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We Have Reserves: Difference between revisions
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'''Longshanks:''' (''pretending surprise'') ...Yes. But we'll hit theirs as well. [[Trope Namer|We have reserves.]] Attack!|''[[Braveheart]]''}}
There are a lot of ways to have a character [[Kick the Dog]]. In a war movie or battle sequence, if you want to show that a general, king, or [[Armchair Military|commander]] is evil (really evil, not a [[Punch Clock Villain]] and way beyond a [[Designated Villain]]), all you have to do is show his casual and/or utter disregard for the lives of his own troops by [[Suicide Mission|either knowingly ordering them into certain slaughter or giving an order that ensures their slaughter]]. Retreat is, of course, forbidden; he expects [[Attack! Attack! Attack!]] without a second thought, and a [[Last Stand]] before retreat. (And he usually does it from perfect safety.) [[General Failure]] will often upgrade this from a last resort to his preferred tactic.
After a moment like this, the character might as well have '''''asshole''''' printed on his forehead. Bonus points if he refers to his troops as being trash or somehow subhuman, or if he does it not because he sincerely believes that doing this is necessary to win, but [[Glory Hound|in pursuit of his own glory/making a name for himself]]. A [[We Have Reserves]] commander is very much a [[Bad Boss]], and a reason why there is such a high mortality rate among [[Redshirt Army|Redshirt Armies]], [[Faceless Goons]], [[Mooks]], and the like.
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== Film ==
* As illustrated by the quote above, Edward the Longshanks of ''[[Braveheart]]''. He actually does it twice in one battle; in addition to the example in the quote, he begins the battle by ordering his commander to send in their Irish conscripts first because "Arrows cost money. The dead cost nothing".
* Imperial Stormtroopers and [[
** There are a few exceptions to this in the [[Expanded Universe]] novels. For, example in ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy|The Last Command]]'', Grand Admiral Thrawn states than he is less than happy over the loss of four--''four''! Luke kills that many in his first firefight on the Death Star!--stormtroopers, less than forty regular army troops, and a single assault vehicle, who were convinced by a private contractor to attack a group of people who were discussing going against the Empire.
** Thrawn's attention to his troopers and machines becomes the rule later on, when the Empire is no longer the massive entity it used to be and is struggling to survive.
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* [[Subverted Trope]] in the ''[[Dune|Legends of Dune]]'' trilogy, where [[AI Is a Crapshoot|Omnius]] and his [[Robot War|Thinking Machines]] fights battles in an entirely logical and efficient manner. A massive fleet will not engage the inferior enemy if the casualties are above the acceptable parameter, even though machines aren't really supposed to care about casualties. It falls to his ruthless [[Brain In A Jar]] generals, who do fit this trope, to come up with tactics that surprise the enemy. One of their tactics - [[Colony Drop|dropping an entire cruiser on a city]] to destroy the scrambler field emitters that are keeping the machine forces from invading.
** On the other hand, the [[Church Militant|Butlerian Jihad]] forces will not hesitate to lose hundreds of lives to destroy several machines, as exemplified by the takedown of the [[Humongous Mecha]] Ajax by hundreds of angry slaves armed with primitive rocket launchers and even more primitive ''clubs''.
* [[The Draka]] use their slave soldiers (called "janissaries" in reference to the Ottoman military units) in attrition situations that their [[Super Soldier|elite shock troop Citizen army]] cannot finesse, thereby saving the much more precious lives of the [[Master Race]]. A Draka officer is reprimanded at one point for showing ''too much'' concern for the lives of his janissaries. Eventually the Draka [[Evilutionary Biologist|engineer]] aggressiveness out of their slaves, and the janissaries are replaced by the [[Mix
* Cultural-divide example in [[Codex Alera]]: when the Marat go to war, the first wave of an attack is always the green recruits, the warriors who most recently became of age. The ones who survive that are considered to have been smiled on by The One, and get to participate in the battle proper.
* In ''[[Shadowmarch]]'', Autarch has no qualms about letting his soldiers die meaninglessly, as long as he accomplishes his goal. During the siege of {{spoiler|Hierosol}}, he ordered [[Zerg Rush|full scale attack]] through the breach in city's walls, despite being warned of massive casualties it will cause among his troops. He explained that his soldiers should be happy to fight and die for their autarch.
