History Main / ASimplePlan

** ''Aufmarsch II West'' - War between Franco-Russian Entente and Germany, with Britain maybe assisting the Entente and Germany's allies (Austria-Hungary, Italy so long as Britain doesn't join France) maybe helping her. 80% of German Army in west, 20% in east. France and Russia will attack because they have the larger force, so Germany will be on the defensive in at least the first operation/campaign of the war and execute a counter-offensive against the French offensive when it comes - but instead of pursuing retreating French force, 1/4 of German force in west (20% of total German force) will transfer to east to launch counter-offensive against Russian offensive. ''Aufmarsch II West'' becomes the main German deployment plan as Germany's strategic situation worsens in the immediate pre-war years. '''Aufmarsch II West is implemented in August 1914''' [[note]] but Chief of the General Staff Moltke (the younger) orders the western force ''onto the offensive'' and ''only 1/16'' (5% of the total German forces) of the German force in west is transferred to the east after the initial decisive battle. Consequently Germany fails to destroy significant French forces because they use friendly rail lines to retreat faster than the Germans can pursue on-foot and on horseback (a feat impossible in German territory), and fails to destroy significant Russian forces either because the eastern force is too weak to execute a proper pursuit of the retreating Russian force. [[/note]].

** ''Aufmarsch I'' - War between France and Germany, with Germany's allies helping her out (Italians attack on Franco-Italian border and both Italy and Austria-Hungary send forces to Germany). France will be on the defensive because she will be grossly outnumbered, so to bring about a (favourable) end to the war Germany (and her allies) will have to attack her. ''Operational Plan'' after the deployment of the entire German Army in the west is to launch an offensive through Belgium-Luxembourg with most of the German Army and rely on the Austro-Hungarian and Italian forces to HoldTheLine on the (pre-war) Franco-German border. ''Aufmarsch I West'' looks less and less likely to be used as strength of Franco-Russian alliance is made clear and Britain aligns herself with France, making Italy unwilling to support Germany. It is scrapped as it becomes cclear that an isolated Franco-German war is an impossibility, and that Germany's allies won't help her even if it did happen somehow.
** ''Aufmarsch II West'' - War between France and Germany, with both France's (Russia, maybe Britain) and Germany's allies (Austria-Hungary, Italy so long as Britain doesn't join France) helping them out. 80% of German Army in west, 20% in east. France and Russia will attack because they have the larger force, so Germany will be on the defensive in at least the first operation/campaign of the war and execute a counter-offensive against the French offensive when it comes - but instead of pursuing retreating French force, 1/4 of German force in west (20% of total German force) will transfer to east to launch counter-offensive against Russian offensive. ''Aufmarsch II West'' becomes the main German deployment plan as Germany's strategic situation worsens in the immediate pre-war years. '''Aufmarsch II West is implemented in August 1914''' [[note]] but Chief of the General Staff Moltke (the younger) orders the western force ''onto the offensive'' and ''only 1/16'' (5% of the total German forces) of the German force in west is transferred to the east after the initial decisive battle. Consequently Germany fails to destroy significant French forces because they use friendly rail lines to retreat faster than the Germans can pursue on-foot and on horseback (a feat impossible in German territory), and fails to destroy significant Russian forces either because the eastern force is too weak to execute a proper pursuit of the retreating Russian force. [[/note]].

** ''Aufmarsch II Ost'' - War between Russia and Germany, with France neutral at first but maybe attacking Germany later. 60% of German Army in west, 40% in east. Russia may launch offensive because she has a superior force (and counts on eventual French involvement), but if she doesn't then German forces will launch offensive instead. After battle(s) against Russian force is/are won German force in east will remain in east and pursue retreating Russian force. German force in west will execute a defence, perhaps including a counter-offensive, without reinforcement. ''Aufmarsch II Ost'' becomes a secondary deployment plan as it becomes clear that an isolated Franco-German war is an impossibility and it's feared that the French offensive will succeed if it's not countered with more force, albeit slower (''Aufmarsch I Ost''), or more quickly and with more force (''Aufmarsch II West'').

