Psychological Warfare

Le Wulf

Psychological Warfare

Foreword

First off I am writing this here so I can see it in 'forum form' then will transfer a polished version onto Art of War.

I also post here because this is the Strategy Discussion area - I used to post Art of War stuff on General Discussion but makes more sense to post it here.

Some of what will be written here has been said before and others bits may not have been..

It is a very large subject and the difficulty is in what order to put things and how to keep it in a condense form. If I was a decent drawing person it would probably be easier for me to draw lots of pictures with little foot notes, but alas one is not so will try to keep it simple. (if you have seen my entry into the community competition in fan Creations you will be pleased I have not tried to draw pictures in this part)

I have been meaning to post this up for quite some time but have not attempted it in the past - least under this heading.

An expert who likes to define things (overly much) may decide that this is not strictly Psychological Warfare - well to me it is defined that way for internal auditing and referencing and if you disagree well call it what you will for easier referencing for yourself. (for example you could call it 'Carebear stare' if you so wish).

Where to begin is the big question. You are probably aware of my not so humble beginnings in Battle Pirates - due to amount of times I use it as an example when a player decides to say how 'unfair' the game is. If you are aware of this then just skip the next bit and wait patiently for Part Two.

Part one

Revenge Raid 2:

The time is Revenge Raid 2 I was very much a newbie and this was the first Raid I was aware of (apparently I was about in RR1 - the very first raid - but I do not recall that and as someone said I probably did not know what was going on. Which is a good point of accuracy because getting the ship out onto the map I often saw as a victory in itself (simple mind and simple things go hand in hand).

RR2 has maybe a day or couple days to start and relocate is in operation when a sizable alliance comes in. The comms are filled with them chattering and not really allowing others to use them - this being the time of just one comms and very limiting, especially with no message system at that time - the new arrivals  were a strong force and to me it was clear they were not in 225 to be playing nicely despite what they said about arriving to 'help' the sector.
Initially they were hitting the other sectors (at this point I was kinda vaguely aware of sectors and was mainly happily hitting my neighbours in 225 who had hit me first).
The coords of 226 were being posted and a lot of chatter which seemed to me a bit too much for show. - others may have disagreed at that time but time told very clearly that I was right.

They could have used private message system/FB group or whatever but they wanted to be seen as both helpful and formidable at the same time. You  can often see a similar thing going on in sector comms, posed as if it was general conversation but in reality just the people concerned bragging, boasting trying to get the local population to believe they are in fact wonderful - as well as a kind of threat to anyone who may disagree with them in future.

Fast forward and I am SOS / KOS 'Sink on Sight' / 'Kill on Sight'. They had managed to twist a number of things around and made all the big tough guys of 225 with their big tough guy words into quiet little mice as well as the other alliances. (this was long before Alliances had an official feature in game).
Lies, slander and BS were flung at me from every direction and not using my intelligence I can safely say I actually lost my temper out of frustration.
This being a game with so limited a form to communicate with people and it being a very much level based game (back then), I could not rely on my dig in and fight mentality as that was pointless especially as I am armed with long boat and marauders and the enemy armed with all sorts and in huge numbers. To top it all I managed to get myself put on /ignore by a good number of the sector.

I am a strong believer in stating what is wrong to shape a better community/future and many other people are strong believers in keeping there heads down and taking any silver thrown in their direction. unless they find something more solid to 'stand on'.
So there is Wulf a low level with zero back up while they had more than a few collaborators held in good standing and the person negotiating for 225 is nothing more than a traitor as he was a sycophant happy to sell everyone out and there self respect. Something I made sure never to do,f or better or for worse in 225.  It sickened me how 225 allowed itself to be negotiated in such a way by this 'person'.

To review :
An alliance comes in with the olive branch and takes out the 'enemies of 225' while also disrupting all communication between 225 players. After establishing dominance of the communication system they then start isolating players with veiled threats or 'misunderstandings' to which those players comply and are back in the happy seats with this new force. The 'strongest alliance of 225 ' somehow manages to get itself attacked by them (the new arrivals) and the sycophant known as Dive Pirate comes in and negotiates a peace.
The new force has for all intents and purposes taken over 225 and made everyone duck there heads and peer from beneath their blankets and hope they are not targeted. - with exception to yours truly.

Naturally despite being a very low level I managed to make myself KOS and a large number of the locals of 225 wish I would just fall in and kiss arse. I also earned a good number of /ignores.

A lot happened during that raid, I stood my ground while others did not. I very nearly quit the game and I repeat I was angry. This was not me being a rage monkey they had genuinely managed to offend me as a person. and this being the level based game and my very limited PVP exsperience in BP I actually thought I could not win and that really peeved me off.
They really went to town on what I would consider unacceptable behaviour and comments.

How do you fight a force so powerful they came in out of the blue and used a few loose connections from before to first build trust and then dominate everything?
how do you fight them as an individual surrounded now by hostiles and sideline neutrals?

Just a note here : This was the only time in Battle Pirates I felt near defeated.

I had to think very hard, for better or for worse I cannot surrender even when another part of me is screaming inside saying back down stop aurrender! There is a part that does not and that part upsets an awful lot of people. - do not take that as bravery I think it is a genetic flaw.

I went through everything they had done and said in my mind there had to be a weakness there had to be something I could outdo them with. How could I outsmart them using their own weapon but without force. I spent hours literally just recalling mentally what had happened and letting the brain do its job of working things out while another part discounts some things and puts other ideas on the 'good pile'. I knew the main weaknesses of the sector and that was the people on comms before the New Arrivals came.

Then the visions became clearer and I got my trademark grin on my face. The plan laid itelf out before me just as it had done many times before outside of this particular arena.

The key was secrecy but with only one comms which they can see and dominate at will with local backing I had to be very crafty.

Using Disadvantage for Advantage...

The Delta Agenda

The enemy was arrogant they came in with arrogance and force and they had succeeded....for a short while.
I was seen now as the sector fool, the one who is not in the 'allowed circle' of 225. Very few people (if any) were comfortable in even saying hello to me.

This was a good thing, because it means I can be seen as an 'idiot' while building the foundation of what was to come. (Look up on Claudius it can be a huge advantage to be seen as very stupid).

Initially to communicate I used Morse Code on the comms. The New Arrivals (whom I shall now call The Undesirables) thought at least on the surface that I was goofing off on comms just spamming them with ... and --- in various combos. And so did the locals of 225 with exception to the ones I needed on side. The ones who knew Morse Code / Military chaps. I would occasionally throw curve balls and just plant gibberish of random dee's and dar's.

When a member of the Undesirables would ask "what are you doing?" I would reply "Nothing for you to worry about " And generally ignored them other than that.
Everytime I said that they seemed to go quieter.

What was the Morse Code?
Sometimes it was directions to a site with an additional code on it could be a completely random forums or just a visual. So those with a braincell would get an idea that I was coming and I was not mucking about.
Mostly it was vague references directly into the comms.

You may see the picture of Gandhi in my avatar, he was mentioned in them regularly. If he was a militant person he would have been a truly terrifying figure the world is lucky he was a good man.
Although the film take some liberties and outright lies (for example it is mentioned he has been celebate most his life which is not true the guy was very randy) it is a good artistic representation of him as a person. I urge people to read up on him and see what a real stubborn chap can achieve.

The people who understood the Delta Agenda knew that when the time came not to oppose my 'ideas' on comms but to quietly embrace them with a little bit of support when needed - not much as I wanted to get the sector on board not just the few,.

Timing in crowd psychology is everything, you want to build it up like an orchestral piece as water to the dam.  When it is ready to burst you pull the dam away and let the full force of the water through to its objective and it will hit it so hard all you have to do is sit back and watch it play itself out to the path you have created before it.

 But first there was much work to be done in gaining a hostile sector's trust.
The key justification of The Undesirables was that they were here to help against the other sector.
A very noble cause that is too - even if it was one I disagreed with completely because the other sector in my experience was not much of a threat, prior to the Undesirables arrival I was being attacked by my neighrbous and people fought regularly each other and if you didnt have anyone 'vouch' for you on comms you could be farmed a ton.
BUT the Undesirables had used my 'hey people can do what they like in this game' against me initially to gain easy points against me with the crowd.

So I became what I know and called it Tactical Recon. I was now a Tactical Recon unit.
There was no more trolling or silliness from me, I had to put my mischevious and playful nature to a greater cause....The Unification of sector 225.

As Tactical Recon, my mission was simple : I do not hit in sector no matter what. No member of 225 regardless of what they do or say to me will be threatened or attacked by me. But more importantly anyone in 225 who is attacked from outside the sector will have my support both in defence and offence.

The Undesirables tried to bait me a number of times but I was not going to get side tracked I simply answered very straight. 'I am Tactical Recon my mission objectives do not allow me to fight in the sector' or 'This does not benefit 225' and other such phrases. I took a large part of my personality out and was a very straight TR Unit. Several joined up liking the idea (even if it was strange me going against my very nature of playing Battle Pirates in the first place, but this was War and I intended to win).

The enemy at this point was not 224 or 226 the enemy were The Undesirables and I would defeat them non violently.

 Tactical Recon got farmed sometimes by the Undesirables and sometimes by the locals but we remained true to our orders and did not retaliate or complain.

Eventually The Undesirables moved on and I was now on somewhat stable ground.

The problem before was the enemy had been able to dominate the communication system and 225 as a sector was not united in any way. This was not helped by the 'big levels' not providing any advice and shouting down anyone who asked for it ie 'we learned the hard way so you can too!' and other stupid remarks.
225 also did not really identify itself as a sector, sure people knew they were in 225 and were loosely associated with each other but nothing solid.

226 used to mine in 225, so they had to be removed every time they were on 225 mines, sometimes took me all my fleets to sink one of there miners but I did it and gradually others did the same seeing 225 waters as their waters as members of 225.
The borders being established solidified the identity of 225.

Now to start forming it into a fighting force.

225 Strike Force News

I had to think on the name carefully, first we need to identify it for the sector and to make it official sounding.
There was a sector group before it had 7 people in it and was very exclusive and did next to **** all from what I could tell. When I asked about a sector group before the same big mouths/ big levels as usual said 'there is one find it yourself'.
Well it was about time I made one then for people to communicate outside the main comms, and for us to tell people of what we were doing to the enemy and post bases up and other helpful little things. Wasn't that nice of me, to think of a nice thing for the sector.

Anyways I got the name 225 strike Force News, first is for a collective identity that included as many people as possible, '225' then something punchy that sticks in the mind 'Strike Force' But without making people feel obligated to do something, I wanted them to get the information build up there confidence see themselves as 225 and join in at will against the enemies of 225 that is 224 and 226.

It being a 'simple news' group with free information for all comers worked very well.

Especially for my generation of player who had enough of getting crappy answers on comms. In Comms we would say 'posted that base up on 225 SF' or if someone asked is 'so and so 225 or 226' we had a guy who listed every single player he could find in 224/225 and 226 with there coordinates and sector number for easier identification for legit targetting. We mentioned the 225 SF group regularly and this drew in more players.

Now what certain higher levels found was they were no longer being listened to and being ignored, because we saw how they reacted when faced with a bigger threat and how they spoke to us before. Now the lower levels were not reliant on them, we were reliant on ourselves - and especially myself.

I mentioned earlier about how a player had to be vouched on comms by a stronger player to prevent being farmed. for example :
Anybody know Louie?
-nobody answered-
Fine he is my new farm HA HA HA.

Sometimes if someone did vouch for them they too were targetted.

Now who do you think had the balls to start vouching for everybody?
Yep, it was me. Wasn't that nice of me to offer my personal protection to those idividuals.

I pretty much stopped insector hitting without needing to use violence. I became the guy that ended it in 225 and by now it was becoming clear Wulf was creating a stronger 225.

There is always a few fly's in the ointment and I secretly welcomed them as these simply made my passive way towards anyone in 225 the 'right' way. I was being seen as a very respectable person who cared deeply for the sector. There was a lot of fighting against the other sectors and when one of the flys decided to take a swing at me I made sure to time my complaint well - without complaining nor naming.

There was a sector scramble as 226 had launched an attack against us, I had just been flattened so I apologised for not being able to send my fleets to assist as my base had just been hit by the 5th column.
The person who had hit me aked what that meant, I said it was the WW2 equivalent of the Home Grown Terrorist.
He stopped being a fly and got on board, he turned into bit of an arse licker and showed his true colours again much much later on and as usual those sorts are defeated my way very effectively  - more on that later on.

The other flys took notice of the 5th colomn remark and realized they were on very rocky ground especially as I am not pointing the fingers and nameing them. It occured to them I could have them farmed and despised by the sector at will - without me spelling it out to them.

The Big levels were by now all on board with the 225 Strike Force, some would claim later it was because of them it worked - which is bollocks. They had to join up or risk being the outsiders of their own sector. The lower levels (my generation) had seen what they had achieved (the big levels) and that was surrender. We were not for surrendering and we proved that with many of our fleets being sunk in the sector wars and still we carried on fighting and the big hitters were getting more successful as we provided the support fleets - there was truly some epic battles almost daily. It was like a mass riot and we all loved it.

A large part of the sector glue was all about the war with 224 and 226.  and little ol' me sorting out insector disputes. Who was going to tell the guy head of a now powerful Navy to go frak himself?

I abolished the KOS for only serious threats and not individuals.
 Before the TR a KOS could be called by a strong alliance or a popular person and people would see it as fine just farming them whatever the reason. Now I took that power away from them, I was the guy that could issue a KOS on anyone and I simply abolished it completely.

The power of who is good and who is bad rested soley on me, and I did it without using a single fleet against my enemies.
224 and 226 were not my enemies they were just very convenient as my neighbours.

When The Undesirables returned for easy Raid Prizes (this was in the days when only the top scorers in the sector could get a prize) and to do their mischief they found a unified sector under a benevelont ruler who had the full backing of a unified force.
It was quietly amusing watching them realize this little piggy was now for all intents and purposes the person they had to negotiate with over any 'misundertandings' of which there were far fewer this time round.

That is a part of Psychological Warfare against your enemies.

Le Wulf

(I had to put this last part in a second post due to slight edits in the main text exceeded the forum post character limit I will be posting further on this thread either today or tomorrow).

As Bruce Lee would say (something he used to say he would dislike people saying in the future is literally 'Bruce Lee would say...')
The Art of Fighting without Fighting.

As Sun Tzu would say :
To win a war is to not fight one in the first place.

This is part one and I will be reviewing it for clarity issues and may edit / change it. I will post it up in its first draft for ease of reading for myself and where I may add in the forum features like the 'spoiler' options for clarity and some areas may need further explanation and others may need to be cut.

Any comments and questions please do fire away.

Captain336

-.-- --- ..- / -.-. .... . . -.- -.-- / -... .- ... - .- .-. -..

go tee

A very interesting read looking forward to the follow up. 

Thunder8412

Looking forward to this! 

Quincey Bailey

For one the psychological effects of being a bubble bergade is highly effective. Use your bubble wisely when dealing with bullies. Quick repair sw/bb/marauders can be highly effective against them. You have access to having 14 fleets to use to irratate the hell out if bullies. If they can't get things done cause you are tying up there base or fleets with meaningless battles.  constantly and relentlessly in a maddening seemingly pointless endeavor. To them its gets old to you its perfectly planned chaos. I tell lower level players to stop the whine its time to dine. Feast in the misery you can cause players that think they can farm you

Le Wulf

As usual the 'real' world overtook me and delayed me writing this - and getting into the game itself -. I will be adding to this either later today or tomorrow.

There are a couple of articles in the making at the moment, will try not to make it a 'Wulf' memoirs type of thread as there is plenty of that on the forums already.

So see ya laters

michael2642

No need for all that.

Best psycho warfare is already in use:
-- Frubbles
-- Sink ppls fleet with phantoms subs when they launch. 
-- Hit WAY below your own lvl.


Then ppl go whine in PM's, Comms & Forums = you won  

Le Wulf

michael2642 said:

No need for all that.

Best psycho warfare is already in use:
-- Frubbles
-- Sink ppls fleet with phantoms subs when they launch. 
-- Hit WAY below your own lvl.


Then ppl go whine in PM's, Comms & Forums = you won  

 I remember a musician was playing in a pub and a guy in his thirties got up in front of everyone and took his "tackle" out. To try and be funny / clever / throw the musician off his act. The musician stopped playing and said very matter of factly ' I bet you feel stupid now '  the guy with his tackle in his hand in front of the audience had nothing to respond with.

I will let you figure that one out for yourself.

---------------------------------------------------

Psychological Warfare part two

please note some 'methods' may be considered unsound....but then in my view a person who coins a fleet so they can then target a low level and laugh in his face and jeer at him repeatedly is also unsound. And that justifies certain ways I do things for personal entertainment purposes.

Now I bet that starting note has got you practically jiggling your jigglies in anticipation with what is to follow; but be advised it was put there simply for dramatic effect so prepare to be disapointed.

In Part one... we saw how sometimes the use of direct force is not the key to Total Victory.

I will go as far to say that to rely on brute force (even if you have an abundance of it) is not the best way to victory.

Players who have declared themselves my eternal enemy in the past (although none used such light language) over time have seen the light of reason when they realised what I may have been stating in sector comms might actually be true - and in certain cases have turned into military allies... and either booted their former commanders or split from the alliance itself.

The instances that spring to mind when mentioning that is from the ancient days when sector cops really did dominate the game for so many people. I wouldn't have minded if many of them had been sincere people, but they weren't they were as I showed them up to be. The now long buried topic 'Insector Watch List' was bit of a hit for insectors who 'got' the joke and what I find troubling was there were actually people who took it seriously on the sector cop side.
Nowadays its a different atmosphere due to the communication systems being vastly improved and the introduction of alliances which are now settled into the game comfortably.
I bring that up to show how views can change to your advantage long after the 'war' regardless of how strongly disliked one maybe at the time of the war.

The questions maybe  "How do you do that?" or "Why bother?"

Battle Pirates is a long term game be it with the strategy of building fleets, obtaining technology and winning hulls. It can also be a place where you make a lot of friends and a lot of enemies. The most powerful thing in this game is the people behind those fleets especially if they are determined to fight for your chosen cause. Cultivate your relationships.

My relationships with people is of mutual benefit, personally I do not see many people as "friends'.... And some people reading that may think 'zomg Wulf don't like me!'.
That is not the case, I have a very militant/business like approach to people, especially in this game. I see various friendships start up for other people in game and then fizzle and splutter or end in dramatic failure. My personal relationships on Battle Pirates are not like that, they are based on a rough scale of allies/associates/neutrals/hostiles.

 Allies can be depended on as can associates and they can depend on me and anyone/crew I bring to a conflict.

Neutrals are either people I do not know or people not involved or unlikely to be involved in anything I am involved in. note a number of neutrals in certain conflicts can be swayed to your side not in that partcilaur conflict but perhaps down the road.

Hostiles are Hostiles - and at times very convenient.

It is a little more complex than that but you get the idea. The point is people know where they stand with me - or at least where I want them to believe where they stand with me, which is a fun game of strategy in itself and quite useful.

The strategical benefit of having ties with people is beyond question.
Example:
"
An associate mentions he is in an insector war with several alliances I am currently engaged elsewhere so cannot send reinforcements that are under my direct control. However I have other associates in that world who are looking for a fight, I give them the heads up of hostiles in that sector. Pending the background of the conflict is how they will go about redeploying and how they will identify themselves to the Hostiles.

A favourite of mine is to set the rules of engagement as a 'sector vs sector' war, all my associates involved in that conflict know they are acting in a coordinated manner, the Hostiles are oblivious and see it as a usual coincidence that can occur in Battle Pirates of facing numerous enemies out of the blue. You got the associate fighting insector outnumbered, the Hostiles believe they are 'winning' yet they are also getting smacked about now in a sector vs sector war, thus reducing their active fleet strength and are fighting on different fronts. They may also risk in upsetting other alliances of the 'enemy sector'.... which is always a nice bonus.
"

A 'thing' of mine is not to have all my associates directly linked to me for the ease of enemy reading. Be that on Facebook and on Kixeye forums, if I need to get in touch with someone I can do so via FB groups, FB messages and 'buffers'....it is just one of those things that can keep the Hostile guessing when trying to join the dots. And can do wonders on making the enemy out to be a little paranoid - which again making the Hostile paranoid and revealing themselves to be is always a handy little thing to have in ones pocket.

Buffers are people who are linked to you and can pass on information (be it both accurate and false information), to people you want to know that information and act on it in the way you wish them to do so. Some knowingly and some unknowingly .

 I am sure there are people reading this and are thinking 'But Wulf you are always straight with people and all this other stuff seems very underhanded! its not what I would expect from you of all people!' to which I can say gee shucks thanks - and to those who do know me quite well you may well be reading this nodding with a knowing smile on your face.

So buffers :
Buffers give instructions whether it is directly stated as such or use their own influence on getting the other person to do the task at hand (and more likely pull some of their own alliance into the mix).
At times a number of 'operations' I get involved in game are VERY  political. Some sectors may not know me but they may know someone I know who will be able to deliver the 'message' better than I can personally. And other times the mere mention of my name will ensure a rather huge backlash of drama fun and frolics - which may not result in a very desirable outcome.
So we use Buffers as part of the 'network of associates' to get things done or not done in a certain way. I find cultivating apathy amongst people on certain things very handy...and where apathy fails passive intimidation can works wonders.

A side note : there is not an official big group called "Wulf's Intelligence Services". These are from personal relationships within the game and on the forums and various FB/Forum groups. And that is not to say I view people associated with me as potential pawns in the sinister web of Wulf. It works because as mentioned earlier my ties with people are straight....most of the time

The great thing about alliances is they resemble the greatest of pals and bestest of buddies all ready to stand one for all all for one!. Or as I would call them "great oppurtunites to render them almost useless and to isolate certain chappies.".

It is amazing how easily manipulated people are when they are in a nice big juicy alliance. When people feel they are strong with their 'Brute Force' and believe they have the clear advantage over you, that is when they are most easiest to manipulate, isolate and then dominate at will.

As much as I dislike democratic alliances for myself  I love them in other peoples alliances unless I have to depend on their vote in which case those who vote against a military action benefitting myself or an associate will find themselves with fewer friends in their own alliance, and may be seen as bit of a wet blanket.
A basic food for thought : If I do not get along with the alliance I get along with the chief of it. If I do not get along with the chief I get along with various members of the alliance.

-----------------------

I am going to cut off here for now, note there is more to write for Part Two 'why its good to have gullible minions buddies'. There will be a bit more of an insight into the 'hows' and what nots.

michael2642

 -  I got you psyched  -

Basicly you are plain overdoing it!

It's just a game no need for things to be overly advanced. -- KISS --

Le Wulf

The game is as simple or as complex as you wish and this part of the Art of War which is on Player Guides is about alternative ways of waging war beyond that. Now as you answerd when I was giving the example of my early days in game with 'use phantom subs' it just shows you do not really 'get' the subject here.

When I started the game and used the Part One method there was no way for me to be able to fight the enemy on an all out basic attack, for starters submarines had not even gotten into the game at that point. Nor would I expect a new player to have the equipment to be able to go toe to toe against a numerically and technologically superior force straight off.

Your answer is 'let them eat cake' as well as being completly irrelevant to what this particular part of The Art of War is all about.

The comment 'I got you psyched' along with your response to this thread in the first place is very disrespectful because its basically you acting up trying to be a smart arse and just showing yourself up.

I am not going to give you any further time on this topic which you are trying to derail. If you are genuine in your wish to spread your wisdom then make your own topic on using phantom subs.

And back onto topic...

=============================

Le Wulf

Psychological Warfare continued....

I did not want to make this into a what Wulf did but for clarity sake I will have to use examples from my own experiences. - and hopefully it won't read too much like a confession.

Previously I went into some detail about buffers which can also be known as spies in some cases.

Some spies act as your spies directly and their main purpose is to give you information. I judge my own spies by the quality and relevance of the information they provide me.

An example :

Levis reports on the Alpha Alliance holding a vote on whether they are going to get involved in the conflict or not.

Excellent news indeed, now I have to rely on Levi feeding me information on the debates going on in the alliance groups and chats and see how I can maybe change the behaviour of my own forces (and myself) to try and sway some of the Alpha alliance to either stay out of the conflict or jump in on my side.

Beavis reports that someone related to a person in the Bravo alliance has got a new cat.

Now as much as at times knowing the personal lives of rival/neutral alliances can be used to advantage (pending how ruthless you wish to be) a new cat for a relative is quite unlikely to have much of a bearing on that alliance.

Hank fails to report there has been a leadership change following an internal dispute that has been raging for a couple of weeks in the Charlie Alliance. The new leader is anti Wulf.

So one bright and sunny morning I awake and enter the world of Battle Pirates to find a neutral alliance that had a pro Wulf leader is now hostile with bad blood and a rather angry leader looking for blood.


Hank although useless as a spy can still be of use as an entry into that alliance for someone who is not as useless. - but best not tell Hank he is a useless pile as that would be counter productive for your cause.

but why is having intel on other alliances important?

It makes it easier on conducting the war and other situations at hand on both the military front as well as the diplomatic side too. With good intel and the right judgement on how to use it to your advantage you can end up reducing your repair times (and coin cost) for your fleets when it comes to combat and make victory easier to achieve.

The desired result of diplomacy is to have hostiles to become neutrals and neutrals to become friendlies and friendlies to become military allies. The world of diplomacy is not as simple as all that but that is the goal of it and to keep that in mind all the way through.

When it comes to the spy game personally I keep mine a secret even when I was with the Fangs I did not give them the big list of whose who in the world of Wulf, because :

1. It would have bored them senseless.
2. They did not need to know.
3. It may make it harder for them to complete their objectives/tasks knowing they have to pretend they don't know.

That does not mean I kept them in the dark in all things but as leader I let them know what they needed to know so they can get on with bashing peoples brains in - which is what being in the Fangs is all about after all, as well as many other alliances.

-
With the use of spies and buffers/implants/friendlies into other alliances you can render them useless as weapons against yourself - which is nice.
With this comes a sense of apathy of preventing you from going about your own business.

If we take 225 as an example there have been a few groups who thought they could put me on KOS. Each group tried to rule 225. The first group was successful -for a short time - The other groups/eras failed.

I always played with the long view in mind, when people were spouting off all the insults under the Sun and declaring me KOS and all the trumpets and drums that go with it, people friendly to me wanted to get involved against them. I refused there assistance, because I wanted to see clearly who was who. I needed to have a very clear view of the true colours of the people involved for both the short term and the much longer game.

People can be likened to herds if you see a crowd larger than another you could be drawn to the large crowd easier. I find this in itself quite useful when using the 'cattle' like players for my own ends - But not for my genuine allies to which there is a very disctinct difference.

Using the information from those times and what I study over time on comms and intel recieved from 'spies' when Alliances came out it made it a lot easier to have friednlies in all the alliances. Rendering any future KOS once more on me useless. - Important when usually the people I goto war with often call to arms all others in the sector (despite myself and the Fangs often being outnumbered anyway) it generally fails and reveals the person shouting KOS/calling other alliances to arms for as rather incompetent. And further helps the process of only fighting one alliance at a time when the need arises.

So what we are talking about here is damage control and reducing the damage against yourself while potentially maximising it upon the enemy through the use of spies and diplomacy. I will add here that pretty much anyone who has tried to go toe to toe with me in 225 often ends up with egg on their faces, reduced long term support and more often than not show they were not very sincere people after all - and at times have also shown they were not really 100% pro 225 in the first place. Take note I am not active in 225 right now and am talking on past things, I can talk openly (without too many details of course) because my time in Battle Pirates is coming to an end; at least in the sense of how I played the game but thats another thing altogether.

All this is all well and good Wulf but HOW!?!?!

I am glad you asked me that...did you not read the rather enthusiastically written 'CIAs Psychological Operations in Guerilla Warfare'? it has some very good points in it.
I will write word for word a part of the preface of it :
"
Guerilla Warfare is essentially a political war. For this reason, its area of operations goes beyond the territorial limits of conventional warfare, penetrating the political being "par excellence' itself : the "political animal" defined by Aristoteles.
 
   In effect, the human being must be considered as the priority objective in a politcal war. And viewed as the military target of guerilla warfare, the most critical point of the human being is the mind.
"

And that last part I put in bold is the essential part of war.
When the enemy tries to bring complexity onto the comms ie going for multiple arguments I bring it to a simple statement that people can remember. I pick apart the enemy's logic and accusations as they try to vie for the minds of others.
Where the enemy may believe they have the support of the others and thus greater strength over that of myself and my crew; the enemy is more likely to become arrogant and easier to enrage and reveal their true colours.
I rely on my guts and my intelligence (and of course the 'intel' I recieve) to get me through the day to day war of fleets and comms.

The enemy will not be able to pick apart the simple statements I make because they are simple and honest. The enemy will reveal themselves to either be or to become liars and thus they start on the slippery **** of handing either support to myself or equally convenient the apathy of others.

Build your own campaign of simple statements - but not too simple; be sure to make them intelligent. Keep your nose clean to your own standards, I personally have not compromised myself even when running 225 as a no hit sector I stuck to my core values - as well as my not so charming side ie The ISD and other such things

But it means people can learn to trust you even if they may oppose your playing stances/views. You can be a very ruthless person but if people know they can rely on you to be truthful, fair, principled even...when The enemy comes to reveal themselves as lacking that (even if there 'no hitting insector' matches that of the others, the others will be more likely to favour yourself - and those that don't or are overtly hostile go on what I call the Happy List  for future use).

-
What is the Happy List?

It is what makes me smile when I am bored and looking for something to do.
-

That is not to say everyone in 225 will be pro Wulf - far from it as I am far too much of a free spirit and somewhat reckless as well as often inviting people to dislike me for personal laughs. especially when they take the bait...and there is quite a portion who enjoy it when I do upset people and make them jump up and down rant to their hearts content bang their drums for war against the evil Wulf!  - While the residents of 225 (and other sectors as seen in 'memoirs' sit back and enjoy the latest show featuring Wonderful Wulf!.

Cultivate your relationships, earn the trust of others, become competent with the game, become capable in wars and keep your integrity. This way you will build a network of people who respect and trust you and will be happy to assist you. In some cases they may eventually see you as a commander in others they may do it for the Jazz.

I will give an example of how I won over an alliance that was neutral / hostile to me on another game :

There was a very powerful alliance and I was a mercenary of sorts and needed an 'inlet' into that alliance. I had influence in all the other alliances in that area but if I could crack that one too my position would be secure.
I was on speaking terms with one guy as in he would say hello to me; Unfortunately His girlfriend disliked me - a lot. And probably for good reason as my methods were somewhat controversial and in many ways I was at that point still quite low on the 'respectability scale' (as well as not wanting to build a huge empire nor to compromise in any way to anybody which did nothing in the early game for my prestige level - but I was becoming known as rather good at fighting ((it was a space empire type of game)) ).
 One day she attacked me believing as she was in a rather powerful empire and myself was a rather no empire nobody she should be able to splatter me.
I was winning the fight easily and I could have blown her ship up earned a ton of XP and Rep points as well as got a nice big flashy message across the server that " I had blasted R**** out of the sky! "
That would have made a very nice bonus to my ready cash, a nice bit of kudos to myself and would have had that Empire laughed at by the others. Instead I pulled back and said 'I offer classes to people who want to improve on fighting, let me know if you are interested'.

Her boyfriend messaged me a thank you and she thanks me too. Asking how much it would cost (I was notorious for charging way above all reasonable amounts simply because I always got the job done) and after the first lesson I gave her free lessons under the guise of 'Everything is always business for me in this game, it is nice to be able to actually play with someone in a 'fun' way for once'. This made her feel we had an actual connection and the relationship improved to friendly status and her boyfriend was happy someone was showing her how to play.

My rating with that alliance rocketed, when they realised I had not only spared one of their members (and there alliance) from embarrassment but was helping them improve at the same time they were somewhat thankful and respectful. With this final alliance Pro Me and all other major alliances either wary or in business with me I was able to carry on with my trade with impunity. - it was bit of a low move pretending to like someone and take an interest in their improvement but that is the nature of war....and everything in these games is war.

I used a similar method during Wulf the Wonderful carebear of 225 back in my newbie days I would listen with feigned interest at all the builds the newbies were working on and what they were aiming for (as well as as the seasoned players too) and this naturally helped cultivate that sense of unity among the sector under my watchful and 'caring' gaze.


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I have to go for now will reread this later on and see what adjustments need to be made, this has not been completed so expect more to follow.

Le Wulf

before i begin...
1. I know when I have written something right, when my 'friends' count drops from the kixeye site. It has sort of become bit of a marker personally - simple things please simple minds

2. I will be writing these up maybe in different parts or different ordering when the times comes to input them into the 'polished' version on The art of War thread. These act as a sort of sensible note formation that I can throw parts at in some kind of order (and sometimes in no real order) and view with a different eye.

3. I could have written a lot of this long ago but it is not the 'done thing' to reveal your methods when you are still using them. Now I am a very casual in playing, the need for holding the cards tight to ones chest is not required as much.

4. Still have content to post up on Le Wulf memoirs but for now this I feel is more important on my time allocation.

=======

Historical Figures

History is full of inspiring people to take note of and can be applied to the game at hand.

Information taken from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms - as I have yet to read the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, something I will get round to one day.

