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Fan Works
Mantis: [casually] Hey, mouse, how many bugs do you think are down there, watching?
Mouse Bandit: Th-thousands?
Mantis: At least. There's hundreds of thousands in Wei Fu Woods. And how many mice came over from Zhi Village?
Mouse Bandit: ...a few hundred.
Mantis: I see, interesting. So, now that the idea of using superior numbers to overwhelm enemies has been planted in their heads, how long do you think you can keep subjugating people?
Mouse Bandit: Th-thousands?
Mantis: At least. There's hundreds of thousands in Wei Fu Woods. And how many mice came over from Zhi Village?
Mouse Bandit: ...a few hundred.
Mantis: I see, interesting. So, now that the idea of using superior numbers to overwhelm enemies has been planted in their heads, how long do you think you can keep subjugating people?
— Oogway's Little Owl, after Taylor has just finished telling the story of A Bug's Life to a village of opressed insects.
Mikey: The Shredder thinks if he throws enough Foot ninja at a problem, it'll go away.
Breech: That's right. There'll be less Foot ninja for a start.
Breech: That's right. There'll be less Foot ninja for a start.
— The Long Walk, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fanfic
Film—Animation
"You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up! Those "puny little ants" outnumber us a hundred to one. And if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life! It's not about food. It's about keeping those ants in line. That's why we're going back! Does anybody else wanna stay?"
Z: [panicked] Hey, wait a minute! Let's not get... we're being too hasty here! These guys sound like bruisers! Just how were you figuring on beating them?!
Film—Live-Action
"The one with the rifle shoots! The one without follows him! When the one with the rifle gets killed, the one without picks up the rifle and shoots!"
"More."
— Smith, The Matrix Reloaded
"There's too many of 'em!"
— Bruce Banner, Avengers: Infinity War
Literature
Every time we killed a thousand Bugs at a cost of one M.I. it was a net victory for the Bugs. We were learning, expensively, just how efficient a total communism can be when used by a people actually adapted to it by evolution; the Bug commissars didn't care any more about expending soldiers than we cared about expending ammo.
Corporal Vanhala: A Finnish soldier is as good as ten Soviets!
Corporal Lahtinen: Yes, but what do you do when the eleventh one comes?
Corporal Lahtinen: Yes, but what do you do when the eleventh one comes?
Live-Action TV
"You know nothing of violence. Twelve mangy dogs can kill a lion."
— Marc Antony, Rome
Tabletop Games
Throw enough goblins at a problem and it should go away. At the very least, there'll be fewer goblins.
— Flavor Text for "Goblin Piledriver", Magic: The Gathering
We cannot live through this. Mankind...cannot live through this. In a single day, they have covered the surface of this planet with a flood of living blades and needle-fanged mouths! Kill one, and ten take its place!
Magos Varnak on the Tyranids, Warhammer 40,000
Video Games
The Tiger tank is a legendary war machine.
Allied guns can barely scratch the thick steel skin. Few enemies can survive the Tiger's bite, an 88mm cannon that destroys most allied tanks with a single shot.
Germany constructed 1,347 Tigers. The US produced almost 50,000 Sherman tanks.
A Tiger crew would often run out of ammunition before the enemy ran out of tanks.
Allied guns can barely scratch the thick steel skin. Few enemies can survive the Tiger's bite, an 88mm cannon that destroys most allied tanks with a single shot.
Germany constructed 1,347 Tigers. The US produced almost 50,000 Sherman tanks.
A Tiger crew would often run out of ammunition before the enemy ran out of tanks.
— Battlefield V: "The Last Tiger"
"One down, millions to go."
— Scout Sergeant Cyrus after killing a Tyranid, Dawn of War II
"There're thousands of Zerg!"
— Tychus Findlay, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
Tychus Findlay: So how was it, Jimmy, fightin' them zerg?
Jim Raynor: All the scrapes we got into back in the day, all the narrow escapes, none of it compares to how terrible they are, Tychus. You don't know what true fear is till you've got a thousand of these sons of bitches barrelin' down on ya.
Jim Raynor: All the scrapes we got into back in the day, all the narrow escapes, none of it compares to how terrible they are, Tychus. You don't know what true fear is till you've got a thousand of these sons of bitches barrelin' down on ya.
— StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, conversation prior to Zero Hour
"It doesn't matter. We're the Swarm; we can sacrifice thousands for each one of their soldiers."
— Kerrigan, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
Whoa! A horde of (insert Pokémon name here) appeared!
— Pokémon X and Y / Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, during the beginning of a Horde Encounter.
