Line #55 Main/PaddedSumoGameplay


1	%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1603873880055774800
2	%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to discuss a new image.
3	%%
4	In some games, it's nearly impossible to inflict lasting damage, resulting in combat practically just being mutual CherryTapping minus the humiliation. Actual skill is most likely still involved, but it will be more about intelligence (MinMaxing, planning ahead) than agility (Dodging, improvising).
5
6	This trope can happen due to various reasons: Higher defensive stats than offensive ones, an abundance of cheap healing supplies, useful healing/protection moves, combos or anything else capable of causing substantial damage being too unsafe to use, et cetera.
7
8	This trope doesn't ''have'' to be [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools a bad thing]]. Lengthy battles tend to feel more epic than short ones, and some gamers enjoy calculating the best possible tactics and [[EliteTweak perfecting them]].
9
10	Compare DamageSpongeBoss, usually referred to as "bullet sponges" in shooters. Also compare HealingLoop, where damage isn't low, but either party heals off most of the damage dealt, leading to fights just as drawn out. Contrast the inversion, RocketTagGameplay, which is a case of mutually ineffective defenses instead of mutually ineffective methods of attack as this trope.
11
12	----
13	!!Examples:
14	[[foldercontrol]]
15
16	[[folder:Adventure]]
17	* Exaggerated and parodied in the "[[Franchise/MortalKombat Monkey Kombat]]" FinalBoss battle in ''VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland''. Both fighters regenerate health too fast to kill each other through standard means, [[PuzzleBoss so you need to find an alternate way of winning]]. It is an AdventureGame, after all.
18	[[/folder]]
19
20	[[folder:Fighting Games]]
21	* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Exdeath]] mirror matches in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' are an extreme example of this. Exdeath is a character built entirely around counter moves, but his non-counter moves are significantly weaker and slower. In the case of Exdeath vs. Exdeath, whoever throws out a move is much more likely to be at a ''disadvantage'', and it turns into a game of doing random, barely damaging things until someone chokes enough times. Exdeath mirror matches aren't as agonizing in ''Duodecim'', where it becomes more of a pure mindgame match of baiting out moves to cancel into a counter from each other.
22	* In ''Facebreaker'', stamina recovers incredibly fast, to the point where unless one side connects with a Facebreaker, the fight's almost always going to sudden death. A normal KO is next to impossible unless you absolutely walk all over your opponent.
23	* ''VideoGame/SumotoriDreams''. It's impossible to harm the opponent in any other way but pushing him off the platform. Considering the way the game's RagdollPhysics are rigged, much of the challenge is not falling off yourself while you're trying to do this.
24	* The later games in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series can be set up like this in custom fights: High-gravity, metal battles will typically result in everyone involved hitting several hundred damage at ''least'' before a KO is remotely feasible. This is also a lot of the fame and infamy behind maps like Hyrule Temple; the stage is so gigantic that even a Home-Run Bat isn't going to guarantee a KO unless used near the edge. The enclosed cave area near the bottom of the stage is ''very'' difficult to get knocked out of, leading to it being nicknamed "Hyrule Fight Club."
25	* Some stages in ''VideoGame/CartoonNetworkPunchTimeExplosion'' are set up for very defensive gameplay. Like with ''Smash Bros.'', characters can only be knocked out by RingOut. However, stages like [[WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}} Mung Daal's Kitchen]] are mostly enclosed, with a few small openings on the sides. Gameplay then becomes finding a way to line up an attack such that opponents are launched through these gaps while avoiding getting lined up by your opponents, with most such attempts failing.
26	* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken'' was pretty infamous for this at launch, to the point of receiving the derisive nickname ''Street Fighter X Time Out''. Most combos did very little damage, most combos that did do good damage were much easier to stop than they were to execute, and fighters regained health extremely quickly when switched out. This resulted in a game where the most common strategy by far was to get a life lead on the opponent, then run out the clock.
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:First-Person Shooter]]
30	* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', by the standards of many FPS games. It takes several hits or prolonged fire from most infantry weapons to kill an opponent. And any opponent who isn't finished off can escape and take cover and their hitpoints will quickly be restored to maximum thanks to [[DeflectorShields regenerating energy shields]].
31	* The ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series: It takes several hits or prolonged fire from most infantry weapons to kill an opponent. And any opponent who isn't finished off can escape and take cover and their hitpoints will quickly be restored to maximum thanks to [[DeflectorShields regenerating energy shields]]. Add in RPGElements.
32	* ''Videogame/PlanetSide 1'' had enormously long time-to-kills on almost all its weapons; bar a point blank Jackhammer triple-blast, no infantry weapon could reliably kill a player in under a second. When combined with the game's awful netcode (where rapid strafing could cause TeleportSpam and desync), it wasn't uncommon for two soldiers with assault rifles to have to dump the majority of their magazine to kill the other. Vehicles were extremely durable - even the humble ATV could survive quite a lot of fire. The sequel, on the other hand, uses RocketTagGameplay.
33	* The infamous "Goats" team composition in ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'', consisting of three tank heroes and three support heroes. By stacking up the shields of the tanks and using the healing of the supports to keep the tanks on their feet, they could out-grind any team that focused on damage or picking off targets. The easiest counter to Goats when it was played well was another Goats team, which resulted in two teams that both lacked much in the way of damage but had multiple layers of defense and health gain. This structure became infamously dominant, which forced Blizzard to institute a limit where teams had to run two of each category of hero, and for the update to ''Overwatch II'', they outright limited tanks to one per team.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:MMORPG]]
37	* ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' was sometimes disparagingly referred to as "Heal Wars," as all classes had ways to heal themselves and [=PvP=] was often a matter of trying to out-DPS your opponent's heals. The alternative was "3, 2, 1, SPIKE!", where all the damage-dealers on a team would suddenly switch damage to a new, single target and try to burst them down before the enemy Monk could catch up. If you could actually burst down the ''Monk'' this way, usually the entire team would fold like damp cardboard without the heals propping them up.
38	* ''VideoGame/MapleStory'' can have this, if you're trying to solo bosses at your level. It's usually expected that you would bring a party of about 20-30 levels above the recommended. If not, some bosses take minimal damage, and heal periodically, making battles drag on and on (if they're doable at all).
39	** The Boss tends to be the padded sumo wrestler. Player Characters usually require lots and lots of endgame potions and fast reflexes and/or a macro that somehow managed to escape the hack detection.
40	* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has this in spades in one-on-one [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]]. Every healer class in adequate [=PvP=] gear is capable of outhealing any damage dealt by a damage-dealing class in a matter of several seconds while their offensive abilities are rather unimpressive. Tanks have multiple abilities to absorb and negate damage, while damage-dealing classes have higher than average amount of escape abilities. Nearly all tanks and damage-dealers may regenerate their health to some extent, and may often stall matches by being efficient at running away or incapacitating the enemy while their health goes up. While one-on-one duels are not something the game is balanced around, duels occur often between sole survivors at the end of the arena match, making the winner typically the one who made the least mistakes. However, the expansion ''Wrath of the Lich King'' was well known for its RocketTagGameplay.
41	* Making this happen was at one point a popular strategy for players of ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing''; it was called Plinking. Jack up the monster level as high as you can, and also increase your Moxie. You can only get hit with criticals, meanwhile you are slowly whittling down their health turn after turn. In the end, you win, and all of that monster level translates into huge stat boosts for you. This strategy became less feasible with the addition of thirty-turn time limits to fights; on the thirty-first turn, the fight automatically ends in a loss.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:MOBA]]
45	* This was one of the main reproaches given to ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'' in its earliest stages of development, when late-game teamfights would last ridiculously long due to overall poor damage outputs relatively to health pools. It got much better though.
46	* Referred to as the "Wet Noodle Fight" by ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' casters when two tanks go at it in the mid/lategame. They can spend fully 30 seconds whacking at each other until [[BigDamnHeroes help shows up]] or one of them [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere gets bored and leaves.]] How prevalent this trope is varies depending on the current meta, where it would be more common in a "tank meta". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArhsbA6xt88 An example of a 2.5-minute fight before someone else showed up.]]
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:RPG]]
50	* In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' this becomes the norm for combat at the highest levels, as damage caps at a certain point but HP keeps getting higher and higher, which becomes more extreme if the potential 85% damage reduction from armor is brought in. Can be Subverted if you resort to one of a few Game Breakers, though.
51	* A good example of this is ''[[VideoGame/BaldursGate Baldur's Gate]]'', where (especially early on) it's common for opponents to stand around missing each other for round after round, the victor ultimately defeating their opponent after landing two or three hits.
52	* ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'':
53	** In the late game of ''VideoGame/Fallout1'' and ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', you will be very heavily armoured, and you will encounter opponents with power armor. Both of you will be almost incapable of doing even a single point of damage except in critical blows, so combat basically boils down to taking the Slayer (turn every melee attack into an automatic crit) or Sniper (give each ranged attack a chance to crit equal to 10 times your luck score) and make aimed shots at an opponent's [[EyeScream eyes]], [[GroinAttack groin]], or other body part to blow through their armor and cripple them. Your only other option is to switch over to single-shot, high-powered energy weapons (and to a lesser degree rocket launchers), which would actually deal real damage through armor. It's likely for this reason that when ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]'' re-introduced damage threshold it also [[ScratchDamage kept armor from reducing more than 4/5 of the damage an attack can do.]]
54	** While it is possible to use stealth or cover in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', the game's [[MoneyForNothing economy]] makes [[HealingPotion stimpak]] spamming a much easier tactic. In particular, many of the added enemies in the DownloadableContent have pointlessly high amounts of HP and qualify as DemonicSpiders for most of the game due to the fact that they get damage bonuses with the weapons they use and [[MadeOfIron being as tough as nails coated with more nails]], as part of a failed attempt to balance them towards end-game characters who are putting off replaying the finale to screw around in new locations rather than new characters who are check out the new content as they re-explore the original wasteland. By the time you hit the {{cap}} at level 30, they will not individually be threats to you, but they ''will'' take forever and a day to kill, even with your InfinityPlusOneSword.
55	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'' has this toward the end. The final boss fight can take HOURS, even if you're well prepared.
56	* In ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'', due to the increasing health and defense of certain types of enemies, it can actually be faster to have your entire party charge up the spirit gauge in order to use the full party's ultimate attack, Prophecy ([[NoKillLikeOverkill which drops a freaking moon on their heads]]) anytime you come across one such foe.
57	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''
58	** Pretty easy to do with two stall-heavy Mons, or if the battle has been going on for a while and Mons only have Struggle as their move left. Reaches ridiculous levels in [[GameBreaker Wobbuffet vs. Wobbuffet]] battles, where due to a lack of actual attacks beyond counterattacks means that they can only hit with Struggle, and their high HP (and very, very low attack power) means that winning with that will take a long, long time. And heaven help you if you both have Leftovers attached, which will easily heal more HP than Struggle will hurt you for...
59	** The Struggle attack now deals 25% damage to its user (when it does connect). Thus, in a Wobbuffet vs. Wobbuffet battle, the winner is the last one to strike.
60	*** The same generation also allowed mons with [[YouWillNotEvadeMe Shadow Tag]] to switch out against other mons with Shadow Tag, and switching into Wobbuffet is generally safe (Wobbuffet cannot damage you unless you hit it first), so a Wobbuffet vs. Wobbuffet matchup will quickly end with one or both Wobbuffets being withdrawn in favor of mons with much greater offenses.
61	** The "Ubers" metagame in Generation I, where Mewtwo and Mew are legal. One would likely be confused as to how a metagame where two of the most unbalanced Legendaries in the series are on every team could fit this trope--however, in Generation I, Psychic resisted itself and had no significant weaknesses, and about 2/3 of all teams are going to be dedicated to Psychics or mega-bulky types like Chansey and Snorlax. Additionally, both Mewtwo and Mew have access to great recovery moves in the form of Recover and Softboiled, so they can stall damage very easily. This means that battles typically come down to stalling until one Mewtwo runs out of PP or gets hit by a lucky freeze.
62	** The Generation II metagame has a reputation for looking like this, and not for no reason. Nearly all the top-ranked Pokémon are incredibly bulky, which is furthered by the stat system at the time allowing Pokémon to max out all their stats, the Leftovers item grants slow regeneration and sees nigh-universal use, the Rest/Sleep Talk combo is at its height, due to the fact that Sleep Talk can roll Rest to fully heal the user, and some of the biggest offensive tools of the prior generation (mainly critical hits and Hyper Beam) were nerfed. Though offensive play is certainly common, it's far slower-paced than in other generations, and it's quite telling that the most notable strategies for damage rely on using [[TakingYouWithMe Self-Destruct or Explosion]], as they're some of the few ways to quickly break an opponent's defenses. Part of the reason the famously powerful Snorlax remains legal is a belief that, were it not for Snorlax's presence and insane offensive potential, then the game would lose the one thing keeping it from being an eternal stallfest. This was significantly lessened with the third-generation games, which retooled the stat gain system to force Pokémon to specialize, added powerful offense-boosting items like the Choice Band or moves like Dragon Dance and Calm Mind, and nerfed some of the more annoying stall strategies (namely, Resttalk).
63	** Single battles in Pokémon games by high-level opponents can begin like this relative to the other types (double, triple, and rotation battles), because a lot of turns are spent switching to Pokémon who will resist the opponent's attacks. The opponent, in response, will switch to a Pokémon who will resist your attacks. Throw in moves that heal like Recover, Leech Seed, Drain Punch, and Wish; and moves meant to cause opponents to lose turns like Swagger (confusion), Thunder Wave (paralysis), Air Slash (flinch), and Spore (sleep), and turn after turn can happen with very little happening. It changes once enough Pokémon have been knocked out, however, as the players' options on switching become more limited.
64	** High-level play in ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'' finds itself in this category due to the very large boosts to HP, Defense, and Special Defense via the Candy mechanic. Some Pokémon take so little damage from attacks that they're weakened more by Toxic-based Poison and [[FixedDamageAttack fixed-HP]] moves like Seismic Toss than regular attacks.
65	* The first of the Four Generals chapters in ''VideoGame/SailorMoonAnotherStory'' is a ''painful'' example, where you play as a solo Sailor Mercury, a healer with only one [[CherryTapping incredibly weak attack]], and fight a boss as weak as you are with gobs of HP. Unless you've searched the level ''carefully'' for some hidden equipment the fight is close to unwinnable, and even if you have it's still interminable.
66	* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''[='=]s Command Synergy Battle system revolves around [[SubvertedTrope subverting]] this trope. At base damage, normal attacks are the equivalent to chucking a grain of sand at a pyramid, even against normal encounter enemies. However, elemental attacks raise the enemy's chain gauge, which is a straight multiplier of how much damage you're dealing that starts at 100%. Raising the gauge high enough on most enemies will inflict Stagger, which gives the gauge an immediate +100% and allows half of your characters to knock them into the air for complete incapacitation. A Staggered enemy's chain gauge slowly decreases, and once it's about to expire a character in the right role can hit them for massive damage.
67	* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'': A skillful player falls into this during [[DownloadableContent Lightning's Story: Requiem of the Goddess]] at lower levels. The story consists of Lightning fighting against Caius, with a second fight against Chaos Bahamut if the player does well enough. Both of them are [[MirrorBoss using a variation on the Paradigm system]]. Caius has access to Commando (powerful but telegraphed attacks), Ravager (long strings of weak hits), and Healer ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin HP restoration]] and buffing) stances. Lightning starts with access to Paladin (main damage-dealing), Shaman and Mage (chain-building), and Knight (passive damage reduction and an ability with which to NoSell everything) roles. Thus, winning the battle and therefore maximizing your CP with which to level-up consists of switching to Knight whenever he starts attacking/gets ready to attack, minimizing your HP loss, maintaining/building his chain gauge at every scarce opportunity, and hoping he only switches to Healer infrequently. As you level up, the fight gradually drifts away from this trope, with Lightning acquiring the Conjurer (buffing) and Sorcerer (debuffing) roles; Chaos Bahamut, meanwhile, is a straight DamageSpongeBoss, having much more HP but no healing and the power to nearly one-shot a low-level Lightning in any role but Knight.
68	* ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy 3'' had this problem in the late-game. Your characters had enough defensive and healing abilities that getting wiped out was unlikely. But the bosses had so much HP...
69	* The FIRST boss of ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' can be this, especially in Hard Mode. You have only two party members and only the freelancer job, and - unless you ground your levels - probably only have the Freelancer's healing ability on one of them. The boss is a DualBoss, and one of them is explicitly a healer. The fight can easily go back and forth as you attack and heal, though it does a good job of teaching you the importance of the Brave and Default system: Knowing to lessen the amount of healing you need to do by Defaulting and maximizing damage by Braving. If you try to ShootTheMedicFirst you need to have perfect timing of when to Brave otherwise it just goes back and forth with healing (The player's healing ability is no cost, and bosses have infinite MP). Trying to kill the muscle first can actually be easier because he has the tendency to blow himself up when his HP is low, but that does absolutely nothing about the healer's ability to heal themselves.
70	* Some games in the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'' feature an item called the All-Divide, which halves both the damage the player takes and the damage the opponent takes. Since you can carry a massive supply of heal and TP restoring items into battle, it's quite effective for winning by attrition. [[TooAwesomeToUse You get very few All-Divides]], and thus it's recommended you save them for certain {{superboss}}es--specifically, the ones that are difficult but ''not'' [[UselessUsefulSpell immune to its effect]].
71	* In ''VideoGame/EndlessFrontier,'' attacks are {{Combo}}-based, being a string of 5 {{Spam Attack}}s that can do upwards of 5k damage per character. Each party member carries around very nearly enough dakka, except for [[RebelliousPrincess Kaguya]] who uses [[{{BFS}} an improbably large fantasy sword]] that launches a storm of FuumaShuriken on-command. Basic enemies in this game would be {{Damage Sponge Boss}}es anywhere else.
72	* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' has this in spades. Because auto-attacks deal so little damage, even normal enemies can take a ridiculous amount of punishment unless you min-max the hell out of your party and spam Arts like they're going out of style. On the player side of things, Having a properly set-up tank and healer will mean that you never even have to worry about your HP unless you're fighting an enemy that's a good few levels above you, or a boss who decides to pull out some ability that can hit the entire party for a lot.
73	* Combat in ''VideoGame/YIIKAPostModernRPG'' uses double digit numbers at most and even after a dozen hours most of your attacks struggle to break past ''20'', and the enemies hit you for just as much or less. The small numbers is compounded by the fact that every single attack is an ActionCommand, with some going as long as ''half a minute'', and after every enemy attack is an Action Command to reduce damage as well. Each of those elements combined creates an incredibly slow turn-based combat system where a regular enemy encounter takes ''several minutes'' to complete.
74	* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' turns into this at high levels, especially if you are playing Shepard as a Soldier. The Soldier's Fortification ability, when maxed out, gives an 80% boost to damage resistance and recharges in less time than the power lasts (meaning that you can have it on all the time). Combine this with the best end-game armors like the Colossus X and the passive bonuses that the Soldier class gets, and it is possible to build Shepard's durability and health regen up to the point where they are effectively immune to anything except for anti-tank rockets and plasma cannons. And even then, Shepard's health bar would barely budge. Meanwhile, Soldiers have few offensive powers so they typically simply blast away with their gun until they wear the target out.
75	* ''VideoGame/LittleTownHero'' turns out to be like this due to the fact that both sides have to completely deplete the other side's possible moves before they start dealing direct damage (with a few rare exceptions). As a result, battles can take upwards of an hour as each side has just enough firepower to prevent taking damage but not enough to actually deal it.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Simulation]]
79	* Various ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' games have had bits of this, but it's particularly noticeable in almost all games with light [[HumongousMecha battlemech]] combat - while they aren't particularly well armored, they generally lack the firepower to kill each other quickly, leading to the light two mechs spinning around each other at 100+ kph firing their lasers repeatedly. ''Mechwarrior 4'' had this in spades, as most mechs carried copious amounts of armor, so much so that only some of the silly [[MinMaxing min-maxed custom loadouts]] could kill another mech (in the same class) in less than 30 seconds.
80	* Shooting matches in ''VideoGame/MobileSuitGundamBattleOperation2'' can devolve into this. A beam rifle or bazooka (which can destroy a mobile suit in one shot in the source material) often only chips around 10% of a suit's HP and requires several seconds of cooling down. This is especially noticeable in lower Cost brackets, as suits in that range often only have one ranged weapon and maybe a grenade or vulcans (neither of which deal comparable, consistent DPS compared to ranged primaries).
81	* ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'' has this in spades when opponents are heavily armored, but don't have enough penetration to deal damage. It often devolves into a ScratchDamage race with HE rounds or maneuvering to try and get the first hit on an enemy's weakspot.
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:Strategy]]
85	* This can occur in ''VideoGame/{{Archon}}'' when a light-side ThePhoenix goes up against a dark-side {{Shapeshifter}}. The Phoenix has high HP and a fire attack that makes it invincible when it's in attack mode, so if both Phoenixes attack each other at about the same time, each phoenix will suffer ScratchDamage. A Phoenix/Shapeshifter duel always leads to a war of attrition, where the winner is the one with the most patience and the fastest trigger finger.
86	* In the ''Platform/{{Roblox}}'' game ''Battle Buddies 2'', every unit has drastically lower attack power than HP, much more so than in other straight-line TowerDefense games. Due to this, ranged units and units with multi-hit attacks, like Prickly Pete, end up being the most effective, and cheap meatshields like Donnie can also survive for a surprising amount of time.
87	* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'':
88	** The early game of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' plays out like this. Due to weapons not having any base damage, both the playable characters and enemies do very little damage to each other, and it'll be a while before anyone in Alm's starting party can reliably one-round enemies. Also, terrain bonuses provide rather hefty boosts to evasion, meaning there's a hefty miss chance on both sides. The other games avert this because early weapons have 5-8 base damage added to unit strength.
89	** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'', enemies possess comparatively weak weapons but rather abnormal levels of bulk, to the point that even local GameBreaker Titania can struggle with one-rounding before long, and are spammed relentlessly on high difficulties. Additionally, WeaponOfXSlaying-type equipment like Armorslayers have only x2 effectiveness rather than the usual x3, meaning that certain enemy types are harder to bring down, many enemies have access to ranged attacks, requiring the player to use weaker 1-2 range weapons, and mounted classes have the Canto skill to enable easy hit-and-run attacks. On the player's side of things, Defense growths are abnormally high (40% is around the average, when in previous games it was closer to 25%), and the more free support system makes it easy to develop hefty-sized boosts to evasion and defense, meaning that raised units can shrug off the combined attacks of whole squads on even the Japan-exclusive Maniac. It's often remarked on that in Maniac, a character is quite likely to run out of weapon uses long before they run out of HP.
90	* ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'': dump all your money into upgrading your shields, but forget to upgrade weapons? You won't be able to get through an opponents shields and they won't be able to get through yours. Missile weapons help avoid these situations, as they pass right through shields, but you have a finite number, they can occasionally miss, and there are drones that can shoot them down.
91	* Stalemates are a common occurrence in ''VideoGame/NintendoWars''. Each base can produce a unit per turn, limited primarily by properties supplying you with money. Capturing properties to gain a production advantage depends on the survival of infantry, the slowest and most fragile unit type. It's usually suicidal to rush enemy bases early on, as they're quite easy to defend; thus, many battles become wars of attrition where all parties can only advance one step at a time, if at all. Outside of {{Timed Mission}}s, it's quite easy to win against the AI eventually, [[GameplayGrading albeit with a poor "Speed" score]], but [=PvP=] matches tend to degrade into alternating uphill battles. This is compounded by various factors, depending on the game:
92	** Many maps feature huge distances, long chokepoints, or split the field into "cells" enclosed by mountains or rivers, which most units can't pass through. Bounty River is a standout example - one long, winding, narrow path that takes boats many turns to reach the action. This map proved such a problem that almost every sequel had to try improving it.
