History GoddamnedBats / RealtimeStrategy

* Any rocket infantry in any ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' game. Individually weak and vulnerable, but just strong enough against tanks to put a dent in yout army.
** More specifically, Flamethrower infantry in ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn Tiberian Dawn]]''. These little shits were fast and as such would dodge attempts to squish them, they were damn cheap to train, and did ungodly amounts of damage to almost every unit/structure in the game. In the later GDI missions, the AI would spam these bastards on a frequent basis, and often melt a few of your lighter vehicles (and typically, these would be your most effective anti-infantry vehicles) during the imminent scuffle. No wonder they were nerfed in Red Alert.
** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'' and ''Kane's Wrath'', the Scrin basic infantry unit is the Buzzer. These are the cheapest infantry and train quickly, but are absurdly lightly armored. However, they can kill other infantry units nearly instantly and can clear garrisoned buildings.
** Additionally, variants of the Scrin Gun Walker fall under this category because there are times where the 'attack' command doesn't appear for them, causing units to blunder forward into a mob while responding to the ensuing 'move' order.
** In ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2 Red Alert 2]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3 3]]'', the Soviets have Terror Drones -- nasty little buggers that can tear a vehicle up inside out and instakill infantry. They're easy to kill but can destroy a battalion of vehicles left unattended. The only ways to get rid of them are repairing the vehicle (in a service depot or with an Engineer IFV) or destroying the infected vehicle before the Terror Drone does.
** The Spanners from ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianTwilight Tiberian Twilight]]'' are arguably ''THE'' worst example in the entire franchise. They are unarmed light repair crafts that are cheap, individually fragile, and absolutely '''horrendous''' in large groups. Their repair beams can instantly repair nearly any damage you deal to any enemies around them, and since they can also heal each other, you can't even ShootTheMedicFirst if you don't have units that are [[TacticalRockPaperScissors Super Effective]] against them.

** Initial scouting probes are the most annoying worker units to deal for the enemy since they can also start building assimilators and pylons in opponents' bases easily.
** And let's not forget the Mutalisk harassing. There's a reason stacking air units became an AscendedGlitch.
** The worst was definitely Lurkers, especially if you were playing Terran. They would attack you by hiding underground, where you couldn't hit them, and doing high damage to everything near them. The only way to kill one was to use a detector unit, Terran has two detectors. One being the Comsat Station add-on to the Command Center allows you detect an area anywhere on the map for 50 energy. The second being the Science Vessel, which is an air born support unit, after you research Irridate it is your best friend against submerged lurkers and is advisable to have one or two Science Vessels in every large army that you field against Zerg
** The Queen, though it has no attack, has 3 abilities that are frustrating. Its parasite ability lets the enemy see what the unit sees, its ensnare ability covers units in green slime and slows them down, it also reveals cloaked units caught in its blast, and it has the SpawnBroodling ability which kills the target unit and [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin spawns 2 Broodlings]].

* The Vampire Counts in ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer'' have units of literal "goddamned bats". Their flying bat units are extremely weak but very fast and maneuverable. The AI-controlled army will often use them to fly all over your lines and attack your vulnerable units, like artillery. Even worse, they force you to use your ranged units to fire at them to drive them off, when ranged units would be much better occupied shooting at more important targets.

''GoddamnedBats/KingdomRush'' has its own page.

* [[ZergRush ZERG RUSH]] [[{{Franchise/Starcraft}} KEKEKEKE!!!]]

** The Spanners from ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianTwilight Tiberian Twilight]]'' are arguably ''THE'' worst example in the entire franchise. They are unarmed light repair crafts that are cheap, individually fragile, and absolutely '''horrendous''' in large groups. Their repair beams can instantly repair nearly any damage you deal to any enemies around them, and since they can also heal each other, you can't even ShootTheMedicFirst if you don't have units that are SuperEffective against them.

** In ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2 Red Alert 2]]'' and ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3 3]]'', the Soviets have Terror Drones -- nasty little buggers that can tear a vehicle up inside out and instakill infantry. They're easy to kill but can destroy a battalion of vehicles left unattended. The only ways to get rid of them are repairing the vehicle (in a service depot or with an Engineer IFV) or destroying the infected vehicle before the Terror Drone does.

