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Big Book of War: Difference between revisions
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In [[Real Life]], there's no easy answer. In fictionland, however, you can just ask the Big Book Of War.
A specific type of [[Fictional Document]] (and occasionally [[Encyclopedia Exposita]]), the [[Big Book of War]] is an oft-quoted, but rarely seen in its entirety, book or code which some military ([[Mildly Military|mildly]] or otherwise) or other group follows. In addition to providing strategies for battle (and occasionally diplomacy), it frequently alludes to some kind of moral, chivalric code which its adherents are supposed to follow. Characters will frequently recite passages or rules from it when faced with some dangerous situation or conundrum. A [[Rules Lawyer]] may insist on "[[Bothering
Other organized groups, from [[Ninja|ninjas]] to [[Pirate|pirates]] to Girl/Boy Scouts to bands of space traders, frequently have their own codes that work the same way. Regardless of what it serves, it frequently has [[Great Big Book of Everything|all the answers you need, right when you need them]]. It also makes an excellent citation source for your [[Badass Creed]].
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== Comic Books ==
* The ''Junior Woodchuck Guidebook'' used by [[Donald Duck]]'s nephews. Later exported to animation via [[
** A Don Rosa Uncle Scrooge story reveals the truth about the Guidebook: thousands of years ago, a scribe copied down all the knowledge in the library of Alexandria, shortly before the library was destroyed in a fire. That knowledge was compressed and summarized dozens of times over the millennia by various scholars, until it was discovered by the founder of the Junior Woodchucks and made into their guidebook. Of course, Scrooge only learns this after traveling all over the world in search of that same document...
* ''[[Rogue Trooper]]'' carries around a copy of the ''Guide to the Nu-Earth War'' in Bagman.
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* ''[[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."
* ''[[
* ''[[The Thief and
* The Dragon Fighting Manual from ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (
* The Christian movie ''[[
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* The New Bushido from ''[[Hyperion]]''.
* In Laurie J. Marks' Elemental Logic series, Mabin's ''Warfare''.
* ''[[
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[
** The infamous ''[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition Ferengi Rules of Acquisition]'', introduced in in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
** 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.
* ''[[
** The Space Corp Directives are brilliantly organized, too, where (from memory) Section 132 Paragraph 24 Subparagraph 14 is a guide to the treatment of prisoners of war, and Subparagraph 15 is a list of how parking spots are assigned to the Chinese representatives of the conference. You can't blame Rimmer for getting it mixed-up.
*** That was actually from the "All-Nations Agreement" although the Space Corp Directives have a similar setup (for example the directive forbidding crew from wearing a ginger toupee on duty is next to the one requiring deflector shields before navigating an asteroid belt).
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== Video Games ==
* The ''Carlson & Peeters'' military manual from ''[[Beyond Good
** Point of fact, his characteristic idiosyncrasy is that he believes in it [[The Fundamentalist|the way some people believe in the Bible]] - so strongly, in fact, that he actually spouts, "CARLSON AND PEETERRRRRS!" as a battle cry, especially when he's about to [[Use Your Head|ram headfirst into something]].
* The hints and tips on ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'''s main game screen are attributed to various [[Fictional Document]] sources, including tactical manuals and characters' journals.
* ''[[Sid
** Adhering closest to the trope would be the ''Spartan Battle Manual'' and ''Planet: A Survivalist's Guide'', both written by Colonel Corazon Santiago.
* ''[[Icewind Dale]] 2'' includes an item, the book ''How to Be an Adventurer'', with such helpful chapters as "101 Uses for a 10' Pole", "Getting the Most out of Your Party's Thief", and "Face It, You're Actually Neutral Evil". Reading it grants a character 10,000 [[Experience Points]] and consumes the book.
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== Webcomics ==
* ''The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates''--[[Retcon|er, that is,]] ''The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries''--is frequently quoted in ''[[
** 1. [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|Pillage]], ''[[In That Order|THEN]]'' [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|burn]]. ([http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20030308.html 1], [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20040404.html 2], [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20040722.html 3])
** 2. [[Don't Ask, Just Run|A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn't know what's going on.]] ([http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20090731.html 1])
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== Real Life ==
* [[Warrior Poet|Sun Tzu's]] ''[[
* [[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 ''[[
** 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]].
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* 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 [[
* The Byzantines were very fond of writing military manuals, the most famous of which is the ''Strategikon of Maurice'', allegedly written by the Emperor Maurice. The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus also wrote a manual on campaigning and Emperor Nikephoros II wrote one titled ''Skirmishing'' and another titled ''Presentation and Composition on Warfare''. But there are a number of others, such as an anonymous, early sixth century, untitled manual on strategy, an anonymous, late tenth century, untitled manual on tactics, and an early eleventh century work titled ''Taktika'' by Nikephoros Ouranos.
* Mao himself wrote a book entitled ''The Art of War''. His "Little Red Book" (''Quotations from Chairman Mao'') and ''On Guerrilla Warfare'' would also qualify as examples of this trope.
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* 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.
* ''[[The Defence of
* The Apache traditionally had a very complex set of rules for raiding and warfare (two distinct operations in their culture), passed down orally. One rule was not letting men whose wives were pregnant come on expeditions (they'd be distracted); another was an argot, "warpath words", consisting of using different words for nearly every action ("dragged something" rather than "walked", for instance), so that even enemies who knew Apache wouldn't understand plans.
* Every team in American Football maintains a "playbook" full of dozens of [[Attack Pattern Alpha|Attack Patterns Alpha]].
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