Art Of War Strategic Puzzles

by Richard Wolfrik Galland

224 pages, Hardcover

Published August 8, 2019

Reviews

[carl theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

You wish you'd find this type of book in the dentist office instead of the decaying People magazines. Something to keep you interested ! About 30 battles throughout history are profiled along with a puzzle to work. Each battle is described in a short paragraph or so along with some wise military quotations, just the stuff historians love. Though the descriptions are short, they had me wanting to learn more about the particular contests that I wasn’t so familiar with.

The puzzles types vary, most are ‘normal’ brain teasers put into a military slant, for example some are sudoko style but instead of numbers, you match battle axes, others are arcane trivia quizzes, some word jumbles.

If you’re a military history fan chances are someone in your family will get you this for a gift one day instead of ‘those boring history books’ you usually want.

The graphic art work is well done, a little something different for the history buff.

[Caitlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. If I could give it zero stars, I would.

It comes across as strategic puzzles (hence, the name), but it's not. Every other page is a description of a battle scenario, and you - the war leader - get to choose from three possible strategies (or sometimes outcomes... weird) to take. None of them are ever the correct option because it's always a trick question. ALWAYS. The answer is always something not listed in your options. Why the hell should I waste my time playing a game I can never win? And that's 50% of this book.

Another 25% is random quotes and historical information. The remaining 25% is actually puzzles, but very poor ones. For a lot of them the instructions don't make any sense, so you give up before you can even start. I've found that a few of them actually have more than one answer, although only one is listed. And no explanations are given as to how you come to the answers; so if you're really lost on a puzzle, the answer sheet isn't helpful. You walk away just as confused.

Seriously, don't buy this book. I won't even donate my copy to Goodwill because I don't want it existing in another person's life.

[Christopher Obert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointed with this book because it had so much potential. I found a few typos and mistakes in the book. At times the book is confusing and difficult to follow. However, I believe that this book can be saved with a second edition. The art was very good but this book needs to be professionally edited. The typos and errors need to be fixed and the confusing parts made clear. Some of the puzzles need to be replaced with a different type of puzzle and more background information is needed for many of the battles; including information on how each battle illustrates the teachings of Sun Tzu.

[Mark Bates · Rating 3 out of 5]

Redundant puzzles and errors

[Milan Stefanik · Rating 1 out of 5]

Big mistake picking this book. The preview of military history is short. Some of the exercises are unclear, some contain errors. I was disappointed reading this book.