History Main / WeHaveReserves

There are a lot of ways to have a character KickTheDog or cross the MoralEventHorizon. In a war movie or battle sequence, if you want to show that a general, king, or [[ArmchairMilitary commander]] is evil (really evil, not a PunchClockVillain and way beyond a DesignatedVillain), all you have to do is show their casual--if not ''complete''--disregard for the lives of their own troops by [[SuicideMission either knowingly ordering them into certain slaughter or giving an order that directly results in their deaths]]. Retreat is, of course, forbidden; they expect AttackAttackAttack without a second thought, and a LastStand before retreat. (And they usually do it from perfect safety.) GeneralFailure will often upgrade this from a last resort to their preferred tactic.

* In the "Retreat" storyline of ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' Season Eight, Twilight allows his troops to be massacred by the three Wrathful Goddesses because he's curious to see the goddesses in action. When one of his subordinates calls him on it:

* A ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' storyline used it to contrast a CardCarryingVillain with a NobleDemon. When Baron Zemo sent waves of HYDRA mooks to get captured as a distraction while he broke Codename:Bravo out of the Raft, Zemo comments that this is what HYDRA mooks are ''for'', but Bravo replies that he respects the sacrifice of his soldiers.
* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' shows a battle involving a General who states his willingness to sacrifice gladly a hundred thousand men to kill any one enemy, and who demonstrates this by piling corpses against the castle walls high enough for troops to climb all the way up and then taking one enemy's head before retreating.
* In a short appended to a ''ComicBook/TheFabulousFurryFreakBrothers'' tale, Fat Freddy's Cat has a particularly successful campaign against the cockroaches that live under the oven. From memory, paraphrased:

* The Siberian Wolves Aeroball team from ''ComicBook/HarlemHeroes'' are suicidal in their gameplay tactics. It's telling that, in a sport requiring a minimum of seven players, with subs, they have over thirty.
* In ''ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist'', this is how Xao treats his Hydra underlings who also consider themselves expendable, calling themselves a Legion.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Paranoia}},'' low-level Troubleshooters are seen as disposable meat shields by their superior officers. In issue #3, two dozen "cherries" (red-level troops) are ordered to charge an enemy position ''without any armor or weapons.''
* Starr from ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' does this at least once, sending a US tank division against [[ImplacableMan the Saint of Killers]]. Starr's reaction to them being butchered mercilessly by the guy who [[spoiler:replaced the Angel of Death]] is to shrug, say that he didn't really expect it to work anyway, and call down a nuclear strike on the spot.

* Played perfectly straight by the Russian military in ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX''. Where one particular arc sees Frank Castle tasked with infiltrating a nuclear missile base in Siberia and rescuing a six-year-old girl whose blood contains an experimental super virus. However, the mission goes awry and Frank has to fight his way out of the missile base. And the Russian military's attempts at trying to prevent his escape amount to sending out as many conscripts as humanly possible in the hopes that it will work. ''It doesn't.''

* Following the Genesis Wave arc botching his plans in ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', Eggman resorts to his plan B of robotising the whole planet. The clincher in this however is that he knows that any machinery that cannot be robotised will explode on exposure, meaning almost certain destruction for all his enemies either way. Sally points out it's suicide as that would detonate all his own troops in the process, which Eggman shrugs off, noting with a SlasherSmile, there's no [[YouCantMakeAnOmelette making an omelette]] "without cracking a few eggs". Even Sonic and Sally, who trash Eggman's goons in droves, [[EveryoneHasStandards are utterly repulsed by this]].
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* Played absolutely straight by Jhiaxus in the ''ComicBook/TransformersGeneration2'' comic, in which his response to staggering losses is to throw another wave of troops into battle with the Warworld and the Swarm.
* One ''ComicBook/UnknownSoldier'' story features Col. "Bloody" Barton, who has such disregard for the lives of his men that his tank squadron is [[TheNiedermeyer about to mutiny]].