* The Chrysalids from ''UFO: Aftermath''. They can't actually harm you, yet they are among the worst things to meet in the entire game. Why? Because their only attack is a stun, that has longer range than some sniper rifles and a high enough duration and rate of fire to be able to single-handedly lock down your entire squad if you let them. And that's when they're alone. Should you run into three or more you might as well just give up and load.

* The Vampire Counts in ''TotalWarWarhammer'' have units of literal "goddamned bats". Their flying bat units are extremely weak but very fast and maneuverable. The AI-controlled army will often use them to fly all over your lines and attack your vulnerable units, like artillery. Even worse, they force you to use your ranged units to fire at them to drive them off, when ranged units would be much better occupied shooting at more important targets.

* ''VideoGame/DesertMoon'' has [[ActionBomb Bursters]]. These are a guaranteed kill on your units if they get near (they either maul the unit, or you kill it and it blows up), and they travel extremely fast. They can easily kill Flamethrowers and Imploders who are pretty much required against Hunters and Infected. Thankfully a Fuel Launcher will make them slow and easy pickings, but when they come in numbers, you may not be able to kill them before they reach you.

* ''EuropaUniversalis'' has any poor country with a lot of winter in it. Tibet and some of the russian steppe-nations in particular. Sure, they can only raise a few thousand men. Too bad you still need at least 5000 men to besiege their fortresses and they can only support 2000... You can easily lose hundreds of thousands of men besieging piddly tax-base 1 or 2 provinces. Especially in winter.
* In ''AirMech'', a MOBA game, The AI controlled airmech will fly away from units they're supporting the push just as you're coming down on ground mode to get them.
* The Arm light tanks and bots in ''TotalAnnihilation''. Their primary weapon does a decent amount of damage for its cost and techlevel, and while as the game advances their threat level gets closer and closer to zero, they remain an annoying nuisance for a while after game start and in the first minutes can even overwhelm a Core player that hasn't yet brought up fixed defenses.

''VideoGame/KingdomRush'' has its own page.

* The ''DawnOfWar II'' campaign has the Tyranid units Rippers, Hormagaunts and Termagaunts. Pathetically weak, but their large squad size and tendency for half a dozen squads to attack at once makes them a constant annoyance, while their tendency to be meat shields for more powerful units makes them potentially deadly. Fortunately at higher levels they can be killed in about one shot, with Avitus slaughtering entire swarms in seconds.
** The Imperial Guard, one of the most common tactics in ''DawnOfWar'' is to ZergRush with dozens of IG Guardsmen.

* Any rocket infantry in any ''CommandAndConquer'' game. Individually weak and vulnerable, but just strong enough against tanks to put a dent in yout army.
** More specifically, Flamethrower infantry in ''Tiberian Dawn''. These little shits were fast and as such would dodge attempts to squish them, they were damn cheap to train, and did ungodly amounts of damage to almost every unit/structure in the game. In the later GDI missions, the AI would spam these bastards on a frequent basis, and often melt a few of your lighter vehicles (and typically, these would be your most effective anti-infantry vehicles) during the imminent scuffle. No wonder they were nerfed in Red Alert.
** In ''[=CNC3=]'' and ''Kane's Wrath'', the Scrin basic infantry unit is the Buzzer. These are the cheapest infantry and train quickly, but are absurdly lightly armored. However, they can kill other infantry units nearly instantly and can clear garrisoned buildings.
** In ''Red Alert 2'' and ''3'', the Soviets have Terror Drones -- nasty little buggers that can tear a vehicle up inside out and instakill infantry. They're easy to kill but can destroy a battalion of vehicles left unattended. The only ways to get rid of them are repairing the vehicle (in a service depot or with an Engineer IFV) or destroying the infected vehicle before the Terror Drone does.
* [[ZergRush ZERG RUSH]] [[{{Starcraft}} KEKEKEKE!!!]]

