Sun Tzu and You

I have played strategy games for as long as I can remember. I have, however, been playing Sins of a Solar Empire for only a few weeks. The vanilla versions are great, but the game is taken to such a higher level with the amazing quality of mods this community has developed; my hat is off to all of you.

Whenever I pick up a new strategy game, I tend to take a good while getting used to the game mechanics before experimenting with strategy. Sometimes strategies in rock-paper-scissor type games can be counter-intuitive; Sins, however, can be dealt with in a more familiar fashion.

After noticing general trends for success against multiple Unfair AIs, my strategies started to take on more coherent form. I began to note that many of the strategies sounded familiar, so I broke open my old and aging copy of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Although a great deal of the philosophy applies only to warfare in the ancient world, a good deal is abstract and can be applied to the modern world (and by extension, Sins of a Solar Empire).

Presented below are a few excerpts (that which is italicized) from Sun Tzu’s work, translated by Gary Gagliardi, followed by a few words of my own to explain how one may implement the wisdom to Sins of a Solar Empire. Since some strategies are particular to the game itself and have little in relation to Sun Tzu’s work, I have a final section that offers a few extra bits of advice. Most of these strategies are geared towards online play against real players—for instance, it is tough to entice an AI away from a stronghold, but easier to do so with a real player; keep this in mind.

Please, by all means add to (and critique if you desire) anything you feel is worth mentioning or clarifying. If the information is well presented and thought out, I will edit the original post to make your addition known and properly credited.

The Nature of War

Warfare is one thing.

It is a philosophy of deception.

When you are ready, you try to appear incapacitated.

When active, you pretend inactivity.

When you are close to the enemy, you appear to be distant.

When far away, you pretend you are near.

If the enemy has a strong position, entice him away from it.

If the enemy is confused, be decisive.

If the enemy is solid, prepare against him.

If the enemy is strong, avoid him.

If the enemy is angry, frustrate him.

If the enemy is weaker, make him arrogant.

If the enemy is relaxed, make him work.

If the enemy is united, break him apart.

Attack him when he is unprepared.

Leave when he least expects it.

You will find a place where you can win.

You cannot first signal your intentions.

This is perhaps the toughest thing to accomplish in Sins. There are so many techs your enemy can research to have knowledge of your whereabouts that it is tough to mask your intentions. The easiest way around this is to always keep your fleets mobile and at the very least hunt down (or convert them if you play Advent) scouts ruthlessly. Keep your enemy guessing, hesitant, and doubtful.

Keeping your enemy stationary is not always to your advantage—of course, if the only option for attack is a chokepoint, you have little choice in the matter. The main point to drive home is this: you want to play your opponent as if you were playing chess against yourself. Although the other side can still harm your pieces, you want to be in control of the other side’s movements as much as possible—in short, influence enemy fleets to move as if they were entirely under your control.

Going to War

[If you] manage a dull army,

You will suffer sharp defeats;

Drain your forces.

Your money will be used up.

Your rivals will multiply as your army collapses and they will begin against you.

It doesn’t matter how smart you are—

You cannot get ahead by taking losses!

In the early game, this is key! Every ship counts. Let me repeat that, EVERY ship counts, no matter how cheap. If your reaction to a lost ship is simply, ‘oh well, I’ll just create another one,’ you are already losing. Every ship you create should be made with the direct result being an addition to your fleet, not a replacement. If you notice that your opponent is sloppy with his fleet, take advantage of it: focus on out-producing every ship your opponent recreates in replacement.

Planning an Attack

Make good use of war.

You can do this fighting only minor battles.

You can draw their men out of their cities (planet strongholds).

You can do it will small attacks.

You can destroy the men of a nation.

You must keep your campaign short.

Enjoy moving every bleedin’ ship you have in one massive, awe- and fear-inspiring fleet? Break the habit. You cannot hope to chase down stragglers of enemy fleets without, usually, opening yourself to attack at your flank (leaving a phase lane open to a vital, vulnerable planet, for instance). You must, must create strike forces (to be discussed later) to move in, harass (wasting time, resources, and attention of the enemy), and disrupt your opponent with divine retribution.

You must use total war, fighting with everything you have.

Never stop fighting when at war.

You can gain complete advantage.

To do this, you must plan your strategy of attack.

The rules for making war are:

If you outnumber the enemy forces ten to one, surround them.

If you outnumber them five to one, attack them.

If you outnumber them two to one, divide them.

If you are equal, then find an advantageous battle.

If you are fewer, defend against them.

If you are much weaker, evade them.