93	** While only footsoldiers can outright capture a base, you can stall production by placing a unit on top of it or bodyblocking an enemy unit so they can't get off. However, headquarters often have multiple bases clustered around them, making them much harder to siege. (This is on top of more bases encouraging greater numbers of weak units, and thus long turns.)
94	** [=PvE=] maps may give enormous advantages to the AI to compensate for its lack of intelligence, including many times more units and bases, giving you a lot to chew through.
95	** The AI in ''Super Famicom Wars'' and ''Days of Ruin'' favors defense. Due to its habit of massing up units just outside your attack range, it requires a lot of patience to break through its lines, or else fights can easily take over 50 turns.
96	** (Pre-''Advance Wars'') There's no advantage to attacking first, because both sides hit each other simultaneously in combat, instead of the defender going second and having their counterattack weakened by the health they lost. This makes indirect units extremely valuable as they don't take counterattacks, but they're very slow to use and will dissuade the opponent from engaging you even more.
97	** (Pre-''Advance Wars'') Only the properties near your HQ can produce units -- ones farther away are just resupply points. Even when you're clearly winning, this can make pushing into the enemy base and actually finishing the game immensely difficult, as their reinforcements are right there, while yours are on the opposite side of the map.
98	** (''Advance Wars'' through ''Dual Strike'') [[LimitBreak CO Powers]] are [[ComebackMechanic charged more from losing your own units than destroying others]], giving a losing opponent the chance to undo the progress you made.
99	** (''Advance Wars'' through ''Dual Strike'') The damage formula makes [[DamageReduction defensive boosts]] ''extremely'' potent[[labelnote:math]]Attack boosts increase a value that base damage is ''multiplied'' by before subtracting defensive value (i.e. with no [[GeoEffects terrain defense]] or other attack/defense modification, +20% Attack will turn 50% damage to 60%, 100% to 120%, etc). Defense boosts ''subtract'' a fixed percentage from the final damage (e.g. +25% Defense turns 100% to 75%, 25% to 0%, etc.), stacking additively with terrain defense--strangely, only the latter is decreased by falling HP like attack power. [[/labelnote]]: What sound like modest increases to defense tends to make the cheapest units take twice as many attacks to put down, while turning heavier and/or defensively positioned units into juggernauts. When both [=COs=] have a persistent defense bonus (like Kanbei or Sturm), it's difficult for ''either'' to destroy units faster than they're produced, progressively turning the map into a cluttered mess. Ironically, one of them (Javier) only gets his defense boost from Comm Towers, which normally just boost attack, and are thus otherwise used on fan-made maps to ''speed up'' matches.
100	* ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'': The last part of the tech tree is laden with options that pretty much destroy the game's time and resource systems--building troops instantly, for instance. This basically turns the endgame into a contest of who can mash up their armies against each other the longest.
101	* In ''Videogame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'', by default, most units are capable of absorbing silly amounts of firepower, such as a colony ship brazenly flying through an enemy fleet and surviving. The "Shield Mitigation" mechanic is the main cause of this, and is present on all ships which possess shield systems, even when the shields are down (it acts as a ReinforceField on the ship's armor instead). Shield Mitigation causes ships to flat-out ignore 15% of incoming damage when full, and become more effective as damage is taken - going up to 60% damage negation on lowly frigates, and 65-75% on capital ships and titans, depending on their level. Disabling mitigation in the pre-match setup significantly increases the speed of combat. That said, certain area of effect abilities, most infamously, the Marza Dreadnought's [[MacrossMissileMassacre Missile Barrage]] ultimate can shred enemy non-capitals ''terrifyingly'' fast.
102	* ''[[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Warcraft III]]'' has this as a core philosophy, as unlike ''Warcraft I & II'' or ''[[VideoGame/StarCraft StarCraft I & II]]'', hitpoints are in much greater proportion to the damage values to promote a micromanagement playstyle. The ArbitraryHeadcountLimit is also 100 instead of 200 supply units as in ''Starcraft'' and combat units usually require at least two supply units (with few exceptions) to make each unit a more significant presence in your army. This gets subverted in the endgame with units like MightyGlacier or LightningBruiser fliers who can devastate heavy-armor units quickly in sufficient numbers with Magic damage, and how powerful some heroes can get with fully leveled nuke spells that can be combined with other heroes to melt through health bars.
103	* In vanilla ''Videogame/XCOM2'', many of your troops can one-shot most ADVENT forces, and be one-shot in turn if flanked or exposed. The "Beta Strike" modifier doubles the health of all XCOM and ADVENT units, but leaves damage untouched, so both last much longer in battle, making AreaOfEffect, status effects and other crowd control skills more important.
104	* "AI-versus-AI" matches in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' will rarely last less than several hundred turns, due to the combination of NotPlayingFairWithResources on higher difficulties and ArtificialStupidity. Since it takes a lot less strategy to simply build up troops on your border than to organize an attack and both sides have functionally unlimited resources, this results in them endlessly massing armies and mashing them together.
105	* In ''VideoGame/UltimateAdmiralDreadnoughts'' it's possible, particularly early in the tech tree, to build a ship that's so well armored that contemporary guns are unable to meaningfully damage it except at absurdly close range. If that ship also has enough speed and maneuverability, it can also likely dodge any torpedoes sent its way and even avoid ramming attempts. This trope results when two such ships wind up trying to fight each other.
106	[[/folder]]
107
108	[[folder:Tabletop Game]]
109	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition'' combat was often called "Padded Sumo" by its detractors, as health outstrips damage, many powers focus on moving enemies around, and your more exotic powers are most effective if used at the start of a fight (reducing the rest of the fight to basic attacks). It is rather easy to run through all your powers only a few turns into combat, and then spend the rest of the fight spamming comparatively weak ones. This was particularly bad with solo monsters, which frequently boasted ''outlandish'' HP relative to when your characters were supposed to fight them. Notably, one of the bigger changes that came a few years into its lifespan was chopping large chunks off enemy HP.
