History Main / StraightForTheCommander

* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'':
** [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] and {{deconstructed}}. [[OneManArmy Kyril]] and [[{{PMC}} the Black Dogs]] make use of this tactic during the assault of the Black Fortress -- defeat and capture the [[EvilOverlord Dark Queen]] Olga to end the ForeverWar. They do succeed, but then the leader of the Black Dogs, Vault, decides to [[EtTuBrute betray]] the country that hired them. Taking advantage of the resources and the DecapitatedArmy of the Black Fortress, the Black Dogs [[WonTheWarLostThePeace start another]] [[TheWarHasJustBegun war]].
** In the remastered version, [[spoiler:Vault gets killed before he can put his plan into motion]]. However, several characters (Kyril, Boris, The Rat, etc.) are skeptical towards the prospect of the war ending. Meanwhile, TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness, unknown to them that [[spoiler:Vault was slain]], notes that "the war's end means more opportunities". As the remastered version is still ongoing, the readers have yet to know whether [[spoiler:Vault's death would put a halt to the Black Dogs' conquest]].

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] and {{deconstructed}} in ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls''. [[OneManArmy Kyril]] and [[{{PMC}} the Black Dogs]] make use of this tactic during the assault of the Black Fortress -- defeat and capture the [[EvilOverlord Dark Queen]] Olga to end the ForeverWar. They do succeed, but then the leader of the Black Dogs, Vault, decides to [[EtTuBrute betray]] the country that hired them. Taking advantage of the resources and the DecapitatedArmy of the Black Fortress, the Black Dogs [[WonTheWarLostThePeace start another]] [[TheWarHasJustBegun war]].

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', a lot of battle strategies among the warring claimants to the throne involve capturing or killing important commanders on the other side(s) as well as taking a side "out of the race" by killing their leader.
** Near the end of the Battle in the Whispering Wood, [[spoiler:Jaime Lannister]], realizing his army has lost, rallies his strongest soldiers and charges towards [[spoiler:Robb Stark]] in an attempt to bring the war to an end.

* In the Last Battle of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', [[spoiler:Graendal]] almost single-handedly stymies the armies of the Light this way. [[spoiler:Rather than kill the commanders, she [[DreamWalker infiltrates their dreams]] beforehand and affects them with subtle [[MindControl Compulsions]] to misuse their troops in small ways that would add up to disaster.]]

** An Accidental case lead to the Kentares Massacre and Draconis Combine losing the First Succession War. Coordinator Minoru was overseeing the campaign on Kentares but was wearing a standard DCMS Colonel's uniform. Latha Pischel, a Davion Sharpshooter saw a Colonel out in the open and took the shot, not realizing who he had just killed. The Coordinator's son was already mad and went even madder with grief and ordered the entire Planet massacred by hand. Over 50 million people were killed either by katana or small arms. Comstar personnel on the ground broke their organizations rules for neutrality and smuggled out video of the mass executions, resulting in massive demoralization for the DMCS, and provoking Davion from wavering and ready to break to [[UnstoppibleRage a highly motivated force who refused to let that happen to the rest of the Federated Suns]].

** Notably failed when Guilliman killed Alpharius; the Alpha Legion held together and managed to drive off the Ultramarines. This may have been because of their decentralized command structure, or because [[IAmSpartacus "Alpharius" was really a mere Alpha Legionnaire in disguise]] or replaced or succeeded by his secret twin brother Omegon.

* In the Season 1 finale of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', the heroes, failing to stop the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Hightbreed]] invasion, end up using their portails to reach the Hightbreed Supreme himself. Played with in that they don't end up killing him, but rather finding a peaceful solution to end the conflict.

Also see AchillesHeel. Subtrope of FlawExploitation. Is an InstantWinCondition in some examples. Smart commanders may employ a DecoyLeader; a GenreSavvy army will clear away as many bandits as possible and wait for a clear and close enough path before targeting the ringleader (in which case, the Second Stratagem may be used first). Compare ShootTheMedicFirst, when the healer is first to get targeted, and ShootTheMageFirst, when [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards the powerful wizard]] gets hit first.

