History Main / CivilWarCraft

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' had this, sometimes extensively, in all the campaigns, though especially the Terrans. In the first campaign the player was a rebel leader against the Confederacy, in the ''Brood War'' expansion's campaign the player was a UED commander coming to bring the Koprulu sector colonies [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression under earth's control]], while in ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' you play as the leader of the rebellion against the Terran Dominion established with the help of the first game's player. The Zerg on the other hand have one mission in their first campaign where a slain cerebrate's brood has gone feral and must be destroyed, and in the expansion the Overmind is dead and the remaining cerebrates are fighting with Kerrigan for control of the remaining swarms. In the case of the Protoss Tassadar and his forces were declared heretics for associating with the Dark Templar, though they end up saving what's left of their entire species after the Zerg invade their homeworld.

* The entire ''Mists of Pandaria'' expansion for VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft has been building up to this situation for the Horde. It eventually comes down to Vol'jin and the other leaders of the Horde against Garrosh and his Kor'kron. [[spoiler: Even after Vol'jin is named the new Warchief it appears that this situation could potentially pop up again. Speaking to Sylvanas following the raid shows she has no intention of listening to a troll and has every intention to see what she can get away with. Lor'themar also expresses concern regarding Sylvanas.]]

* Tyranid hive fleets, despite being one of the few truly unified factions since they have a HiveMind, will attack each other in order to ensure the winning fleet has the best adaptations and most biomass.

* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic IV'' took this to really extreme levels when ''all six'' campaigns of the original game had the main enemy of the same faction as the player. Not so much in the expansions, though.

*** ''The Frozen Throne'', the expansion pack for ''Warcraft III'', had a three way war between the Forsaken (Undead) VS. Scourge (Undead) VS. Dread Lord Rebels (Undead) missions, and a couple Blood Elf vs. Alliance missions, the Blood Elves being a [[CosmeticallyDifferentSides visually different but statistically identical splinter faction of the Alliance forces.]]

* Quite interestingly played with in ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront II'', in which one mission of the 501st's campaign involving playing as Imperial Stormtroopers fighting an army of old Republic Clonetroopers on Kamino.

* The first faction you need to destroy in ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' is an EvilCounterpart army of human slaves who refused to defect from [[BigBad Doviculus]]' rule, led by [[TheQuisling General Lionwhyte]].

* The entire [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft Mists of Pandaria]] expansion his been building up to this situation for the Horde. It eventually comes down to Vol'jin and the other leaders of the Horde against Garrosh and his Kor'kron. [[spoiler: Even after Vol'jin is named the new Warchief it appears that this situation could potentially pop up again. Speaking to Sylvanas following the raid shows she has no intention of listening to a troll and has every intention to see what she can get away with. Lor'themar also expresses concern regarding Sylvanas.]]

** The Nod campaign of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'' starts off as a civil war between various factions of the group. Later there's a subversion where you hijack GDI equipment to fight the Forgotten (who are using Nod equipment).

** The Soviet campaigns in ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2 Red Alert 2]] and [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3 Red Alert 3]]'' necessitates the elimination of another Soviet general whom the Soviet leader has declared [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness inconvenient to keep around.]] Of course it's only a matter of time before they try to do the same to you.

** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'', the only faction that ever outright fights their own side in the ''main'' campaign is the GLA (in skirmish games, it's easy to capture enemy buildings to get access to their tech). Technically, you DO do this, but it's {{handwaved}}: Rogue Chinese General, GLA using captured USA Equipment from an abandoned base, et cetera. Given that they're a massing of factions rather than an army of a particular country, this makes sense. The "Generals Campaign", however, pits a general of your choosing against each of the other available generals in sequence, including the ones that share your nationality. With there being 6-7 AI generals to choose from (In a non-modded version of the game, the Infantry and Demolition general levels are DummiedOut), in a campaign where 6 are randomly chosen to fight you, it is guaranteed that you will go up against someone who shares your nationality.

** While ''IV'' was the crowning example, it does show up in other games in the series as well -- a prominent example is the end of the ''Song for the Father'' campaign in ''III'', where many of the necromancers of Deyja ally with the forces fighting King Gryphonheart of Deyja after realising what a terrible mistake they'd done -- mechanically represented by the mission this happens for starting with the player's side having a Necropolis with a necromantic hero in the garrison alongside the three other towns you have, while the enemy is entirely necropoli.

** ''ClashOfHeroes'' does the same thing, but in this case it's justified--the demon plan is to create a civil war, and they're not the one's behind the idea in the first place. There's also the bounties, who are all criminals.

* In ''Titanfall'', the multiplayer matches show the Frontier Militia using the same Titan chassis that the IMC uses and all of them come from Hammond Robotics (A subsidiary of the IMC).''Titanfall 2''reveals that the Militia stole a lot of Titans from the IMC to maintain their Titan fleet and subverts this by creating their own Vanguard-Class Titan. Averted with the single player campaign's 7th level: Trial by Fire, where the Militia launches an all out attack on an IMC airfield using the Vanguard Titans against the variants used in the multiplayer.

* In ''[[VideoGame/Titanfall]]'', the multiplayer matches show the Frontier Militia using the same Titan chassis that the IMC uses and all of them come from Hammond Robotics (A subsidiary of the IMC).''[[VIdeoGame/Titanfall2]]''reveals that the Militia stole a lot of Titans from the IMC to maintain their Titan fleet and subverts this by creating their own Vanguard-Class Titan. Averted with the single player campaign's 7th level: Trial by Fire, where the Militia launches an all out attack on an IMC airfield using the Vanguard Titans against the variants used in the multiplayer.

* In ''VideoGame/Titanfall'', the multiplayer matches show the Frontier Militia using the same Titan chassis that the IMC uses and all of them come from Hammond Robotics (A subsidiary of the IMC).''VideoGame/Titanfall 2'' reveals that the Militia stole a lot of Titans from the IMC to maintain their Titan fleet and subverts this by creating their own Vanguard-Class Titan. Averted with the single player campaign's 7th level: Trial by Fire, where the Militia launches an all out attack on an IMC airfield using the Vanguard Titans against the variants used in the multiplayer.

* SwordOfTheStars doesn't have a campaign, but the very detailed fluff makes a point of explaining how the otherwise-unified races might have multiple factions in play:

** The SpaceWolves were suspected to have been created as the Emperor's secret police to keep other Astartes in line. Nowadays this role is held by the Minotaurs, a (possibly Khorne-corrupted) Chapter that serves the Inquisition.

** The same for the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' Galaxy.
*** One White Dwarf magazine article featured a battle which the writers wanted to be the biggest battle possible. Unfortunately, the two biggest armies the writers had lying around were Space Marines and Imperial Guard, who are nominally on the same side. They came up with the explanation that an extraordinarily powerful psychic had arisen on an Imperial planet, who could mind control the entire planet, including its Imperial Guard contingent. The Space Marines were sent in to put him down.
*** The troops of the Ecclesiarchy also seldom need a reason more specific than "might be corrupted by Chaos" to battle allied Forces. The White Dwarf Scenario mission for the Grey Knights "Wipe out the Infestation" states that a Catachan expedition force might have been exposed to Chaotic influence... and so the Grey Knights have to deal with it appropriately.

[[AC:FirstPersonShooter]]
* ''[[Videogame/BattleZone1998 BattleZone II]]'' has you destroy a [[DefectorFromDecadence splinter faction]] of the International Space Defense Force who wants peace, [[MyCountryRightOrWrong should you stay loyal]] to [[GeneralRipper General Braddock]]. If you join the Scions, you will fight a renegade commander who does not share [[BigGood Padisha Burns]]' vision for the future.

[[AC:HackAndSlash]]

[[AC:[[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMORPGs]]]]

[[AC:RealTimeStrategy]]

[[AC:{{Simulation}}]]

[[AC:ThirdPersonShooter]]

[[AC:TurnBasedStrategy]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} II'', several Alliance vs. Alliance missions were centered around traitors who for some reason decided that siding with the evil Orcs was in their best interest. The Orc vs. Orc missions involved a power struggle between two major Orc leaders, Gul'dan and Doomhammer. Then, Beyond the Dark Portal came along, and everything got complicated.
** ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III'' had a fair bit of this as well:

* ''RiseOfLegends'' inverts this: most missions have you fighting an enemy using the same units as you are, or dark glass versions in the Alin campaign. Only a few missions have inter-factional warfare, and all but two amount to skirmishes.
* ''StarCraft'' had this, sometimes extensively, in all the campaigns, though especially the Terrans. In the first campaign the player was a rebel leader against the Confederacy, in the ''Brood War'' expansion's campaign the player was a UED commander coming to bring the Koprulu sector colonies [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression under earth's control]], while in ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' you play as the leader of the rebellion against the Terran Dominion established with the help of the first game's player. The Zerg on the other hand have one mission in their first campaign where a slain cerebrate's brood has gone feral and must be destroyed, and in the expansion the Overmind is dead and the remaining cerebrates are fighting with Kerrigan for control of the remaining swarms. In the case of the Protoss Tassadar and his forces were declared heretics for associating with the Dark Templar, though they end up saving what's left of their entire species after the Zerg invade their homeworld.

** While ''IV'' was the crowning example, it does show up in other games in the series as well -- a prominent example is the end of the ''Song for the Father'' campaign in ''III'', where many of the necromancers of Deyja ally with the forces fighting King Gryphonheart of Deyja after realising what a terrible mistake they'd done -- mechanically represented by the mission this happens for starting with the player's side having several Necropoli with necromantic heroes in the garrison, while the enemy is entirely necropoli.

* Quite interestingly played with in ''StarWarsBattlefront II'', in which one mission of the 501st's campaign involving playing as Imperial Stormtroopers fighting an army of old Republic Clonetroopers on Kamino.

* The first faction you need to destroy in BrutalLegend is an EvilCounterpart army of human slaves who refused to defect from [[BigBad Doviculus]]' rule, led by [[TheQuisling General Lionwhyte]].