Basic Trope: A smaller force can hold its own against a larger one because of superior skill, technology or something else.
- Straight: All of Tropeland's soldiers have The Strength of Ten Men, so they can beat nine times larger army of the Mikipedian Empire.
- Exaggerated: Every Tropeland soldier is a One-Man Army.
- Downplayed:
- Every regular Tropeland soldier is better than his Mikipedian equivalent, but is no match for Mikipedia's Elite Mooks.
- Tropeland soldiers are only slightly better than those of Mikipedia; superior leadership is what tips the balance.
- Justified:
- The Tropeland army uses personalized training for volunteers and has modern equipment, while Mikipedia's forces rely on mass conscription and outdated gear.
- The Tropeland army is largely comprised of Super Soldiers.
- Inverted: Mikipedia has a lot of poorly-equipped soldiers that they just Zerg Rush the enemy with, in hopes of drowning them in numbers.
- Subverted:
- Mikipedia has difficulties with Tropeland's army, but prevails in the end.
- Mikipedia's overall advantages are so great as to render Tropeland's emphasis on quality moot.
- Tropeland may have better soldiers, but Mikipedia has more powerful weapons at its disposal that tip the balance in its favour.
- Tropeland starts off with a superb army, but is forced to replace its losses with lower-quality troops.
- Double Subverted: Tropeland's army is defeated, but Mikipedia's army is fatally weakened.
- Parodied: Tropeland's army is so formidable that they are treated like superheroes by the citizens, and announcing a war against Tropeland will make your soldiers desert en masse.
- Zig Zagged: Tropeland loses as often as it wins.
- Averted: Tropeland and Mikipedia's armies are roughly similar in size and capability.
- Enforced: The writer wants to write a David Versus Goliath or Underdogs Never Lose story.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: Tropeland knows it doesn't have the numbers or resources to defend against Mikipedian aggression, so it hurries to tech up and uses The Spartan Way, hoping to have better-equipped and more skilled soldiers that can punch above their weight.
- Exploited: Mikipedia realizes that Tropeland's army is lacking in numbers, so they launch a series of diversionary attacks to spread their opponent's forces thin.
- Defied: "Superior skill and technology won't be enough to let us win! Get the engineers and scientists cracking. I don't care if we need to use Attack Drones, cloning or Mecha-Mooks, but we need more men!"
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Tropeland's technological superiority isn't enough to be decisive. Moreover, it costs more for Tropeland to train one elite soldier than it does for Mikipedia to give ten mooks lousy weapons and hurl them into the fray, and Tropeland's smaller army means every loss hurts more.
- The reason why Tropeland's army is so small in the first place is because Tropeland's overall population, economy, and industry are a lot smaller than Mikipedia. Tropeland makes a valiant effort, but is ultimately overrun by Mikipedia's economic, industrial and numerical superiority.
- Tropeland defeats Mikipedia, but its lack of manpower compared to its foe means it can't effectively subdue Mikipedia. In the Evil Power Vacuum that follows, the surviving generals and nobles turn into petty warlords fighting for scraps, while ultranationalist terrorists become a thorn in Tropeland's side for years to come. Tropeland Won the War, Lost the Peace.
- Tropeland's army is formidable and wins battle after battle. However, it is ultimately undermined by its politicians, who are corrupt, incompetent, and divided among themselves. Tropeland's military successes are all for nought when Tropeland's leader recalls the army to suppress an insurrection at home. Or worse, a civil war breaks out, unleashing all the devastation the army can wrought unto Tropeland itself.
- Reconstructed:
- Tropeland may not have the numbers, but it ultimately doesn't need to; the training and technology superiority it has allows it to hold out long enough for an anti-Mikipedia Alliance to form, which collectively has the manpower and industry to defeat Mikipedia and successfully pacify it afterwards.
Back to Elite Army
