History Main / DefensiveFeintTrap

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/feint_trap.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:William's tactics at the Battle of Hastings. Not to scale.]]

* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', after getting destroyed by Captain Levi, the Female Titan collapses against a tree and slymos her neck down, exposes her nape, the weak point of all titans. Levi's subordinate go right for it, which was exactly what the Titan was expecting them to. Levi gets injured saving her and has to sit out a major battle.
* In ''Manga/{{Gate}}'', the armies of the Unified Kingdoms greatly underestimated the JSDF currently occupying Alnus Hill. The king generals figured since they outnumber the foreigners 30 to 1, victory would naturally go to them. Though the Unified Kingdoms army did vastly outnumber the JSDF, they were vastly outclassed and outgunned. Just as the numerous armies marched up in droves, they get utterly obliterated by heavy artillery, not even getting halfway to where the JSDF were.

* In ''Anime/AttackOnTitan'', after getting destroyed by Captain Levi, the Female Titan collapses against a tree and slymos her neck down, exposes her nape, the weak point of all titans. Levi's subordinate go right for it, which was exactly what the Titan was expecting them to. Levi gets injured saving her and has to sit out a major battle.

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': Griffith uses this tactic to win the Battle of Doldrey and make the Kingdom of Midland victorious in their Hundred Year War against the Holy Tudor Empire. Griffith arrays his mounted company, the Band of the Hawk, on the open plain in front of the castle with a river at their backs. General Boscogn and the Tudor Empire's Purple Rhino Knights, who greatly outnumber the Hawks and are more heavily armed, come out to meet them. Boscogn can't reconcile what he's heard about Griffith's brilliance with his seemingly insane plan, coming to do battle against Boscogn with small numbers on terrain where he can't retreat. Griffith leads a vanguard of about 2000 horse, or half his forces, in a direct attack on the Rhino Knights. Fierce fighting ensues, during which the Hawk's best fighter Guts engages Boscogn himself. Suddenly, Griffith orders all his men to fall back. At this point Boscogn is thoroughly confused. He feels like it would be unwise to pursue without knowing what trickery Griffith is trying to work, but then out comes Governor Gennon from inside the castle. Gennon is an old pervert who has been [[VillainousCrush infatuated with Griffith]] ever since an encounter years ago, and he overrules Boscogn by commanding the troops to pursue the Hawks and capture Griffith unharmed. This is exactly what Griffith was counting on. The cavalry battle has stirred up huge clouds of dust, and as a result the Tudor sentries on the battlements didn't see the other half of Griffith's forces (led by Casca) maneuver around the battle and pour in through the castle's open gate. Meanwhile, the Hawks outside turn and re-engage the Rhino Knights. The battle is decided when, almost simultaneously, Guts beheads General Boscogn and Casca's force raises the Band of the Hawk flag over Doldrey. Tudor morale collapses, and Griffith is able to drive them from the field.

* This is the strategy behind UsefulNotes/{{Muhammad Ali}}'s famed "rope-a-dope" tactic. Used to perfection in the Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman in 1974, Ali essentially backed up against the ropes and absorbed crushing body blows from the much more powerful Foreman for several rounds. Once Foreman had tired himself out, Ali unleashed on Foreman, who was too exhausted to defend himself, knocking him out in the eighth round.
* The [[{{Samurai}} Shimazu Clan]] used this tactic to terrific effect many times during the [[UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod Sengoku Jidai]], more than once utterly destroying armies that had them outnumbered more than 10-to-1. It worked for them because, unlike most other clan armies of the time, they were a united force rather than a collection of various lesser daimyo's forces. They were [[CombatPragmatist also far more pragmatic]] than many other samurai, who saw even a pretended retreat as [[HonorBeforeReason disgraceful.]]

* Happened BY ACCIDENT in a battle during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, in which one of Benedict Arnold's commanders misunderstood an order and marched double time ''away'' from the British. The Redcoats pursued, thinking they were being routed. Arnold went to his commander and asked why they were fleeing the field, to which the commander replied ''"Does this look like we're fleeing?"''. Arnold realized he had a great opportunity and he ordered the men to stop, turn, and charge the Redcoats. It turned into a complete victory.