110	* One criticism of ''TabletopGame/SpiritOfTheCentury'' that led to later iterations of the Fate system being toned way down in that regard was that it lends itself easily to this. In conflicts, important characters (player and non-player both) will generally take multiple "stress" hits (strictly temporary damage on a track with 5+ boxes that are only filled in one hit at a time) before the risk of more serious consequences or being actually taken out even comes up. Since it's a pulp game, weapons and such don't actually provide damage bonuses -- a fist, a knife, and a gun are all equally effective at taking somebody down. And anyone who sees the conflict turn against them always has the option to just throw in the towel and offer a concession, so unless both sides make a habit out of playing for keeps and refusing those, a character who's been in a serious fight minutes ago can potentially be already no worse off for the wear once he or she has had time to catch his or her breath.
111	* In ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', fights between two mechs can take a dozen turns to end, especially when the two mechs are both of the [[MightyGlacier Assault class]] from the 3025 era. The [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale tiny weapon max range]], huge amounts of armor, weak armaments, and relatively slow mechs of that era can make fights very long, though [[ArmorPiercingAttack through armor criticals]], [[MadeOfExplodium ammunition explosions]], fusion reactor critical hits, and [[SnipingTheCockpit cockpit damage]] can bring a mech to its knees with one lucky shot. Later eras, like the 3060 Fedcom Civil War, play this trope less straight as most mechs now carry even more firepower, but often at the cost of a more easily damaged fusion reactor.
112	* In the first edition of ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', body armor provided automatic successes to reduce incoming damage. It was fully possible, even common place, for someone to survive a hit from an assault cannon without taking any damage.
113	* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', at least in its second edition (pre-errata) suffers from this in spades. It's trivially easy to throw around one-hit kill attacks, sure, resulting in RocketTagGameplay if nothing is used to stop them... but it's also trivially easy to defend against any attack with a fixed-cost perfect defense. Once everyone is using an impossible-to-bypass suite of perfect defenses, the game changes from Rocket Tag to PaddedSumoGameplay, with no attack ever doing more than making the opponent pay a tiny amount of essence, the game's equivalent to MagicPoints. As a result, your essence pool is your ''real'' life meter, and victory is usually about making the enemy spend essence faster than you.
114	** However, the latest errata is intent on fixing this problem, reducing the lethality of combat in general and increasing the costs of Perfect Defenses so that the above-mentioned "paranoia combos" weigh on your MagicPoints much more heavily.
115	** The first edition circumvented much of this padded sumo element with perfect defenses costing willpower, of which a character would normally only have ten at the absolute maximum. The third did the same by doing away with blanket "perfect defenses" entirely.
116	* ''TableTopGame/MagicTheGathering'' gameplay can devolve into this in several situations, especially in a MirrorMatch. Some deck styles (red and black in particular tend to exemplify these styles) are so aggressive that even a Mirror Match doesn't slow down gameplay, but when two players are playing a "White Weenie" deck (the objective of which is typically for the player to defend themselves and build up a large number of small creatures until they have enough creatures to overrun their opponent, or a "buff everything" spell that suddenly turns all those tiny creatures into powerhouses), a normally 20-to-30-minute match can easily stretch into an hour-long or longer UsefulNotes/ColdWar.
117	** In the Commander format is designed this way. You have double the usual starting life, mass-destruction effects are encouraged due to the need to address multiple opponents, and games last an hour on average. The longer games create a place where normally AwesomeButImpractical cards get a place to flourish, though there's no written rules stopping players from putting together a deck that can put out very fast wins.
118	* "Goat Format" in ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh''. All the major mass-destruction cards had hit the banlist, the primary cards of the format were Scapegoat (summons four defensive Tokens) and Thousand-Eyes Restrict (blocks everything from attacking except itself), Traps and Flip Effects saw a resurgence, and some of the most popular cards were based on flipping cards facedown. The result was one of the slowest-paced formats in the game's history - which, ironically, has made it one of the most widely-played legacy formats, since it contrasts so heavily with a meta notorious for PowerCreep.
119	* Similarly to the Magic example, ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'' has a meta based partially on this. "Aggro" decks are built around putting out as much damage as possible, and games with them rarely last too long, but "Control" decks are specifically designed around outlasting Aggro decks while building up their hand, minions, or game winning combos. Any two control decks can qualify, but the real winners here are a subset of control decks based around milling the opponents deck until they start taking fatigue damage while somehow returning cards to your own. A normal match is around 15 minutes, putting two control decks against each other might draw it out between 30 and an hour, and two Fatigue Warriors can last up to the ''hard-coded 60-turn limit''.
120	* Though combat itself in ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' isn't particularly slow, it's designed to be ''incredibly'' difficult to kill someone when you don't intend to do so. Barring GM fiat, you [[NonLethalKO first incapacitate them]], [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown then attack them again]], at which they start dying, and ''then'' you can finish them off properly (or just wait for them to bleed out). It is a superhero game, after all; those mooks that Amazi-Girl punched with enough strength to smash through a brick wall [[TapOnTheHead are just fine.]]
121	* ''D20 Future'' (an offshoot of ''TabletopGame/D20Modern'') exaggerates this with the combat between capital ships: namely, capital ships typically have tens of thousands of HitPoints, whereas the most powerful ship weapons only do damage in the hundreds of points. Even worse: ships get a size penalty to attack rolls just like creatures do (-8 for colossal size, which all capital ships are), as a result, the ships typically have a really low attack bonus and miss a lot, dragging on the interminable fight even longer.
122	* TabletopGame/TicTacToe is probably the most famous game to deal with this: you can only win by getting three in a row, but your opponent can stop most attempts to do so in one move. Consequently, the game is notorious for ending in mutual draws if either player knows what they're doing; the only way to win is if your opponent makes a big mistake.