Finding him usually isn't too hard — just look for the guy with the huge ChestOfMedals, the most BlingOfWar or the [[HighlyConspicuousUniform most conspicuous uniform]]. He may also be [[LargeAndInCharge the biggest]]. The enemy may make things even easier for you by [[FrontlineGeneral putting its commander in the front]], possibly even [[CallThatAFormation with a bad formation protecting him.]]

* The standard Modus Operandi for just about every general in ''Manga/{{Kingdom}}''.
* During his battle with the Holy Iron Chain Knights in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', Guts heads straight for the leader, Farnese, instead of continuing to fight Azan, the badass among their ranks. Unfortunately for Guts, he is so messed up from his earlier clash and the entire battle with [[spoiler:Rosine]] from the previous arc that Farnese, despite having no experience in battle at all (and with a little help from her subordinate Serpico), is able to subdue and capture him.

* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' has some monster cards that have the ability to attack the player directly. Most of them have the ATK that are less than 1000, but with the right combination, their attacks can be increased to more than 2000. Since the player starts out with 8000 life points, it's not possible to [[OneShotKO take him out in a single hit]]. As such using this strategy requires either having multiple direct-player-attack monsters in your deck, or supporting monsters and spell cards that can keep them alive for multiple turns.

** On the creature level, this is the counter to so-called "tribal" decks - the "Lords" (creatures that give a boost to all friendly creatures of a given type, so-called because they used to have the type "Lord") provide stat boosts, cost breaks, special abilities, or some combination of the above to their allies. Eliminating them produces a meaningful reduction to the power of the remaining enemy creatures.

* In ''Film/DraculaUntold'', Vlad tries to invoke this and the DecapitatedArmy trope during the attack on the monastery, picking out [[BigBad Mehmed's]] [[BlingOfWar signature golden armour]]. Unfortunately, [[TheChessmaster Mehmed]], not being stupid, [[BatmanGambit had anticipated this and left a decoy]] - in fact, ''the entire army'' was a decoy, while a small strike-force of Janissaries sneaked into the monastery while Vlad was distracted. He even uses Vlad's tendency to this against him ''again'', to lure him into a trap that nearly kills him.

'''Waverly:''' Oh, I don't know about that. Think about it. You're a Boche, just working out which of two chaps to shoot and you thought - "Good Lord - one of them really is wearing a very stylish cap indeed!" You might shoot the other one instead.\\
'''Capt Nicholls:''' Or, alternatively, think - "I fancy that cap" and kill you first of all.