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': Griffith uses this tactic to win the Battle of Doldrey and make the Kingdom of Midland victorious in their Hundred Year War against the Holy Tudor Empire. Griffith arrays his mounted company, the Band of the Hawk, on the open plain in front of the castle with a river at their backs. General Boscogn and the Tudor Empire's Purple Rhino Knights, who greatly outnumber the Hawks and are more heavily armed, come out to meet them. Boscogn can't reconcile what he's heard about Griffith's brilliance with his seemingly insane plan, coming to do battle against Boscogn with small numbers on terrain where he can't retreat. Griffith leads a vanguard of about 2000 horse, or half his forces, in a direct attack on the Rhino Knights. Fierce fighting ensues, during which the Hawk's best fighter Guts engages Boscogn himself. Suddenly, Griffith orders all his men to fall back. At this point Boscogn is thoroughly confused. He feels like it would be unwise to pursue without knowing what trickery Griffith is trying to work, but then out comes Governor Gennon from inside the castle. Gennon is an old pervert who has been infatuated with Griffith ever since an encounter years ago, and he overrules Boscogn by commanding the troops to pursue the Hawks and capture Griffith unharmed. This is exactly what Griffith was counting on. The cavalry battle has stirred up huge clouds of dust, and as a result the Tudor sentries on the battlements didn't see the other half of Griffith's forces (led by Casca) maneuver around the battle and pour in through the castle's open gate. Meanwhile, the Hawks outside turn and re-engage the Rhino Knights. The battle is decided when, almost simultaneously, Guts beheads General Boscogn and Casca's force raises the Band of the Hawk flag over Doldrey. Tudor morale collapses, and Griffith is able to drive them from the field.

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': Griffith uses this tactic to win the Battle of Doldrey and make the Kingdom of Midland victorious in their Hundred Year War against the Holy Tudor Empire. Griffith arrays his mounted company, the Band of the Hawk, on the open plain in front of the castle with a river at their backs. General Boscogn and the Tudor Empire's Purple Rhino Knights, who greatly outnumber the Hawks and are more heavily armed, come out to meet them. Boscogn can't reconcile what he's heard about Griffith's brilliance with his seemingly insane plan, coming to do battle against Boscogn with small numbers on terrain where he can't retreat. Griffith leads a vanguard of about 2000 horse, or half his forces, in a direct attack on the Rhino Knights. Fierce fighting ensues, during which the Hawk's best fighter Guts engages Boscogn himself. Suddenly, Griffith orders all his men to fall back. At this point Boscogn is thoroughly confused. He feels like it would be unwise to pursue without knowing what trickery Griffith is trying to work, but then out comes Governor Gennon from inside the castle. Gennon is an old pervert who has been infatuated with Griffith ever since an encounter years ago, and he overrules Boscogn by commanding the troops to pursue the Hawks and capture Griffith unharmed. This is exactly what Griffith was counting on. The cavalry battle has stirred up huge clouds of dust, and as a result the Tudor sentries on the battlements didn't see the other half of Griffith's forces (led by Casca) maneuver around the battle and pour in through the castle's open gate. Meanwhile, the Hawks turn and re-engage the Rhino Knights. The battle is decided when, almost simultaneously, Guts beheads General Boscogn and Casca's force raises the Band of the Hawk flag over Doldrey. Tudor morale collapses, and Griffith is able to drive them from the field.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' - "Favor the Bold": The ''Defiant'' emits a fake distress call and feigns being disabled to lure Dominion vessels so that a cloaked Klingon vessel can destroy them.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': Mal wins the duel in "Shindig" while on his back and genuinely injured. What he feigns is giving up the fight... and when his opponent swaggers up to gloat, presenting an easy target, Mal strikes.

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', this is how Kendra dies - Drusilla feigns being stunned by a kick in order to draw Kendra close enough to grab her, allowing Dru to mesmerise her and slit her throat.
** Later used by Buffy herself in the episode ''Showtime''. She, Willow and Xander allow the Ubervamp to breach the defenses of the Summers home and 'chase them away' in order to lure it to a construction site, where Buffy decapitates it with barbed wire. Note that, in this case, the trap isn't about making the kill easier (the barbed wire is an ImprovisedWeapon), but about setting up an arena suitable for the real plan - killing the Ubervamp spectacularly enough to inspire and motivate the Potentials.
** Buffy also uses this as a standard tactic against ordinary vampires and demons; letting them chase her into an area with no witnesses, faking a TwistedAnkle, then killing them. She lampshades this in "Earshot", [[TemptingFate only to be ambushed by a second demon]], implying they were trying the same trick on her.