For Christ’s sake, would you divide your fleets, already? This can be tough to accomplish in a multiplayer game when you cannot pause the game for everyone for your convenience, but get used to it. Multiple, smaller fleets allows you to be incredibly flexible. Even if you are moving all of your forces into an enemy’s well defended chokepoint, you want your forces divided into several fleets (aim for 2-4). To what end, you ask?

1. With several fleets, it is easier to sandwich and surround the enemy fleet. Now, I know you cannot make the enemy’s units panic like in real life, but it still has a use here. Namely, if you don’t know which direction the enemy may retreat to, you have placed guns around all possible flanks—to whichever direction the enemy retreats, you will have afforded your units longer, sustained fire upon your foes.
2. With several fleets, you can send one off during the fight to destroy logistical targets with the benefits being twofold: (I) In the event that you need to retreat, you will have set your enemy back a ways and furthered his insatiable desire to concentrate more resources upon defending that planet (leaving other systems more vulnerable to attack). (II) As the fight drags on, the enemy may be pumping out high-tech units to reinforce or replace units lost… how can he do this if you’ve just destroyed several key research plants?
3. With several fleets, in the event of an enemy retreat, you can send some fleets in pursuit, with others remaining behind to attack another adjoining system, defend the newly gained system, or fall back to where you attacked from.

The point is, with more fleets moving around, especially fleets of differing composition, if your opponent is scouting (and you should always assume the player can see everything you do) you will render his “intelligence” unintelligible.

You must know [four] things to win:

Victory comes from knowing when to attack and when to avoid battle.

Victory comes from correctly using both large and small forces.

Victory comes from everyone sharing the same goals.

Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems.

You must know these [four] things.

You then know the theory of victory.

We say:

“Know yourself and know your enemy.

You will be safe in every battle.

You may know yourself but not know the enemy.

You will then lose one battle for every one you win.

You may not know yourself or the enemy,

You will then lose every battle.”

The above two paragraphs are fairly straightforward—just more food for thought.

Positioning

Learn from history of successful battles.

You first actions should deny victory to the enemy.

You pay attention to your enemy to find the way to win.

You alone can deny victory to the enemy.

Only your enemy can allow you to win.

You must fight well.

You can prevent the enemy’s victory.

You cannot win unless the enemy enables your victory.

You see the opportunity for victory; you don’t create it.

You must defend yourself well.

Save your forces and dig in.

You must attack well.

Move your forces when you have a clear advantage.

You must always protect yourself until you can completely triumph.

The bits above pretty much just reinforce what has already been said.

Win as easily as picking up a fallen hair.

Don’t use all of your forces.

See the time to move.

Don’t try to find something clever.

Hear the clap of thunder.

Don’t try to hear something subtle.

Generally, every stupid little “what if” that passes through your head is time lost that you could be making a sound decision. Keep a cool head; don’t overextend yourself; don’t gamble your gigantic fleet on small game; find an opportunity and seize it. Make your victory a matter of fact and your opponent’s fault.

You win a war by first assuring yourself of victory.

Only afterward do you look for a fight.

Outmaneuver the enemy before the first battle and then fight to win.

Momentum

It is the same in all battles.

You use a direct approach to engage the enemy.

You use surprise to win.

You fight with momentum.

There are only a few types of surprises and direct actions.

Yet you can always vary the ones you use.

There is no limit to the ways you can win.

A hawk suddenly strikes a bird.

Its contact alone kills the prey.

This is timing.

Your must fight only winning battles.

Your momentum must be overwhelming.

Your timing must be exact.

You’ve just utterly destroyed an enemy fleet and demolished his stronghold—do not sit there and twiddle your thumbs while you get x, y, z tactical or logistical structure in place—stick a red-hot poker in his wound and show your enemy the meaning of pain!

You have strengths and weaknesses.

These come from your position.

You must force the enemy to move to your advantage.

Use your position.

The enemy must follow you.

Surrender a position.

The enemy must take it.

You can offer an advantage to move him.

You can use your men (fleet) to move him.

You can use your strength to hold him.

Create a juicy target for your enemy. You want the system to be relatively undefended, but not a ghost town. The enemy must think that you simply have not been paying attention to this little jewel, or that you’ve been too busy to pour resources into it—let him scheme.

(After further discussion of this tactic, Volt_Cruelerz makes the point that this "juicy target" can be anything you can tempt your enemy into pursuing [ei. a damaged fleet with/out a bleeding capital ship]) See reply #4 for details.

Draw out his fleet to this ripe system of yours; wait until he has moved a fair amount away from his retreating phase lane; quickly reinforce the system with one fleet to be positioned at his escape route; then follow with another to start laying in a beating. Boom, bam, trapped. (Now that you’ve taken out a significant chunk of his fleet, use your momentum to assault the position he came from!)

The easiest way to accomplish a tactic like this is a clever use of Phase Stabilizers playing the Vasari.

