History GoodBadBugs / TurnbasedStrategy

** Civ I gave the AI single blanket aggressiveness ratings. The Democracy government made your citizens unhappy with war, so it gave a modifier of -2 to the rating. This worked pretty well at making them less likely to start trouble, except that [[ActualPacifist Gandhi]]'s default aggressiveness was 1, and would underflow to 255, so as soon as he got democracy he would turn into a bloodthirsty maniac that threw nukes around with reckless abandon. (By way of comparison, the most warlike leaders were Montezuma and Genghis Khan, with aggressiveness of 10.) This was so memorable that [[AscendedGlitch later games in the series give Gandhi an abnormally high priority on the construction of nuclear weapons]].

** Civ I gave the AI single blanket aggressiveness ratings. The Democracy government made your citizens unhappy with war, so it gave a modifier of -2 to the rating. This worked pretty well at making them less likely to start trouble, except that Gandhi's default aggressiveness was 1, and would underflow to 255, so as soon as he got democracy he would turn into a bloodthirsty maniac that threw nukes around with reckless abandon. (By way of comparison, the most warlike leaders were Montezuma and Genghis Khan, with aggressiveness of 10.) This was so memorable that [[AscendedGlitch later games in the series give Gandhi an abnormally high priority on the construction of nuclear weapons]].

** In [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade the preceding game]], you had Fae, who had a Dragonstone that let her hit hard, but [[BreakableWeapons wore out after only thirty uses]] and couldn't be repaired or replaced. This made her very much TooAwesomeToUse. Enemy Manaketes also have Dragonstones, and theirs don't wear out, but they don't drop and can't be stolen by your Thieves. However, for some reason, [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules enemy Thieves can steal them]]. If you can get a Thief to steal from a Manakete (like through a Berserk staff), you can then steal it from the Thief and give it to Fae.

** In [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War]], there's a bug that lets you put one of the GameBreaker Legendary Weapons into a shop, allowing a better statted character to buy it, and assumedly use it.

** In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'', an enemy Bishop with a Rescue staff can place an enemy on top of a pitfall trap in Chapter 3-11. This allows a unit with Pass to move through the square unimpeded, as well as creating a very silly situation where a unit can engage an enemy and then fall into a pit as soon as they try to pass through the recently occupied space. More importantly, you can take advantage of this by placing your ''own'' flying units atop one of these spaces (and you recruit a LOT that chapter) and then moving your non-fliers past the pitfalls. The game will not allow two units to occupy the same space; therefore, it will not stop them as they go over the pitfalls.

** There's a glitch in the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe seventh]] ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game that lets you ''control your enemies''. By placing a mine on the ground, waiting for an enemy to step on it, and resetting the game while the HP bar decreases, you are able to move your enemies just like you would your own units. It's only for one turn, but that's enough for you to make everyone drop their weapons (or hand them to you) if you wish. This trick also works with squares where a Torch staff is used and lava tiles.

** In [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War]], there's a Bug that lets you put one of the GameBreaker Legendary Weapons into a shop, allowing a better statted character to buy it, and assumedly use it.

* Earlier versions of ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising]]'', much like the VideoGame/FireEmblem glitch above, had a means to take control of the enemy army through careful abuse of soft resets and the map maker. If you pulled it off, all you had to do was choose "Yield" from the options menu to ''win the match instantly''.

*** Native villages/ancient ruins in Civ IV and V could also bring...interesting results. In IV, there was no upper cap on what tech you could get from them - so it's entirely possible to find perfectly working [[SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology modern]] [[LostTechnology technology]] (up to ''freakin nuclear fission'') in some tribal village on the remote corner of the map. In V, they fixed that mistake by limiting possible techs to the classical era... but, at the same time, give you a chance to upgrade your units. Again, there is no limit on how high this could get - so, if you are lucky, your cities could be guarded by machineguns and riflemen. In 1000 BC.

* The first ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'' game had a bug that caused all character themes to be overriden by a particular enemy unit's theme when he comes into play. The theme was [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome so awesome]], however, that the feature, now dubbed "Trombe Override" (after [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvbkVAnpcR4 the theme music, named ''Trombe!'']]) is a regular fixture of the series.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'', when randomly generating units for the training tower or Tempest Trials, ensures that legendary weapons or [[SecretArt exclusive skills]] don't go into the unintended hands. An oversight on the weapon Alondite caused one of its wielders, Zelgius, to randomly generate with a random non-legendary sword in the training tower and completely unarmed in Tempest Trials. Turns out Alondite was coded only for the other wielder: [[spoiler: his alter ego,]] Black Knight.

* There's a glitch in the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe seventh]] ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game that lets you ''control your enemies''. By placing a mine on the ground, waiting for an enemy to step on it, and resetting the game while the HP bar decreases, you are able to move your enemies just like you would your own units. It's only for one turn, but that's enough for you to make everyone drop their weapons (or hand them to you) if you wish. This trick also works with squares where a Torch staff is used and lava tiles.

