For a long time in the One Piece fandom, many assumed that Zoro is nothing more than a meathead brute who only knows to fight head on. Most of them try to enforce this assumption by comparing him with Sanji who they consider to be a smart tactician.
Well actually Zoro has repeatedly shown a certain tactical sense which initially allowed him to adapt to very diverse situations but also to achieve his objectives :
- Zoro vs Ryuma
- a balanced fight until Zoro took the upper hand by exploiting the advantage of the ground around him (the falling roof cut by Ryuma)
➡️ a decisive tactical move
- Zoro vs Pica
- he comes up with 4 tactics to cut down Pica before picking the best one : Tactics n°5 (which is none other than the title of chapter 778).
- with this tactic, he managed to beat Pica while having anticipated the fall of the debris of the golem which were then repelled by Elizabello's "King Punch"
➡️ a decisive tactical planning
- Zoro vs Gifters
- not a real fight but after Luffy got knocked out by Apoo, Zoro decided to retreat and avoid fighting as much as possible in order to minimize the damage taken and keep their chances of fighting Kaido.
➡️ a tactical retreat
More than having demonstrated various tactical feats, it seems that whenever he makes a tactical move during a fight he wins instantly. In 1008 chapter, he was once again trying to come up with the best solution to win against the Yonkos before agreeing to Law's suggestion ... maybe another tactical feat incoming
There is a difference between combat tactics and tactics in general.
Zoro fits in the column of a combat prodigy which involves being perceptive in combat and provide suitable counter measures against your enemy's abilities, If go back to thriller bark, with his fight with oars he was the tactical center of that fight commanding everyone around him as a team from the plan he devised to bring Oars down on the ground. And luffy isn't behind in this category as well, as odd as it may sound, the whole crew got into position coz they understood their captain.. to execute the last decisive attack on Oars
Sanji on the other hand is a tactician in general, he perceives the situation and makes moves accordingly and contingent to what's the best for the crew, you have the epitome of his tactical skills and perception in Water 7,where he analyzed the situation alone and made a move to go aboard the train and inform Luffy from the train and relay of the situation over..., in this same arc sanji comes up with strategies to deal with different carts on the train, where ussop, franky, and sanji detach 2 carts and split up and manage to narrow the numbers of enemy by 4, thats an example of battle tactics with relative ease, but thats in vain since Blueno manages to swoop Robin off the cart with ussop and sanji incapable of perusing further.
Now moving on to perceptive and situational tactics, a quintessential example for these tactics would be the Little Garden arc, Alabasta arc, and Enies lobby where in Littel Garden sanji intercepts and blends in with the enemy to sabotage their ploy to assassinate the crew, and stayed under cover and plays his moves from the background of the show even fooling the main antagonist of the arc and saves the crew and was so unnoticed by the government that he doesn't get his deserved bounty.
** Enies lobby**
while the crew clashes with the buster call and with the war ships bombarding the Judical Island, so do the hopes of escaping this dire predicament get bleaker , sanji manages to asses the dire situation and comes up with a counter initiative to increase the chances of escape drastically by opening the gate of justice while zoro and the others fight off the buster call.
An Additional example would be that in Zou he utilized the fact that he can't be killed to let his crew escape from bege by keeping Ceasar at gun point, while knowing Neko is out side which would ensure their safety
so at the end of the day even if luffy and zoro are prodigies in combat tactics, sanji isn't behind either but is more perceptive and discerning than them.
to end it on a high note here's a snippet of a Water 7 moment :