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Defensive Feint Trap: Difference between revisions
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* In the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' novels during the siege of the High Clerist's Tower during the War of the Lance the Draconians pulled this off on the overconfident Solamnic forces.
** It doesn't help that the commander of the Solamnic Knights, was just a little bit crazy over having been beaten out for the position of Grand Master of the Knighthood. He decided to launch an attack away from the Tower's defenses in a case of [[Suicidal Overconfidence]], hoping that a stunning rout would sway popular opinion back in his favor. And the garrison, bound to [[Honor Before Reason]] as they were, were duty-bound to follow, leaving only the tiny force of Knights of the Crown, who were under the command of Sturm Brightblade, who ordered them to remain behind, to defend the Tower.
** Laurana, the [[Red Baron|Golden General]], who takes command of the Solamnic forces after the High Clerist's Tower, returns the favor at the Battle of Margaard Ford. {{spoiler|When faced with a massive enemy army that greatly outnumbers her own, she has her silver dragons create an ice dam to block the Vingaard River. Her ground forces then appear to flee in the face of the overwhelming [[The Empire|Dragonarmy]] force. This causes the enemy army to heedlessly enter the now dry river bed in pursuit of her seemingly routed troops. Laurana then has her gold dragons melt the ice dam, creating a massive tidal wave that annihilates the entire Dragonarmy force without her forces taking any losses.}}
* Jochi does this to a group of Russian knights at the start of ''[[Conqueror|Bones of the Hills]]''. This is [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] towards the end of the book when Kachiun tries this against Jelaudin. However, since Jelaudin is Genghis Khan's [[Worthy Opponent]], he understands Mongol tactics and realises what they are trying. He thus quickly orders his men to stop their pursuit, forcing the Mongols (see [[Real Life]], below) to deal with the shame of having actually retreated.
* The Mongols use the same tactic to better effect in one of the ''[[Mars Attacks!]]'' novels, where they're using the alien invasion and destabilization of civilization to get their own back.
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* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', Tywin Lannister tries to set up an unwilling Defensive Feint Trap by filling one of his flanks with irregular troops, planning on the likelihood that they'll break and his stronger flank of knights can pin the enemy against a river. He even sticks his [[The Unfavourite|unwanted son]] Tyrion in there, probably [[The Uriah Gambit|hoping that he'll die in the fighting]]. Ultimately Tyrion works this out and does his best to make sure the flank holds, so Tywin [[Xanatos Gambit|wins the battle anyway]].
* The primary modus operandi of Salma's New Mercers in ''[[Shadows of the Apt]]''.
* [[Sun Tzu]] made it clear of the importance of Feigned Retreat through his book ''[[The Art of War]]''.
* Happens more than once in the ''[[X Wing Series]]'', most notably at the start of ''Wraith Squadron''. Talon Squadron follows a single wounded enemy fighter into a trap which kills everyone but [[Heroic BSOD|Myn Donos]].
** Later used by Wedge himself in the [[New Jedi Order]] ''Enemy Lines'' duology. When the Vong stage a ground assault on his Borleias base, he instructs all his defenders to retreat at the same rate, reinforcing weakened areas while ordering the abandoning of more well defended positions. Then, once the Vong have been lured into open ground, the orbiting Star Destroyers open fire...
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*** Which was because most of the Romans at any given time were useless: if you don't have any form of projectile weapon, being trapped in the middle of a position means you can't contribute anything to the fight except waiting for the people between you and the enemy to die so you can get your turn.
* In general, heavy cavalry would be taught ''never'' to chase light cavalry if it broke away. Heavy cavalry was essentially invulnerable against light cavalry, if the numbers were anything like close, ''unless'' it broke that one rule -- because speed was the only major advantage light cavalry had. The moment heavy cavalry gave chase, it would be flanked, and cut to ribbons.
** In practice, not so much. Especially in Europe, where knights on heavy cavalry had a tendency to chomp at the bit and charge on their own, regardless of good sense and tactics.
*** Knights tended to consider tactics in general to be cheating, since their entire culture was based on individual valor.
**** That's more fiction than reality. Most knights were smart enough to break off the charge if they could see it and had enough room. One of the reasons the light cavalry tactic was so effective was due to the difficulty brought about of stopping roughly ''two-thousand pounds'' of flesh and steel in time. It still took well trained light cavalry to pull it off, as they had to time it right or risk either losing the chance, or getting rolled over.
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* Played Straight, and then Happened Accidentally by the Americans at the [[The American Revolution|Battle of Cowpens]]. The Americans were in 3 lines. The first two lines were to fire and retreat to the 3rd line, in order to tempt the British to charge in headlong for the kill. This trap didn't quite work, and resulted in stalemate. When the British hit the third line, it buckled and fell back, prompting the British to charge for real. The American line halted, about faced, and [[Oh Crap|fired at point-blank range into the British]]. The battle ended quickly after that.
** At Cowpens one reason for this tactic was simply because the American commander [[Genre Savvy|expected militia to run]] and therefore asked them to just get off a round or two. Behind the militia was a river and a line of Continental Army troops to keep the militia from running to far. The Continentals were well trained enough to recover from a temporary reverse in the manner described.
* The Israelis in the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War, pulled off a series of these.
* Wellington's famous "reverse slope" tactic was a variation of this.
* The Finns in the Winter War
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* Mogami Yoshiaki in ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' has two moves, the first of which involves him standing idly while taunting, and the second falling to his knees and begging for forgiveness, only to attack with a [[Diagonal Cut]] the instant you touch him. Since it's impossible to defend and this will down your character for 10 seconds or more, it's best to just avoid him or use a ranged attack if you have one.
* In [[Fallout: New Vegas]], this happened four years prior to the game at the first Battle of Hoover Dam. The NCR feigned retreat from the dam into the nearby Boulder City, sniping at the Legion commanders the whole way. Once they were in Boulder City proper, the NCR sprung the trap: the entire town was rigged with enough explosives to level the entire town, and all the Legionnaires within it.
* Thanks to [[Artificial Stupidity]], it's possible to win battles without losing a single unit in [[Empire Earth]]. The AI will target only the attacking unit, so park your army close by, send an archer to fire a single arrow, then run it to the back. The AI's units will get slaughtered as they try to get at the archer. The most glaring example would have to be the Greek campaign, where Alexander the Great's army can basically win without a single loss.
* In ''[[Nancy Drew|Danger By Design]]'', Nancy defeats the villain simply by parrying one attack after another, until said villain (who's not much of a fighter) is too exhausted to continue.
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* The dwagon-donut trick in ''[[Erfworld]]'' is a "defensive formation" example.
* Although it's an Attack method, ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'''s Roy uses this on a ogre with a spiked chain build, luring him towards the cliff that it falls over after [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0216.html mindlessly leaping backwards].
* In ''[[Fans]]'', Rikk leads the crew in the "Python Strike" maneuver -- running away. As it turns out, running away is the only "[[Monty Python and
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