= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Gurkenglas comments on A Story of Kings and Spies - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (33)
What does the king do if his spies tell him that the enemy has indeed resorted to publically preparing an attack, then each day trying to reveal the top card of a deck of cards to be an ace of spades to determine whether they launch their attack that day?
Though it is expensive to turtle, it is more expensive to keep a standing army on its doorstep, to the extent that the neighboring kingdoms would only want to try a surprise attack. A siege around a city is expensive to maintain, and then can only hope to succeed because the city cannot grow its own food. Sieging a country which is self-sufficient (at a very basic level) will never actually succeed, on top of being harder to maintain, day-to-day.
Oh, the meeting was going to be on a random day, not the attack. All makes sense in retrospect, then.