Sunday, September 5, 2010

Throwing Books at Victoria 2

When I play a tactical or a grand-tactical game, I check a real life field manual. Color me a weirdo, but I'm THAT interested in warfare.

When it comes to strategy or grand-strategy games ... well, there are no field manuals.

I am playing Victoria 2 right now. Started a game as Argentina and I have this deer in the headlights look. All I can do (game and interface wise) is clear to me. The un-answered questions are: what, why, where, how, when and who?

The following book is being helpful to answer those questions.


It's a primer in military strategy and it is aimed to provide a framework rather than thorough analysis. It is very concise and has a no BS approach.

As for my questions above, chapter 2 has a brief description of national security interests. The author classifies them in universally and variably important. Universally important interests are valid for every country in every situation. The variable important interests are followed depending on the particular situation of the country.

Universally important national security interests

  • National Survival
  • Homeland Defense
  • Domestic Tranquility
  • Military Power
  • National Credibility
  • Freedom of Action
Variably important national security interests
  • Peace
  • Stability
  • Prosperity
  • Ideology
  • Geostrategic Position
  • Morality
The list above may sound obvious for some veteran armchair strategists here. But the above list is helping me a lot to have a framework for my strategic plan. The book also describes a six-step strategic planning process. I'm going to comment on that in a future entry.

Cheers,

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