Good evening. I think some Sun Tzu's philosophies great applied to this kind of game like "The outcome of the battle (war in the original) is known knowing the method, the time, the leadership, the terrain and the rules." I wrote "battle" because I think wars extend for a long time and because of other parameters are involved like alliances for example, economy, logistics, etc. Another one that I like a lot is: "know thyself and your enemy, and you are going to win two battles; Know thyself but not your enemy, and you will have a win and a loss. Know neither thyself and your enemy, and you always going to lose." What are your favorite quotes? 

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

I guess this is the easiest one : "si vis pacem para bellum"

I dont agree with this statement because diplomacy can break a faction or a country. For example, when I used to play Total War: Three Kingdoms, I had the faction with the highest amount of food and I was always making trading it to get a lot of money from the most dangerous faction and the others while I only provided enough food for my main enemy - the one with the highest amount of money  - to survive but drastically reducing his potential to create new armies. Meanwhile I still had a lot of food and much money from all the trades. 

I guess this statement can be understood not only on a military level, but on all the others levels too : economic, diplomatic, cultural and so on.

I mean, it's just a matter of where you put your strenghth on, and how you can counter/block your opponent, or at least, prevent him from brutally attacking you (which you described in your example).

Иногда нужно проиграть в битве, что бы выиграть в войне! 

kaspersky wrote:

Иногда нужно проиграть в битве, что бы выиграть в войне! 

"Inogda nuzhno proigrat' v bitve, chto by vyigrat' v voyne!"

If Google translate works well, it should mean : Sometimes you need to lose the battle to win the war!

"The God of war hates those who hesitate" is my favorite war quote. In short it says that in war there is no room for second guesses.

Sun Tzu's Art of War applies really well to 4X, and strategy games in general. My favorites have to be those along the lines of "Appear stronger when you are weaker," meaning if you are lagging behind, you should at least make sure the enemy would hesitate attacking, create a visibility of a great army when there barely is one, and I think there was "Appear weaker when you are stronger" I think at least there is, to bait the opponent into attacking you in a battle where you have advantage.

kaspersky wrote:

Иногда нужно проиграть в битве, что бы выиграть в войне! 

Почему ты считаешь, что участники этого форума обязаны понимать русский язык?

Salterius wrote:

Sun Tzu's Art of War applies really well to 4X, and strategy games in general. My favorites have to be those along the lines of "Appear stronger when you are weaker," meaning if you are lagging behind, you should at least make sure the enemy would hesitate attacking, create a visibility of a great army when there barely is one, and I think there was "Appear weaker when you are stronger" I think at least there is, to bait the opponent into attacking you in a battle where you have advantage.

Yeah this is similar to my fav Sun Tzu quote which goes along the lines of "The epitome of strategy approaches the formless, if I can discern the layout of my enemy's forces while keeping my own a secret then i can attack where he is weak."

Definitely applies to 4x games but then again so does Machiavelli.. 

There is obviosly a lot in Sun Tzu´s work that works in 4X games. However things like the nine situations are hardly well simulated in 4X-games. 

Morale/loyalty and support/supply was a big contributor to victory or loss in times of old. Sun Tzu knew that a good general should foster loyalty to his advantage and if that fails will put his soldiers to situations where failure or fleeing is not posssible.

Simulating something like this could be interesting. For example Paradox games try to simulate it, but morale seems to work more like different hit points. In Imperator Rome they tried to simulate loyalty, but there it also a bit lacking, as it is basicly a timer to civil war, which affects very little actual gameplay as in making generals or their loyal troops better than unloyal troops.

Garithosthefirst wrote:

Yeah this is similar to my fav Sun Tzu quote which goes along the lines of "The epitome of strategy approaches the formless (...)

  Good evening people. What does this epitome statement mean?

"Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt."