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I'm wondering if anyone has found any great resources, either web pages or books, that have general or historical war deployment, or attack strategies.
I think my game is lacking a serious look at how to wage / win wars.

To start the thread and give an example, I found this web page from Warmongerclub.

http://warmongers.ziggyqubert.com/articles/pdeflo_formations01.html

Actually Stelek turned me onto a book "Game Theory at Work" by James Miller. I really liked it.

There are many excellent resources.

For tactics that apply best to 40K, I suggest WWII era reading.

40K does not work or resemble modern era fighting in pretty much any way.

Despite the lasers.

I'd suggest the following:

The Art of War - Sun Tzu
How Wars are Won - Bevin Alexander

I'm going to have to disagree with Stelek...WWII is far too modern for 40K.

lol perhaps it is, cent.

Art of War is a good read, but I don't know just how much of it applies to 40k game theory.

It's like a advanced text without the primer.

A while back, there was a series of articles going up about how each chapter of 'The Art of War' could be applied to the Lord of the Rings strategy game.

If it worked for my ancestors, it'll work for me

And have a look into the Lanchester square law, applied in 1. WW.

The best book I've ever read on combined arms is Mellenthin's _Panzer Battles_. He was one of Rommel's staff officers in North Africa, and reading it made me understand the role of armor in a whole new way. It's only peripherally applicable to 40K, but supposedly Schwartzkopf kept a copy of this book on his desk during Iraq I. Good theory for mechanized armies, particularly understanding the interlocking roles of a specialized force like Eldar.

Some Napoleonic stuff should be fairly applicable, expecially about use of reserves and artillery, but not so much about use of formations. And it's good for any war game to be familiar with Moltke's theory of offensive defense, which is even more applicable to 40K now that it involves holding objectives (at least for static shooting armies). Post-Napoleonic Prussian stuff in general is good, except Clausewitz's _On War_, which is a good read but mostly about strategic-level stuff.

While interesting, The Art of War doesn't have too much that applicable to 40k. It focuses a lot on how people react to battle conditions and waging war on moral and supply lines which don't apply to 40k in the least. However if games and movies are your only exposure to war and generalship, then its a nice read because it gives you a lot of other factors to think about.

Mellinthin's Panzer Battles was an incredibly good read.

Required for alot of the classes I took while in the military.

Hell I did very well in my officer training classes because every book I "had" to read, I'd already read for personal pleasure. lol

40k is a game and Selek made a good choice in Game theory. Knowing that this is a game, most military tactics dont apply to 40k. Chess does have some similarities to 40k. I suggest this site and the terminology may have to be translated but anyone playing 40k is intelligent enough to come up with a way to apply the ideas of chess into 40k.

http://www.howtoadvice.com/Chess

Centurian99 wrote:
How Wars are Won - Bevin Alexander

I second this suggestion. Both of Alexander's books that I have read are excellent reads.