History Main / CapitalOffensive

* When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, a large portion of their forces made a drive right for the capital Kyiv. Fortunately, Ukrainian troops were able to hold them for over a month, eventually forcing the Russians to withdraw and refocus on the east.

** ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' has two of them, both involves two real life capital cities. The first one is in Moscow where the combined NATO and Russian loyalists a decisive offensive against [[RenegadeRussian NRF forces]] who have occupied the Russian capital. While the last one happens in the final mission where the BigBad leads a whole squadrons of rogue Russian fighters and bombers on a daring offensive against [[WashingtonDCInvasion Washington DC]] to nuke the White House.

** ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' has two of them, both involves two real life capital cities. The first one is in Moscow where the combined NATO and Russian loyalists a decisive offensive against [[RenegadeRussian NRF forces]] who have occupied the Russian capital. While the last one happens in the final mission where the BigBad leads a whole squadrons of rogue Russian fighters and bombers to launch a daring offensive against [[WashingtonDCInvasion Washington DC]] itself.

** ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' has two of them, both involves two real life capital cities. The first one is in Moscow where the combined NATO and Russian loyalists a decisive offensive against [[RenegadeRussian NRF forces]] who have occupied the Russian capital. While the last one happens during the final mission where the BigBad leads a whole squadrons of rogue Russian fighters and bombers to launch a daring offensive against [[WashingtonDCInvasion Washington DC]] itself.

* The Dungeon Overlords in the third ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' game throw most of their resources into launching one of these against Steadwick, the capital of [[TheGoodKingdom Erathia]]. A SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurs when they find that capturing a single important city isn't the same thing as taking over an entire nation, and they quickly find themselves surrounded and overrun (it's implied they had planned on establishing a greater hold on Erathia first, but panicked when they realized Catherine Ironfist was marching on Steadwick with a reinforcing army and rushed to capture the city ahead of her arrival).

* The Dungeon Overlords in the third ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' game throw most of their resources into launching one of these against the capital of [[TheGoodKingdom Erathia]]. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurs when they find that capturing a single important city isn't the same thing as taking over an entire nation, and they quickly find themselves surrounded and overrun.

* ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'': Taking an enemy's capital by force activates a countdown that will end in an instant victory unless retaken in time by enemy forces. If the capital is the last city, then the game instantly ends.

** The nuclear war itself was a subversion. Because on one hand, D.C. was just one of many, ''many'' places to get nuked. But on the other hand, one can take a look at the D.C. ruins and see that it was hit especially hard. Indeed, one can look at the conditions in the Capital Wasteland and compare them to the Mojave Wasteland of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' and (to a lesser extent) the Commonwealth (Boston) of ''VideoGame/Fallout4''. Las Vegas was spared much of the destruction as Mr. House's private defense systems stopped most of the missles, and Boston only suffered a single hit from one high-yield nuke that ''missed'' hitting the city directly. But Washington, as the nation's capital, was hit multiple times, and sustained far more damage.

** In the BackStory of the series, it hints that before the nuclear war the U.S., having kicked the Chinese out of Alaska, were invading China itself and closing in on Beijing. This would offers some hints that the Chinese regime may have triggered the nuclear exchange as a TakingYouWithMe towards the rest of the world.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening:'' This game pulls it thrice.

** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'': In the Soviet campaign, the Reds hit Washington, DC first to destroy the Pentagon in a DecapitationStrike. It's used in an especially interesting fashion in the Allied campaign, where they use the Chronosphere to teleport a strike force straight into Moscow to take the Kremlin and avoid a scorched earth campaign by the retreating Soviets.

* In the Salvadorean Civil War this was known as "la ofensiva", this was in part due to the government's officials not willing to take the peace talks seriously (several high ranking officers including the president wanted to just {{kill them all}} by eating their own propaganda), and the rebels (FMLN also known as "la guerrilla") devising a plan to bring the war to the capital city and some other important points. This accomplished the pressure to make sure the Peace Treaty talks worked.

** After the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand II, the Austro-Hungarian General Staff originally wanted to quickly invade Serbia and seize their capital using overwhelming force sometime in July-August 1914 while the weight of international opinion was still on their side. However, they spent too long building up their forces and missed their window of opportunity. When war broke out in September, the Russian invasion of Galicia-Podolia and German East Prussia meant that the Austro-Hungarians had to shelve their plans for a Serbian CapitalOffensive that year.
** The German Army General Staff consistently favoured the course of action which reaped the greatest possible rewards, without accounting for the ''odds of success''. Accordingly, they couldn't resist executing a CapitalOffensive against France which held a possibility of winning the entire war in the space of just two years... even though they themselves were perfectly aware that the odds of them successfully pulling it off were nothing short of astronomical. The offensive foundered well short of Paris, having produced appreciably worse German losses and a diplomatic-geopolitical 'own goal' (the invasion of Belgium speeded British entry by many months, if not years) than if it had never been attempted at all.

