History Main / StrategyVersusTactics

* In UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the opening stages sometimes seem like a series of opportunistic attacks and desperate reactions called strategy after the fact, or not as the case may be. To some degree this is true; it is harder to develop strategy than it sounds, and the combatants were feeling each other out. As it developed the main German strategy seems to have been to expand their territory eastward. Britain's strategy was to survive and annoy Germany. Russia's was to wear Germany out by attrition until it could start attacking and roll over her (once nicknamed "the steamroller"), allowing Germany the initiative until the middle of the war. When America entered, the main strategy of the Allies was to concentrate on Germany ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_first the "Europe First" grand strategy]]); as Germany and Japan were too far away to effectively help each other[[note]]Consider trying to get a shipment from Germany to Japan by sea. If going directly from Germany, you have to exit the North Sea which was easy enough for the Royal Navy to close, and they did. No matter, for the Nazis: they controlled most of Europe, and could go from the Netherlands, France, or Italy. Except no: The fastest route from Europe to Japan goes through the Mediterranean and then the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal and the Red Sea... which means that (1) you have to get ''in'' the Mediterranean (good luck getting past British-controlled Gibraltar if your shipment is coming from the Atlantic), you then (2) have to get ''out'' of the Mediterranean, and the only exit of any use to you is the Suez Canal... which is controlled by the British. OK, forget the Suez shortcut, just do it the old fashioned way where you go around Africa. Except that doesn't work either, as you have few friendly ports where you can resupply in Africa (some of the Vichy-controlled colonies- although they didn't stay Vichy-controlled for very long- and possibly some of the Spanish ones, although probably not), so that doesn't work. This, incidentally, is one reason the Germans were so interested in gaining control of Iraq and other bits of the Middle East; send your shipment across neutral Turkey to Iraq, then go out by sea to Japan. Except no, because the Royal Navy holds the Strait of Hormuz, and also you will have no resupply between Basra and Jakarta (Japanese-held pretty early on). And don't even ''think'' about trying to get it overland: Anglo-Soviet occupied Persia, British India, and Soviet-American-backed Republican China are all in the way![[/note]], all the Allies could get a chunk of Germany; and Germany had more resources, which meant if they ended up only able to subjugate one, they could afford to think about Japan later, but not vice-versa. Meanwhile, Mussolini concentrated on tactical victories early in North Africa, trying to seize routes between Axis-friendly colonies and local states, but neglected to think about the kind of long-term, well-buffered logistics and training needed to keep the distrusting Royal and Party forces working together, well-fed, and in solid morale. When the Vichy French and Royal Marina navies started taking heavy losses, the Italians couldn't defend themselves, and the Allies rolled through their positions after some early hitches. Eventually, the Germans took over Mediterranean defense, and even that wasn't enough: the Allies could outspend them three-to-one, and had regained control of the entire Med within a year and a half after that.

* Overhaul in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' shows the issues of being a good strategist but a poor tactician. His grand plan of allowing the Yakuza (namely, his group Shie Hassaikai) to return to power in the Japanese underworld involves creating special drugs that can [[PowerNullifier nullify the quirks of those shot]]. However when the chips are finally down, Overhaul's lack of improvisation ability forces him to rely on brute force. Not to mention, his lack of short-term foresight contributes to Shie Hassaikai's demise as shown when his decision to assault the League of Villains and cow them into serving the Hassaikai as powerful minions backfires [[spoiler:as the League of Villains only feign loyalty to allow Toga & Twice into their base, giving the duo the opportunity to sabotage Shie Hassaikai during an assault by the heroes in retaliation.]]

* Overhaul in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' shows the issues of being a good strategist but a poor tactician. His grand plan of allowing the Yakuza (namely, his group Shie Hassaikai) to return to power in the Japanese underworld involves creating special drugs that can [[PowerNullifier nullify the quirks of those shot]]. However when the chips are finally down, Overhaul's lack of improvisation ability forces him to rely on brute force. Not to mention, his lack of short-term foresight contributes to Shie Hassaikai's demise as shown when his decision to assault the League of Villains and cow them into serving the Hassaikai as powerful minions backfires [[spoiler:as the League of Villains only feign loyalty to allow Toga and Twice into their base and have the duo sabotage Shie Hassaikai during an assault by heroes in retaliation.]]

