How to use the card deck for strategy planning Games to play with the card deck Robert Cantrell, the author, is a professional strategist and a client of Atchity Editorial/Entertainment International Center for Advantage takes volume orders.  Contact (703) 642-2027 or info@centerforadvantage.com   Red Teaming: The art and science of thinking like your enemy to defeat your enemy. StratEffects™ A game for the world as it is… (This game is useful for training or to solve real world problems.)  Select a strategic problem to solve.  Describe what the problem is and what the problem means. Build a cause and effects chain forward and backward from the problem.  For example, if the problem is “I do not have outside support, meaning I will have to proceed on my own,” you might go forward with “I will have to proceed on my own, meaning I will have to succeed with the resources I have,” and then “I will have to succeed with the resources I have, meaning I will have only one chance to reach my objective.”  You might go backward with “I have moved beyond the capacity of my support to reach me, meaning I do not have outside support,” and before that, “my objective is remote, meaning I have to move beyond the capacity of my support to reach me.”  Go forward and backward at least two steps from the central problem; branches are acceptable.  (Within reason, the broader your cause and effects chain, the better your potential result.) Deal at least five Strategy cards from the Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck to each player. Allow each player, on successive turns, to apply a Strategy card anywhere along the cause and effects chain – to include supporting previously played cards – in a way that supports the resolution of the original strategic problem.  For the example in #2 above, the card 10 of Diamonds, FEINT IN THE EAST, ACT IN THE WEST, evokes the possibility that you might draw an adversary away from your objective thereby eliminating your need for support at the objective.  Queen of Hearts, CREATE SOMETHING FROM NOTHING, evokes the possibility you might cause your adversary to believe you have support even though you do not.  You might further develop the Queen of Hearts by playing the 3 of Clubs, SOW A DISCORD, that evokes the possibility you might allow your adversaries to discover “secrets” that are actually false – the secret in this example being that your support has greater reach than it does. Draw cards to replace those used. Play until you have a plan, succeed at a plan, or until cards run out. For real world problems, play is continuous as the situation changes. Strategy Sparring™  A game to increase the pace and agility of your strategic thinking. Strategy Sparring™ is a new game developed with a Foreign Services officer.  Just like physical martial arts sparing, there is not winner per say in this game.  The goal is to improve the thinking skills under fire of both participants.  You use the cards from the Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck to exercise your mind and develop real-time strategic agility on your feet. Shuffle the Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck, and draw five cards each.  Decide who goes first.  Draw another card from the deck and place the card face up on the table.  In less than 10 seconds, have the first player select a counterstrategy from his card deck, place that card face up on the table, and draw a replacement card from the deck.  In less than 10 seconds, have the second player select a counter strategy to the first player’s card, place that card face up on the table, and draw a replacement card from the deck.  Continue this sparing cycle until you go through the entire deck.  (If you have a chess clock or two stop watches, you can use them to keep up the pace and make the sparing more competitive.) After a few round of this game, you should notice that the pace of your strategic thinking has increased.  In any competitive situation, that could give you a decisive edge. Notes from description Strategy Sparring™ teaches mental agility for strategic thinkers in the same way that physical martial arts sparing teaches participants how to attack and defend when fighting.  All participants in this game are winners in life because the pace and agility of their strategic thinking will increase significantly after a few rounds of play.  For anyone who needs to make split second decisions under fire, these skills could prove lifesaving.

