Unlock every character, item, & weapon -Stats for all 192 weapons -Every item, including rare items, uncovered -All 48 characters revealed and unlocked! -Strategy for defeating all 64 battles -Each character's secret fourth weapons and how to earn them! -Battlefield tactics for all enemies -Tips for the game's Challenge Mode

"Dynasty Warriors 2" not only puts you on the battlefield, it also puts you at the head of your own army. Choose from 28 different characters from ancient China; your fighting influences the ebb and flow of famous 3rd century battles. In "Dynasty Warriors 2: Prima's Official Strategy Guide," you?ll find everything you need to conquer the enemy, including: Strategy to help you choose your hero Winning combat tips for individuals and armies Basic and advanced strategies for every attack type Bios and tactics for all 28 playable characters A huge table of all officers and their roles

How money, guts, and greed built the Warriors dynasty -- and then took it apart The Golden State Warriors dominated the NBA for the better part of a decade. Since the arrival of owner Joe Lacob, they won more championships and sold more merchandise than any other franchise in the sport. And in 2019, they opened the doors on a lavish new stadium. Yet all this success contained some of the seeds of decline. Ethan Sherwood Strauss's clear-eyed exposé reveals the team's culture, its financial ambitions and struggles, and the price that its players and managers have paid for all their winning. From Lacob's unlikely acquisition of the team to Kevin Durant's controversial departure, Strauss shows how the smallest moments can define success or failure for years. And, looking ahead, Strauss ponders whether this organization can rebuild after its abrupt fall from the top, and how a relentless business wears down its players and executives. The Victory Machine is a defining book on the modern NBA: it not only rewrites the story of the Warriors, but shows how the Darwinian business of pro basketball really works.

Circe Quinn, the office manager of a moving company, goes to sleep at home and wakes up in a corral filled with women wearing sacrificial virgin attire—and she’s one of them. She figures this is not good and soon finds she’s not having a wild dream; she’s living a frightening nightmare. She’s been transported to a barren land populated by a primitive people, where she’s installed very unwillingly on her white throne of horns as their queen. Dax Lahn is the king of Suh Tunak, the Horde of the nation of Korwahk. With one look at Circe, he knows she will be his bride and together they will start the Golden Dynasty of legend. Circe and Lahn are separated by language, culture, and the small fact she’s from a parallel universe and has no idea how she got there. Or, more importantly, how to get home. Facing challenge after challenge, Circe finds her footing as Queen of the brutal Korwahk Horde and wife to its King. Then she finds herself falling in love with this primitive land, its people and especially their savage leader.

Heroic tales of combatants across genres and centuries from today’s popular authors—includes a new Song of Ice and Fire novella by George R. R. Martin. From George R. R. Martin’s Introduction to Warriors: “Our contributors make up an all-star lineup of award-winning and bestselling writers, representing a dozen different publishers and as many genres. We asked each of them for the same thing—a story about a warrior. Some chose to write in the genre they’re best known for. Some decided to try something different. You will find warriors of every shape, size, and color in these pages, warriors from every epoch of human history, from yesterday and today and tomorrow, and from worlds that never were. Some of the stories will make you sad, some will make you laugh, and many will keep you on the edge of your seat.” The stories in the first volume of this book are: Introduction: Stories of the Spinner Rack, by George R. R. Martin Forever Bound, by Joe Haldeman The Eagle and the Rabbit, by Steven Saylor And Ministers of Grace, by Tad Williams The King of Norway, by Cecelia Holland Defenders of the Frontier, by Robert Silverberg The Mystery Knight, by George R. R. Martin Many of these writers are bestsellers. All of them are storytellers of the highest quality. Together they make a volume of unforgettable reading.

This meticulously researched and eminently readable study considers the economic, political, and religious factors that led Shaolin monks to disregard the Buddhist prohibition against violence and instead create fighting techniques that by the 21st century have spread throughout the world.

This book examines the meteoric rise of Sweden as the pre-eminent military power in Europe during the Thirty Years War during the 1600s, and then follows its line of warrior kings into the next century until the Swedes finally meet their demise, in an overreach into the vastness of Russia. A small Scandinavian nation, with at most one and a half million people and scant internal resources of its own, there was small logic to how Sweden could become the dominant power on the Continent. That Sweden achieved this was due to its leadership—a case-study in history when pure military skill, and that alone, could override the demographic and economic factors which have in modern times been termed so pre-eminent. Once Protestantism emerged, via Martin Luther, the most devastating war in European history ensued, as the Holy Roman Empire sought to resassert its authority by force. Into this bloody maelstrom stepped Gustav Adolf of Sweden, a brilliant tactician and strategist, who with his finely honed Swedish legions proceeded to establish a new authority in northern Europe. Gustav, as brave as he was brilliant, was finally killed while leading a cavalry charge at the Battle of Lützen. He had innovated, however, tactics and weaponry that put his successors in good stead, as Sweden remained a great power, rivaled only by France and Spain in terms of territory in Europe. And then one of his successors, Karl XII, turned out to be just as great a military genius as Gustav himself, and as the year 1700 arrived, Swedish armies once more burst out in all directions. Karl, like Gustav, assumed the throne while still a teenager, but immediately displayed so much acumen, daring and skill that chroniclers could only compare him, like Gustav, to Alexander the Great. This book examines thoroughly, yet in highly readable fashion, the century during which Swedish military power set an example for all Europe. While the Continent was most visibly divided along religious lines—Catholic versus Protestant—geopolitical motives always underlied the conflicts. Sweden’s reliance on its military skill was especially noteworthy, as it veritably founded the modern concept of making wars pay through conquest. Karl XII finally let his ambitions lead him too far, as did Napoleon and Hitler in following centuries, into the vastness of the nascent Russian Empire, where he was finally defeated, at Poltava in Ukraine. Thus the period of Swedish supremacy in Europe came to a close, albeit not without leaving important lessons behind. In this work, by renowned author Henrik O. Lunde, these are clearly to be seen.