* Overhaul in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' shows the issues of being a good strategist but a poor tactician. His grand plan of allowing the Yakuza (namely, his group Shie Hassaikai) to return to power in the Japanese underworld involves creating special drugs that can [[PowerNullifier nullify the quirks of those shot]]. However when the chips are finally down, Overhaul's lack of improvisation ability forces him to rely on brute force. Not to mention, his lack of short-term foresight contributes to Shie Hassaikai's demise as shown when his decision to assault the League of Villains and cow them into serving the Shie Hassaikai as powerful minions backfires [[spoiler:as the League of Villains only feign loyalty to allow Toga and Twice into their base and have the duo sabotage Shie Hassaikai during an assault by heroes in retaliation.]]

* Overhaul in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' shows the issues of being a good strategist but a poor tactician. His grand plan of allowing the Yakuza (namely, his group Shie Hassaikai) to return to power in the Japanese underworld involves creating special drugs that can [[PowerNullifier nullify the quirks of those shot]]. However when the chips are finally down, Overhaul's lack of improvisation ability forces him to rely on brute force. Not to mention, his lack of short-term foresight contributes to Shie Hassaikai's demise as shown when his decision to assault the League of Villains and cow them into serving the Shie Hassaikai as powerful minions backfires [[spoiler:as the League of Villains only feign loyalty to allow Toga and Twice into their base and inevitably betray them at the worst possible time for Shie Hassaikai, namely when heroes are assaulting their base.]]

* Overhaul in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' shows the issues of being a good strategist but a poor tactician. His grand plan of allowing the Yakuza (namely, his group Shie Hassaikai) to return to power in the Japanese underworld involves creating special drugs that can [[PowerNullifier nullify the quirks of those shot]]. However when the chips are finally down, Overhaul's lack of improvisation ability forces him to rely on brute force. Not to mention, his lack of short-term foresight contributes to Shie Hassaikai's demise as shown when his decision to assault the League of Villains and cow them into serving the Shie Hassaikai as powerful minions backfires [[spoiler:as not only do the League of Villains betray him in retaliation, their betrayal contributes to his defeat by the heroes invading his base.]]

* Overhaul in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' shows the issues of being a good strategist but a poor tactician. His grand plan of allowing the Yakuza (namely, his group Shie Hassaikai) to return to power in the Japanese underworld involves creating special drugs that can [[PowerNullifier nullify the quirks of those shot]]. However when the chips are finally down, Overhaul's lack of improvisation ability forces him to rely on brute force. Not to mention, his lack of short-term foresight contributes to Shie Hassaikai's demise as shown when his decision to assault the League of Villains and cow them into service of the Shie Hassaikai powerful minions at their disposal backfires [[spoiler:as not only do the League of Villains betray him in retaliation, their betrayal contributes to his defeat by the heroes invading his base.]]

* Overhaul in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' shows the issues of being a good strategist but a poor tactician. His grand plan of allowing the Yakuza (namely, his group Shie Hassaikai) to return to power in the Japanese underworld involves creating special drugs that can [[PowerNullifier nullify the quirks of those shot]]. However when the chips are finally down, Overhaul's lack of improvisation skills force him to rely on brute force. Not to mention, his lack of short-term foresight contributes to Shie Hassaikai's as shown when his decision to assault the League of Villains and cow them into service of the Shie Hassaikai powerful minions at their disposal backfires [[spoiler:as not only do the League of Villains betray him in retaliation, their betrayal contributes to his defeat by the heroes invading his base.]]

*** In season 18, best friends Zev & Justin were too tactical despite winning four legs. The partners have to split roadblocks (tasks for one person) equally and they failed pace themselves throughout the season. By the penultimate leg, Justin had used all of his allotment. That meant Zev, who’s slightly autistic, had to do a dancing task that was completely not in his wheelhouse. This lack of foresight was brought up by several teams and is more or less the reason they lost.

The trope often takes the form of AnAesop along the lines of "he won the battle but lost the war" (or the other way around). Related to WonTheWarLostThePeace (which is a strategic victory, but a grand-strategic defeat). Also, compare HollywoodTactics which shows unrealistic battle plans that, logically, should fail but don't. Strategy itself is often dealt with by TheStrategist who may or may not also be proficient in tactical thinking. See also WeWinBecauseYouDidnt.

