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Delaying Action: Difference between revisions
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{{examples}}
== Film ==
* ''[[300
* The Battle of Hoth in ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]''. The Rebels knew there was no way they could actually win: the Empire had better equipment (including heavy armor for which the Rebels had no viable counter) and too much of a numerical advantage. The ground forces and Rogue Squadron simply hoped to delay the Imps long enough to evacuate the base. The battle was considered an Imperial victory overall, though the Rebels technically achieved their objective.
* ''[[Wing Commander (film)|Wing Commander]]'' has a single carrier being asked to hold off an entire [[Cat People|Kilrathi]] fleet for 2 hours, while the main Confederate fleet gets into position.
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* In the final episode of ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' {{spoiler|The outlaws, who have seized Nottingham, try a gradual retreat to delay the Sheriff's forces until forces loyal to King Richard can arrive. It turns out they're not coming and a change of plan is needed}}.
* An episode of ''[[Lie to Me (TV series)|Lie to Me]]'' features {{spoiler|a CIA agent who'd went over to the Taliban redeeming himself by delaying them long enough for Lightman and the others to escape a bunker.}}
* The Battle of the Line, in the ''[[Babylon 5]]'' prequel movie ''In The Beginning'':
{{quote|'''President of Earth:''' "We have continued to broadcast our surrender and a plea for mercy. And they have not responded. We therefore can only conclude... that we stand at the twilight of the Human race. In order to buy more time for our evacuation transports to leave Earth, we ask for the support of every ship capable of fighting to take part in a last defense of our homeworld. We will not lie to you. We do not believe that survival is a possibility. We believe that anyone who joins this battle... will never come home. But for every ten minutes we can delay the military advance several hundred civilians may have a chance to escape to neutral territory. Though Earth may fall, the Human race must have a chance to continue elsewhere. No greater sacrifice has ever been asked of a people than I ask you now... to step forward one last time... one last battle, to hold the line against the night. May God go with you all." }}
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** The battle of Thermopylae... which makes this one [[Older Than Feudalism]].
*** Twice at least. A second battle during WWII took place but it was a withdrawal instead of a sacrifice.
***According to one version Leonidas made sure that all of his three hundred were married men who Sparta could [[Men Are the Expendable Gender| afford to lose]] as they had already reproduced and thus would not be hurting Sparta's population of warriors. This was against the normal custom of Kings having a guard of youths who needed promotions. Thus it appears that he had a pretty good idea that there was a strong chance [[Suicide Mission| he wouldn't be coming back.]]
* This was a massive part of [[NATO]] plans for a [[World War Three]] in Europe. The aim was to trade ground for time to allow US forces to arrive. One must feel sorry for the West Germans in all this...
** Though with West Germany's insistence on "forward defense", that their country be defended right up to the border with East Germany it was really more like trading lives for NATO Army Groups to mobilize their corps and the mentioned REFORGER reinforcements to arrive.
* A day or two before [[Remember the Alamo!|the battle of the Alamo]], the commanding officer received a dispatch stating that reinforcements were on their way to him. Some historians now guess that the desperate defense of the fort there was not intended as a last stand, so much as a delaying action in hope that those reinforcements would arrive.
* The Battle of the Phillipine Sea was a rough combination of this and [[Defensive Feint Trap]]. The American fleet was covering the Saipan invasion. Instead of launching a strike at first siting(doctrine for carrier warfare ever sense the Japanese lost Midway by not doing so), the Americans sheltered behind a gauntlet of fighters and shipborn anti-aircraft guided by new communication and sensory technologies that had not been available in the early days of carrier actions. The result was that Japan lost so many pilots it could not replace them and any carriers it lost were almost an afterthought.
**Similarly at Leyte Gulf the Japanese hoped to catch the American invasion force unloading with a prong through Suriago Straits and Samar Island. The first action involved the Japanese force being jabbed at all the way through by torpedo attacks until it reached the American line of battle waiting at the end which included [[Irony|battleships salvaged from Pearl Harbor]] and ended in a few conclusive salvos. Samar Island was the more dramatic action and also closer to this trope for the destroyers and escort carriers spent their time delaying the Japanese until their commander's nerve broke.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The climactic Battle of South Moundtop in [[SaGa]] Frontier II is all about stalling for time. Unlike most of the other battlefield campaigns where there is either parity or conditions heavily in the players favor, this battle is against an army vastly your superior. Everything must go perfect for you to survive the necessary turns and your allies to arrive to finish the battle off screen.
* Several times in ''[[Warcraft III]]''. At least once you're stalling until the cavalry arrives. The climactic battle is you stalling until your trap is set.
* The 3rd Terran mission in ''[[
** The [[Expanded Universe]] novel ''Speed of Darkness'' stars a group of Confederate Marines who fought a separate delaying action that apparently drew a sizable quantity of Zerg away from the [[Player Character]].
*** It wasn't so much their resistance but the fact that they had a {{spoiler|psychic beacon}} with them.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
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