* [[Manga/YuYuHakusho Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara]] ran away once from a very fast and invisible foe. They cornered themselves into a corridor, then, when the enemy came for the kill, Kuwabara, who could sense his presence but not pinpoint him, told Yusuke to attack and Yu shot a burst of his [[KiAttacks Shot Gun]]. In the narrow corridor, the enemy wasn't able to avoid the shots and was promptly defeated.

** Heavies can pull off a varient with the default loadout. Many Heavies tend to dispense with the shotgun in return for the [[HealThyself health-restoring]] Sandvich, which unfortnuately forces the Heavy in question to duck around a corner to relative safety due to being vulnerable for about four seconds as the Sandvich is heartily devoured. Where this trope comes in is if a Heavy ducks around a corner as if to eat a Sandvich and is chased by an opponent hoping to attack during the vulnerability...only to find out that the Heavy does not have a Sandvich and is, in fact, about to blow off the opponent's head with the shotgun.

* In ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'', the best ways to kill Lu Bu are power-leveling, and using this tactic to get him to follow you into your main base, at which point, a number of allied officers, and * infinite* allied mooks will bear down on him. Of course, he's still [[ThatOneBoss Lu Bu]].

* The book of Joshua in Literature/TheBible describes how the Israelites used this tactic to capture the city of Ai. Joshua divided his army into two groups, sending one of them under the cover of night to lay an ambush west of the city, while the main force approached from the east. When the army of Ai rushed out to attack them, the Israelites retreated, luring the enemy soldiers out of the city so that the troops lying in wait could rush in and set fire to the city -- whereupon the retreating soldiers turned to the offense, trapping the enemy in a pincer movement.

* Although it's an Attack method, ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'''s Roy uses this on a ogre with a spiked chain build, goading him towards the cliff that he falls over after [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0216.html mindlessly leaping backwards several times]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass R2'', Zero uses this strategy against the Eunuchs, with a twist: said help comes in the form of a citizen population enraged by the EngineeredPublicConfession the former had set up, with the latter openly admitting to the Empress Tianzi being disposable.
** He also tries it against Schneizel, but Schneizel doesn't take the bait.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In [[FanFic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed Equestria: A History Revealed]], during the Equestrian Civil War, Luna attempts this twice with her Nightmare forces. The first time was meant to completely wipe out Celestia's forces in [[spoiler: the Battle of Canterlot, allowing them to take an easy victory at first, then bringing in forces three times their size in an attempt to wipe the city off the map.]] After [[spoiler: that attempt's failure]] and the war's turning point, she attempts this again in a LastStand, in which she gathered as many forces as she could in [[spoiler: the Battle of the Everfree Plains, and attempts to encircle and ambush the enemy forces by relying on GeoEffects and an alliance with the monsters.]] She would have succeeded this time, if it wasn't for [[spoiler: the last minute arrival of TheCavalry.]]
* In ''Fanfic/HybridTheory'', [[Manga/{{Hellsing}} Rip Van Winkle]] discards all of her soul-bonded bullets except for one she leaves levitating in the center mass of the phased out Lotus Infinite, primed to explode the assassin if she solidifies in order to take advantage of the vampire's apparent moment of weakness.
* In CD-I Super Guns Fight, the evil team uses this against the good team following their crushing defeat in their first major battle. Iron Knuckle gets the Good Team's attention and tricks them into following him into a canyon. Ganon then activates the mines and most of the good team are blown bits, including their leader Fari. The evil team then reveal themselves and shoot the three survivors.
* ''Fanfic/BlackCrayons'' series: In one of the installments, titled ''A Child's Innocence'', [[BigBad Megatron]] feigns not being in top condition to lull his everyone around him to make them underestimate him should the time come for him to ''really'' fight. [[spoiler:[[SpannerInTheWorks Annabelle inadvertently convinces him that this backfired when she assumes that Sentinel and Dylan are behind the events in Chicago leading the Decepticon leader to believe he is no longer seen as a credible threat. This leads to Megatron turning on Sentinel.]]]]
* In ''Fanfic/AmazingFantasy'', Bakugou runs into Jirou alone during combat training. Eager to get the small fry out of the way before going after Izuku, he charges after her, becoming particularly determined after she manages to uppercut him hard enough to make him bite his tongue and bleed. During his pursuit, she leads him to a stairwell and he's about to pounce on her when [[spoiler:Izuku reveals that he'd been hiding underneath the stairs and promptly webs Bakugou to a wall. They repeat the stunt later with an even more pissed off Bakugou, only with Jirou willing to let herself get captured so Izuku can finally knock out Bakugou with a Venom Strike.]]

