The Art of Deception

Editorial by Bjorn O'Donnel

The art of deception -  by Bjorn Tzu (June 2017)

Lets start this lesson in strategy by using a quote of the grandmaster himself: 

Sun Tzu, also sometimes written as Sun Zi, was a decorated Chinese general and military strategist. 
His most influential work consists out of ' The Art of War', a brilliant piece of military strategy that has affected both Western and Eastern philosophy deeply. His masterpiece still influences many people in different aspects of society, including politics, culture, business and modern warfare.

It is out of this book, that I would like to present a certain strategy that has become increasingly popular in this modern era, called ' The Art of Deception'. 

Sun Tzu understood that fooling the enemy and giving them a false sense of security and confidence was key to many battles. 

One should not show their real strength until the time to fight has arrived. Some things are very hard to conceal, so therefore easy to detect. This creates the need for something extra, which is the role of deception.

It is not possible to simply not show yourself to the enemy, so the best option is to show a shell of yourself, something that the opponent expects to see and likes to believe. 

A crucial part to this strategy is to know your own strengths and realize that if the opponent is superior, you should evade him. 

Secondly, take advantage of the weak. Don't give them a chance to recover or strengthen themselves. Crush the weak as soon as you can and reap the benefits from your victory.

Keep in mind that you can find ways to spot the weak enemies and roll them over. When in a battle, every large deception you make is built on every smaller deception you already created before. Making your opponent feel just strong enough to think they have a chance to beat you is crucial to make sure that they will actually engage in battle.

By putting together crushing victories without many losses over weak foes, you can easily maintain your dominance on a global level and put fear into others, all by using the simple art of deception. 

______

Because the theory is often easier to comprehend when put into practice, I will go on by describing a real situation where a master of deception is using his knowledge of Sun Tzu's strategy in real life fights.

One of the world's leading commanders is a brilliant youngster from the East End of London, district Bow. 
None other in the history of mankind has been able to so successfully use the trickery of ' The Art of Deception' to establish himself as a household name on the international battlefields. His successes have earned him the nickname ' Young Bernie', after Bernard Montgomery himself. 

Very few commanders in history have been able to spread out their soldiers throughout the world so much to pick out the weak opponents as 'Young Bernie' has been able to do, without many even realizing it. He is without a doubt a masterful commander, who knows better than anyone before how to make sure that he loses as few wars as possible.  
At one point in time, he even came up with a brilliant idea, creating a battlefield, 100% controlled by himself, letting his strong armies fight his weak ones, to boost the records of his strong ones even more. This clever strategy has produced some of the highest-esteemed warriors in the world. 

This might come across as a brilliant idea and the key to his success, but that is not the case. The real brilliance lies in his masterful collection of overpowered mercenaries that were without a warlord. 

Via rigorous scouting, he has been able to recruit some of the world's best mercenaries, coming from legendary armies that had been disbanded.

Just to be clear, this strategy can only work when you let your warriors go to battle on some non-elite battlefields, as otherwise your opponents will not be weak enough to have the success that you are aiming for.

Sometimes numbers speak volumes, so therefore I have created a small schedule about 4 of his latest acquisitions.

The above scheme shows 4 beastly warriors and the opponents they faced, or going to face,  after having joined their new commander.   Their own records show what a successful soldiers they are, as they have won 82% of their battles, a highly respectable number.  'Young Bernie', masterfully using the art of deception has found some weak enough opposition for them to face, having a combined win percentage of 56%, what puts them far below average. 

All these warriors have been rated according to their main skills and the green bars show where Young Bernie his warriors have an advantage. The red bars are the rare occasions where he does not hold the advantage. One can see that he has been a very good student, but might need a little more work to refine his strategy, as it is unacceptable that an opponent holds a small visible skill advantage over his warrior, being the opponent of Al Khaldi. One can hardly be considered a master of deception when such mistakes are made, so therefore Young Bernie will have to wait longer for sure before being a contender for the title of 'master'.

On a small side note, it must be said that he has been able to select some foes with the weakest protection against heavy blows to face his hard hitting monsters.  

I would rate Young Bernie a B- for his use of Sun Tzu his famous strategy ' Art of Deception'.  

He clearly has put a lot of effort and time into his strategy, but lacks refinement and finesse. 

- Bjorn Tzu ( June 2017) - 

Article views: 60
» Donate to this author