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Big Book of War: Difference between revisions
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[[File:BranniganBookOfWar.png|link=Futurama|frame|Accept no substitutes!]]
{{quote|''"A good soldier obeys without question. A good officer commands without doubt."''|'''The Tactica Imperialis''', ''[[Warhammer
War is a [[Matter of Life and Death]]. How do you go about it? How do you train your troops? What moral codes do you follow? How do you keep your morale up? What tactics do you use in battle? What strategies do you follow?
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== Film ==
* ''[[Hercules]]'' has Philotetes' oft-quoted rules of conduct and engagement for heroes-in-training.
* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' features a number of references to the Pirates' Code until the physical book is actually trotted out and referred to. While Barbarossa claims that it's more a book of guidelines than rules, the pirate community seems to treat the book itself with quite a bit of reverance. Historically, Carribean pirate ships, like all ships at the time, tended to have their own set of written rules to establish discipline and resolve disputes, even going as far as to state how many shares of the stolen booty each pirate would receive.
* ''[[Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines]] (or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes)'': "But... how will I learn to fly, Herr Colonel?" "The way we do everything in the German army: from the book of instructions!" "Step one: Sit down."
* ''[[Zombieland]]'' has Columbus' list.
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* The New Bushido from ''[[Hyperion]]''.
* In Laurie J. Marks' Elemental Logic series, Mabin's ''Warfare''.
* ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' has ''Fog and Steel''. One character when he notes that the King of Murdandy thinks that it will make him a great general. The name of the book is probably a reference to "the fog of war," a term coined by Carl von Clausewitz's famous Big Book, ''On War''.
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Star Trek]]''
** The infamous ''[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition Ferengi Rules of Acquisition]'', introduced in in ''[[Star Trek:
** Starfleet's General Orders, which has rules for everything Star Fleet does. Various General Orders were mentioned in the series and films, and many have been compiled together in online list. General Order 1 is, of course, the [[Alien Non-Interference Clause|Prime Directive]]. General Order 7, for example, is the command to avoid the planet that Captain Pike found in the original pilot, on the basis that the locals were the first God-like aliens that Starfleet had ever encountered.
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' has the Space Corp Directives, which Kryten tends to quote at Rimmer (and Rimmer, in turn, ''tries'' to quote at Kryten - usually failing).
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* ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' has The Roommate Agreement betwen Leanord and Sheldon. While often referenced (usually by Sheldon), it is never quoted in its entirety and is, apparently, hundreds of pages long. It covers such rudimentary things as who's stuff goes where in the refidgerator, as well as what happens if one of them should gain super-powers or invent time travel.
* ''[[The Young Ones]]'' has a charter of various rules that cover the aspects of living together such as food and laundry. All of them have the universal exception "... except Mike."
* The Argentine TV series ''Los únicos'', about secret agents with superpowers, has a set of bylaws for the agents. The main rule is that agents shall not develop romantic relations among themselves (of course, they all defy the rule and get in trouble as a result), but other laws are mentioned from time to time.
== Tabletop Games ==
This trope does not refer to the actual rulebooks for these games. Usually.
* ''[[Warhammer
** The ''Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer'', on the other hand, is so full of propaganda, misinformation, and outright lies, that it functions best as a [["Faux To" Guide]]. Though every [[Badass Normal|Imperial]] [[Redshirt Army|Guardsman]] is required (on pain of death) to carry it, the bright ones quickly realize that [[Our Elves Are Better|Eldar]] technology is not antiquated and prone to malfunction, an [[Our Orcs Are Different|Ork]]'s bulging muscles are not just for show, and the [[Beam Spam|Tau]] aren't likely to run away if you yell at them loudly enough.
*** The ''Uplifting Primer'' is more of a darkly humourous, satirical nature, however. Its status as canon is dubious.
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== Real Life ==
* [[Warrior Poet|Sun Tzu's]] ''[[The Art of War]]'', the [[Older Than Feudalism|classic Chinese text]] and possible [[Trope Maker]] in the public consciousness, beloved by military strategists and pretended to be read by [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]s everywhere. Despite its reputation, ''The Art of War'' is quite small, particularly in the original archaic Chinese. Publications usually include explanatory commentaries that are several times longer than the original work.
* [[Four-Star Badass|Carl von Clausewitz]]'s ''On War'' is the West's premier work on military theory. Clausewitz notably argues for the inherent superiority of defense over offense and stresses the moral and political aspects of war. Even though the work is [[Author Existence Failure|unfinished]], it was highly influential at the time of the First World War and remains relevant today. The book coined the concept of the "fog of war" and memorably defined war as "the continuation of politics by other means."
* Machiavelli's ''[[The Prince]]'', which covers military strategy as it pertains to ruling monarchs, and his [[Discourses on Livy]], which devotes the second of its three sections chiefly to conducting war as a republic. Part of Machiavelli's intention is to convince his readers that the Italian city-states should not be reliant on mercenaries, and should instead build up militias. His tactics were gradually amended over the years and became the basis for linear tactics.
** Machiavelli also wrote an ''Art of War''
* ''Summary of the Art of War'' was released in the 19th century by Baron Antoine Henri de Jomini, who served under Napoleon and was a professional rival to fellow theorist Clausewitz. Jomini's writing style is noted for his extensive use of historical examples and diagrams to illustrate his points, complete with a [[Lemony Narrator]] commentary. These days, most publishers shorten the title to ''The Art of War'', which can [[Name's the Same|lead to confusion]].
* ''The Book Of Five Rings'', a martial arts and military strategy book written by legendary [[Samurai]] warrior [[Miyamoto Musashi]] at around 1645. The Japanese-inspired [[Tabletop RPG]] ''Legend of the Five Rings'' is named in reference to it.
* The ''Dicta Boelcke'' by Oswald Boelcke is a list of fundamental aerial maneuvers of aerial combat that still has baring in aerial combat today.
* Vegetius's ''De Re Militari'' (roughly, ''On Military Matters'') was a major influence on Machiavelli and widely read for centuries.
* The ancient Greeks produced several, including ''The Cavalry Commander'' by [[Xenophon]], ''On the Defence of Fortified Positions'' by Aeneas Tacticus, ''Tactics'' by Asclepiodotus and ''The General'' by Onasander. The ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' by Thucydides is 2000 years old and still a solid read for the conduct of war and international relations.
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** Famously mentioned in Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny" where (right after "Navy way") the captain appends "and my way. On this ship, things will be done my way." It does not end well.
* Alfred Mahan's ''The Influence of Sea Power upon History'' (1890) is one of the most obscure and yet most influential books of the twentieth century, it basically set U.S. naval policy to where it is now. It's also a current favorite of China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).
** It also was one of the favourite textbooks for Wilhelm II and Tirpitz's expansion of the German navy and thus was a major influence on the British-German naval armament race that helped bring about [[World War
** Julian Corbett wrote ''Some Principles of Maritime Strategy'' in 1911. It was essentially the British answer to Mahan and was also incredibly influential. While Mahan wrote mainly about old school fleet battles Corbett focused on things like disrupting lines of communication and power projection which means that his work also aged a bit better. Though both are still studied today.
* Italian General Giulio Douhet and his ''Command of the Air'' (1921) exerted a similarly big influence on the air forces of the inter-war years, especially in Britain and Germany.
* ''The Law of Land Warfare'' (aka The Geneva Convention)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_land_warfare\] explicitly states laws of war; unlike most other Big Books of War, it tells you only what ''not'' to do if you wish to conduct war like a civilized country and expect other countries to do the same. It's also binding, and is what gives tribunals like the Nuremburg Trials the justification for trying people for war crimes, among other things.
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