[[folder:Film]]

** In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'':

*** After that C-3PO lures a squad of stormtroopers who went in to capture them, then the Ewoks ambushed them from behind.

* In ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', Loki pulls this off by letting himself be captured, thereby leading his forces to the good guys' base [[spoiler: because of the homing beacon in his staff]].

* In Series/DarkAngel, Max and a small band of transgenics turn an escape plan into this in order to prevent police capture. (Naturally, they allow the police to retreat from the ambush afterwards.)

--> I will run, they will hunt me in vain\\

Coup de grace I will win but never fight

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In one series of ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' comics, Peppermint Patty and Marcie are caddying for two lady golfers who keep arguing about the score. Eventually, the argument turns violent:
--> '''Peppermint Patty:''' Look! Mrs. Nelson is climbing the tree! She's climbing the tree to get away from Mrs. Bartley. ''(BeatPanel with OhCrap expression from both her and Marcie.)'' Oh, I was wrong. She climbed the tree so she can jump on her.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* One of Wrestling/RicFlair's signature attacks is to get on his knees and beg for the opponent not to approach him, also while feigning back pain. As soon as the opponent walks up to him, he gets up and jabs them in the eye (alternatively he gives them a GroinAttack).
[[/folder]]

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', this tactic was used against the Tau Commander Farsight by ''[[AttackAttackAttack Orks]]'' of all people, during the War of Dakka. Such tactics are generally anathema to the Orks, and it's mentioned that the plan would never have worked (or even been ''attempted'') if the Warboss hadn't had a large number of Blood Axes (known for being "sneaky gitz") in his forces.
** Part of the reason this is so surprising is that one of the Tau's most famous strategies is in itself this, ''kauyon'', the 'patient hunter'. Derived from an ancient Tau hunting technique, it essentially relies on a lure to draw the enemy into a prepared killing zone.

* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' this is practically the entire reason for the "instant" card type which, unlike other types, can be played at any time. Other card types with the ability "flash" can be played at any time as well. In addition, creatures, artifacts, and enchantments often have "activated abilities", played like instants, which one might discount. All of this can be played twice during combat, or can be played ''in response to'' something else, the responses following the LIFO rule. And as of ''Zendikar'', there's a new subtype of instants called traps, which are a lot cheaper if your opponent did something during that turn. Yeah, ''Magic'' has a ''lot'' of room for these.
** The prevalence of such cards and strategies which can turn an apparent lead or advantage around in an instant usually cause experienced players to pretty much expect that the other player may pull this, to the point where any lead or impending victory usually means little until the game is actually won.
* As above many trap cards in Yu-Gi-Oh work like this, in particular, the ones that can only be activated in response to an attack.

[[folder:VideoGames]]

* In multiplayer games where the enemies are human, and therefore too smart to simply chase anyone who walks up, attacks once, and then runs away, a genuine attempt must be made to appear weak or show that an ostensible plan has failed; This more difficult distinction is called "Baiting".
** [=MOBAs=] such as ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' or ''DOTA'' can have this as a key point of strategy. In a game where positioning is crucial, drawing an enemy even just a few virtual meters from safety with the promise of an easy kill on a [[ShootTheMedicFirst healer]] can turn the tide of a teamfight, or even an entire match.

* A typical tactic in hack and slash games such as ''{{VideoGame/Diablo}}'' is to make the enemy forces stretch themselves thin by retreating. It can also be used to lure mooks away from a boss (handy if he can resurrect them), in a cheap but entirely legal exploitation of [=AI=] limits.

** In Diablo II, named monsters have a group of mook buddies that stick to them on an AI "leash." Getting mobbed is a ''very'' real danger in this game (each hit disables you for a set amount of time, leading to a CycleOfHurting if there's a lot of things hitting you at once.) Thus, the pack of normally-laughable fiends who avert this trope tend to be more dangerous than the miniboss itself.

** In the original ''VideoGame/WarCraft'', this was a not uncommon tactic for a human playing the computer. The archaic UI made a coordinated advance difficult, but sending a bait unit to draw the computer into an attack on your carefully drawn-up defensive formation usually worked pretty well.
* If you want to [[strike:do well]] survive [[ClassAndLevelSystem levels 1-3]] in the Infinity Engine games (''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', ''Icewind Dale'', etc.), learning this tactic will be a godsend.
* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': [[WeakButSkilled Archer]] favours these kinds of stratagems, employing them against [[SquishyWizard Caster]] ([[spoiler:using a slow-working attack and letting Caster think she has the upper hand before revealing that it's incoming]]) and [[LightningBruiser Lancer]] ([[spoiler:leaves intentional holes in his guard to turn dying from DeathOfAThousandCuts into an all-or-nothing defence, allowing him to stall for time until his strategic objectives are met]]). Rin also employs this against Caster ([[spoiler:Letting Caster think she's won a magic duel before revealing she knows Kung Fu]]).