* In ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', protagonist [[TheStrategist John Rumford]] expounds on these themes at length as he designs the Confederation's strategy against the Federals. Rumford emphasizes heavily that tactics and operations should serve strategy rather than the other way around, and also comments at length on how the military aspect is merely a part, and not always even the most important one, of the bigger grand-strategic picture. Especially much does he emphasize the moral level of warfare, as described by John Boyd. Though Rumford is as much a tactician as a strategist, and is shown to direct several of the critical individual battles. His doctrine on this level depends on high-risk maneuver warfare, mission-type tactics and independent initiative, and he explicitly acknowledges his indebtedness to German thinkers like von Clausewitz and Moltke for his ideas.

** Given Rome's advantages in manpower, superior land troops and naval supremacy, Carthage's defeat was only a matter of time right from the start. Hannibal's best chance was to bring war to Roman homeland and win battles over battles until Rome is brought to its knee, or rather before Carthage itself gets exhausted. He almost achieved that - a string of defeats costing as much as one fifth of total adult male population would have broken any other civilization, unfortunatly this was [[BadassArmy Rome]]. Rome's losses were ultimatly not enough to even the strategical imbalance.

** When not in periods of isolationism, the United States has been protected by the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, making strikes on the mainland logistically difficult. The only times in its history that it's been under a full-scale invasion since independence were the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812, where the British invaded using their Canadian and Caribbean colonies as bases (an advantage literally nobody else who has ever seriously threatened the security of the United States has ever had), and [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar its own Civil War]]. However these barriers also mean that foreign engagements mean sending forces tremendous distances. This has resulted in the US military focusing heavily on logistics, [[BoringButPractical the ability to get things where they need to be]]. A great example being the famous "[[KansasCityShuffle Left Hook]]" during the 1991 Gulf War, where the Iraqis were led to expect a massed amphibious operation in Kuwait, only to be met by a land invasion from Saudi Arabia. The "carrier strike group" is the ultimate expression of this mindset. An American supercarrier with an escort consisting of a cruisers, destroyers, and submarines can bring the military power of the United States to almost anywhere in the world, able to defend the position while raining down missiles and deploying an extensive airforce. Combined with a tremendous economy and a vast pool of technological resources this has made the United States the world's defacto superpower. Ironically the biggest problem the US has faced recently is guerrilla forces that drag out conflicts by avoiding direct confrontation, exactly the strategy that won the United States its independence. The problem is not so much the guerilla tactics as it is that the only real counter is devastating large areas of land. Perfectly possible for the US, but the American culture frowns greatly on that. Fortunately, eyes in the sky and skill of ambushed soldiers to butcher their attackers makes guerilla warfare relatively ineffective against American forces. Attackers take far greater casualties than the Americans and cannot sustain such operations indefinitely. Eventually, the guerillas run out of people whereas the Americans graduate more recruits per-year than the guerillas kill. However, the US does tend to run out of ''political will'' to fight certain wars indefinitely, especially if the goals are unclear and no progress appears to be made. This is ironically sometimes strengthened by the same wide seas that render it so difficult to assault (a common refrain if an overseas (i.e. nearly every single one) war drags on too long is "why are we wasting troops in places so far away from America?"). After all, if you can't see how people suffer under dictorial regimes and how your aid is helping the civilians there, then [[BystanderSyndrome how can you feel empathy for them?]]

* In ''LightNovel/YoujoSenki'', Tanya is the only Imperial officer with a firm grasp of strategic and operational concepts, due to having originally been a modern Japanese salaryman. Unfortunately, her job is leading a special aerial strike unit, and her tactical victories are often meaningless on a larger scale because the General Staff have no clue what they're doing on a strategic level, leading to her being ordered to stand down when she wanted to attack and [[spoiler: prevent the surviving soldiers of the Republic from retreating under an armistice to continue the war]]. [[spoiler: In the end, she sees that on a grand-strategic level, the Empire cannot possibly win the war, and saves the Empire through a ruthless strategy of scorched-earth tactics and kamikaze attacks on nearby countries, leading to the enemy nations winning a PyrrhicVictory over the Empire that allows the Empire to conditionally surrender and survive with its territory intact.]]