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	[[folder:Non-Video Game Examples]]
126	* ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle''
127	** The Franchise/{{Terminator}} vs. Franchise/{{Robocop}} battle goes on for quite a bit before any of the two combatants display any noticeable damage. Downplayed in that they later do start bringing out their best (Robocop takes out explosive charges, and the Terminator wields a plasma rifle) which does result in some serious damage. [[spoiler:Robocop emerges victorious as the hosts proved that he could survive the Terminator's weapons while at the same time the T-850 would take crippling damage from Robocop's futuristic weaponry.]]
128	** [[Manga/FairyTail Natsu Dragneel]] vs. [[Manga/OnePiece Portgas D. Ace]] goes on for quite some time due to combatants' abilities; Natsu has the [[GlassCannon speed and strength]] advantage and is both [[NoSell immune to fire]] and [[FeedItWithFire eats it to restore his energy]], while Ace has the [[StoneWall durability and endurance advantage]] and is also [[NoSell immune to fire]] and [[IntangibleMan can shift his body into flames to avoid most physical attacks]], turning their battle into a stalemate. It ultimately comes down [[spoiler:Natsu taking advantage of the fact Ace's [[ElementalShapeshifter fire form]] makes him extremely vulnerable to being eaten, forcing him to use his corporeal form more, and utilizing [[ShockAndAwe his lightning magic]], which Ace has no immunity against]].
129	** [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure Jotaro Kujo]] vs. [[Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar Kenshiro]]. Jotaro's [[FightingSpirit Stand, Star Platinum]] is [[SuperToughness incredibly tough]] and can NoSell anything that isn't a Stand or Stand User. Since Kenshiro is neither, he can't do anything to Star Platinum. However, Kenshiro's durability far outclasses Star Platinum's strength, and he can use Muso Tensei [[NighInvulnerability to make himself impervious to all physical attacks]], meaning Star Platinum couldn't do anything to Kenshiro, either. [[spoiler:Kenshiro wins as while he couldn't harm Star Platinum, he could get around him and get to the much more vulnerable Jotaro, who is not immune to [[FingerPokeOfDoom Kenshiro's]] [[YouAreAlreadyDead techniques]]. Additionally, if a Stand User dies, so does their Stand,[[note]]As a general rule of thumb, at least; this does not include Posthumous Stands, which persist long after their user dies, and Bound Stands, which do not require a human user to operate, but as Star Platinum is neither that's a moot point for this fight[[/note]] thus when Kenshiro kills Jotaro, Star Platinum would go down with him.]]
130	** VideoGame/CrashBandicoot vs. Franchise/SpyroTheDragon hits a bit of a stalemate since both combatants were [[SuperToughness capable of shrugging off millions of tons of force]], however, they both lacked the offensive capability to land sufficient damage on each other. [[spoiler:Spyro wins since his [[SuperPoweredEvilSide dark form]] had access to [[DisintegratorRay Aether Breath]] which could destroy Crash at the atomic level.]]
131	** ComicBook/{{Carnage}} vs. [[Manga/ElfenLied Lucy]] overlaps this with RocketTagGameplay; the fight goes down to who would be the first to land a lethal hit due to Carnage's [[GoodThingYouCanHeal frankly]] [[FromASingleCell ludicrous]] HealingFactor letting him tank all manner of damage short of complete bodily destruction and Lucy's [[SuperSpeed unbelievably-fast]] [[NoSell and incredibly durable]] [[CombatTentacles Vectors]] letting her block almost anything while one good shot from Carnage could easily kill her. [[spoiler:Lucy is deemed the winner since the hosts show her Vectors can not only [[SuperSpeed move much faster]] and [[LongRangeFighter reach farther]] than Carnage, but they can also hit with enough force and [[KillItWithFire firepower]] [[NukeEm (as in, nuclear explosion)]] [[AntiRegeneration to overcome Carnage's durability and]] HealingFactor while also exploiting his [[WeaksauceWeakness weakness]] [[WeakToFire to fire]] to kill him in one shot]].
132	** [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure DIO]] vs. [[Manga/{{Hellsing}} Alucard]] demonstrates both vampires are pretty much immovable objects. DIO’s lies in his Stand, which is InvisibleToNormals and can [[TakesOneToKillOne only be harmed by another Stand]] and his specific brand of vampirism, which gives him a HealingFactor able to survive any physical attacks short of [[ThePowerOfTheSun sunlight-based attacks]], on top of being able to [[TimeStandsStill stop time itself]]. Alucard, meanwhile, is a living SoulJar and can use the literally ''millions'' of souls of those he’s slain to take lethal damage in his place or summon them as a [[HiddenArmyReveal gigantic army]], and his true self is actually a LivingShadow which can shapeshift and turn intangible. [[spoiler: Out of the two, Alucard’s means of outlasting his foe is truly finite, as DIO could burn through his reserves with his SuperSpeed and SuperStrength eventually, and Stands can interact with ethereal opponents anyways.]]
133	** [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Madara Uchiha]] vs. [[Manga/{{Bleach}} Sosuke Aizen]] had it noted that both combatants at the height of their power possess {{Healing Factor}}s so potent neither of their world-rending brute force alone would be enough to put the other down and thus they would need to resort to more creative means to achieve victory. [[spoiler:Madara comes out on top due to the fact his Truth-Seeking Balls not only possess AntiRegeneration, but they're canonically capable of destroying spirits, meaning he had a hard counter against Aizen while his foe lacked a similar one against him.]]
134	** Franchise/ScoobyDoo vs. WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog ended up being such an extreme example, where both canines had such potent defenses that helped them survive several outlandish situations [[spoiler:to the point where neither could kill or permanently dispose of the other, ending the match in a ''very'' rare instance of a draw]].
135	* ''Film/Deadpool2016'' has [[ChromeChampion Colossus]] versus [[BrawnHilda Angel Dust]] in the climactic fight. Colossus is unwilling to go all-out on a lady. Angel can hit hard enough to send him flying, but not enough to damage. The result is that the best they can do to one another is incapacitation until Negasonic Teenage Warhead gets in on it.
136	* In an early episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Dr. Monroe gives our favorite family foam-padded poles to strike each other with as a means of venting. When Homer notices this trope is in effect, Bart responds by taking the padding off.