* Cyrus attempts to win the decisive battle this way in Literature/{{Anabasis}}. Unfortunately, his best troops, the Greek 10000, don't join the assault, preferring a defensive fight. Cyrus leads his bodyguard and friends in attack instead - and when they are slaughtered, the Greek mercenaries get to face the entire Persian army on their own.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', a lot of battle strategies among the warring claimants to the throne involve capturing or killing important commanders on the other side(s) as well as taking a side "out of the race" by killing their leader.
** Near the end of the Battle in the Whispering Wood, [[spoiler:Jaime Lannister]], realizing his army has lost, rallies his strongest soldiers and charges towards [[spoiler:Robb Stark]] in an attempt to bring the war to an end.
* In ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'', the American sniper, using modern weapons, uses this strategy to great effect against the armies of the aforementioned time period (whose commanders like to wear flashy hats and such) since said commanders stay out of musket but NOT modern sniper rifle range.
* At the climax of ''[[Literature/KushielsLegacy Kushiel's Dart]]'' [[spoiler:Isidore d'Aiglemort]] leads his army on a cavalry charge against the Skaldi, aiming to get to Waldemar Selig and kill him. [[spoiler:They end up in a MutualKill.]]
* In ''Literature/EndersGame'', [[spoiler:Mazer Rackham reveals this is how he defeated the Formic Navy, by deducing which ship had their queen (after deducing that they even ''have'' queens). Once he destroyed it, the entire fleet became inert.]] Unfortunately, the Formics learn from this and try to bait Ender in his first battle into trying the same strategy, by putting their ships in a sphere formation with an expendable decoy as the "leader" in the center. Ender doesn't fall for it. Then at the climax of the book, [[spoiler:Ender orders his fleet to charge straight in and fire their mass disintegrator weapons at the Formic homeworld, causing an EarthShatteringKaboom that kills all the queens there, taking out all the species under their control.]]
** The last part, though, is not meant [[spoiler:to win the war. Ender thinks that it's a training simulation but is so tired by the near-constant simulations that all he wants is to quit, so he purposely does something so horrible (i.e. sacrifice the human fleet to destroy an entire planet of sentient beings) that he assumes he will be kicked out of the program. Instead, this is exactly what Mazer was hoping for]].
* In the first ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' novel, Constance the badger tries to end the siege of Redwall Abbey by sniping enemy commander Cluny the Scourge. It fails due to a rather accidental DecoyLeader situation. Later on, when Cluny falls in battle, the enemy army falls into disarray, and many of the invaders surrender immediately.
* ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach'': After 27 years of losing the war against [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Covenant]], the UNSC plans an operation to kidnap a Covenant Prophet in hopes of forcing a truce. The operation is interrupted by the Fall of Reach, [[spoiler:but fortunately backstabbing politics within the Covenant end up killing off the Prophets for them in the actual ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games]].
* Discussed in ''Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall'', with the differing battle philosophies of "kill the troops first because they're the ones doing the actual fighting" and "kill the officers because they're leading and thinking." Kel and Dom, themselves officers, favor this trope.
* ''The Eagle Has Landed'', and the [[Film/TheEagleHasLanded film]] based on it, feature a Nazi attempt to capture Winston Churchill. The trope isn't played totally straight as it's mostly to be a propaganda coup; Britain is far too deeply involved in the war for the loss of any one man to change things drastically.
* In ''Literature/TheLostRegiment'', the [[HumanAliens Merki]] [[TheHorde Horde]] uses this during fights with other hordes. A whole umen (10,000 mounted warriors) is dedicated to seeking out and killing the enemy Qar Qarth (chief of the horde), hoping to disrupt the morale. It's specifically mentioned that, during the Battle of Orki, both the Tugars and the Merki tied their slain Qar Qarths to their horses in order to keep the warriors from finding out the truth (also, the death of a Qar Qarth must be followed by a 30-day mourning period). During the retreat of the Republic from the Merki onslaught, [[ColonelBadass Keane]] [[spoiler:convinces a former Merki slave, who was actually sent to kill him, to kill the Merki Qar Qarth instead with a newly-developed sniper rifle. This gives the escapees an extra month to prepare, while the Merki mourn their fallen leader]]. It also eventually results in [[spoiler:the Merki Horde splitting in three, being much less of a threat after that]].

* It's mentioned in ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' that a sensible army will almost always try to kill the Shardbearer first both because he's easily more dangerous than a thousand regular troops and because if you take a Shardbearer down, you can capture his Shards and turn them against the enemy. It helps that Shards obviously have to be in battle to be any use, so the Shardbearer will always be where you can send more troops at him.
* In the Last Battle of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', [[spoiler:Graendal]] almost single-handedly stymies the armies of the Light this way. [[spoiler:Rather than kill the commanders, she [[DreamWalker infiltrates their dreams]] beforehand and affects them with subtle [[MindControl Compulsions]] to misuse their troops in small ways that would add up to disaster.]]
** The good guys also try this, with various heroes attempting to kill [[spoiler: Demandred]] and decapitate the Shadow's army. [[spoiler: Because Demandred is one of the greatest warriors and channelers to ever live, this doesn't work out so well. [[MasterSwordsman Lan]] finally manages it, at great cost]].
* Happens twice in ''Literature/TheWarOfTheAncients'' trilogy (set in the ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' verse). Lord Kur'talos Ravencrest leads the forces of LaResistance against the Burning Legion 10,000 years before the events of the game. During a battle, however, an assassin sent by [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Azshara]]'s NumberTwo manages to get close and stab Ravencrest in the back of the neck. Command passes to the incompetent Lord Desdel Stareye, who gets killed in battle through his own stupidity. Command finally passes to a commoner named Jarod Shadowsong, who proves himself to be an excellent commander, ultimately leading LaResistance to victory, and earns the respect of the noble-born.
* Accidentally done by ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' when leading a column of refugees towards Imperial lines and deciding to punch through the last ork line. He had no idea that was where the warboss was and ended up running into him. The warboss attacked first, [[HelpingWouldBeKillStealing preventing his nobs from joining in]], and after Cain kills Korbul the nobs start fighting among each other to decide who the new warboss is.
* In ''Literature/{{Mockingjay}}'', there is a battle training simulation that simulates what happens if the enemy shoots the commander, so as to make this less of an issue if it happened.
* In the ''Literature/{{Codex Alera}}'' books, because the [[spoiler: Vord]] are a KeystoneArmy accomplishing this is the only hope the Alerans have to win. Unfortunately for them, their commander is aware of this and refuses to show up on the battlefield unless victory is already overwhelmingly likely.