** ''X-COM'' had another gem of a bug: Whatever you set the difficulty to, [[DynamicDifficulty the game played on the 'Beginner' difficulty]]. This bug went unknown for years, because the game was THAT damned hard. And it gets better: when MicroProse was throwing together the mission pack sequel ''Terror from the Deep'', they solicited feedback from players. A big chunk of players who responded were hardcore strat gamers who complained that the game's higher difficulty levels weren't hard enough. MicroProse's response? Make ''[[VideoGame/XCOMTerrorFromTheDeep TFTD's]]'' Beginner difficulty equivalent to what Superhuman was supposed to be in ''UFO Defense''.

** In the first ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' the AI cannot manage more then one or two attacks at a time. This allows the player to win simply by hitting his enemy at a faster rate.

* There's a glitch in the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe seventh]] ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game that lets you ''control your enemies''. By placing a mine on the ground, waiting for an enemy to step on it, and resetting the game while the HP bar decreases, you are able to move your enemies just like you would your own units. It's only for one turn, but that's enough for you to make everyone drop their weapons (or hand them to you) if you wish.

* There's a glitch in the [[FireEmblemElibe seventh]] ''FireEmblem'' game that lets you ''control your enemies''. By placing a mine on the ground, waiting for an enemy to step on it, and resetting the game while the HP bar decreases, you are able to move your enemies just like you would your own units. It's only for one turn, but that's enough for you to make everyone drop their weapons (or hand them to you) if you wish.

** In FireEmblemTheSacredStones, that enemy control glitch (which can now be activated by normal combat damage as long as it's the enemy's turn) still lets you make all the enemies hand their weapons and equipment to your team. Including, say, claws, teeth, and eyes, which the game treats as weapons. And if you then equip eyes, you can train any character, no matter their class, in dark magic. You can also give rare items to a gorgon egg, which will mark its whole inventory except the first item as "items which will be dropped when I die", wait for it to hatch, and kill it, and when you do all the items will be fully recharged, even the unique items which were specifically designed to be unrechargable.

** In [[FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War]], there's a Bug that lets you put one of the GameBreaker Legendary Weapons into a shop, allowing a better statted character to buy it, and assumedly use it.

* Earlier versions of ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising]]'', much like the FireEmblem glitch above, had a means to take control of the enemy army through careful abuse of soft resets and the map maker. If you pulled it off, all you had to do was choose "Yield" from the options menu to ''win the match instantly''.

* ''{{X-COM}}'' allowed your soldiers to throw grenades through the ceiling. This was incredibly helpful when there was a Muton on the roof.
** ''X-COM'' had another gem of a bug: Whatever you set the difficulty to, [[DynamicDifficulty the game played on the 'Beginner' difficulty]]. This bug went unknown for years, because the game was THAT damned hard. And it gets better: when MicroProse was throwing together the mission pack sequel ''Terror from the Deep'', they solicited feedback from players. A big chunk of players who responded were hardcore strat gamers who complained that the game's higher difficulty levels weren't hard enough. MicroProse's response? Make ''TFTD's'' Beginner difficulty equivalent to what Superhuman was supposed to be in ''UFO Defense''.

* ''{{Colonization}}'' has a bug on the trading screen which lets you sell resources that have been forbidden through a Customs House. Naturally, most players don't bother installing the patch to fix this bug, as it makes the game a good deal easier towards the end.

* ''VideoGame/EndlessSpace'' used to have the exact same AI bug as MastersOfOrion 2 above, where the AI would sometimes repeatedly declare war on you, only to immediately ask for peace. Fitting as the game is pretty much a SpiritualSuccessor to MastersOfOrion. While the bug was fixed by improving the AI and adding a minimum time you have to wait before you can declare a war again after agreeing to a ceasefire, another very similar AI quirk was still possible the last time I checked. If you have a large amount of extra minerals or trade goods, and one of the AI factions really dislikes you, you can use them to get free stuff. When they declare war on you, offer a ceasefire and hand them enough goods in return that they will not only agree, but also throw in a planet or some technology. When the ceasefire ends the AI, who still hates you, will declare war again, cancelling all trade routes you had with them and returning any minerals/trade goods you agreed to trade to them back to you. Repeat the process for as long as necessary for free stuff, then crush them with the armada they've helped to finance.

* In ''{{Heroes of Might and Magic}}'' III, there was a campaign (Rise of the Necromancer) in which you are given two very powerful artefacts; the Armour of the Damned (that makes every enemy weak, slow and useless in battle) and the Cloak of the Undead King (which turned the rather useless skeletons gained from Necromancy into the much more useful, ranged Liches). These allowed you to quickly build up an invincible army of liches that would number in the hundreds by the end of each map. You only get one of each set, but the campaign would also take copies (as well as the component pieces). If you used the Dungeon's Artifact Merchants to gather the components again, you could go through the rest of the campaign with multiple Heroes made unstoppable with these artifacts.

