History Main / PendulumWar

* ''{{Troy}}'' oscillates wildly between Trojans beating the snot out of the Greeks (when [[AchillesInHisTent Achilles isn't around]]) and Greeks annihilating the Trojans (when Achilles ''is'' around). This is actually a case of TruthInTelevision since the source material overestimates the effectiveness of heroes during the battle (see Literature entry on the Iliad).

** This can be justified to a degree: how many people do you know of brag about their loses?

* The film version of ''Battle of the Bulge'' is exactly like this. Either the Germans are completely succeeding or they aren't. In a battle that included over 800,000 soldiers, the battle was completely one-sided. Throughout most of the film, the Germans are succeeding in every single thing they attempt. Weather, machinery, and even the attitudes of the American leaders are on the side of the Germans almost to the point of being comical. At one point, a general even chastises a lieutenant colonel for suggesting that the Germans may intend to attack. When they do attack, the Americans are surprised. The only thing that turned the tide on the Germans was that they ran out of fuel. At that point, they completely gave up, despite still having weapons and ammunition and the ability to fight.
* SavingPrivateRyan averts this: the opening Omaha Beach sequence is one of the most realistic and unglamorous portrayals of war, ''ever'', in a Hollywood film. The winning side suffers great casualties almost from the start, and Captain Miller, the film's "hero", is just another insignificant soldier. Same with the final battle: long and hard, with the winning side suffering great casualties, and the victory is due to the collective efforts of the EnsembleCast.

* When the titular guild of ''FairyTail'' breaks into the Phantom guild they completely decimate all of the [[{{Mooks}} opponents forces]], and it's seems that despite being a ''magic'' guild none of the members of Phantom but the highest are actually using any magic. Then, Master Makarov [[DeusExitMachina gets his magic drained]] (which is stated to mean "[[WeAreTeamCannonFodder their battle strength is reduced by half]]"), and the Phantom guild-members--who are ''still'' not using any magic--somehow start fighting off the Fairy Tail members and Erza decides they need to retreat.

* In ''[[TwentyEightDaysLater 28 Days Later]]'' the 10 men making up the whole of England's defenses are only really able to hold off the ZombieApocalypse because of their predecessors having thinned the ranks a little, and most likely added to them as well. The battles we see are, as can be expected in the epic clash of Hordes of Stupid Infected versus Nine Guys With Guns, in the humans' favour until plot requires them to be otherwise.

* In ''ValkyriaChronicles'', most of the battles between [[TheKingdom Gallia's]] and TheEmpire's ends with the Gallian army getting their asses handed to them. This goes in the other direction once [[TheSquad Squad 7]] arrives on the scene.

* ''ParasiteEve'':During the second game Aya Brea finds herself witness to one of these when surrounded by dozens of ANMC Golems, armored monsters equipped with energy swords. Suddenlly TheCavalry arrives in the form of United States Marines, who proceed to utterly annihilate the entire horde of monsters in under a minute with liberal application of explosives and machine gun fire. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP1-1PL2e2E&feature=related It's so one sided.]]

* In Turn 11 of ''CodeGeass'' R2, Zero turned the tide against the Chinese Federation by combining the introduction of a new mecha, Shinkirou, with a {{plan}} that caused the country's population to rise up. Partially subverted in Turn 18 with Kallen and her new SuperPrototype. She started to pick off enemy units and could probably have wiped out the entire Britannian army, given enough time, but the battle actually ended in a more inconclusive fashion for both sides thanks to the unexpected use of [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo a certain weapon]]. On the other hand, a straightforward example happened in Turn 22, after Suzaku had received a similarly powerful upgrade and was able to destroy a small army of Knightmares in the span of a few minutes.

**** It's also worth noting that the design of Minas Tirith meant it could actually survive surrendering not only the city's outer wall, but five of the inner walls (and the rings of city contained between them) as well[[hottip:*: the city was built onto a hill. Seven levels of city, each surrounded by a rather impressive wall that apparently went down to bedrock, with only one gate in each wall. None of the gates lined up with any other gate, so if breached, an attacker had to fight their way round and through the streets of that ring to find the next gate]]. Provided the siege was eventually lifted, anyway.

* A variation in ''{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. Any given army is unstoppable, if not invincible, in its own {{Sourcebook}}. Consequently, if it appears in any other Codex, it's getting stomped.

* In Turn 11 of ''CodeGeass'' R2, Zero turned the tide against the Chinese Federation by combining the introduction of a new mecha, Shinkirou, with a XanatosGambit that caused the country's population to rise up. Partially subverted in Turn 18 with Kallen and her new SuperPrototype. She started to pick off enemy units and could probably have wiped out the entire Britannian army, given enough time, but the battle actually ended in a more inconclusive fashion for both sides thanks to the unexpected use of [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo a certain weapon]]. On the other hand, a straightforward example happened in Turn 22, after Suzaku had received a similarly powerful upgrade and was able to destroy a small army of Knightmares in the span of a few minutes.

** This is, fluff-wise at the very least, the Tau's entire battle strategy. Being an entire race of dedicated long-range specialists with minimal melee ability, their typical strategy is to open fire with absolutely everything they have, annihilating the enemy; should the enemy weather the storm and inflict too many casualties, or just close to melee, the Tau fall back, up to and including abandoning entire cities, until they can regroup and press forward again. The only time this is averted is if the resident Ethereal is killed, which either completely breaks Tau morale or turns them into TheDeterminator.

* The Korean War. First the North Koreans pushed the South Koreans all the way back to Pusan. Then the South and their allies push the Northern forces back to the Yalu River. ''Then'' the North and their allies pushed back.

** Gondor is not badly clobbered in the books. Gondor is beaten back by huge hordes of orcs (and managed to rack up awesome kill ratios - 10 dead orcs for every dad man), but is hardly clobbered.

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* A variation in ''{{Warhammer}}'' and ''{{Warhammer 40000}}''. Any given army is unstoppable, if not invincible, in its own {{Sourcebook}}. Consequently, if it appears in any other Codex, it's getting stomped.

* In ''ValkyriaChronicles'', most of the battles between [[TheKingdom Gallia]]'s and TheEmpire's ends with the Gallian army getting their asses handed to them. This goes in the other direction once [[TheSquad Squad 7]] arrives on the scene.

* Averted in ''{{Legend of The Galactic Heroes}}'', where many of the larger pitched battles are brutal stalemates with millions of casualties on each side, no matter who wins in the end. The camera frequently switches to the gory deaths of {{mooks}} from both sides to highlight the horrific human suffering caused by war. These scenes tend to be filler for the narrator's {{Author Tract}}s bemoaning the futility and hypocrisy of jingoism and violence.

* The battle scenes in ''{{Braveheart}}'' are a prime example of this trope: the English and Scottish extras don't actually get to kill each other. Only Mel Gibson's character and other Scot heroes get screentime to do mass slaughter. Even in the last battle where the Scots lose, there are only a few shots of Scottish soldiers getting hit with arrows. The rest of the scene is Mel Gibson wading through English grunts.

* ''{{Troy}}'' oscillates wildly between Trojans beating the snot out of the Greeks (when [[AchillesInHisTent Achilles isn't around]]) and Greeks annihilating the Trojans (when Achilles ''is'' around).

The actions of the heroes, furthermore, are disproportionate to their actual effect in the battle. No random extra achieves anything in the battle; only named characters can be militarily useful. Of course, given the power of many heroic or villainous characters, this is somewhat more believable -- especially if the series is Fantasy or Science Fiction, where a single individual may just have the power to destroy entire cities with a thought.

* In Turn 11 of ''CodeGeass'' R2, Zero turned the tide against the Chinese Federation by combining the introduction of a new mecha, Shinkirou, with a XanatosGambit that caused the country's population to rise up. Partially subverted in Turn 18 with Kallen and her new SuperPrototype. She started to pick off enemy units and could probably have wiped out the entire Britannian army, given enough time, but the battle actually ended in a more inconclusive fashion for both sides thanks to the unexpected use of [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo a certain weapon]]. On the other hand, a straightforward example happened in Turn 22, after Suzaku received a similarly powerful upgrade and was able to destroy a small army of Knightmares in the span of a few minutes.

* In Turn 11 of ''CodeGeass'' R2, Zero turned the tide against the Chinese Federation by combining the introduction of a new mecha, Shinkirou, with a XanatosGambit that caused the country's population to rise up. Partially subverted in Turn 18 with Kallen and her new SuperPrototype. She started to pick off enemy units and could probably have wiped out the entire Britannian army, given enough time, but the battle actually ended in a more inconclusive fashion thanks to the unexpected use of [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo a certain weapon]]. On the other hand, a straightforward example happened in Turn 22, after Suzaku received a similarly powerful upgrade and was able to destroy a small army of Knightmares in the span of a few minutes.

* Partially subverted in Turn 18 of ''CodeGeass'' R2 with Kallen and her new SuperPrototype. She started to pick off enemy units and could probably have wiped out the entire Britannian army, given enough time, but the battle actually ended in a more inconclusive fashion thanks to the unexpected use of [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo a certain weapon]]. On the other hand, a straightforward example happened in Turn 22, after Suzaku received a similarly powerful upgrade and was able to destroy a small army of Knightmares in the span of a few minutes.

* Happens in Turn 18 of ''CodeGeass'' with Kallen and her new SuperPrototype. She could probably have wiped out the entire Britannian army given enough time. It then happens again in Turn 22 when Suzaku gets a similar upgrade and destroys a small army of Knightmares in the span of a few minutes.

** Apart from the first episode, ''Every single battle in CodeGeass'' is decided by whichever named character most recently got a new Knightmare model.

* A recognizable theme in warfare among Europeans and European inspired military cultures. One side will find some technical advantage and roll over it's opponents for a time. However all occidental armies were formed in an environment so similar that it is impossible to find a technique that is incomprehensible; for instance HorseArcher s needed a culture that was BornInTheSaddle but Panzers were made by a culture similar enough to Britain, US, and Russia that they could be countered or copied sooner or later. As a result at some time there comes a point where the advantage of experience added to technical knowledge in the superior side does not make up for losses in officers, while their victims have gained enough experience to compete. Furthermore the originally successful power frightens others into taking the side of the loser to preserve the BalenceOfPower. Examples of this are the NapoleonicWars, The AmericanCivilWar, the GreatNorthernWar, and WorldWarII.

* A recognizable theme in warfare among Europeans and European inspired military cultures. One side will find some technical advantage and roll over it's opponents for a time. However all occidental armies were formed in an environment so similar that it is impossible to find a technique that is incomprehensible; for instance HorseArcher s needed a culture that was BornInTheSaddle but Panzers were made by a culture similar enough to Britain, US, and Russia that they could be countered or copied sooner or later. As a result at some time there comes a point where the advantage of experience added to technical knowledge in the superior side does not make up for losses in officers, while their victims have gained enough experience to compete. Examples of this are the NapoleonicWars, The AmericanCivilWar, the GreatNorthernWar, and WorldWarII.

* A recognizable theme in warfare among Europeans and European inspired military cultures. One side will find some technical advantage and roll over it's opponents for a time. However all occidental armies were formed in an environment so similar that it is impossible to find a technique that is incomprehensible; that is HorseArcher s needed a culture that was BornInTheSaddle but Panzers were made by a culture similar enough to Britain, US, and Russia that they could be countered or copied sooner or later. As a result at some time there comes a point where the advantage of experience added to technical knowledge in the superior side does not make up for losses in officers, while their victims have gained enough experience to compete. Examples of this are the NapoleonicWars, The AmericanCivilWar, the GreatNorthernWar, and WorldWarII.

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]
* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the first Dalek to appear in the revived series single-handedly kills nearly the entire population of the bunker he was imprisoned in.
** The Battle of Canary Wharf. Dalek Sec is not exaggerating; he really could destroy all five million Cybermen on his own.
*** The battle as it was presented, though, does not quite qualify as a OneSidedBattle. Even if the Daleks might have won in the end, the Cybermen's superior numbers appeared to have them at a temporary stalemate.
*** What stalemate? The Cybermen were getting slaughtered. The only reason they were able to keep fighting is because they kept dragging in reinforcements. The Cybermen did not manage to kill a single Dalek. Even when it was just the first four Daleks, they were able to stroll through a warehouse full of Cybermen as if nothing was even there.
** The Dalek invasion of Earth in "The Stolen Earth" is even more horrifically one-sided. Jack Harkness pretty much sums it up.
--->'''Jack Harkness:''' [[LittleNo No. Oh, no.]] There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry... We're dead.
** It seems Daleks only suffer from ConservationOfNinjutsu issues when the Doctor himself is involved.
* ''BabylonFive'' had several extremely one-sided battles.
** The Minbari suffered only one capital ship loss in the process of grinding [=EarthForce=] into dust during the Earth-Minbari war.
*** Not true, they lose several ships. However, except for the ''Black Star'', all those are the results of [[RammingAlwaysWorks ramming]]. Normally, battles with Minbari last ''seconds''.
** The Narn were routed by the Shadows in the opening campaign of the Shadow war.
** It is implied Centauri Prime's defenses were eliminated by the Vorlons during the last campaign of the Shadow war.
** The final battle of the Shadow/Vorlon war is like this - first the Shadows and Vorlons are ambushed and take losses, then they turn on the Babylon fleet and start tearing them apart, then the other First Ones show up and blow up the Vorlon Planet Killer, etc. Finally Sheridan and Lorien sit everybody down to talk it out.
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