History Main / DefensiveFeintTrap

-->-- [[MurphysLaw Murphy's Rules]] of Combat

-->-- [[UsefulNotes/MurphysLaw Murphy's Rules]] of Combat

-->-- [[MurphysLaw Murphy's Rules]] of Combat

*** The attack on the second Death Star. The Rebels attacked because they believed the Emperor's DefensiveFeintTrap -- that the station was incomplete and vulnerable. Instead, not only was the station fully operational, but the arriving Rebels were ambushed by the Imperial fleet behind Endor.

* In ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'', the PlayerCharacter end up doing this ''unintentionally''. [[spoiler: Your MagnificentBastard Master deliberately built a weakness into your fighting style that only he can exploit.]] Other masters took notice of a peculiarity in your fighting style but dismissed it as an actual DefensiveFeintTrap. At the climax of the game, the trap was used for its intended purpose.

** A well-known variation is to [[GeoEffects use nature]] as a DefensiveFeintTrap. If the defender has no points that it absolutely needs to defend, or it can trust that such points are strong enough to last through an entire campaigning season; and if the area hasn't enough [[{{Plunder}} forage]] to sustain the invader, it is commonly used. The invader has to maintain a long supply line draining off garrisons for outposts and escorts for convoys (which are often subject to partisan attacks when this kind of strategy is used). The effect is similar to that of a TabletopGame/{{Risk}} player who advances until he has no army left. Examples of such strategy include the UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire on several occasions, the Americans during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, the Spaniards in UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars and, most famously, Russia in UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

* A RealLife subversion: Operation Fortitude was a dis-information campaign that the Allies used in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII to get Germany to believe that they were greater in numbers (Germany believed there were 90 Allied divisions in England, when there were only 44) and were poised to attack other locations. The result: Hitler believed that Normandy was just a DefensiveFeintTrap to draw fire away from Pas de Calais, where more divisions were waiting. Of course, what Hitler didn't know was that the troops there were just balloon tanks and Hollywood sets. It helped that [[BloodKnight General Patton]] was supposedly in charge of the US forces heading for Calais -- really an offensive feint trap.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' there are a few moves that have the same practical effect. Payback works like this - if your opponent hits you before the move goes off, you do double damage with it. Avalanche does as well. Fairly obviously, so does Revenge. There are also combinations that involve setting up a DesperationAttack (Flail and Reversal) to effectively function like this.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} 3'' the alliance against the [[LegionsOfHell Burning Legion]] is simply intended to hold them off just long enough to set up a trap. Of course, given the odds they were facing, they weren't exactly letting them have it easy on purpose.
* 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.

* ''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 inferior numbers in a place from which he won’t be able retreat if he loses. Griffith leads a vanguard of about 2,000 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 kind of trick Griffith is trying to pull, 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 [[BatmanGambit what Griffith was counting on]]. The cavalry battle has stirred up huge clouds of dust that make it nearly impossible for the sentries on the castle battlements to see what's going on, allowing the other half of Griffith's forces (led by Casca) to sneak around the battle and pour into the castle through its 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.

%%** Shikamaru has used some form of this in nearly every one of his fights.%%Needs context.

* A favorite tactic of UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Battle of France and the North African campaign]] when faced with incoming armored assault. Rommel would order his Panzers to retreat, drawing the Allied armor into range of his 88mm AA gun emplacements, the power of which could disable virtually any allied tanks fielded at the time due to its high calibre and muzzle velocity. This was actually a necessary tactic in multiple battles since those 88mm guns were the only things he had that were powerful enough to actually penetrate the heavy frontal armor of the British Matilda IIs and Churchills. The weak 37 and 50 mm guns that most German tanks were mounting at that point in the war [[NoSell were completely ineffective]].

* Shikamaru in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has used some form of this nearly everyone of his fights.

* [[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 [[KiManipulation Shot Gun]]. In the narrow corridor, the enemy wasn't able to avoid the shots and was promptly defeated.

* The entire strategy of "pulling" in video games -- one person is the "puller" who gets the enemy's attention so the enemy will follow to a different area. This is done to fight one enemy (or a small group) at a time from a larger group of enemies, or (more rarely) to lure the enemy off of terrain favoring them and/or onto terrain favoring you. A variant, "kiting," can be done on particularly slow enemies, where the puller lures an enemy around and around, as the damage dealers wail on the enemy.