** ''Aufmarsch I'' - War between France and Germany, with Germany's allies helping her out (Italians attack on Franco-Italian border and Austro-Hungarians send forces to Germany). France will be on the defensive because she will be grossly outnumbered, so to bring about a (favourable) end to the war Germany (and her allies) will have to attack her. ''Operational Plan'' after the deployment of the entire German Army in the west is to launch an offensive through Belgium-Luxembourg with most of the German Army and rely on the Austro-Hungarian and Italian forces to HoldTheLine on the (pre-war) Franco-German border. ''Aufmarsch I West'' looks less and less likely to be used as strength of Franco-Russian alliance is made clear and Britain aligns herself with France, making Italy unwilling to support Germany. It is scrapped as it becomes cclear that an isolated Franco-German war is an impossibility, and that Germany's allies won't help her even if it did happen somehow.

** ''Aufmarsch II West'' - War between France and Germany, with both France's (Russia, maybe Britain) and Germany's allies (Austria-Hungary, Italy so long as Britain doesn't join France) helping them out. 80% of German Army in west, 20% in east. France and Russia will attack because they have the larger force, so Germany will be on the defensive in at least the first operation/campaign of the war and execute a counter-offensive against the French offensive when it comes - but instead of pursuing retreating French force, 1/4 of German force in west (20% of total German force) will transfer to east to launch counter-offensive against Russian offensive. ''Aufmarsch II West'' becomes the main German deployment plan as Germany's strategic situation worsens in the immediate pre-war years. '''Aufmarsch II West is implemented in August 1914''' [[note]] but the western force is ordered ''onto the offensive'' and ''only 1/16'' (5% of the total German force) of German force in west is transferred to the east. Consequently Germany fails to destroy significant French forces because they use friendly rail lines to retreat, and her decisive battle against Russia is not as decisive a victory as it could have been because the eastern force is underpowered [[/note]].
** ''Aufmarsch I Ost'' - War between Franco-Russian Entente and Germany, with Britain maybe assisting the Entente and Germany's allies (Austria-Hungary, Italy so long as Britain doesn't join France) maybe helping her. 60% of German Army in west, 40% in east. France and Russia will attack because they have the larger force, so Germany will be on the defensive in at least the first operation/campaign of the war and execute a counter-offensive against the Russian offensive when it comes - but instead of pursuing retreating Russian force, 1/2 of German force in east (20% of total German force) will transfer to west to launch counter-offensive against French offensive. ''Aufmarsch I Ost'' becomes a secondary deployment plan as it's feared that the French offensive will succeed if it's not countered more quickly (as in ''Aufmarsch II West'').

# ''Aufmarsch I'' - War between France and Germany, with Germany's allies helping her out (Italians attack on Franco-Italian border and Austro-Hungarians send forces to Germany). France will be on the defensive because she will be grossly outnumbered, so to bring about a (favourable) end to the war Germany (and her allies) will have to attack her. ''Operational Plan'' after the deployment of the entire German Army in the west is to launch an offensive through Belgium-Luxembourg with most of the German Army and rely on the Austro-Hungarian and Italian forces to HoldTheLine on the (pre-war) Franco-German border. ''Aufmarsch I West'' looks less and less likely to be used as strength of Franco-Russian alliance is made clear and Britain aligns herself with France, making Italy unwilling to support Germany. It is scrapped as it becomes cclear that an isolated Franco-German war is an impossibility, and that Germany's allies won't help her even if it did happen somehow.
# ''Aufmarsch II West'' - War between France and Germany, with both France's (Russia, maybe Britain) and Germany's allies (Austria-Hungary, Italy so long as Britain doesn't join France) helping them out. 80% of German Army in west, 20% in east. France and Russia will attack because they have the larger force, so Germany will be on the defensive in at least the first operation/campaign of the war and execute a counter-offensive against the French offensive when it comes - but instead of pursuing retreating French force, 1/4 of German force in west (20% of total German force) will transfer to east to launch counter-offensive against Russian offensive. ''Aufmarsch II'' becomes the main German deployment plan as Germany's strategic situation worsens in the immediate pre-war years.
# ''Aufmarsch I Ost'' - War between Franco-Russian Entente and Germany, with Britain maybe assisting the Entente and Germany's allies (Austria-Hungary, Italy so long as Britain doesn't join France) maybe helping her. 60% of German Army in west, 40% in east. France and Russia will attack because they have the larger force, so Germany will be on the defensive in at least the first operation/campaign of the war and execute a counter-offensive against the Russian offensive when it comes - but instead of pursuing retreating Russian force, 1/2 of German force in east (20% of total German force) will transfer to west to launch counter-offensive against French offensive. ''Aufmarsch I Ost'' becomes a secondary deployment plan as it's feared that the French offensive will succeed if it's not countered more quickly (as in ''Aufmarsch II West'').
# ''Aufmarsch II Ost'' - War between Russia and Germany, with France neutral at first but maybe attacking Germany later. 60% of German Army in west, 40% in east. Russia may launch offensive because she has a superior force (and counts on eventual French involvement), but if she doesn't then German forces will launch offensive instead. After battle(s) against Russian force is/are won German force in east will remain in east and pursue retreating Russian force. German force in west will execute a defence, perhaps including a counter-offensive, without reinforcement. ''Aufmarsch II Ost'' becomes a secondary deployment plan as it becomes clear that an isolated Franco-German war is an impossibility and it's feared that the French offensive will succeed if it's not countered with more force, albeit slower (''Aufmarsch I Ost''), or more quickly and with more force (''Aufmarsch II West'').