** The German campaign has a level in which the player (working for an unspecified Chancellor whose political affiliation is not mentioned in 1939) takes out the capitals of Poland, Norway and France. The final level is an AlternateHistory where Operation Sealion happened and succeeded: here destroying Buckingham Palace causes the royal family to flee to Canada.
** The second level of the Russia campaign has you take out the capitals of Hungary, Sweden or Norway.

* In ''VideoGame/EndWar'', part of the win conditions for defeating a superpower is taking their capital city in a three part battle. These capitals are Washington, DC for the United States, Paris for the European Federation, and Moscow for Russia.

** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'': The very first mission of the campaign begins with the Global Liberation Army detonating a dirty bomb in the middle of downtown Beijing right in front of the Forbidden City.

** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'': Happens in the Allied mission "Forever Sets the Sun", where Allied forces attack Tokyo and destroy the Imperial military, killing or capturing most of their leadership. Also in the Imperial mission "Crumble Kremlin Crumble" which is the Empire of the Rising Sun's invasion of Moscow.

This is TruthInTelevision. The taking or bombing of an enemy capital is a sure way to let the enemy know that [[ShockingDefeatLegacy things are REALLY bad now]]. The former especially, as it is often the battle that ''ends'' a war, particularly if the political leadership was captured or killed in the process. However, just as often, the fight will continue, although the losing side's military may have taken some serious damage. In these cases a GovernmentInExile will be formed.

* {{Downplayed}} in ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II''. Capturing an enemy capital province is surprisingly not very useful: while they typically contain large numbers of holdings you can occupy to increase warscore, there isn't any inherent warscore bonus for occupying the capital province specifically; you can often win just as easily by occupying other provinces or by completely destroying the enemy army. On the other hand, capturing the enemy ''ruler'' automatically grants 100% warscore, and if he isn't personally leading his troops, he'll be at his capital and can be captured after a siege on it.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'':
** Late in the Terran campaign, Mengsk leads the Sons of Korhal in an offensive against the Confederate capital world of Tarsonis, which he defeats by using Psi Emitters to draw the Zerg there to overwhelm the military and populace.
** Later, the UED comes to Korhal, where now Emperor Mengsk has established his seat of power in an effort to capture him. Mengsk escapes thanks to intervention by Jim Raynor and the Protoss, but the UED still takes control of Korhal.
** After the Zerg manage to locate the Protoss homeworld of Aiur, the Overmind declares that it is where he will be made manifest and sends the Swarm to secure it.
* ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'':
** Korhal is again invaded this time by the Zerg, in Kerrigan's drive to defeat Mengsk once and for all.
** The Protoss campaign begins with them attempting to retake Aiur, but they are derailed as Amon corrupts the Khala, taking control of many Protoss through it.
** Shortly after Amon's Zerg mount an invasion of the Dark Templar's homeworld of Shakuras [[spoiler:which is thwarted when Artanis and Vorazun decide to lure as many Zerg there as possible before initiating an EarthShatteringKaboom.]]

* Decisively subverted during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution in 1777. William Howe, commander of the main British army in New York, decided to mount a sea-borne invasion and capture the rebel capital of Philadelphia rather than meet the other main British offensive of that year, a thrust south from Canada by John Burgoyne designed to cut off New England from the rest of the rebellious colonies. Howe captured Philadelphia, a victory which did not change the strategic situation at all due to the loose nature of the Continental Congress (capturing the city where the delegates met only meant they fled into the interior to reconvene at Lancaster and later York, Pennsylvania; the ability of each of the colonies to raise their own troops wasn't affected). Meanwhile, Burgoyne's army was defeated by the Americans at Saratoga and was captured shortly thereafter in the biggest turning point of the war (it was this battle that convinced France to openly support the Americans).

* ''Film/{{Downfall}}'' is set mostly during the Battle of Berlin, just as the Soviets are finishing off the last German resistance in the city.

** As the Western Allies invaded Germany in the closing months of the war, Berlin was left to the Soviets, who proceeded to take it in one last bloody battle. Quickly surrounding the city and brushing aside its 85,000 defenders were some 1.5 ''million'' Soviet combat troops. It was the final major battle in Europe during the war. Hitler committed suicide as the Soviets closed in. With Hitler dead and the Allies rapidly occupying virtually all remaining areas under German control, the new Fuhrer -- Admiral Dönitz -- surrendered unconditionally a week later.