Honorverse Top Ten Tacticians, Strategists

crewdude48 wrote:You can tell her one thing I have realized; some of the stupidest people I have ever met have been college grads. While they have a bunch of knowledge, (and some of them not even that) they assume that it instantly translates to wisdom. "The wisest man knows that he knows nothing."

I'll be certain to pass it on crewdude. She'll probably do a few backflips at your observation because at the moment she doesn't think much of these particular college students. Sis and I just don't want her to become disillusioned with the whole college thing. And to be fair to the students, I really just think they were caught with their pants down. From my short interaction with them they were the chauvinistic type that didn't expect intelligence to come out of the mouth of a woman, and even less so from a twelve year old. They were hopelessly unprepared, as most everyone, at meeting her. Many never recover. She's intellectually daunting. A few of them suggest that she's only pretending to be twelve as a front to refuse their advances. They met her at her last piano recital where she was dressed in a gown with makeup that made her look much older with her already grownup mannerisms. She doesn't act like your average twelve year old and her height doesn't help.

Less than two minutes into the introductions they were . They just never recovered. She was disappointed and upset because she thought she was finally going to get some intelligent conversation from some boys. We got on the subject of the Honorverse because her recital was in the same city as this year's Honor Con. Out of 23 male college students, 11 are Honorverse fans. Not a single girl had a clue about the works. She was sad about that.

cthia wrote:
Uniform? Oh no. Tierney, my niece, wants to wear a uniform too. We told her it would be a bit much, but since she never got to attend a trekkie event in full uniform she wants to take this opportunity to do it. You've just given her ammo!

Oh, yes. Full Grayson service dress - with skirt.

You tell your niece she darned better well wear a uniform this year. If I can't be there to do it, at least one of us should!! *hands over more ammo to Tierney*

And I agree that the best strategists are not necessarily the best tacticians, but I'm a political junkie, not a military one. I'll let those who know their shit debate that particular distinction.

roseandheather wrote:

cthia wrote:
Uniform? Oh no. Tierney, my niece, wants to wear a uniform too. We told her it would be a bit much, but since she never got to attend a trekkie event in full uniform she wants to take this opportunity to do it. You've just given her ammo!

Oh, yes. Full Grayson service dress - with skirt.

You tell your niece she darned better well wear a uniform this year. If I can't be there to do it, at least one of us should!! *hands over more ammo to Tierney*

You would too wouldn't you rose? Instigator!

Yes, but sis is taking the easy way out. She always wear gowns. She says she'll throw in a few curtsies. With the long hair and the heels, she'll look the part.

Tenshinai wrote:

Strategy is why you fight at a specific time or place, or defend it, tactics is how you win the fight at that time and place.

Strategy is deciding what planets you are going to defend, what enemy planets you will attack, and what you will build to it with.
Tactics is how you win the fights that occur at those planets.

Tactics wins the battle, strategy wins the war.

Remember, she's twelve years old arguing against college students.

And doing it quite excellently even if she sometimes messes up what is strategy and what is tactics(interestingly, her examples are good, but her stated definition isn´t).

roseandheather wrote:...if your niece was ten years older I'd be asking you if she was single.

She sounds interesting yes.

Tenshinai. I am not going to argue for my niece. Believe you me, she doesn't need help. Come to Honor Con and discuss it with her yourself. However, I recommend you don't take her lightly as you seem to be, as most. She'll leave you gasping for air. You have been forewarned.

Everything you said about strategy indeed happens in the War Room or aboard ship before the battle.

Everything you said about tactics indeed happens in the heat of battle.

She said the exact same thing you said, just a bit more...succinctly. Perhaps too succinctly?

See her at Honor Con. You're in for a rough ride.

Reminds me of an Aivars Terekhov quote, and it happens to her all of the time..."Why do grownups like you, automatically assume you are intellectually superior to a 12 year-old like her?"

No love for Tom Caparelli as a strategist? I wish we had gotten to see him in actual command out in the field but the man did basically run the entire Alliance war effort for about 20 years...

It was his maneuvering before launching Buttercup that really impressed me. Deliberately letting the Peeps have some unimportant systems to clandestinely check your new systems in actual combat situations and then not responding to all provocations just to get them right where you want them for the knockout punch...Sheer brilliance.

Amaroq wrote:No love for Tom Caparelli as a strategist? I wish we had gotten to see him in actual command out in the field but the man did basically run the entire Alliance war effort for about 20 years...