Thousands of copies sold worldwide Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck The situation is critical WHICH CARD WILL YOU PLAY?TM (See cards on Amazon.com) The cards you play when it's not a game.     Very cool.  No, let me rephrase that.  Very #@&^@! cool! David M. – National Security Agency Offer This Web site offers for sale a unique deck of cards, The Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck, that describes 54 of the most important strategic principles competitors across professional disciplines use to win.  It also provides a basis for why these strategies work. The inspiration behind the cards is the quote from the famous football coach Vince Lombardi that "Excellence is achieved by the mastery of the fundamentals." These are the fundamentals of all strategy.   The Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck is available for around $19.97 from this Web site or from other book sellers.  The product is in use by some of the leading strategists in the world, to include instructors at the National Defense University in Ft. McNair, Washington D.C.  It is commonly used for scenario planning and war games by both military and business professionals.  Attorneys use it to plan court cases.  Whether you are new to the professional world or a seasoned veteran, this product will raise your performance to the next level, or your money back. The Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck is guaranteed.  If you are not 100 percent satisfied, simply return it, and you will receive a refund for the entire purchase price. - Robert Cantrell High resolution 10" by 13" Las Vegas photo gift package with cards   Description The Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck allows users make better decisions faster by considering all aspects of their power to succeed.  Top tier institutions such as the National Defense University have already put these cards into their programs to train their best and their brightest.  Legal professionals have used them to plan court engagements.  Martial artists, to include the author, use them to train their students how to think when fighting. nThe Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck is based on Sun Tzu and is derived from the analysis of strategic masterminds to include Sun Tzu, Lao Tzu, Musashi, Boyd, Kasparov, Lawrence, the unknown author of the classic Chinese strategies, and the concepts behind the classic strategy games of Chess, Go, and Poker. Studying these cards will enhance your capacity to compete successfully and not be fooled by strategies rivals play against you.  This means you will have a greater capacity to get what you want despite those who would rather see you fail. You could spend thousands of dollars to attend seminars and courses in order to learn the information presented by the Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck.  Or you could enhance your power to succeed right now for a fraction of the cost.  The situation is critical.  Which card will you play? See User's Guide   See overview for Military Planning           See overview for Business Planning  See overview for Legal Planning   Representative content includes: Card – Ace of Spades Title – ELIMINATE YOUR ADVERSARY Strategy – Terminate your adversary’s present and future participation in the engagement. Basis – Eliminating your adversary undermines his capacity to oppose you.   Card – Queen of Hearts Title – CREATE SOMETHING FROM NOTHING Strategy – Demonstrate your willingness to bluff so your adversary doubts your real actions. Basis – An adversary that doubts the reality of your actions may leave your initiatives   unchallenged.   Card – Jack of Clubs Title - CHANGE THE SCOPE OF THE ENGAGEMENT Strategy – Expand or limit the field of action until key measures of advantage fall into your favor. Basis – Decisive advantages often reside within alternative boundaries. Sample Cards Special Features Easy to Understand The Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck takes you right to the bottom-line, practical application of competitive strategy that includes all the key ideas within Sun Tzu's Art of War and more.  It summarizes in 1,600 words information that other strategy texts can take over 100,000 words to describe.  This means you can review the material in total time and again, and in that way, you soon master the art of competitive strategy. Easy to Apply The Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck breaks competitive strategy down into its key components.  This means you can identify and connect these components in an infinite number of ways to produce unique strategies applicable to your situation.  Though anyone may have access to this card deck, the combinations of strategies you use to win are yours and yours alone. This last point is a key reason for using the deck of cards format since the complete deck comprises 54 individual parts.  Books have and will continue to be a best tool for learning since learning benefits from the structure a book provides.  Cards, as presented by the Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck, have and will continue to be a best tool for doing because they are so easy rearrange and apply to the situation at hand. Real World and Training Games Several games are designed around the Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck.  StratEffectsTM is a game for real world and training competitive situations that encourages users to find solutions and advantages anywhere along a cause and effects chain.  It is an extremely powerful way to succeed in competitive situations.  Strategy Sparring™ allows players to increase the pace and agility of their strategic thinking under high pressure situations.  Art of War Assertion teaches competitive strategy in a way that blends the positional strategy of Chess with the uncertainty and bluffing aspects of Poker.  Three other games, to include a variation of Poker itself, have been designed to make you a better and more observant competitor. Strategy Planning Board and Wall Art Office decor you can use for planning.  The example shown is made from three baseball card displays.  For planning, use Post-It notes of two different colors.  