"Some battles can be won by attrition. This is not one of them. As you have observed, the draug and their waterlogged victims are able to spawn like newts. The forest insects are equally prodigious. The military position will not, cannot hold."
— Richard Sonnac, The Secret World
"Oh, God! Never underestimate the power of stupid things in large numbers!"
— Sam Stone, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
"A goblin has entered your domain. On his own he is a cowardly beast, but in a horde becomes a useful fighting force."
— The Mentor, Dungeon Keeper 2
Webcomics
Haley: I'm sorry, but they're 1-HD hobgoblins. I think each soldier can handle 3 of them.
O-Chul: Right, because the forces of evil are always considerate enough to attack in discrete 3-person groups. ...Let's say your Armor Class is so high they need a natural 20 to hit you. Statistically, that means that one out of every twenty attacks is still hurting you. If each hobgoblin gets off 4 attacks before you can put them down, then for every 5 foes you face tomorrow, you'll be stabbed once. So what are you going to do if the entire army attacks, say, the south wall? Can you survive fighting 100 hobgoblins until we can reinforce your position? How about 200? 2000?
O-Chul: Right, because the forces of evil are always considerate enough to attack in discrete 3-person groups. ...Let's say your Armor Class is so high they need a natural 20 to hit you. Statistically, that means that one out of every twenty attacks is still hurting you. If each hobgoblin gets off 4 attacks before you can put them down, then for every 5 foes you face tomorrow, you'll be stabbed once. So what are you going to do if the entire army attacks, say, the south wall? Can you survive fighting 100 hobgoblins until we can reinforce your position? How about 200? 2000?
Web Original
Jack: We shouldn't underestimate Tutti-Frutti's minions!
Cobalt: Yeah, they are soooooo effective!
Jack: Very effective, and more importantly very numerous!
Dora: Yeah, beware, there must be seven of them inside!
Jack: Seven hundred, to be specific.
[Beat]
Dora: ... Okay, now I get your point.
Cobalt: Yeah, they are soooooo effective!
Jack: Very effective, and more importantly very numerous!
Dora: Yeah, beware, there must be seven of them inside!
Jack: Seven hundred, to be specific.
[Beat]
Dora: ... Okay, now I get your point.
kekekekekekekeke ZERG RUSH! ^________^
— Korean StarCraft servers, traditional
Not sure if your opponent has assembled a "Cloak of the Undead King"? Don't worry, I have a foolproof method of finding out! Mouse over his stack of Power Liches in combat, note down the number, if it's somewhere between several hundred thousand or if the text box is flickering and glitching out, he probably has it assembled. Let me explain, normally, Necromancy revives only Skeletons, but with a Cloak of the Balanced King, you revive Liches instead. Liches are Level 5 Necropolis Shooters, and your opponent has billions of them. He has so many, that if he ever tried to split the stacks in his inventory, his game will crash.
— SsethTzeenatch:
briefly discussing how the Necropolis faction can abuse this with the right items in becoming an unstoppable force in Heroes of Might and Magic III
briefly discussing how the Necropolis faction can abuse this with the right items in becoming an unstoppable force in Heroes of Might and Magic III"Let me put it like this: Would you rather have a hundred cheap tanks, or fifty expensive ones? Because a hundred tanks is not just a hundred tanks. That's twice the crew, twice the training, twice the fuel, twice the supply trucks following them around, twice the spare parts! Meaning those 100 cheap tanks can end up costing you a lot more than you would've thought."
— Lazerpig on when this trope doesn't apply, The T-34 is not as good as you think it is
D-Class Player: There's three of us and one of him!
[Two D-Classes rush into the room only for the Scientist to shoot them both to death]
Scientist: But I have a gun, see?
[Two D-Classes rush into the room only for the Scientist to shoot them both to death]
Scientist: But I have a gun, see?
— Several players in SCP: Secret Laboratory, "There's three of us and one of him"
Tex: War is not about quality, it is about quantity.
— Tex Talks Battletech: The Madcat
Western Animation
Jack Why, there must be a hundred of you mice!
Mouse: Sure, the castle is infested with us.
Jack: Then what are you afraid of the cat for?
Mouse: Well, a mouse is always afraid of the cat.
Jack: A mouse, maybe, but not mice. Didn't you guys ever hear of "E. pluribus union"?
Mouse: E. Pluribus Who?
Jack: Yeah, two can do what one can't. And twenty can do five or six times better than that.
Mouse: But we're so teeny and weeny, and the cat is so darn ferocious.
Jack: But all you gotta do is add all your teeny, weeny, little selves together in one big ball of fight.
