History Main / VictoryThroughIntimidation

** Several generals became so [[TheDreaded feared]] that their arrival alone was enough to make their enemies flee. For example, when the warlord Gongsun Yuan (a nominal vassal of the Wei Empire) began courting support from Sun Quan of Wu, Emperor Cao Rui of Wei decided he needed to be dealt with. Sima Yi was given the job following the failure of the first invasion. Gongsun was terrified when he heard of Sima's approach, but was confident that with his defenses and the aid of a large river as a barrier, he could hold. When he learned Sima Yi had somehow circumvented the river and his defenses, he immediately tried to surrender. Sima refused and laid siege to his capital, and then executed him before exterminating his entire clan.

Note that, from a martial ethics perspective, it is an extremely shameful thing for this to happen, as it means that every single one of the (non-)attackers has shown cowardice in front of his comrades. Samurai in particular were specifically conditioned to enter battle with an "I am already dead" mindset, and a strong tendency for sacrifice in the name of the group. In some historical cases individuals or even whole combat units would be faced with unemployment, social ostracism, imprisonment, or even death as punishment for refusing to fight, consequences which were designed to make death in battle seem preferable by comparison.

If done skillfully, [[{{Fandom}} some fans]] find these to be SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments.

* The famous 'Attack of the Dead Men', a battle of ''UsefulNotes/WorldWarI'' in which the Germans bombarded the Russians with poison gas at Osoweic Fortress and rolled in, expecting all of their opposition to be dead already. They were met with a countercharge of the remaining Russian defenders, covered in chemical burns and coughing up chunks of their own lungs. Faced with what they were certain were the living dead, the Germans fled in terror, running smack into their own c-wire traps, to be finished off by the remaining Russian machine-gunners.

[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Anyone else want to give examples?]]

* ''TableTopGame/Warhammer40K'': The Night Lords are masters of this: such was their capacity for cruelty and psychological warfare that mere rumors of them were usually enough to quell rebellious worlds. Definitely helped by them being [[SuperSoldiers Astartes]] who could cleanse planets on their own if anyone was stupid enough to call their bluff. After falling to Chaos they only became crueler and more terrifying, to the point that one of their campaigns of intimidation ended with a third of the hive city they were targeting dead from fear-induced nervous shutdown. ''Before they even landed..'' Nothing says 'Victory Through Intimidation' than being able to ''literally scare people to death''.

* ''Film/TheFifthElement''
--> "Anyone else want to negotiate?" - Korben Dallas, after some AggressiveNegotiations.

* In the second major arc of ''Manga/VinlandSaga'', Canute uses this strategy to break the English lords attempting to resist the Danish occupation of England. He goes into the English kingdom of Mercia, then has large numbers of English lords dragged outside so he can show them how as far as the eye can see he has his men ready [[TheGreatFire to burn the entire country and everyone in it to ash]] unless the lords stop supporting the English king. If they turn on and assassinate their own king, Canute will spare them... and if not, one night he'll come back without warning and have his men actually start the fires. It works. A Danish viking can't help but compare Canute's methods to his father, King Sweyn, who attempted a traditional military conquest and spent ten years battering and gradually beating down the English, only for them to rise again the moment that Sweyn died. By comparison, in less than three years Canute has terrified the English lords to such an extent that they've assassinated two would-be English kings and voluntarily made Canute the ''bretwalda'', the High King of England.

* This trope is discussed and explicitly defied on ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' during the retelling of the Battle Of Yonkers. In a nutshell: a veteran of the battle notes that actual human warfare is about breaking the other side's will to fight, whether that's through losses, intimidation, etc. At Yonkers, however, they learned that this is notthe case when fighting zombies; exposure to the total might of the United States military would make even the most fanatical of human soldiers hesitate (at least), but the zombies are TooDumbToFool, so when they see a massive military blockade all they see is a smorgasbord of human flesh just standing there ready to be eaten, [[FearlessUndead and march towards it totally uncaring about the gunfire and explosions going off all around them]] and the massive casualties the US Army is racking up. If anything, [[EpicFail the zombies ended up]] [[RussianReversal intimidating the soldiers instead]].

* The famous 'Attack of the Dead Men', a battle of ''UsefulNotes/WorldWarI'' in which the Germans bombarded the Russians with poison gas at Osoweic Fortress and rolled in, expecting all of their opposition to be dead already. They were met with a countercharge of the remaining Russian defenders, covered in chemical burns and coughing up chunks of their own lungs. Faced with what they were certain were the living dead, the Germans fled in terror, running smack into their own c-wire traps, to be finished off by the remaining Russian machinegunners.

* In ''Literature/WatchersOfTheThrone'', Shield Captain Valerian at one point defuses a burgeoning riot by ordering the government forces not to fire and simply walking out to the plaza where the mob is gathering. Faced with a giant SuperSoldier dressed head to toe in ornate golden armor and carrying a BladeOnAStick more than three times the size of a regular human, the mob parts and lets him reach their leader without any issues; in fact, some even start to kowtow to him.

