I've always understood this, basically, as militarized Les Collaborateurs - evil minions recruited from conquered territories. However, the description is indeed awful - as best as I can tell, it's trying to list different "flavors" of these guys, but without really saying what the trope actually is.
I'm not certain what to do here, but there is a trope in there somewhere.
Zzzzzzzzzz
Here's what I can glean from the YKTTW:
Reply #1, from Chabal: "If I understand correctly, this is about using your newly conquered opponent's army as your own, is that it? "
Reply #3, from the OP:
"@Chabal:Pretty much, a stock idea of what type of army does an Empire conscripts folks into their ranks "
That's it on the clarification. All the other replies were adding examples or types.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Where to start? The description seems like it's missing some crucial sentences, namely, what this trope actually is. It's about the various units that make up the Evil Army, but is that really a trope? It's really feels more like a messed up index for a bunch of other tropes.