* ''GalacticCivilizations'': The diplomacy screen lets you trade basically anything in the game: from single ships and technologies to treaties to entire solar systems. And of course money. Different techs and buildings boost your diplomatic abilities, effectively giving you the upper hand in negotiations, thus letting you acquire more ships for money, or more tech for your money, or - that's right - more money for your money. Things don't stop there, though. You can make contracts where you and the AI pay each other a certain amount for x number of rounds. For some reason this makes ''both'' parties richer every round, effectively granting you infinite cash. Another ''good'' thing is that the AI just can't handle that much money, utilizing only a fraction of what it has available, while you crank out disgustingly strong fleets in no time at all. Too bad [[GalacticCivilizations GalCiv]] doesn't have a multiplayer mode.

*** And finally, there's a possiblity that even the plot itself can fall victim to a glitch, or exactly the unbridled WRATH of the RandomNumberGod-- it's possible for Ethlyn and Quan to kill the Thracian Knights in Chapter 5... the one where, plot-wise, ''they're supposed to be murdered''.
** In [[FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]], an enemy Bishop with a Rescue staff can place an enemy on top of a pitfall trap in Chapter 3-11. This allows a unit with Pass to move through the square unimpeded, as well as creating a very silly situation where a unit can engage an enemy and then fall into a pit as soon as they try to pass through the recently occupied space. More importantly, you can take advantage of this by placing your ''own'' flying units atop one of these spaces (and you recruit a LOT that chapter) and then moving your non-fliers past the pitfalls. The game will not allow two units to occupy the same space; therefore, it will not stop them as they go over the pitfalls.

* ''VideoGame/EndlessSpace'' used to have the exact same AI bug as MastersOfOrion 2 above, where the AI would sometimes repeatedly declare war on you, only to immediately ask for peace. Fitting as the game is pretty much a SpiritualSuccessor to MastersOfOrion. While the bug was fixed by improving the AI and adding a minimum time you have to wait before you can declare a war again after agreeing to a ceasefire, another very similar AI quirk was still possible the last time I checked. If you have a large amount of extra minerals or trade goods, and one of the AI factions really dislikes you, you can use them to get free stuff. When they declare war on you, offer a ceasefire and hand them enough goods in return that they will not only agree, but also throw in a planet or some technology. When the ceasefire ends the AI, who still hates you, will declare war again, cancelling all trade routes you had with them and returning any minerals/trade goods you agreed to trade to them back to you. Reapet the process for as long as necessary for free stuff, then crush them with the armada they've helped to finance.
** There was also a bug in the early version of the game that allowed you to eliminate anither faction by literally buing their empire from under them. In practice if you could do this you eighter had enough money to win by economic victory anyway, or the faction had so few planets they were insignificant, but it was still pretty funny. Later patches made it so that the AI will never sell you all of their planets.

* There's a glitch in the seventh ''FireEmblem'' game that lets you ''control your enemies''. By placing a mine on the ground, waiting for an enemy to step on it, and resetting the game while the HP bar decreases, you are able to move your enemies just like you would your own units. It's only for one turn, but that's enough for you to make everyone drop their weapons (or hand them to you) if you wish.

** In [=FE8=], that enemy control glitch (which can now be activated by normal combat damage as long as it's the enemy's turn) still lets you make all the enemies hand their weapons and equipment to your team. Including, say, claws, teeth, and eyes, which the game treats as weapons. And if you then equip eyes, you can train any character, no matter their class, in dark magic. You can also give rare items to a gorgon egg, which will mark its whole inventory except the first item as "items which will be dropped when I die", wait for it to hatch, and kill it, and when you do all the items will be fully recharged, even the unique items which were specifically designed to be unrechargable.
** As well, you can recharge elixirs by letting an enemy thief steal one and then kill him.
*** Same thief trick also serves to recharge Myrrh's Dragonstone.
** In [=FE4=] there's a Bug that lets you put one of the GameBreaker Legendary Weapons into a shop, allowing a better statted character to buy it, and assumedly use it.
*** And while their status as "Glitches" or "Bugs" is highly debatable (As both are results of correctly working systems in the game), there's at least 2 tricks that allow your to pair TheHero Celice with his half-sister, and resident MysteriousWaif, Yuria. (First involves forming a particular square of units and not saving for 2 and a half chapters; the other involves having Celice wait next to a BrainwashedAndCrazy Yuria on the final chapter).
*** And finally, there's a possiblity that even the plot itself can fall victim to a glitch, or exactly the unbridled WRATH of the RandomNumberGod-- it's possible for Ethlin and Cuan to kill the Thracian Knights in Chapter 5.
** In [=FE10=], an enemy Bishop with a Rescue staff can place an enemy on top of a pitfall trap in Chapter 3-11. This allows a unit with Pass to move through the square unimpeded, as well as creating a very silly situation where a unit can engage an enemy and then fall into a pit as soon as they try to pass through the recently occupied space. More importantly, you can take advantage of this by placing your ''own'' flying units atop one of these spaces (and you recruit a LOT that chapter) and then moving your non-fliers past the pitfalls. The game will not allow two units to occupy the same space; therefore, it will not stop them as they go over the pitfalls.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenonauts}}'', if you leave an injured soldier in your base to recuperate, it will take many days. However, in the current version of the game (as of 5th of August 2013), sending him or her into battle again and using a simple medikit fixes the problem instantly.