** In season 8, [[spoiler:Arya manages to sneak up on and kill the Night King with a dragonglass dagger, which causes his army to instantly collapse as all the other White Walkers, and by proxy, the Wights, were spawned from him.]]
* Discussed by President Bartlett, Leo, and Adm. Fitzwallace in Season 3 of Series/TheWestWing. A foriegn government minister has confirmed ties to planning terrorist attacks, and Fitzwallace has a plan to target that person directly and covertly. Bartlett is against it for legal, moral and ethical reasons. Ultimately he decides [[spoiler: to authorize the mission]].

** The Tyranid special character known as the Deathleaper pulled a variation on this: It was in charge of killing the cardinal leading the defense of an Imperial world, but killing him would only strengthen the resolve of the defenders. So instead its started ambushing and butchering the cardinal's guards instead, sparying the man with their blood. The cardinal's mind snapped soon after, demoralizing the defenders and making them easy prey for the 'nids.
* In the ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms'' wargames (WARMACHINE and HORDES), killing the enemy warcaster or warlock is usually an InstantWinCondition regardless of the scenario being played. The common term for this kind of victory is "Caster Kill."
* In one ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' module, The Computer anticipates this trope and arranges for a [[DecoyLeader decoy]]. As usual, it DidntThinkThisThrough:
--> '''Green-clearance Team Leader''': All right, men, let's go!
--> '''Bystander''': ''(eyeing "Blue"-clearance Executive Officer)'' Hey, why are you letting him order you around?
--> '''"Blue"-clearance Executive Officer''': Hey, yeah! ''*BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM*'' All right, men, let's go!
* The fallout of this trope is directly responsible for the acension of Hanse Davion to the throne of the Federated Suns in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. His older brother, First Prince Ian Davion, directly led a counter-attack during the Third Battle of Mallory's World, but in spite of being an excellent Mechwarrior and piloting an ''Atlas'' besides, he was identified and killed in single combat by Yorinaga Kurita. Ironically, House Kurita won the battle but ultimately lost the war. The news of the Prince's death on Mallory's World almost turned the campaign into a rout, but Hanse Davion revealed himself to be a far more clever and capable leader than his late brother, and managed to keep his realm steady gainst the subsequent Kuritan threat for decades.
** This is also standard operating policy for the Clans--not because it's sound battlefield doctrine, but because [[HonorBeforeReason defeating high-ranked enemy officers is bound to win them more honor among their peers]].
** An Accidental case lead to the Kentares Massacre and Draconis Combine losing the First Succession War. Coordinator Minoru was overseeing the campaign on Kentares but was wearing a standard DCMS Colonel's uniform. Latha Pischel, a Davion Sharpshooter saw a Colonel out in the open and took the shot, not realizing who he had just killed. The Coordinator's son was already mad and went even madder with grief and ordered the entire Planet massacred by hand. Over 50 million people were killed either by katana or small arms. Comstar personnel on the ground broke their organizations rules for neutrality and smuggled out video of the mass executions, resulting in massive demoralization for the DMCS, and provoking Davion from wavering and ready to break to [[UnstoppibleRage a highly motivated force who refused to let that happen to the rest of the Federated Suns]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Tyrant}}'': Some cards have a skill called fear, which means it ignores the opposing assault and attacks the commander directly. Some of the top decks use this and works because every battle pits 2 {{keystone arm|y}}ies against each other.