->''"Come on, look at me! No plan, no backup, no weapons worth a damn, oh, and something else I don't have: anything to lose! So, if you're sitting up there in your silly little space ships with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who's standing in your way! Remember every black day I ever stopped you, and then, ''and then'', do the smart thing! ''[{{beat}}]'' Let somebody else try first."''
-->-- '''The Doctor''', ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]]

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Despite being [[FightingClown best most known for his quips]], Spidey can be downright [[BewareTheNiceOnes scary]] when he wants to be, and all of New York's criminals have learned that when Spider-man stops joking and goes quiet, it's a ''very'' bad sign. So when Spidey confronts Mysterio and his henchman after a robbery and [[OOCISSeriousBusiness doesn't say a word throughout the entire encounter despite their goading]], it freaks them out so much that they surrender without a fight. After they're been arrested, we learn why Spidey was so quiet: [[spoiler: he had [[BaitAndSwitch come down with laryngitis]] and [[PlayedForLaughs lost his voice]]]].

* Fights between animals often involve a lot of posing, roaring, mock fighting, and other forms of threat display before any actual attacks are launched, which may be enough for one animal to earn a victory without an actual dangerous fight. Thanks to this, a smaller critter, if sufficiently desperate, may even be able to scare off a larger animal if it can convince its opponent that they'll get a PyrrhicVictory at best if they retaliate. Natural selection also encourages animals of the same species to settle their disputes with the leats bloody , since pack members maiming or killing each other is obviously harmful to the health of the species as a whole.

* ''TableTopGame/Warhammer40K'': The Night Lords are masters of this: such was their capacity for cruelty and psychological warfare that mere rumors of them were usually enough to quell rebellious worlds. Definitely helped by them being [[SuperSoldiers Astartes]] who could cleanse planets on their own if anyone was stupid enough to call their bluff. After falling to Chaos they only became crueler and more terrifying, to the point that one of their campaigns of intimidation ended with a third of the hive city they were targeting dead from fear-induced nervous shutdown. ''BEFORE THEY EVEN LANDED.'' Nothing says 'Victory Through Intimidation' than being able to ''literally scare people to death''.

'''Westley:''' "It's possible, pig. I might be bluffing. It's conceivable, you miserable, vomitous mass, I'm only lying her because I lack the strength to stand. Then again, perhaps I have the strength after all." *stands up and [[Sword Pointing points sword at Humperdinck* "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Drop. Your. Sword.]]"

'''Westley:''' "It's possible, pig. I might be bluffing. It's conceivable, you miserable, vomitous mass, I'm only lying her because I lack the strength to stand. Then again, perhaps I have the strength after all." *stands up and [[Sword Pointing points sword at Humperdinck* "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Drop. Your. Sword."

* Manga/ZatchBell: This is how Zofis is defeated. Zofis refuses to erase the memories of Sherry's best friend that he had been brainwashing so that the guilt of her actions [[DrivenToSuicide would drive her to kill herself]]. Brago takes matters into his own hands and threatens to make Zofis' life a living hell when they return to the Demon World. Being the DirtyCoward that he is, Zofis is scared shitless and ultimately gives in to the intimidation

* Manga/GashBell: This is how Zofis is defeated. Zofis refuses to erase the memories of Sherry's best friend that he had been brainwashing so that the guilt of her actions [[DrivenToSuicide would drive her to kill herself]]. Brago takes matters into his own hands and threatens to make Zofis' life a living hell when they return to the Demon World. Being the DirtyCoward that he is, Zofis is scared shitless and ultimately gives in to the intimidation

Obviously, you might run into problems if you try this tactic against an opponent who’s likely to call your bluff. Maybe every member of the enemy group is a {{Determinator}} or fanatic. Maybe they are TooDumbToFool, and just want to knock your head off. Or maybe they [[GoneHorriblyRight believe you]] [[BluffWorkedTooWell about what you can do to them]], but [[CorneredRattlesnake figuring that they are screwed no matter what]], they [[GodzillaThreshold may as well take their chances]] and try to [[TakingYouWithMe go down swinging]].

* Almost every land battle ever fought is a partial example of this. "Demoralization" (scaring the heck out of them, to put it roughly) does more damage to an army than physical casualties and much of land war is a contest in intimidation. Sea battles are different because it is less easy to run away at sea. At the same time sea battles can also be victories of intimidation.
** Smart ''pirates'', usually [[PragmaticVillainy more interested in loot and profit than in a bloody battle]], would naturally try for this. In fact, this is reportedly Blackbeard's ENTIRE M.O., cultivating stories and creating an absolutely demonic persona which involved tying cannon fuse into his hair and beard and lighting it so that smoke would come off him while he threatened and extorted people to give the impression that he was the Devil himself despite there being no records of him murdering or even harming ''any'' of the hostages he ever took. Considering his reputation as ''the'' pirate through to the present-day, it worked.

* Fights between animals often involve a lot of posing, roaring, mock fighting and other forms of threat display before any actual attacks are launched, which may be enough for one animal to earn a victory without an actual dangerous fight. Thanks to this, a smaller critter, if sufficiently desperate, may even be able to scare off a larger animal if it can convince its opponent that they'll get a PyrrhicVictory at best if they retaliate. This especially applies to fights between animals of the same species, since pack members maiming or killing each other is obviously harmful to the health of the species as a whole.
* The famous 'Attack of the Dead Men', a battle of ''UsefulNotes/WorldWarI'' in which the Germans bombarded the Russians with poison gas at Osoweic Fortress and rolled in, expecting their opposition all dead. They were met with a countercharge of the remaining Russian defenders, covered in chemical burns and coughing up chunks of their own lungs. Faced with what they were certain were the living dead, the Germans fled in terror, running smack into their own c-wire traps, to be finished off by the remaining Russian machinegunners.