** In ''[=CNC3=]'' and ''Kane's Wrath'', the Scrin basic infantry unit is the Buzzer. These are the cheapest infantry and train quickly, but are absurdly lightly armored. However, they can kill another infantry unit nearly instantly and can clear garrisoned buildings.
** In ''Red Alert 2'' and ''3'' there's the Terror Drone. Nasty little buggers that can tear a vehicle up inside out. Their easy to kill but can destroy a battalion of vehicles left unattended. The only way to get rid of them is with service depots, repair drones or destroy the infected vehicle before the Terror Drone does.

* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'' has Viking raiders, introduced with ''The Old Gods''. Small bands of raiders can disembark into any province along the coast of the sea or a major river, steal gold from one of your counties, then hop back on their boats and sail home (or, more vexingly, to another lightly-defended province) once you've assembled an army that can actually deal with them.

* ''BattalionWars'' has Gunships. In ''both'' games, you generally get only Anti-Air Vets to kill them with. If you get Fighters or Anti-Air Vehicles in a mission with enemy Gunships, enjoy the time you get with this, but do not assume your ground forces are safe. If you want to manually destroy Gunships with the Anti-Air units, you have to focus your vision on the skies instead of worrying about anything on the ground, like freaking Heavy Tanks. Mercifully, units that have been commanded to move to a location with the Y button in the first game will be active in attacking (most noteworthy in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDXyCte9XAA&fmt=18 Road to Xylvania]], which despite ''four'' infinitely respawning Gunships can be done with a Perfect S-Rank ''without the [[MightyGlacier Battlestation]]''), but this is not possible in the second game, which is part of why it is ''worse'' about Gunships, because you'd want your units in Follow Mode where the Gunships will end up shooting your following foot soldiers. The other part of the reason? A higher percentage of maps with Gunships give you only AA Vets--which do lousy damage against them for the fact that they lack defensive power to begin with--to deal with the buggers, and if you have anything else that can really do so, apply one of the following:

* The Arm light tanks and bots in ''TotalAnnihilation''. Their primary weapon does a decent amount of damage for its cost and techlevel, and while as the game advances their threat level gets closer and closer to zero, they remain an annoying nuisance for a while after game start and in the first minutes can even overwhelm a Core player that hasn't yet brought up fixed defenses.

** The worst was definitely Lurkers, especially if you were playing Terran. They would attack you by hiding underground, where you couldn't hit them, and doing high damage to everything near them. The only way to kill one was to use a detector unit, Terran has two detectors. One being the Comsat Station addon to the Command Center, lets you detect an area anywhere on the map for 50 energy. The Second being the Science Vessel, which is an airborn support unit, after you research Irridate it is your best friend against submerged lurkers and is advisable to have one or two Science Vessels in every large army that you field against Zerg

** The worst was definitely Lurkers, especially if you were playing Terran. They would attack you by hiding underground, where you couldn't hit them, and doing high damage to everything near them. The only way to kill one was to use a detector unit, and the only useful Terran detector unit could be used a maximum of 4 times before the incredibly long recharge.

* Skullmages in ''GrimGrimoire''. Essentially useless to the human player due to CripplingOverspecialisation but can throw an ethereal based stratergy right off if the computer starts with lots of them.

* In ''AirMech'', a MOBA game, The AI controlled airmech will fly away from units they're supporting the push just as you're coming down on ground mode to get them.

** The Queen, though it has no attack, has numerous abilities that are frustrating. Its parasite ability lets the enemy see what the unit sees, its ensnare ability covers units in green slime and slows them down, it also reveals cloaked units caught in its blast, and it has the SpawnBroodling ability which kills the target unit and [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin spawns 2 Broodlings]].

* ''EuropaUniversalis'' has any poor country with a lot of winter in it. Tibet and some of the russian steppe-nations in particular. Sure, they can only raise a few thousand men. Too bad you still need at least 5000 men to besiege their fortresses and they can only support 2000... You can easily lose hundreds of thousands of men besieging piddly tax-base 1 or 2 provinces. Especially in winter.