137	* After the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads Battle of Hampton Roads]] of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, there was for a time serious concern that naval battles would turn into this, with the black-powder cannons that worked well enough on wooden-hulled warships no longer able to inflict serious damage on the up-and-coming "ironclads". Advances in gun technology made these concerns moot soon enough, but there ''was'' a brief period during the late 19th century in which the possibility that the only way left to disable an enemy might be to actually [[RammingAlwaysWorks ram them]] was earnestly considered and resulted in some correspondingly specialized ship designs.[[note]]And one of Creator/RudyardKipling's funniest poems, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qxklnjxi0A&ab_channel=ArthurPiantadosi the Ballad of the Clampherdown]].[[/note]]
138	* In robot combat, like ''Series/RobotWars'' and ''Series/BattleBots'', matches can become like this if every bot in the match has no weapons (this is not as ineffective as it sounds -- because they can allocate everything towards speed, power, and durability, weaponless bots have been considered {{Game Breaker}}s at times). The match becomes either the bots pushing each other or the operators trying to outmaneuver each other without letting them hit each other until time runs out. Because of the perception that such matches are uninteresting (but the truth is that it [[BrokenBase depends on the individual viewer]]), both organizations require every competing bot to have at least one prominent weapon.
139	* Franchise/StarWars:
140	** Starship combat in ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' is like this due to the sheer power of deflector shields, with those found on even smaller warships being capable of absorbing ''thousands'' of shots. Without shields, most ships won't survive more than a couple of shots from a turbolaser battery, but with them, evenly matched ships can expect to be firing at each other for hours before any progress is made.
141	** The Film series isn't that much shorter. For all the shooting that occurs between them, starships often may as well be terrain for the {{Space Fighter}}s to dogfight around.
142	* The most extreme instance of this trope happening in the UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXDT44zT8JY the 1995 match between Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock]], a grueling 35-minute match that mostly took place in a grappling position on the ground, Shamrock pinning Gracie to the ground and Gracie holding Shamrock down from being able to lift himself. Gracie kept kneeing Shamrock in the liver area, which would normally be a [[AttackItsWeakPoint vulnerable spot]], except that he lacked the leverage to deal any significant pain to Shamrock. Meanwhile, Shamrock headbutted and punched Gracie in the head with whatever leverage he was able to wrestle for, and despite landing some good shots, Gracie was able to nullify these blows long enough to hold out until the end of the match. In an unprecedented ruling, the match was extended into a five-minute overtime, and it ''still'' ended in a draw; to add insult to injury, the fighters were separated when the match went into overtime, yet they were only on their feet for a few seconds before resuming the grappling position they had been in for the rest of the match. In spite of the outcome of the match, [[WeWinBecauseYouDidnt it was still considered a victory for Gracie]], as he was able to disrupt Shamrock's perfect record with a draw.
143	* ''Literature/LogHorizon'': In the 11th volume, this is what the IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight between [[spoiler:Elias and Leonardo]] turns into. The former has simply far too high defences for the latter to subdue him without resorting to lethal force, but his [[spoiler:fairy eye curse]] ensures that he can't finish off his opponent either (sort of; it's a really complicated version of YourMindMakesItReal). The result is a fight that lasts well over an hour, with the former chipping away ''percentages of a single life point'' at the time, and the other unsuccessfully trying to stop him.
144	* ''Film/BlackPanther2018'': During their FinalBattle, both T'Challa and Killmonger are wearing vibranium Black Panther suits. Since the suits allow them to walk off a several-hundred foot fall, they're completely incapable of actually harming each other for most of the fight. [[spoiler:Said several-hundred foot fall puts them on the rails of a train whose suppression system nullifies the absorption properties of their vibranium, causing the fight to bounce between this and RocketTagGameplay: they're still invulnerable between passes, but the first one to land a solid blow while the suits are suppressed will make that blow fatal.]]
145	* ''Literature/BofuriIDontWantToGetHurtSoIllMaxOutMyDefense'': [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As the title says]], main character Maple put all her stat points into defensive ability when she first created her character. This left her with the ability to tank practically everything the game threw at her, but her pitiful offensive ability meant that she couldn't do much to strike back herself. Eventually subverted as she learned new offensive abilities and started becoming more effective at attacking.
146	* The protagonist of ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'' reflects on his battle with [[spoiler:a Sheeda Huntsman]] as this; he's unable to find an attack construct that will properly hurt his opponent, but his own wounds are rapidly [[HealingFactor regenerated]] by his ring. Stalling is two-edged as well; he'll eventually run out of ring charge, but the [[MadScientist Sivana family]] are busily inventing a weapon in the background. [[spoiler:The Sivanas win the race and implode the Huntsman.]]
147	* Can happen in any real life sport when both teams have very good defense. Not uncommon in baseball to see several innings where no one can score a run (or even get on base) because the pitchers and/or fielders on both sides are doing a really good job.
148	* Trench warfare in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI is often regarded as this, particularly on the Western Front. With the advancements to machine guns, artillery, and similar technologies, there was no easy way for soldiers to close the gap and earn a decisive victory, barring overwhelming numbers or total incompetence on the part of the enemy. Though technologies existed to try to break stalemates, such as tanks and planes, they were generally in too primitive a state to actually get far. What was more, most of the time, armies went for "defense in depth"--that being, a lightly defended first line which would be easy to take, but tie up the enemy long enough for the second line to pull together and smash them. Consequently, most battles came down to shelling the opponent at a distance with artillery, but both sides would typically be entrenched, minimizing the damage of that as well, resulting in slow grinding battles of attrition.
149	* ''WebOriginal/TheDeathOfBasketball'' has this occur by way of flooding drafts with the worst possible players the game's systems allow. Once all the actual players have retired, you end up with a court full of minuscule weaklings who barely know the rules and behave as if they're suffering from catastrophic brain damage. While this results in terrible defense, offense is even worse, as these "doomsday players" can barely keep the ball going in a straight line, much less make a shot. The last recorded championship game, between the Denver Nuggets and the Orlando Magic, went on for twelve overtimes and ended at 0-3.
150	[[/folder]]

Context Main / PaddedSumoGameplay