Tsao Tsao aka Cao Cao aka Meng De :

The first two names are the same, China has a very diverse accent/dialect field. Cao Cao is the name given to the man who would become a very powerful entity in the age of the Three Kingdoms.
Meng De was his name as a somewhat mischevious youth who got in and out of trouble regularly renowned as bit of a rogue. As he grew up he became the now legendary Cao Cao.

He was a man of great talent. His reputation grew around him on how he rewarded people of ability and intelligence. Such a reputation brought people of quality to him and he put them to use and over time he became more powerful because he had good stock of people around him and occupying positions.

China could be a great place for scholars but it was also (like many places) a place of fools and sycophants who could gain favour with various rulers and the skill was in telling who was the good stuff and who was the 'off' stuff. Meaning both the rulers and the intellectuals/generals.

To become known as a man of talent could put you both at the peak of comfort and at times at the pits of misery. Such were the volatile times of the Three Kingdoms.

Cao Cao was also ruthless, it can be argued that ruthlessness is a flaw; Personally I sometimes think its a necessity but it can drive those of high morale standing away from you.  I believe you need both to operate successfully when dealing with things outside purely the immediate militant sense.

I will mention here that because of Cao Cao's vision and his ability he was able to recruit such a person as Dian Wei. Dian Wei was a powerfully built man with a great thirst and hunger to maintain his strength. He was skilled in battle and as loyal as a person can be. He was often called to guard Cao Caos' own tent and rarely did he leave for his own quarters preferring to sleep outside his leaders tent whenever he could.
Eventually he was to command Cao Cao's personal guard and they were reputed to always be the first into the enemy lines. Dian Wei personally picked the guard himself.

Dian Wei fell in battle succumbing to the numerous wounds inflicted upon him while safe guarding Cao Cao's escape. Dian Wei's men were heavily outnumbered and they fought on and even when he was wounded he still fought on giving curses to the enemy and taking them on with a passion. A fool could not have recruited nor held the loyatly of such a man as Dian Wei.

Liu Bei

If Cao Cao was the measure of competence then Liu Bei was the measure of rightousness.
With his reputation of benevelonce he drew people of loyalty and even the fierce Lu Bu. (even if he did have big ears)

He represents to me of how to draw people of good hearts and intentions and on how to keep the loyalty of them through a kind of love rather than a more militant respect.

A distant relative the Han he raised a militia to fight against The Yellow Turban Rebellion (personally I believe by that point the Han should have been booted out along with his retinue and eunachs).
Of course many capable people came to the call all over to fight against the Yellow Turbans and the rebellion was crushed - not that I think it should have been the Yellow turbans in charge of China.

Guan Yu

Known not only for his long beard, he is known as a man of honour; loyalty and righteousness. A very capable man who was great in battle and as a general and much more importantly unfliching in his loyalty to Liu Bei. Even Cao Cao could not tempt him away from Liu Bei.

Had Liu Bei been a bit of a scoundrel he would not have been able to retain such a warrior.

Zhang Fei

A bloody big brute of a man who was reputedly a drunkard, overly harsh to those under his command especially when drunk and a **** fine fighter on the field of battle always willing to fight with ferocity especially in defence of Liu Bei.

The man represents to me both the pros and woes of the body and mind being run by Testosterone. Where as Liu Bei represents estrogen.

------

There are many examples throughout the Three Kingdoms but I find these the easiest for people to identify with at this time. You can see in each of the people mentioned parts of yourselves within them and perhaps adapt your doctrine/outwards 'game face' to the one of your choosing and see where that may take you.

The Duke of Sung

Or rather 'I am not the Duke of Sung!'.

The Duke of Sung shows when honour and belief in your cause is not always enough to win a war.

The enemy arrived at the field of battle and had the river to cross to engage the Duke of Sung. When the enemy started to cross a duke of Sung's officer said 'let us wait for them on the edge and cut them down!' to which he was ignored.
When the enemy had only half his forces across an officer said 'let us engage them now!' to which he was beheaded for being dishonourable.

Like a sportingly decent chap playing the great game of cricket he allowed his enemy to cross the river untouched and allowed his enemy to form up into his formations and when all was done and jolly the battle commenced and the Duke of Sung was defeated and killed - a lesson learned in natural selection.

The phrase still exists today 'I am not the Duke of sung!'.

-----

Alexander the Great

The man who started as a leader of the small Macedonia to become the man who tried to build the world.
Brave (reckless?) and a visionary filled with ambition.

Adapting his phalanx, use of skirmirshers, great use of cavalry and the keen eye to judge the battle as it happened and kept his men trained to face new threats.
A pity in many ways he pushed his men to such great lengths of loyalty and having to execute some to keep them in line, along with so many died on the long marches.

As much as he upset the traditionalists he wanted to merge the world combine the cultures for the better of mankind (as did various other chaps who met their end in the thirties).

I mention Alexander here because if the sector limits had been lifted in my early days of starting the 225 Strike Force I would have certainly wanted to take on and bring under command at least 25 sectors for mass offensive mobilisation capability. And who knows there maybe someone out there reading this thinking "that sounds like a very good idea!" and will make it their game objective.

Be aware though sectors and alliances can have their own identities and they will take pride in them. Also be aware not to offend your core crew too much as what killed Alexander....was it a typical randomness? was it the Lady Providence? was it his own generals? or could it be a mixture of all three?

No, I am not going to throw in the 300; As you have all seen the film...and if you haven't you better go and watch it now.

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For ease of reading and personal reviewing of compostion etc etc I will be cutting it off here but the Historical Figures will continue into the next post.

Le Wulf

Boudica
note the following is a very brief summary :

A firey and powerful personality led a revolt against Rome from Britain.

She represents the tragedy of arrogance in numbers the recklessness it can breed and the difficulty/inability to command her 'army' once battle has commenced - as well as having a rather flawed strategy to become with.

The warrior of Boudica was not a disciplined nor armoured fighter, he was a fighter, a brawler an all round thug with a passion for getting into the fight. The swords promoted the strength of the man as well as the 'flow' of the weapon arc. Very hard to manage such warriors.

The Romans were armoured, disciplined, drilled into effective tactics and used a strategy beyond 'ugh ugh hit them!'. - But before I celebrate the Roman strategy of the day they were outnumbered because of a rather big flaw in the overall strategy ie a bulk of their force had gone off to Wales for wooly jumpers because they fancied a sing along with the druids, in doing so left a small force behind which were seen as easy pickings by the forces of Boudica.
The Romans sword favoured the underbelly, a nice quick thrust stick twist and pull out ready for the next chap wanting to wave his goolies to hack and slash at him.

The Romans stayed in formation, kept with their training and systematically slaughtered the thousands (some say hundreds of thousands) of warriors before them.
 Boudica's army had charged excited to batter the Romans only to find themselves impaled by them and those trying to get away could not because of the press of bodies and some got trampled underfoot. Eventually it was an all out panic/rout and there was no way to keep control call the reserves to hold the line get people organized to face the threat again this time with careful attacks because there was so many it was pandemonium.

Why mention this here?
Because having big forces under your command does not mean they will be effective, it takes more work to get them to fight cohesively. Once that initial discipline is in your forces then it does become easier and occasional drill/certain types of battle do work well to keep them coordinated and able to fight without being overwhelmed.
As mentioned in an earlier chapter large numbers represent more targets and if a commander is not diligent he will just have plenty of food for the sharks.

The Normans

One of the most notorious fighting groups in the history of mankind. Strong in doctrine, greed, martial ability and a certain kind of honour. They were tough.

Having defeated the Saxons at the Battle of Hastings they found themselves a little bit outnumbered having to now rule the country. Their method was not very progressive but it worked, they burned every village they came across put many to death and made sure everybody got the message they ain't here to make friends so everyone prepare for the new order...or else.

Many lands were redistributed the concept of one man one rule came about in the absolute sense and with their arrival on the shores of Britain marked the start of nearly a thousand years of keeping the wolf from the shores of Britain.

I mention them here because sometimes brute force is the only way to go as a way of making an example to others not to cross you in the future and prevent a larger war/more numerous battles that may sap your strength and the will of those currently supporting you.

You have to be careful obviously on the application of such force as at times it can blow up in your face and make you plenty more enemies.
When taking over a sector be sure to offer it something substantial in the way of structure and assistance - reward those who support you and those who come under your banner/view.

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I am trying to write these with a small sense of chronological order this next one is hundreds of years ahead but  I find the technological development of his people are suited for here.

The Shaka Zulu!

what more can I say? his name represents everything of an absolute ruler who came to power by strength and developed the mighty Zulu Nation by forging his impi's very skin and physical fitness beyond that of all rival tribes. - their feet were hardened and those not showing enough enthusiasm in the 'marking time' of the hardening were executed. Having at one point having my own heels armoured through intense painful training I can attest to the factual base that this can be achieved - eventually I used a knife to cut it off to see how thick it was, would not recommend doing that if anyone takes the fancy.

His methods were brutal and they were effective.

There was no apology in his approach as he was a single man of power. His people viewed him at first with a shocked awe to that of sheer terror - before the firearm had become the norm this was quite an achievement.

Where do I begin?
Well he was not just a thug, he used his experiences as a soldier in the impi's in his early career particularly the hand to hand fighting. The Iklwa he ordered to become the prime weapon of the Zulu Impi's. The spear was still used as the throwing weapons but the Iklwa was there for hand to hand fighting and this was expected to be used in battle up close and rather personal. 

The Bull Horn formation is credited to Shaka. I will place a picture from another site for ease of understanding :



The Horns attack both sides, you got the chest pushing forward and in reserve behind the chest are the loins.

I have used this in Battle Pirates in the ancient days of sector vs sector wars. We would attack en masse without warning and catch the other sector unaware and they would just get splattered - of course the formations broke up as it turned into bit of a reactionary rout on the enemy's side and our own forces would be happily plundering and smashing at will.

He did use diplomacy keeping his allegiance to a tribe he was in before rising to Zulu chief and at the death of the tribe's chief he took over and as was sensible he put a vassal chief in place - meaning someone he can depend on to do as he was told to do and run the day to day workings of the tribe on his behalf.

The Zulu Impi's could travel reputedly up to 50 miles a day and although some historians disagree I think they should have worked out harder when they were younger and take note of what the human body can achieve with intense training. This gave the Zulu's an edge when it came to battle the ability to travel distances in shorter time than your enemies can mean the ability for surprise attacks as well as keeping other tribes wary of upsetting this rather warlike chap known as Shaka.

An example would be during China at the early 20th century a warlord's hold on an area could depend on how far he could travel in three days. If you were after someone and could travel faster than they could and still have your men ready for decisive battle would indeed bequite an advantage.

Shaka met his end by assassination so best not go too crazy if you decide to form your sector into a great fighting force and take over a few more sectors for laughs.  People will only take so much brutality - or rather more likely oppurtunisitc rivals may take the view they could do away with you 'in the name of the people'.

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once more time has gotten ahead of me and I will continue this on historical figures you may find useful on researching or even taking a few things from what is written here for your own use. I would say all people / groups mentioned here have shaped part of my martial thinking in and out of Battle Pirates.

So plenty more to go and hope this does not read too much like a boring history lesson.

kixeyeuser_1417496766332_100007139794045

online game battle pirates

hellskeepswifes

OK I missed something

BannanaHammock

And next we all drink the cool aid

Le Wulf

Apologies for not completing this - will get onto it at somepoint in le future, when time permits.