* In ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar II,'' this is represented by having the Tyranids start attacking each other.
** The "Assassination" victory condition in VideoGame/DawnOfWar: as soon as the enemy hero dies, they lose. Some AIs make an effort to keep their commanders alive, others... don't.
* A valid tactic in ''VideoGame/WarlordsBattlecry 3'' is to go straight for the commander- since he's the initial builder unit and able to capture resource sites, taking him out will seriously hamper the enemy activities, possibly even crippling the AI side completely, if they have no alternative builders or heroes. Just watch out, some heroes fully enforce AuthorityEqualsAsskicking and can kill the hell out of that initial fighting force if not properly built and managed.
* Killing the opponent's king unit in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Regicide mode]] in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'' gives you instant victory, regardless of how many other units and resources the other player still has. Of course, losing your king will do the same to you. In several campaign scenarios, the objective is killing one particular enemy commander or destroying one enemy building too.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'': In the "Defeat [Insert Name Here]" missions, your designated assassination target is always a unique unit that is always at least implied to be the squad commander.

* This is a tactic in several battles in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI,'' notably any battle involving switching between multiple parties to prevent an enemy advance and Cyan's defense of Doma Castle.
* Played straight in ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'' The default victory condition in multiplayer is assassination, where to win one must kill the enemy Armored Command Unit. This is no small feat considering that the Commander usually has a full-out army and/or base protecting him, not to mention the fact that he's [[FourStarBadass one of the most powerful units in the game]]. Some players might try to send a group of high-damage units on a suicide run to snipe the enemy commander, or if one player is too reckless with using his commander as a [[FrontLineGeneral combat unit]] then they could find a surprise waiting for them.
** When the victory condition isn't assassination, this trope may become inverted as one player suicides his commander into the enemy army/base so the nuclear warhead within takes out as much stuff as possible.
* In ''VideoGame/OverlordII,'' the Empire phalanxes (phalanges?) are typically accompanied by a Centurion. Killing the centurion makes it much easier to defeat them; without killing him a group of fifty fully armed browns will lose nearly thirty of its members before breaking the phalanx and causing the soldiers to scatter.
* It's the only way to win in ''VideoGame/PlanetaryAnnihilation''; losing your Commander unit is the only defeat condition as in-game the Commander is telling all the other units of the army what to do.
* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in the ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' series and spinoffs. It's possible on some maps to rush the enemy commander and get an instant win, but often events block your path. However, individual soldiers are almost irrelevant; you finish the map much more quickly if you jump from general to general as fast as you can.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'':
** The Allied campaign culminates in the Allies doing this on a national scale -- want to end the war without having the slog all the way to Moscow like last time? Use one of your new upgraded Chronospheres (set up in the right location) to transport an entire army directly to Moscow and capture the Kremlin before reinforcements arrive or the Soviet premier gets away.
** Subverted in the Soviet campaign, however. The first mission requires destroying the Pentagon, but the Allied war effort obviously continues, so presumably the generals got out in time. A later mission requires capturing and mind-controlling the U.S. President, but even that doesn't stop Allied hold-outs from continuing the fight to the bitter end.
* Downplayed in ''[[Videogame/MechWarrior MechWarrior Living Legends]]''. The aptly named "Master And Commander", an Atlas assault [[HumongousMecha battlemech]] variant is designed for the FrontlineGeneral, and therefore a prime target, as the M&C carries advanced TargetSpotter gear for friendly artillery and cruise missiles, a powerful EnemyDetectingRadar, electronic countermeasures, long-range bombardment weaponry, and [[SuperToughness some of the heaviest armor in the game]]. Killing an M&C Atlas will significantly cripple an enemy's informational flow and blind their artillery support, but their other combatants will be ''very'' pissed and avenge their commander.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** Most Covenant Grunt squads are led by a lone Elite or Brute; killing said leader will usually cause the Grunts to temporarily panic and run away. Post-''{{VideoGame/Halo 3}}'', though, it might have the opposite effect of their Grunts [[TakingYouWithMe going suicide bomber]].
** Much of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}''[='s=] first half is spent hunting down one of the Covenant's Hierarchs, the Prophet of Regret. [[spoiler:While his death doesn't have any direct effect on the Covenant military, it does start a chain of events which result in the Covenant falling into civil war.]]
* In ''[[VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}} Sunrider Mask of Arcadius]]'', Kayto Shields wins the Battle of Far Port by gunning straight for the flagship of PACT admiral Veniczar Cullen, whose plan to catch the much-smaller Alliance fleet in a pincer attack left him vulnerable to a head-on assault. In a more general sense, several missions will end in a victory if you destroy the enemy commander instead of wiping out all opposition, though surviving enemy units will only yield half as much money as they would if you had destroyed them.
* In ''VideoGame/NexusClash'', it's almost always a better idea to kill an enemy summoner and let their KeystoneArmy fall then to fight the army itself.
* In the original ''VideoGame/ShiningForce'', enemy priority 1A is StraightForTheCommander as his death is an instant battle loss for the player. If he is out of reach, ShootTheMageFirst or ShootTheMedicFirst is the second priority.
* ''VideoGame/SniperEliteIII:'' Enemy officers make regular soldiers more observant. This is a stealth game, so getting the officers out of the way (ideally in a discreet manner) is a help.
* ''{{Videogame/Warcraft II}}'' has this be a SubvertedTrope - the Orcish Horde's leader, Orgrim Doomhammer killed the leader of the Alliance of Lordaeron, Anduin Lothar, during the final battle (originally, Doomhammer especially performed this by ambushing him specifically, though this was {{Retcon}}ned to be a more nebulous situation). Instead of his death demoralizing his troops, Lothar's lieutenant Turalyon took up the man's sword and rallied the Alliance into a battle-equivalent of RoaringRampageOfRevenge which ended the war right there.
* In ''{{VideoGame/WarCraft}} III'', the hero class is essentially the in-game commander. However, this trope's tactic is usually ''not'' a good idea - even the weaker heroes are generally fairly difficult to take down unless you can surround them, and while you're trying to focus on them, the other team can be wiping out your army. That being said, if the opportunity to take out a hero quickly presents itself, successfully doing so severely weakens the other team, as well as denying experience to that hero.
* Standard policy in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}''. On assassination missions, most players will avoid or blast past the {{Mook}}s to go straight for the boss. This is because the loot which RandomlyDrops from the boss is invariably more desirable than what comes from even a hundred grunts, and players are impatient things.

* In ''Webcomic/NoNeedForBushido'', part of Yukizane's backstory involves ending a war by engaging the enemy commander in a one-on-one battle... in a game of ''[[TheChessmaster chess]]''.

* In the season 1 finale of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', the heroes, failing to stop the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Hightbreed]] invasion, end up using their portails to reach the Hightbreed Supreme himself. Played with in that they don't end up killing him, but rather finding a peaceful solution to end the conflict.

* In modern times, concern about snipers using this very tactic has led to the phasing out of identifying marks for officers, with inconspicuous rank insignia, and salutes by soldiers of lower rank expressly discouraged. So, BlingOfWar is now no longer worn on frontlines, only in safe and peaceful places. [[ShootTheMedicFirst Medics have had the same problem]], even though [[UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar shooting them is generally a war crime]] (of course, in today's wars, often one side or another doesn't care about the laws of war--hence the problem).

* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the allies initially wanted to assassinate UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler to end the war. Then they realized that doing so would [[NiceJobBreakingitHero allow a better commander to take his place and only make things worse]], [[GeneralFailure since Hitler was a bad general and getting worse.]] They ''did'' successfully assassinate UsefulNotes/ReinhardHeydrich in 1942, as he was considered far too dangerous, such as kickstarting the Holocaust, and far too efficient at managing occupied territories for the benefit of the German war machine. [[KillThemAll The way the Nazis reacted to that]] ultimately led to further assassination attempts being called off. Still, independent of what the Allies thought, various people tried to kill Hitler - they just all failed, giving Hitler who believed himself to be chosen by Destiny an even bigger chip on his shoulder.

