Quote Originally Posted by Squark View Post
Here's an example that Calgar quotes in Chapter's Due, "If you know both yourself and your enemy,you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him." That's not a specific "Do X if Y and Z," it's a guiding principle a commander should keep in mind.
I also think that's a paraphrase of Sun Tzu.

Just because you follow a Doctrine, does not mean you could be replaced with a mathematical function. "Insert Situation A, do Strategy B".

Lets say you are an SM commander fighting Orcs. You look in the CA for advice on fighting Orcs.

The CA says that "Orcs are always eager for battle, poorly organized, and prone to infighting." It could then list some good strategies for fighting Orcs: Use a false retreat to lure them into a killbox. Trick them into firing on one another, eliminate the Warboss to collapse their chain of command, ect. It might explain the types of strategies Orks like to use (Run Towards Them Shooting and Screaming), ect ect.

It probably won't have a bunch of diagrams saying "If you have 2 squads of Tactical marines, plus a Predator Tank and a squad of scouts on top of a 10 meter hill with 238 Orks, approximately half of which are armed with two-handed firearms, you should do X, that is, unless it rained the previous night or one of your Scouts is named Steve"