PenitentJake wrote: H.B.M.C. wrote: I dislike the implementation of stratagems because too many of them are tactical and not strategic.
Could you define what you mean here? I've checked three thesaurus websites and two paper thesauruses (thesauri?), and they all agree that tactic and strategem are synonymous. I don't mean this as a language nazi burn- I respect your posts, so I know that there is a difference from your perspective- I'm just curious what it is.
A strategy is your high-level plan to win a battle or war, or the goals which you have identified which will allow you to do so. Hannibal: I will eliminate the Roman Legions at Cannae by encircling their larger force, depriving the Romans of the use of those men in future battles.
Tactics are how you go about executing your strategy. Hannibal: I will use my cavalry to rout the enemy cavalry. I will lure the enemy into overcommitting their forces to the centre by putting my weaker troops there, who will give ground and draw the enemy in at the prospect of a retreating enemy. Once the enemy has overcommitted, I will use my strongest troops, who have until this moment held back, to attack the flanks of the enemy force whilst my cavalry charges into the rear. Once the enemy forces have been encircled, I will halt the orderly retreat of my central forces and start to advance on the trapped enemy and destroy them.
Or D-Day. Strategy: Capture key locations in Normandy which allow the Allied forces to establish a beachhead with the capability to quickly ship new supplies into the theatre of war and with enough men and material to defend against counterattack from the German forces.
Tactics: Massed troop landings supported by coastal bombardment of enemy defences on multiple beaches who will quickly move inland and link up, forming a unified front. Massed dropping of paratroopers behind the enemy lines on the night before the naval landings with the goals of securing key targets and eliminating enemy positions which threaten the landings on the beaches. French Resistance operations disrupting enemy communications before the invasion.