Defensive Feint Trap: Difference between revisions

* A variation on this happens in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', where the Anti-Spiral forces fall easily to Team Dai-Gurren...up until the Anti-Spiral decides to pull the rug. At that point the cannon fodder Anti-Spiral machines become [[Demonic Spiders]], outgunning and outmaneuvering the now-stunned Team Dai-Gurren; only a handful survive the counterattack {{spoiler|but they survive to rip the Anti-Spiral a new one, [[Rule of Cool|in suitably over-the-top fashion]]}}.

* The Earth Alliance pull one of these in ''[[Gundam Seed]]'', leaving minimal forces at the Alaska base while most of the ZAFT forces stage an attack on it. They wait until ZAFT has nearly taken the entire base, then set off the Cyclops system hidden underground, blowing the base and 80% of [[ZAF Ts]] fighting force to kingdom come.

* In ''[[Code Geass]] R2'', Zero uses this strategy against the Eunuchs, with a twist: said help comes in the form of a citizen population enraged by the [[Engineered Public Confession]] the former had set up, with the latter openly admitting to the Empress Tianzi being disposable.

** He also tries it against Schneizel, but Schneizel doesn't take the bait.

* ''[[The Patriot]]'' has the American Revolutionary army using its reputation of being composed of untrained farmers and such to its advantage. In one battle, they do a volley, and then retreat, luring the contemptuous British forces into a pursuit...which gets the army, which has fled behind a hill only to set up again, a few free volleys.

* Although it probably was a coincidence, done to Han Solo in ''[[Star Wars]]'', when chasing a Stormtrooper down a hallway and running into a whole legion of them...hilariously prompting a hasty retreat of his own.

** It's also done to a stormtrooper by the rebels on Endor; Han walks up to the guard, taps him on the shoulder, and runs around the corner. The guard follows, into a pack of rebels.

** After that C-3PO lures a squad of stormtroopers who went in to capture them, then the Ewoks ambushed them from behind.

* [[Older Than Feudalism|The Trojan Horse]]

* Jerry Pournelle's ''King David's Spaceship''. The barbarians of the planet Makassar lure the Temple guard knights into pursuing them by retreating, then turn and slaughter them.

* 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.

* 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...

* [[Gordon R. Dickson]]'s ''The Tactics of Mistake'' (part of the [[Childe Cycle]]) The title comes from the hero's tactical doctrine, which calls for a series of feints, that gradually draw the enemy into an untenable position, at which point he attacks, and demolishes them.

 

** Over a thousand years ago, Hungarian light cavalry (probably the Huns too) used a variation of this: once the enemy starts to pursue and break formation, the riders turn around on their horses and do the [[Spam Attack]] treatment with arrows while still retreating. Such tactics only work if the cavalry is highly disciplined, otherwise the feint could quickly turn into a rout. This tactic worked for a while until the [[wikipedia:Battle of Augsburg|Battle of Lechfeld]] where the Hungarians suffered a brutal defeat by German knight cavalry, despite having a two-to-one numerical superiority. The trick was that the Germans concentrated on melee combat, not letting their enemies retreat; when the Hungarians attempted it anyway, the knights called the feint and didn't break lines to pursue.

** In real life, "heroes" are fine with this. Infantry today learn drills to break contact when at a disadvantage and get back into the fight under better conditions. Historical armies which mastered this tactic were devastating. ''Viewers'' hate retreat. In [[Hollywood Tactics]], retreat is synonymous with defeat.

** Also, in the last few months, Hitler lead his inner circle to believe that all German operations were a massive defensive feint trap. He said they would lure the enemy in, then obliterate them with his new "wonder weapons" and vast reserves. Of course, this was all a lie.

*** I think less a lie than a delusion. The little markers for those divisions and weapons were still on his map. He was delusional believing them to actually existed.

** Notably as well, Hannibal had a numerically inferior force so despite having far less men than the Romans, he was able to surround and destroy them.

*** 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 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.

* 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].

 

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