this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2026
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Even though the US military is significantly weaker with less ammo, WAY more bloodied in the region and in a worse position in just about every way than they were the first time, surely Iran will collapse this time

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From The Fart of War by DJT:

  1. Short stock on Friday, sell on Monday; war is about profit.
  2. Decades of sanctions will make your enemy weak, not tough.
  3. Always replace competent generals with loyalist lackeys who will do as ordered.
  4. Prepare for war by alienating your allies.
  5. Nothing you do will be prosecuted as a war crime, so do not restrict attacks to military targets.
[–] Juice@midwest.social 26 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Its a good strategy, keep doing the same thing over and over until the enemy is like "there's no way they're going to do that again," and then you do it again, and you win

[–] Dessa@hexbear.net 14 points 4 days ago

No way they're expecting me to throw paper again. They're sure to put up rock this time!

[–] EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net 32 points 4 days ago (4 children)

You don't get it, this time they declared TOTAL WAR. The US wasn't really even trying last time. "Like, you only made me use 10 percent of my power Scoob."

[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Isn't declaring total war basically just announcing a full and clear intent to do war crimes

[–] FourteenEyes@hexbear.net 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Im playing vermintide right this second and was really freaked out for a sec

[–] FidelChadstro@hexbear.net 18 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The version of declaring total war where Congress isn't consulted and hasn't declared war though, right?

[–] EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net 18 points 4 days ago

Yeah, it's the kind where you just attack civilian infrastructure but then claim it's a brand new war every 60 days.

[–] Lenins_Dumbbell@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 4 days ago

Tbf most of Congress wants the war so Iran collapses and their donors can plunder what's left of Iran while getting fat bonuses from AIPAC

But they know this war is not ending anytime soon and siding with Trump right before the mid terms is suicide, so they're doing their usual "to stop the war, vote for us!"

[–] SchillMenaker@hexbear.net 10 points 4 days ago (2 children)

But WHICH Total War? 3 Kingdoms is a masterpiece but there are garbage entries like Empire.

[–] Mardoniush@hexbear.net 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] SchillMenaker@hexbear.net 1 points 3 days ago

Yeah, I kind of had to pick one to shit on for the joke to work. Even the bad total war games have their appeal.

[–] BanMeFromPosting@hexbear.net 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Empire is perfect, load times and all.

[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 3 points 4 days ago

Empire feels like it had a lot of potential, but was unfinished.

[–] Blakey@hexbear.net 5 points 3 days ago
[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 30 points 4 days ago (6 children)

I probably say this shit every time someone mentions that book but when i eas really serious about getting good at starcraft broodwar i read the art of war to learn about army tactics (i was a teen, okay!? It felt very fucking clever at the time)

The entire book can be boiled down to a couple points.

  1. Try not to fight unless you have an overwhelming force because long battles and sieges are not very fun

  2. If you have to do a real battle try to fuck with the opposing army or trick them into thinking your position is way better than it is so they might decide it's not worth it

  3. If you really really have to fight for real, use the terrain to your advantage.

No i haven't read it since then

[–] TabularTuxedo@lemmygrad.ml 33 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Also, the most important point: logistics!

"Your army is composed of people that consume resources while marching from point A to point B. If you don't have resources, you lose. Do not fucking forget this." -- Sun Tzu

Always feed your guys. If you don't feed your guys, they're not yours anymore.

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 29 points 4 days ago (3 children)

or trick them into thinking your position is way better than it is so they might decide it's not worth it

It's worth mentioning that he also said that if you're in a strong position then you should trick them into believing it is weak, because overall the point is to misinform your enemy so they make choices that they wouldn't have made with full and accurate knowledge.

If you really really have to fight for real, use the terrain to your advantage.

While a lot of this is extremely banal, like "take the high ground", some of it is interesting, like he emphasizes making sure the enemy has a way to escape so that the enemy soldiers don't feel compelled to fight to the death, which is more costly for you. idk if that's useful for Starcraft, though.

Also the rule 0 that he heavily emphasizes is that it's typically better to avoid fighting at all, but that definitely isn't helpful for Starcraft.

[–] 30_to_50_Feral_PAWGs@hexbear.net 20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

If your enemy is an absolute dingus, trick him into chaining his ships together, and then read a weather almanac to guesstimate the most likely wind direction. Ram your enemy's chained ships with a blockade runner filled with explosives, using the wind to spread the flames. Then watch the carnage from afar.

-- Zhou Yu

[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

TBH, Cao Cao was a very competent general on land, but had zero knowledge about fighting on water and had to rely on his advisors, one of whom was actually working for his enemies and gave him this idea as deliberate sabotage.

