How David beat Goliath

How effort and unconventional methods allow the weak to defeat the strong.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all
from Elemental Forums

So this is an article I came across while reading comments on a Detroit Lions blog.

I was looking for some discussion of the subject matter here.

Some highlights.....

  • When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, they win, Arreguín-Toft concluded, “even when everything we think we know about power says they shouldn’t.”
  • The eighteenth-century general Maurice de Saxe famously said that the art of war was about legs, not arms 
  • Less talented basketball teams can defeat more skilled opponents by training for endurance and running the full court press the whole game.

Since this is a videogame related forum, I was wondering if maybe there are any games you've played in which a player can win through sheer tenacity over talent.  Have you come across any unusual strategies in a game?

Any other thoughts this article brings to your mind are fair game as well.

off-topic
54,008 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I was hoping for an interesting conversation on this post..

It's a shame I didn't find it.

Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top

Demigod is one. There's the "real" way to play Demigod, rushing straight into your opponent and fighting like most PuGs, and then there's running around the map capping everything in sight. It's more effective than you'd think.

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Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries. There is this one mission that you have to scout out three buildings and stand by them for around a minute each. The trick is that you have to remain unseen and undetected to have anything close to and "easy time" scanning the buildings. It is really hard to stay undetected because they have patrols that walk right by the building and there is almost nowhere you can stand by that building and not be seen.

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Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't know how common the strategy is, but I once played starcraft against a zerg guy who made nothing but guardians and overlords.  I couldn't kill the guardians because I couldn't target them through the mass flood of overlords.