* Pyrrhus of Epirus, second cousin of Alexander the Great, was well-known for winning many of his battle against Rome. The problem was, though, that the amount of casualties he was suffering was weakening his army too much. It was clear to him that if he kept losing as many fighting men as he was, then it would be impossible for him to carry out his grand strategy and win the war. Thus, the term PyrrhicVictory was coined is his "honor". Though this is slightly unfair to him as even though he had to abandon Rome and Sicily, that period of time was a large free-for-all. Sicily at the time was being riled up by the Carthaginians and the Punic War was only a few years away. The fact that Epirus survived conflicts with Rome, Carthage, and Sparta during his rein speaks wonders for his ability to lead. In fact, Hannibal himself admired him as the ''second'' best military commander of the age just behind Alexander the Great. Of course, Hannibal himself was a brilliant tactician, but an awful grand strategist, so that can be taken with a just a bit of salt. As such, he was probably within the top ten commanders of that time period.

** A classic example is Russia, a nation which spans half the globe. Due to its enormous landmass, invaders need to be incredibly well-stocked as they push deeper and deeper into Russian territory. Meanwhile, Russians simply withdraw ahead of advancing invaders, [[SaltTheEarth destroying any infrastructure that will be useful to the oncoming armies]], waiting for them to become weak and vulnerable to counterattack, especially during the brutal winters. While it worked flawlessly against Napoleon, this strategy only half-worked against the Wehrmacht. Unable to simply surrender the Ukraine, the Baltic states, or Leningrad due to their new industrial and supply importance, millions of Russian troops were killed or forced to surrender. Though Operation Barbarossa failed to decisively defeat the Russians in a single campaign, the Germans remained in control of much of Western Russia for the next two years. During the Cold War, Russian strategy shifted to having satellite states in Eastern Europe that were well-armed and would take the blows any invader from the West would send. Russian tactics could be very mixed. They are often stereotyped as WeHaveReserves, but while Russia has seldom been shy about using this, they have tended to be more sophisticated than all that. They have often had armies of extremely mixed quality, some being quite crude tactically and led by incompetent officers, and others as good as the best any other country can field. However though they had weaknesses they had strengths including a large supply of manpower that grew up [[MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong in harsh conditions.]] The flip side is that, despite the enormous landmass, the majority of the population is concentrated in the western, or European, area of the country, and they are not as easy to move as armies. In both UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Russia was forced to resort to guerilla warfare on a large scale while building up its forces, and the enemies long supply lines made them very vulnerable to partisans. Russia also had a large supply of cavalry dating from the steppe warfare traditions, and while it was very weak at sea its navy has a strong heritage of riverine and coastwise combined operations with the Army which was noticeable in the Turkish wars and in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The tactics of the Red Army in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII could be odd by Western European standards, but they were often very ingenious making clever use of nature and elaborate deception operations. By the last stages of the war they had enough tanks to engage in blitzkriegs in the German style and while these weren't usually carried out with the German smoothness they had their own touches like support from aforesaid guerillas and fresh-water vessels and a large supply of horse cavalry which they maintained long after the other allies had phased it out.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' has the tactician versus strategist conflict at its very core. The MagnificentBastard Lelouch is plotting the downfall of Britannia, but is frequently foiled at individual engagements by the ace pilot, Suzaku. Lelouch mentions the conflict by name during his first internal meltdown, expressing anger that the ace pilot made him lose the battle and thus made him delay the next steps of his larger strategy. Note that Suzaku himself is no great tactician, he's simply so skilled a warrior (and his mech so powerful) that his presence at a battle upsets considerations of mere tactics.

** Discussed in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' with Bolin and Asami's differing philosophies on [[Variantchess Pai Sho]]. Bolin plays "street Pai Sho", a fast paced game of actions and reaction between players (tactics); while Asami plays classical Pai Sho, slowly and carefully thinking through very move and their possible implications (strategy). She wins almost every game they play because [[SmartPeoplePlayChess she's thinking ahead]] and he's just responding to her last move.

** Given Rome's advantages in manpower, superior land troops and naval supremacy, Carthage's defeat was only a matter of time right from the start. Hannibal's best chance was to bring war to Roman homeland and win battles over battles until Rome is brought to its knee, or rather before Carthage itself gets exhausted. He almost achieved that - a string of defeats costing as much as one fifth of total adult male population should have broken any other civilization. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to even the strategical imbalance.

Or, according to 19th/20th century Anglo-American understandings of warfare:

* Strategy is the goal you want to achieve in the long-term; the "What" you want to accomplish.
* Tactics is the methods used to try to achieve short-term goals that are ''supposed'' to help achieve the overall strategical goal; the "How" you use to accomplish it.