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* In ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', the Vorta Keevan gives the heroes his battle plan because being taken prisoner would be better for him than being stranded and wounded with a bunch of [[Super Soldier|Super Soldiers]] about to go [[Ax Crazy]] from withdrawal. Particularly nasty since his soldiers are ''warned'' that they've been betrayed, but are too loyal themselves to disobey.
** It should be said this wasn't a major departure from standard Dominion tactics; the genetically engineered Jem'Hadar were programmed to see themselves as disposable, all willing to attain victory for their gods The Founders at any cost.
* Like most tropes, this shows up in ''[[
** Somewhat subverted: The foolishness of this begins to dawn on him when he orders them to take the relic alive, only to realize that ''nobody's left to take the order.''
* One episode of ''[[Smallville]]'' had a teaser sequence with Lex Luthor testing his latest experiment. The test involves the [[Super Soldier]] charging down a hallway, killing mooks, breaking into a heavily fortified room and assassinating a target. When it's over, what does Luthor say with glee? "Get fresh guards... I wanna see him do it again"
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* The Imperial Guard of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' commonly employ this tactic; Commander Chenkov of Valhalla in particular has a reputation for throwing away the lives of his men, the gaining of which is quite a feat for a Guard commander, though at least he has the balls to dive into the meatgrinder with them and lead from the front. The fluff claims that his bolt pistol has killed more cowards than enemies, and that he once took a fortress that had withstood siege for years without artillery or armoured support at the cost of ''10 million'' casualties (though this is the Imperium we're talking about - they could cover those losses with one round of draft slips). The new Codex highlights his knack for reserves by giving him the special rule "Send in the next wave!", which allows him to call up a new squad of Conscripts once the previous squad has been wiped out, as described wonderfully by 1d4chan:
{{quote| "Do you want to take that point? I mean, REALLY take that point? Seriously, how many dudes do you want to throw at that point? Chenkov can throw that many guys at the point, AND MORE."}}
** Also, the Orks of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'', whose entire warfighting strategy is "assault the enemy with troops stretching back past the horizon." In ''[[Dawn of War]]'', Warboss Gorgutz is actually ''lauded'' by ''his own troops'' for being willing to hurl countless numbers of Boyz at enemies like the Space Marines and Necrons, fully aware that many are going to die. It helps that Orks consider an exciting battle against a worthy opponent to be [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|jolly]] [[Ax Crazy|good]] [[Blood Knight|fun]].
*** Gretchin are considered even more expendable than Orks. One noted use for Gretchin mobz in past editions was removing minefields in much the same way as a stick removes a bear trap. If there were more mines than gretchin, they died to no notable effect, generally prompting loud bursts of Orkish laughter.
*** The Gretchin have several other [[Sarcasm Mode|great]] jobs, such as being stepping stones in rough terrain, bullet shields, and EMERGENCY RATIONS
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* In the US Civil War, Union General Grant was accused of this, being given the appellation "Butcher" Grant by some on the Union side after his high-casualty battles in Virginia. But he didn't spend his men needlessly (and deeply mourned the battle of Cold Harbour, the one high-casualty battle that was genuinely pointless), and was distinguished from previous Union generals by ''advancing'' after high-casualty battles rather than retreating, something which made the men happy because they could see they were actually making progress.
* Some WWI commanders would shoot those attempting to retreat without orders, or who refused to go over the trenches. It was a sort of preemptive punishment for treason. Although the number of men so shot is grossly overexaggerated, there were men who were under ''two'' suspended sentences of death for desertion or sleeping at their posts. The armies on all sides got so sick of this that many of them mutinied late in the war and refused to take place in any further assaults on the enemy, as it always just resulted in piles of bodies and minimal progress.
** The entire point of the WWI strategy of [
** General Charles Mangin, a French division commander and Nivelle's right-hand man, is alleged to have given the following pep talk just before an attack:
{{quote| "Gentlemen, we attack tomorrow. The first wave will be killed. The second also. And the third. A few men from the fourth will reach their objective. The fifth wave will capture the position. Thank you, gentlemen."}}
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[[Category:Friendly Fire Index]]
[[Category:We Have Reserves]]
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