When was Tywin’s cunning brilliance actually shown in the book?

It’s been a while since I read the books but I feel like, from memory, Tywin Lannister was portrayed as this cunning and dangerous strategist who basically outclassed his peers.

However everything I remember was either a pretty standard backroom deal or characters just taking about him with almost fearful reverence. Are the actual examples of him pulling off a master stroke outside basically buying off the Freys and Tyrell’s?

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