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* The dwagon-donut trick in ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'' is a "defensive formation" example. [[spoiler: Attack the enemy marching line with hit and run dwagons, hide the wounded in a hex surrounded by strong dwagons. Enemy raiders expend all their move breaking through the far-side of the donut, only to discover the center hex is empty. The wounded dwagons are in a completely different hex and the raiders are now out of move and surrounded.]]

* In one ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' episode, the VillainOfTheWeek is an EvilOverlord from some ice-covered planet who uses a giant freeze ray to plunge the Earth into an ice age. The heroes seem completely unable to stop him, and eventually, they decide to flee the Earth itself - or so the villain thinks for a few minutes. They then get a message from Superman and Wonder Woman, telling him they're simply hiding out on the moon until they can launch a counter-attack. Now what would be stupider than an enemy who ''purposely'' gives his position away? Someone who doesn't realize it's a trap. As the good guys expected, the villain turn his freeze ray on the moon, and Superman (having the strength of the pre-Crisis version) is able to chip a large piece off, reflecting the sunlight in such a way to raise the temperature of the planet to an early Indian Summer and cripple the villain's headquarters by melting it down. He's defeated easily.

[[folder:MythologyAndReligion]]

* ''Literature/StarWarsLegends'':

* Happens more than once in the ''ComicBook/XWingSeries'', most notably at the start of ''Wraith Squadron''. Talon Squadron follows a single wounded enemy fighter into a trap which kills everyone but [[HeroicBSOD Myn Donos]].

* ''Film/StarWars'':

* A staple player tactic in ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', where it's commonly known as the Overwatch trap. Make contact with an alien pack in terrain that favors the aliens, fall back and set troops the aliens can't see in Overwatch mode. Works especially well on the more aggressive and less intelligent aliens, [[RandomNumberGod but it's not foolproof]]. Smarter aliens either won't fall for it or will just grenade where they think you are, while your own troopers can mess it up if they've been attending the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy.

An opponent lures their enemy into a trap by either [[TacticalWithdrawal feigning retreat]] or [[IAmNotLeftHanded weakness]]. Once the attacker has moved into position, or spent most of their energy/ammo attacking, the defender turns the tables by going all out, using GeoEffects, or calling his allies in ambush.

This can be done either by heroes or villains, though heroes tend to consider such tactics [[HonorBeforeReason "dishonorable".]] When done to a hero, the trap's fatality depends on the hero's level of PlotArmor, but will usually give them at least a good run for their money.

Expect at least one ally to say "[[ItsQuietTooQuiet This is too easy]]", and later yell "[[LuredIntoATrap No, stop! It's A Trap!]]" and get either ignored by the hero or heard too late. This can also take the form of an enemy enticing their attacker into "winning" a PyrrhicVictory before they realize what just happened.

This tactic, while it [[CombatAestheticist sounds splendid]], is [[DifficultButAwesome hard to pull off]] in RealLife because your own men don't know it is a trap; they only know that there are a lot of men with sharp metal objects and/or firearms pointed at their backs. An army has to be well disciplined, and perhaps practiced in this tactic before hand, or a feigned retreat will [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere turn into a real one]].

** He used a variation during the Earth/Minbari war. His ship was in fact crippled, and the distress call was very real The Minbari were known to leave no survivors and if a ship broadcasted a distress call for medical and technological assistance, they would come back to kill the survivors. He just seeded the area with nuclear mines before sending it, so the effect wound up being the same.

* This is a standard military tactic, called "Feigned Retreat". The Mongols excelled at it.[[note]]To the degree that even armies of people that had faced and been beaten by the tactic STILL FELL FOR IT.[[/note]] The Islamic armies during the Crusades also excelled in it--and the Muslim armies of the Mamluk Sultanate actually managed to pull it off against ''the Mongols'' at Marj al-Saffar. The Native American tribes were pretty good at it, and they got better when they got horses. Infantry today learn drills to break contact when at a disadvantage and get back into the fight under better conditions. Basically, anytime two units were facing off, and one could move faster than the other, this tactic was something to be wary of.