* The attempts of the CIA to assassinate UsefulNotes/FidelCastro were legion. Whether all of them actually occurred is anybody's guess, but due to their sheer number, some of them must've been real. Castro of course died peacefully after retiring from decades of power, having outlived many, many of his would-be assassins. Castro once told UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin that the only reason he was still alive was because he personally managed his security detail.

* The attempts of the CIA to assassinate UsefulNotes/FidelCastro were legion. Whether all of them actually occurred is anybody's guess, but due to their sheer number, some of them must've been real. Castro of course died peacefully after retiring from decades of power, having outlived many, many of his would-be assassins.

* In ''Manga/VinlandSaga'', Askeladd makes use of this tactic by having main character Thorfinn assassinate opposing commanders during battles. This tactic is a win-win scenario for Askeladd as Thorfinn [[HonorBeforeReason unfailingly tries to follow Askeladd's commands]] [[YouKilledMyFather in an extremely self-defeating attempt to kill him]], meaning either Thorfinn will remove a vital part of the opposition or [[UriahGambit he'll get himself killed trying and thus no longer be Askeladd's problem]].

* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' has some monster cards that have the ability to attack the player directly. Most of them have the ATK that are less than 1000, but with the right combination, their attacks can be increased to more than 2000.

* The textbook example is probably the Battle of Otumba (1520). The Spanish and Tlaxcaltec survivors of the Noche Triste were moving west to Tlaxcala when they were cornered by an Aztec army that, according to the ''lowest'' estimates, outnumbered them 10 to 1. They had lost their cannons in Tenochtitlan and had little gunpowder and only 20 horses left. However, the Tlaxcaltecs pointed UsefulNotes/HernanCortez to the Aztec commander carrying the standard and told him that if he captured it, the Aztecs would consider themselves defeated and retire, as that was how battles were decided in Mesoamerica. Cortés then led his 20 horsemen on a charge through the Aztec lines, killing the commander and capturing his standard and feathered helmet. The fact that this was the first cavalry charge ''ever'' on the American continent contributed to Cortés' victory: up to that point, the Spanish had used their horses as pack animals only and the Aztecs had no idea they could be used in war, so when the charge happened their shock was multiplied. The success allowed the Spanish and their allies to retire to Tlaxcala, where they rebuilt their forces before attacking Tenochtitlan again the next year. Right around the same time, the Aztecs were being decimated by [[ThePlague smallpox]].

** Further zig-zagged in that, even in missions where this will achieve victory, it's not always the ideal solution. Since most Fire Emblem games have a limited number of enemies to fight, and thus experience to earn, winning an early battle in ten turns by killing the enemy commander may cost you the war when you reach a later level and your units have not earned enough XP to gain a vital promotion.

* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the allies initially wanted to assassinate UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler to end the war. Then they realized that doing so would [[NiceJobBreakingitHero allow a better commander to take his place and only make things worse]], [[GeneralFailure since Hitler was a bad general and getting worse.]] They ''did'' successfully assassinate UsefulNotes/ReinhardHeydrich in 1942, as he was considered far too dangerous, such as kickstarting the Holocaust, and far too efficient at managing occupied territories for the benefit of the German war machine. [[KillThemAll The way the Nazis reacted to that]] ultimately led to further assassination attempts being called off. Still, independent of what the Allies thought, various people tried to kill Hitler - they just all failed, giving Hitler who believed himself to be ChosenByDestiny an even bigger chip on his shoulder.

* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the allies initially wanted to assassinate UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler to end the war. Then they realized that doing so would [[NiceJobBreakingitHero allow a better commander to take his place and only make things worse]], [[GeneralFailure since Hitler was a bad general and getting worse.]] They ''did'' successfully assassinate UsefulNotes/ReinhardHeydrich in 1942, as he was considered far too dangerous, such as kickstarting the Holocaust, and far too efficient at managing occupied territories for the benefit of the German war machine.