* 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.]]

* ''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 inferior numbers in a place from which he won’t be able retreat if he loses. 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 kind of trick Griffith is trying to pull, 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 [[BatmanGambit what Griffith was counting on]]. The cavalry battle has stirred up huge clouds of dust that make it nearly impossible for the sentries on the castle battlements to see what's going on, allowing the other half of Griffith's forces (led by Casca) to sneak around the battle and pour into the castle through its 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 inferior numbers in a place from which he won’t be able retreat if he loses. 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 [[BatmanGambit 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.

* The Earth Alliance pull one of these in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'', leaving minimal forces at the Alaska base while most of the ZAFT forces stage an attack on it. They wait until ZAFT has nearly taken the entire base, then set off the Cyclops system hidden underground, blowing the base and 80% of ZAFT's fighting force to kingdom come.
** In a subversion of this, the Atlantic Federation faction of the Earth Alliance had actually sacrificed their allies by manipulating them into this plot; by deliberately leaving behind forces belonging to the Eurasian Federation at Alaska, they not only convince ZAFT that they're ''not'' walking into a DefensiveFeintTrap, but also ensure that the bulk of the Eurasian Federation's military forces are blown to kingdom come with the ZAFT forces, effectively ensuring the Eurasians no longer have the capability to challenge Atlantic Federation dominance in the Earth Alliance.

* In ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'', the climactic tumble into the Reichenbach Falls starts off right after Holmes [[InvoluntaryCharityDonation fleeced Moriarty of all his ill-begotten war fortunes]] as well as [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking trounced him in Blitz Chess]] with a SurpriseCheckmate. Holmes had previously been savagely tortured by Moriarty by means of a meat hook through the shoulder. [[spoiler:Holmes baits the now [[TranquilFury furious]] Moriarty (who just threatened to kill Watson and his newlywed wife) with a SherlockScan battle, where the inevitable conclusion (given Holmes's hobbling injury) results in Moriarty victorious and Holmes tossed over the ledge. Except it was a defensive feint trap, and Holmes's plan ultimately was a HeroicSacrifice taking them both over the edge into the Reichenbach Falls as per the Sherlock Holmes mythos.]]

* In ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'', the climactic tumble into the Reichenbach Falls starts off right after Holmes [[InvoluntaryCharityDonation fleeced Moriarty of all his ill-begotten war fortunes]]. Holmes had previously been savagely tortured by Moriarty by means of a meat hook through the shoulder. [[spoiler:Holmes baits the now [[TranquilFury furious]] Moriarty (who just threatened to kill Watson and his newlywed wife) with a SherlockScan battle, where the inevitable conclusion (given Holmes's hobbling injury) results in Moriarty victorious and Holmes tossed over the ledge. Except it was a defensive feint trap, and Holmes's plan ultimately was a HeroicSacrifice taking them both over the edge into the Reichenbach Falls as per the Sherlock Holmes mythos.]]

* ''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 [[BatmanGambit 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.

** 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.
** Diablo III: The Demon Hunter's Sentries are built for this; use up your Hatred resource to summon all your magically-automated crossbow turrets in one spot, then lure your enemies by Vaulting with your Discipline resource back and forth into your turret nest.

* Can sometimes happen in WorldOfWarships by clever... or insane... carrier players. It's no great secret that the fighters a Carrier can launch can be a major annoyance to the opposing team at best, or a nightmare at worst, so it stands to reason that Carriers would be a major target. What then happens is that the second a Carrier is spotted, players willing to destroy them will focus ''everything'' they have on the Carrier in an attempt to sink it, thus enabling the Carriers own team-mates to move in, and pick off the other team while they're distracted.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': At one point Etta leads her Holliday Girls into an outnumbered fight with some Nazis then has her girls flee past a waiting ambush let by ComicBook/SteveTrevor and turn and rejoin the fight once the USAAF has the Nazis cut off from escape.

* NATO forces use this against a Soviet advance in ''Literature/RedStormRising.'' It works, but the Soviets have enough firepower to plow through anyway.