One color represents the strategies your adversary is using or could use against you.  One color represents the strategies you are using or could use against your adversary.  Match these strategies to the specifics of your situation, and in quick time you will have your plan. For inquiries, contact info@centerforadvantage.com Available Companion Book Though not required for use the product, the Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck is backed by a companion book Understanding Sun Tzu on the Art of War if you wish to explore the meanings of the cards further.  This book received a Reviewer's Choice Selection from the Small Press Review. Another page on this Web site provides correlations between Sun Tzu's Art of War and each individual card. This correlation has proved especially popular for students of Sun Tzu and students of competitive strategy in general. Attractive Packaging A substantial number of Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Decks are purchased as executive gifts because of the quality of its appearance and novelty of the format.  The high quality of the cards themselves reflects the attention to detail that is a part of the product's content.  Each strategy card is printed on the highest quality casino grade card stock from Carta Mundi in Kingsport, TN. The Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck looks very attractive on a desk or table.  The spear on the box cover and card backs was hand forged by a former Navy Seal in just the way they were forged 2,500 years ago.       Purchase on Amazon.com Purchase on NavySeals.com -------------------- Ideas Conceived in China; Product Made in the USA Cards written and designed at Center For Advantage of Arlington, VA Cards made by Carta Mundi of Kingsport, TN Cards distributed by National Book Networks of Lanham, MD ------------------- Home | Red Teaming | Description | FAQs | Study Guide | Core Value | Purchase | Companion Book | Project History | Seminars Copyright © 2004 - 2006 Center For Advantage and licensors – All Rights Reserved Site last updated 4 NOV 06

SUN TZU ON THE ART OF WAR       Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck Index to the original Art of War The following text links the Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck to the Art of War.  Each playing card in the Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck represents a derivative of several ideas presented in Sun Tzu on the Art of War.  The purpose of the cards is to offer ways to put Sun Tzu's ideas into actual practice.  The following text of the Art of War links Sun Tzu's ideas to cards that commonly, but not exclusively, provide actions by which to carry those ideas out or take advantage of their effect I. LAYING PLANS                      1. Sun Tzu said:  The art of war is of vital importance  to the State. Ace of Spades; Ace of Diamonds; Ace of Clubs; Ace of Hearts;   2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin.  Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected. Ace of Spades; Ace of Diamonds; Ace of Clubs; Ace of Hearts;   3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.   4. These are:  (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.   5,6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him  regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.   7. Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.   8. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.   9. The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.   10. By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the  control of military expenditure.   11. These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.   12. Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise:-- Jack of Clubs;   13. (1) Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law?     (2) Which of the two generals has most ability?     (3) With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven         and Earth?     (4) On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced?     (5) Which army is stronger?     (6) On which side are officers and men more highly trained?     (7) In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment? Jack of Clubs;   14. By means of these seven considerations I can forecast victory or defeat. Jack of Clubs;   15. The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer:  let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat:--let such a one be dismissed! Ace of Spades; Ace of Clubs;   16. While heading the profit of my counsel,  avail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules. All especially Ace of Spades; King of Spades; Jack of Spades; 10 of Spades; 8 of Spades; 6 of Spades; 5 of Spades; 4 of Spades; 2 of Spades; Queen of Diamonds; 2 of Diamonds; Ace of Clubs; King of Clubs; 9 of Clubs; 7 of Clubs; Jack of Hearts; 2 of Hearts;   17. According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one's plans. 6 of Spades; 2 of Spades; 2 of Diamonds; 9 of Clubs; Jack of Hearts;   18. All warfare is based on deception. 10 of Diamonds; Queen of Hearts;   19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. 10 of Diamonds; 6 of Clubs; 5 of Clubs; Queen of Hearts;   20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy.  Feign disorder, and crush him. 6 of Diamonds;   21. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. 2 of Hearts;   22. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him.  Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. 5 of Hearts;   23. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest.  If his forces are united, separate them. 9 of Spades; Ace of Diamonds;   24. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. Jack of Spades; 6 of Clubs;   25. These military devices, leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand.   26. Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand.  Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all!  It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.   