* In ''Franchise/XMen'' story "ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast", Sentinels don't care how much you kill. Destroy one Sentinel, destroy a hundred, a thousand, it does not matter. Their number is overwhelming.

Compare ZergRush (where the opponent throws everything at you, disregarding any other battle plan), CannonFodder (a low-skill enemy with little planning that dies easily), RedshirtArmy (when the ''good'' side employs this), ExpendableClone (where a character is ''their own reserves''), and both HammerspacePoliceForce and IFoughtTheLawAndTheLawWon (where law enforcement is the "reserves" in question). Also compare ThePawnsGoFirst (when the formidable BigBad sends out Mooks rather than engage in the fight himself). See also YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and YouHaveFailedMe for similar moments from a BadBoss, and GideonPloy. ShootTheMessenger also relies on the BigBad feeling that their mooks are completely expendable. Contrast CantKillYouStillNeedYou and MookDepletion. TheNeidermeyer is the most likely type of officer or leader particularly to use this tactic; SergeantRock and AFatherToHisMen (who may invoke TheMenFirst) are at the opposite end of this scale. Subtrope of QuantityVsQuality.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'': The bigger [[BigBad Megabyte's]] army gets, the more okay he becomes with sacrificing them for "the cause", which gets demonstrated when he has Hexadecimal open a hole in the newly erected firewall so he can send an entire fleet of [=ABCs=] through to atack the Principal Office. The [=ABCs=] are immediatly shot to peices by the Principal Office defenses, and when the survivors attempt to return to base, Megabyte has Hex close the firewall in an attempt to prevent himself from being shot, sealing the fate of those still outside.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'': The bigger [[BigBad Megabyte's]] army gets, the more okay he becomes with sacrificing them for "the cause", which gets demonstrated when he sends an entire fleet of soldiers to certain death in order to get at (or at least soften the defenses of) the Principal Office and barely reacts when they inadvertently fly into a killbox and are all slaughtered.

** Rei's mantra "If I die, I can be replaced!" is a rare case of a character invoking this trope on ''herself'', which is exploited by Gendo Ikari. [[spoiler:[[CloningBlues She can. We have the technology.]]]]

* YOU, the player, in TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}. Your life in Alpha Complex will inevitably result in you [[SuperpowerMeltdown dying in]] [[UnfriendlyFire a number]] [[PhlebotinumOverload of horrible]] [[YouHaveFailedMe ways]], but it's okay because you have plenty of [[CloningBlues backups where that came from]].

* ''WebOriginal/HamstersParadise'': The harmsters reproduce in large numbers and mature quickly as a way of coping with a high mortality rate. It's the reason why they have such a severe LackOfEmpathy towards their own kind as any of the sick or elderly can be easily replaced so they see no reason to care for them.

* During the ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars, Megatron only had a handful of troops and could not aford to let them die on a whim. However, by the time of the sequel series ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', Megatron had hordes of [[MechaMooks Vehicons]]. So many that the Maximals tore dozens into scrap metal every battle without making a dent in his overall forces.

* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' Megatron succumbs to this, killing more of his soldiers than the Maximals ever did. Specifically, he opens fire on a village of proto-humans, and ended up unknowingly hitting Inferno and Quickstrike. Presumably he assumed that when you have a giant warship and superpowers (even by Transformer standards of being big immortal war machines) you don't need a lot of help.
** By the time of the less popular sequel series ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', Megatron took this to the logical extreme with his [[MechaMooks Vehicon hordes]]. He had so many that the Maximals tore dozens into scrap metal every battle without making a dent in his overall forces.

* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' Megatron succumbs to this, killing more of his soldiers than the Maximals ever did. Presumably he assumed that when you have a giant warship and superpowers (even by Transformer standards of being big immortal war machines) you don't need a lot of help.

* ''[=Turnip28=]'': Several Cults favour horde tactics, over and above calling the core unit of many weak troops [[CannonFodder Fodder]]: