    “Deception” works, i tried it on some one and it worked

  • Landsknetch

    Lol’d at the rock paper scissors lizard spock

  • andy

    wow, really, really nice.

  • RaysiA_

    Damn you should get nobel price for Literature!
    Apart from my dumb jokes, You are a hell of Expert!
    I’m sure, many experts know many tricks and shit but sharing is where you stand on top of ‘em!

    *Super Thanks*

    • http://www.youtube.com/user/MrDanish177 MrDanish177

      +1

    • Wurstigkeit

      I am reading this again and again and it’s still interesting to read.
      The Aoc Prize for Literature should definitely go to Cysion :D

      • http://www.youtube.com/user/MrDanish177 MrDanish177

        I’ll force him to make a badge for himself that says “Winner of the AoC Prize for Literature 2011″ :b

  • Lyndon

    Read, and watched every article. Very impressive. We need more AOC sites like this!

  • http://YouTube.com/user/MrDanish177 MrDanish177

    Your articles are fantastic! Truely admirable!

  • WhereIsMySheep

    Awesome article:) I enjoy so much reading your writings, thxx a lot Cysion.. And they are all very very good quality recs, I am never disappointed by watching recs chosen by you.
    Sun Tzu , rest in peace. AoC is grateful to you=]

  • _MariaN_

    Great Job thx.

  • http://dabaobar.dyndns-at-home.com/ Dabao the Chinese

    Awesome, TOTALLY!