It was his maneuvering before launching Buttercup that really impressed me. Deliberately letting the Peeps have some unimportant systems to clandestinely check your new systems in actual combat situations and then not responding to all provocations just to get them right where you want them for the knockout punch...Sheer brilliance.

I love your thinking Amaroq. My nieces arguments with the students was initially over everyone not on the list. Their initial rules were that you could only use officers from their list which didn't include Saganami, King Roger, Oversteegen, Caparelli or even Bellefeuille. She convinced them into including all possibilities but then realized, even at the recital, that they didn't want to distinguish between strategy and tactics. Her original email to them went completely over their heads.

I love Caparelli. His maneuvering was brilliant indeed. What I like about him even more is his ability, and willigness to take chances. He was willing to make calls that could potentially bite him in and on the ass.

I always envisioned him as an extremely gray haired man from the years of impossible stress.

This is a difficult thing to say, really. Tactics is a lot easier to place than strategy, though. Not sure I can put them in a list, so will give details instead.

I'd put Honor at the top in Tactics. Possibly the -best-, but remember, she herself says that Theisman is as good as she is, so we can't be utterly sure. Theisman says the same in reverse, so heh. Near the top would be Tourville as well, as well as Terekhov IMO. I'm not sure Hamish Alexander would top this list, he's not bad, but it's not his thing really.

Conversely, for strategy, I'd definitely not put Honor near #1. She's a great tactician. But the long-term strategy thing, while she's gotten better, isn't her forte. I'd put Hamish Alexander here, as well as Esther McQueen. Quite likely Caparelli as well. Honor would be here where Hamish is in Tactics - really good, but not best of the best.

So in a nutshell:

Strategy: #1: Esther McQueen/Hamish Alexander, 'Near Best': Caparelli, Very Good: Honor Harrington, Michelle Henke, Tourville, Many More
Tactics: #1: Honor/Theisman, 'Near Best': Terekhov, Tourville. Very Good: Hamish Alexander, Michelle Henke, Many More

My 2c.

Hey cthia. A message for your niece. Next time she talks to her college crowd, have her find out how many of them belong to this forum. If none of them do, have her tell them to get an account, log in and defend their choices against the combined forces of the forums. Whether they do it as a group or as individuals makes no never mind. Also, please tell her, her thoughts are welcome and appreciated here. She sounds like she is going to give some poor sucker....er, future husband or wife a run for their money.

KNick wrote:Hey cthia. A message for your niece. Next time she talks to her college crowd, have her find out how many of them belong to this forum. If none of them do, have her tell them to get an account, log in and defend their choices against the combined forces of the forums. Whether they do it as a group or as individuals makes no never mind. Also, please tell her, her thoughts are welcome and appreciated here. She sounds like she is going to give some poor sucker....er, future husband or wife a run for their money.

I suggested the exact same thing KNick. Here's part of her response...

"Heavens no Uncle! If you think that I'm going to entertain these idiots at Honor Con and endure a repeat performance of my recital after-party then you have no more thinks coming, because you have just burned through the only one you had. They'll only see Honor Con as an opportunity to pursue me. I want to meet and talk to some intelligent people there. Perhaps after Honor Con? Besides, do you really want these self absorbed idiots to join the forum embarassing us both? I'll be joining after Honor Con, remember. My emails will be inundated with the idiots and they'll stalk me through every thread."

As I told her, they are bound to find out. I think the more the merrier. It'll be good for the forum, if not for my niece. I have over a dozen foreign friends that I am desperately trying to get to join. They read the forums regularly and are Honorversees. However, they are much too uncomfortable about their English. Surprisingly because their English is really good. It is the idioms in which most all foreigners struggle with, rightfully so. Like Ziva on NCIS, they say things like "In the middle of a rock and a hard spot." Which to me is refreshingly funny. Or "apple in his eye." Or my favorite, (hi Mara) "You're killing a dead horse." In many cases their erroneous idioms sound better than ours. But are always refreshingly funny. After reading the forums they don't think everyone will be amused. They say us Americans are hard butts.

Tenshinai wrote:Strategy is why you fight at a specific time or place, or defend it, tactics is how you win the fight at that time and place.

Strategy is deciding what planets you are going to defend, what enemy planets you will attack, and what you will build to it with.
Tactics is how you win the fights that occur at those planets.

Even more simply, strategy is where and when you deploy your assets; tactics is what you do after you deploy them.

This is why a nuclear missile is called a "strategic" weapon: there are no decisions made at the tactical level at all; the act of deploying the asset is everything.