II. WAGING WAR                         1. Sun Tzu said:  In the operations of war,     where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots,     as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand     mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them     a thousand li, the expenditure at home and at the front,     including entertainment of guests, small items such as     glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor,     will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day.     Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.   2. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory     is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and     their ardor will be damped.  If you lay siege to a town,     you will exhaust your strength. 2 of Clubs;   3. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources     of the State will not be equal to the strain. 2 of Clubs;   4. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped,     your strength exhausted and your treasure spent,     other chieftains will spring up to take advantage     of your extremity.  Then no man, however wise,     will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue. 2 of Clubs;   5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war,     cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.   6. There is no instance of a country having benefited     from prolonged warfare. Queen of Clubs; 2 of Clubs; 2 of Hearts;   7. It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted     with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand     the profitable way of carrying it on.   8. The skillful soldier does not raise a second levy,     neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice.   9. Bring war material with you from home, but forage     on the enemy.  Thus the army will have food enough     for its needs.   10. Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army     to be maintained by contributions from a distance.     Contributing to maintain an army at a distance causes     the people to be impoverished.   11. On the other hand, the proximity of an army causes     prices to go up; and high prices cause the people's     substance to be drained away. 9 of Spades; Queen of Diamonds;   12. When their substance is drained away, the peasantry     will be afflicted by heavy exactions.   13,14. With this loss of substance and exhaustion     of strength, the homes of the people will be stripped bare,     and three-tenths of their income will be dissipated;     while government expenses for broken chariots, worn-out horses,     breast-plates and helmets, bows and arrows, spears and shields,     protective mantles, draught-oxen and heavy wagons,     will amount to four-tenths of its total revenue. Queen of Diamonds;   15. Hence a wise general makes a point of foraging     on the enemy.  One cartload of the enemy's provisions     is equivalent to twenty of one's own, and likewise     a single picul of his provender is equivalent to twenty     from one's own store.   16. Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must     be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from     defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards. Ace of Spades;   17. Therefore in chariot fighting, when ten or more chariots     have been taken, those should be rewarded who took the first.     Our own flags should be substituted for those of the enemy,     and the chariots mingled and used in conjunction with ours.     The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept. Ace of Clubs;   18. This is called, using the conquered foe to augment     one's own strength. Ace of Clubs;   19. In war, then, let your great object be victory,     not lengthy campaigns.   20. Thus it may be known that the leader of armies     is the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on whom it     depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.   III. ATTACK BY STRATAGEM                         1. Sun Tzu said:  In the practical art of war, the best     thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact;     to shatter and destroy it is not so good.  So, too, it is     better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it,     to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire     than to destroy them. Ace of Diamonds; Ace of Clubs;   2. Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles     is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists     in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. 4 of Spades; Ace of Clubs;   3. Thus the highest form of generalship is to     balk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent     the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in     order is to attack the enemy's army in the field;     and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities. King of Spades; 8 of Spades;   4. The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it     can possibly be avoided.  The preparation of mantlets,     movable shelters, and various implements of war, will take     up three whole months; and the piling up of mounds over     against the walls will take three months more.   5. The general, unable to control his irritation,     will launch his men to the assault like swarming ants,     with the result that one-third of his men are slain,    while the town still remains untaken.  Such are the disastrous     effects of a siege.   6. Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's     troops without any fighting; he captures their cities     without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom     without lengthy operations in the field. 4 of Spades;   7. With his forces intact he will dispute the mastery     of the Empire, and thus, without losing a man, his triumph     will be complete.  This is the method of attacking by stratagem. Ace of Spades; Ace of Diamonds ; Ace of Clubs; Ace of Hearts;   8. It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten     to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one,     to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army     into two. Ace of Spades; Ace of Diamonds; Ace of Clubs; Ace of Hearts;   9. If equally matched, we can offer battle;     if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy;     if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.