** Sokka is TheStrategist, while Zuko is the tactician. Sokka is heavily organised and is able to come up with detailed and effective strategies, while Zuko's plans generally involve him infiltrating a location alone, then responding to the situation on the ground as needed until he reaches the objective. That said, Zuko has a fatal flaw as a tactician: he'll come up with a clever way to get in and achieve his immediate objective, but not how to get out afterwards or exploit whatever gains he made.

* In UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar the Tet Offensive was a textbook example of a tactical disaster which was still a strategic victory. The attack failed all of its objectives, and the Viet Cong were essentially ended as an independent force. However the news broadcasts of the battles shattered the Americans' already faltering political will, leading to American troop withdrawal and ultimately a Northern victory.

* ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'': Stanley the Tool is a genius when it comes to battle. He is an expert fighter (quite possibly the most powerful individual fighter in the world, especially with his trademark dwagonriders blitzes) and he rose from the rank of piker to Overlord of his side. However, he is not a strategist and, though he had success in the short-term, he failed to have a definitive grand strategy and he was very close to being killed by his enemies. That is until [[TheStrategist Parson]] was summoned.

* The idea of Thermopylae was to delay the Persian army's advance into Greece for as long as possible, until the city states could raise their own levies, but because the battle only lasted 3 days, it was a strategic defeat for the Greeks who had intended to hold out for longer. However, an unintended consequence of the early loss was that the Greek fleet retreated from the simultaneous sea battle of Artemisium instead of fighting to the death (because their strategy depended on holding both points). This led to the Persian fleet growing overconfident, overextending themselves, and suffering a devastating defeat against the surviving Greek fleet at the Battle of Salamis weeks later. This ultimately cost the Persians the war by forcing their fleet to withdraw to Persia and destroying their army's supply lines, effectively showing just how well long-term planning and war go together (i.e. not at all).

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, the [[GreatOffscreenWar Great War]] set between ''[[Videogame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' and ''[[Videogame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' boiled down to this when the [[AntiHumanAlliance Aldmeri Dominion]] invaded the Empire. The Dominion caught the Empire by surprise and cut off many southern cities, and achieved initial goals and many tactical victories. Then, seeing the Empire vulnerable, they overextended themselves and tried to capture the Imperial City. The Emperor, thinking long-term, chose to withdraw from the City with most of his forces and left only a single Legion to defend it. The Dominion occupied it only after a protected siege, which bought the Emperor valuable time while continuing to drain Dominion resources. However, with their forces stretched out, exhausted, and fewer in number than the Imperial forces, the Dominion armies were vulnerable when the Empire regrouped and gathered fresh reinforcements from surrounding provinces (particularly Skyrim) untouched by the invasion. The Empire launched a massive, well-coordinated maneuver with three fresh armies to surround the Imperial City, cut off the main Dominion army, and crushed it. However, feeling that his armies were strained and fearing a PyrrhicVictory, the Emperor notably did not counterattack into Dominion territory. The Dominion offered the White-Gold Concordat, a truce with terms heavily favorable to the Dominion, which the Emperor accepted. Included was the ceding of large tracts of Hammerfell to the Dominion, which immediately caused Hammerfell to secede from the Empire, as well as the banning of [[DeityOfHumanOrigin Talos]] worship, which was a major factor in causing Skyrim to erupt into CivilWar. While the Dominion's initial strategy failed, they were still able to achieve stripping two more provinces away from the [[VestigialEmpire crumbling Empire]], weakening them for the inevitable second Great War.

* In ''LightNovel/YoujoSenki'', Tanya is the only Imperial officer with a firm grasp of strategic and operational concepts, due to having originally been a modern Japanese salaryman. Unfortunately, her job is leading a special aerial strike unit, and her tactical victories are often meaningless on a larger scale because the General Staff have no clue what they're doing on a strategic level, leading to her being ordered to stand down when she wanted to attack and [[spoiler: prevent the surviving soldiers of the Republic from retreating under an armistice to continue the war]]. [[spoiler: In the end, she saves the Empire through a ruthless grand strategy of scorched-earth tactics and kamikaze attacks on nearby countries, leading to the enemy nations winning a PyrrhicVictory over the Empire that allows the Empire to conditionally surrender and survive with its territory intact.]]