Never take naval advice from Pang Tong, worst mistake of my life
-- Cao Cao

[–] miz@hexbear.net 9 points 4 days ago

noooo {曹|cáo}{操|cāo} what is u doing bb

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 11 points 4 days ago

s worth mentioning that he also said that if you're in a strong position then you should trick them into believing it is weak,

Yeah i gave up on the but half way because i realized there's a bit more than i set up there to be.

[–] marxisthayaca@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

Also the rule 0 that he heavily emphasizes is that it's typically better to avoid fighting at all, but that definitely isn't helpful for Starcraft.

Trash talk your opponent so hard, they ragebait and quit.

[–] DornerStan@lemmygrad.ml 23 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It can even be boiled down further to do what wins and that's still insightful because most of us are running around doing what feels right or whatever lol

I have to regularly ask myself is this actually going to achieve the outcome I want? And sometimes the answer is no and I still do it anyway

[–] spudnik@hexbear.net 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Chester Nimitz version of "Is the proposed operation likely to succeed? What might the consequences of failure? Is it in the realm of practicability in terms of material and supplies?" is another really funny, super obvious sounding piece of advice

[–] fox@hexbear.net 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It specifically took a genius to point out that putting armor on bullet damage of returning planes was dumb, because the planes could keep flying with that damage, and you'd need to put armor where there were no bullet holes at all

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 13 points 4 days ago

That one's a myth. The various mathematicians credited with it were members of the team that collected and collated the stats in the first place and there's no record of the data being misunderstood in the manner the funny anecdote presents it. The famous diagram associated with it is also not from their report and isn't the right kind of plane.

[–] marxisthayaca@hexbear.net 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

it seems obvious but you gotta contend that since time immemorial, incredibly stupid people have been given command of armies.

[–] SchillMenaker@hexbear.net 14 points 4 days ago

It's basically the scene in The Office where Dwight explains how he follows Michael's advice of not being an idiot.

[–] 30_to_50_Feral_PAWGs@hexbear.net 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Bringing me back to a Starcraft 1 map that I made once upon a time for 1v1 games with my cousin. I called it "Nebraska." It was a max-size map with absolutely no terrain whatsoever, and pockets of minerals and vespene in each of the four corners and along the outer borders near the center.

I don't remember if it was a "real" copy of SC1, or if we were playing a hacked version of the shareware edition with this map added in to replace Byways, but we were playing a dial-up game to test out the map with both of us as Terran. I started in with the classic Terran defense -- siege tanks, turrets, and bunkers in a huge line across the center of the map, starting from the corner where my first command center had spawned in. I made it about halfway across the map -- and had started a second "wall" of the same from the opposite side, which only made it around a quarter of the way across -- when a couple of my cousin's marines blundered into it and immediately got blown to pieces by the tanks. A few seconds later, I saw the ComSat scanner sweep sparkles over a nearby section of The Wall. He didn't know it at the time, but nearly all of the bunkers were empty.

He then tried to send a wave of units down. I had been spamming command centers with nuke silos and already had ghosts positioned around his outermost defenses, and just waited around for his troops to pass by. I had nothing to follow it up with (unless I started moving my tanks, but then those would have no anti-air support) because all my supplies were devoted to three nukes and a fuckload of tanks, but I figured what the hell, and started letting the nukes fly. The first one took out what turned out to be all of his turrets -- and therefore all of his stealth detectors; he didn't have any science vessels yet -- and the second trashed most of his supply depots and about half his SCVs. He ragequit before I could launch the third. If he had found the gap in the wall and wandered through it, I had no defenses.

We didn't play much after that.

Loading up the Byways map on the full version was always a blast though; burrowed Zerg are hilarious on those secondary resource deposit locations.

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 7 points 4 days ago

Yeah, making maps like that was really fun. I do miss being able to play without all the meta knowledge but it is still fun to 1v3 laypeople and win. One of the only times people look at me like I'm a wizard

[–] Formerlyfarman@hexbear.net 23 points 4 days ago

It's different now, before the nazi were stacking indiscriminately, now they seem focused on the south, and are hitting logistics, for example, bridges. While Iran has hit a lot of barracks. So it looks like the fascists are preparing for ground incursions.

[–] segfault11@hexbear.net 14 points 4 days ago

the art of the deal is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

[–] marxisthayaca@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago

When your logistics supply chain is at its lowest, use all of your ammunition on granite mountains.

bold move cotton we'll uh we'll see if that pays off