Be subtle! Be subtle!

Arrive without any clear formation.

Ghostly! Ghostly!

Arrive without a sound.

You must use all your skill to control the enemy’s decisions.

You must keep the place that you have chosen as a battle ground a secret.

The enemy must not know.

Force the enemy to prepare his defense in many places.

You want the enemy to defend many places.

Then you can choose where to fight.

His forces will be weak there.

If he reinforces his front lines, he depletes his rear.

If he reinforces his rear, he depletes his front.

If he reinforces his right flank, he depletes his left.

If he reinforces his left flank, he depletes his right.

Without knowing the place of attack, he cannot prepare.

Without knowing the right place, he will be weak everywhere.

Sun Tzu hit the nail on the head here—no further explanation seems necessary.

Thus concludes the excerpts from The Art of War. Now, I’ll mention a few tips that come readily to mind.

The Key to Success: A Robust Trading Economy, and Denying the Same to Your Foe 

Once you’ve charted a good deal of the map, you need to start thinking of where to place your trading posts (TPs). Placing TPs anywhere and everywhere is inefficient and directly detrimental. It’s well known that the way to get the most out of your trade is to create the longest chain possible—this is where you can dupe yourself. You can in fact force the game engine into picking a route that is shorter than planned if you do not place your TPs strategically.

Don’t believe me? Create a game against an Easy AI on a huge map to give yourself room to play with. Place TPs around to start a chain. Then, with the Qs, A, and Bs representing planets and Xs empty space with no phase lanes across it, find a cluster of planets that fits a similar scenario:

Q-X-Q

Q-X-Q

Q-A-Q

B-B

If you were to place TPs on all Qs, Bs, and the A, the game engine would actually discount an extra phase lane to be gained in the “longest chain”. Therefore, you actually gain more from having TPs on all planets but A, with the extra TP placed on one of the remaining planets. I don’t know how to explain this better at the moment, so just play around in-game to see what I’m talking about.

Now that you understand how to get the most out of your supply chain, it’s time to start taking notice of where your enemy is likely holding his longest chain. Quickest and most efficient way of cutting down the chain-benefit for him? Find the centermost planet in his chain and use a strike force to blow up any and all TPs in the system.

The absolute best time to accomplish this is while you have his main attention focused on your big-daddy fleet. That way, you cut down on his incoming resources to replenish his decaying fleets while at the same time forcing him to spend more resources and time getting the chain back up AND forcing him to keep an eye on two fronts (or more if possible) while you micromanage the main battle and outmaneuver like a fiend.

Strike Forces—akin to tossing bubble gum in your opponent’s hair

Aside from primary blows you’re throwing with your big-daddy fleets, small, strategic strike forces will function beautifully to harass your enemy. They require mobility, range, and protection. So… what should be the general make-up of a strike force?

Of course, what constitutes your personal strike forces will vary game to game, player to player, and situation to situation. A general strike force, however, will mostly consist of light carriers and flak units to protect them. That’s it. You see, the point of the strike force is not to completely take a system, but to destroy strategic targets (like disrupting trade chains or taking out research plants) and/or to generally annoy and confuse your opponent.

What mix of fighters and bombers is preferable? Fighters are excellent for only one thing and one thing only: denying yourself another squadron of bombers. They are utterly worthless (fighters have their place, don't get me wrong; but I find them a waste of space for strike force operations). “But they protect my bombers and kill the bombers of the enemy!” you may exclaim. But that’s where you’ve gone all wrong. You see, you can manually dock your bombers before phasing in. Without any strike-craft of your own to target, enemy fighters and bombers move in towards your strike force—with your plethora of flak ships waiting.

Once their squadrons are reasonably beaten down, undock all bombers and concentrate firepower on your target of choice. Once the job’s done, retreat; let your enemy rebuild, and rinse-repeat. Of course, if you have the option, don’t attack the same system repeatedly: spread out your harassment.

Remember the words of Sun Tzu:

You want the enemy to defend many places.

Then you can choose where to fight.

His forces will be weak there.

Furthermore, if you notice that further into the enemy’s territory his planets are relatively undefended, move your strike force toward connecting phase lanes while you take out your strategic targets; when then job’s done, jump deeper into his territory (preferably toward areas without factories to pump out fresh resistance) and continue the process of going deeper and deeper. You’ll scare the hell out of your opponent! Sure, it’s likely a suicide run, but if it gets his big-daddy fleet moving in a way that’s advantageous to your big-daddy fleet whilst costing him time/attention/resources, then you’ve successfully thrown a giant wad of gum in your enemy’s hair.

Alright… that’s all I can think of for now. I’ll add things as they come to mind. Again, input and critique are most welcome.

Cheers!