As I pondered this gem of wisdom, I came to think that this all about surprise.

In a drawn-out battle like your average Netrunner game, you always need a certain level of aggressiveness to keep your opponent on her or his toes - as a Runner, you need to run often and early to make the Corp spend bits, for example, or to make it use actions to install Ice on its various forts. The Corp needs to install the occasional Agenda/Ambush Node/"must-trash" Node to make the Runner spend bits with running/trashing.

All of this is business as usual, though. As the waves of attack rush back and forth, as it were, you try to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent. As Runner, you look at the Ice the Corp throws against you, and you calculate just how many bits it would cost your Icebreakers to get through them in a pitch, even it if means that one has to suffer the detrimental effects of some of the subroutines in order to inform the world of a new Black Ops scheme Arasaka is hatching. So, what you see right in front of you in Netspace is the Corp's "normal force". Part of this "normal force" is anything that has been exposed: Ambush Nodes, mean Upgrades, and the like, as well.

As the Corp, likewise, you always try to calculate the probability of a Runner getting at whatever it is you're hiding in a datafort. You look at the installed Icebreakers and bit sources in particular, and at everything else that is installed in general. That way, you assess the "normal" force a Runner can bring to bear against you. For example, if the Runner has no bits in his or her pool, has no bitgainer cards installed apart from a Newsgroup Filter, but a full suite of Breakers, you might think that with "normal" force, the Runner will be able to get up to 6 bits in the next turn and make a run in his or her 4th action. If the Ice protecting your Agenda-scoring SDF is too tough too break with 6 bits and this particular breaker cavalcade, you might consider putting an Agenda in there this turn and advance it.

So far, everything looked very forseeable. But although it makes sense to use "business as usual" (meaning "normal force") as a base for your calculations, there is always a certain level of risk involved, because there are many, many ways in Netrunner to spring nasty surprises at your opponent. This element of surprise - surprising the enemy with the fact that you had some spare aces up your sleeve after all - is what Sun Tzu would call "extraordinary force". Only that in Netrunner, it's a Lucidrine Booster Drug. Or a Social Engineering. Or an Inside Job. Or a wallbreaker you had in hand all the while but didn't install as to not reveal your ability to breach the Rock Is Strong that's protecting HQ, for example.The Corp has these cards, too: Dr. Dreff. Chance Observation/Urban. City Surveillance. And so on. If the Corp plays Tag'n'Bag, say, it might test the Runner's tag defence by rezzing Ice like Hunter. An additional tagging Op might come right after the Runner has trashed his Fall Guy to deal with the Ice.

The key to playing Netrunner in the philosophy of Sun Tzu would be to use your capacities for surprise _at the critically appropriate moment_ - in the moment when it's either win or lose, as it were. Use your Booster Drug to get into that fort and snatch the winning Agenda, not just to test its defences. That's better done with the "normal force" of your usual bitgainers. Use that Lisa Blight/Bolter Cluster combo to flatline the Runner, not just to hurt him. Otherwise, the surprise effect will be completely lost, and your "extraordinary" force that should be kept as backup becomes part of your "normal" force, to which your opponent can then react and adapt accordingly.

-Jens Kreutzer