* The Triple Alliance's plan for UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne: in case of war with the Entente, the Austro-Hungarians go all-out on the Eastern border against Russia while Germany holds on their own border, in the meantime most of the Germans and the whole Italian army invade France on two fronts (with the Germans passing from Belgium), ensuring that one or both forces will reach Paris and knock France out the war, and then everyone gangs up on Russia, forcing Britain to ask for peace, and then everyone's HomeByChristmas. Italy declared neutrality (and would later enter the war on the ''Entente''[='=]s side), leading to France holding the line on the Marne and the Austro-Hungarian offensive being beaten back when the Russians managed to mobilize enough troops.

* ''SkysurferStrikeForce''. Jack Hollister has a simple plan; go talk to the expert who possibly installed Cybron's AI brain. The guy's in prison, so this should be easy. Right?

* [[RichardNixon Watergate]]. Ye gods, Watergate.

** Which is actually not far off from the plot of ''Suicide Kings''.

* ''{{Asterix}} And The Golden Sickle'': Asterix and Obelix go to Lutetia to buy a new golden sickle for Getafix. They soon become involved in a mystery involving a gang of golden sickle traffickers, and end up being arrested by the local Romans several times.

* ''Series/DoctorWho''. Anytime the TARDIS lands and the crew has something relaxing or normal planned--going to the beach, visiting their family, maybe just picking up some milk--will end up with them all running for their lives. ''[[OncePerEpisode Every. Single. Time]].''

* The Triple Alliance's plan for WorldWarOne: in case of war with the Entente, the Austro-Hungarians go all-out on the Eastern border against Russia while Germany holds on their own border, in the meantime most of the Germans and the whole Italian army invade France on two fronts (with the Germans passing from Belgium), ensuring that one or both forces will reach Paris and knock France out the war, and then everyone gangs up on Russia, forcing Britain to ask for peace, and then everyone's HomeByChristmas. Italy declared neutrality (and would later enter the war on the ''Entente''[='=]s side), leading to France holding the line on the Marne and the Austro-Hungarian offensive being beaten back when the Russians managed to mobilize enough troops.

** [[spoiler:Loghain's plan is even more simple: [[TheUriahGambit He doesn't]] .]] And it works perfectly. It's a bit more complicated of course, since the original plan was also Logain's and had pretty clearly failed before he retreated due to underestimating the enemy numbers making following the original plan a StupidSacrifice.]]

** [[spoiler:Loghain]]'s plan is even more simple: [[spoiler: [[TheUriahGambit He doesn't]] .]] And it works perfectly.

* [[{{RichardNixon}} Watergate]]. Ye gods, Watergate.

[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] the [[Film/ASimplePlan film of the same name]], which [[PlethoraOfMistakes used a related trope]]. Also not to be confused with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Plan the band of the same name]].

* Every episode of ''RegularShow'' so far has fit this trope to an extent.
* ''Skysurfer Strike Force''. Jack Hollister has a simple plan; go talk to the expert who possibly installed Cybron's AI brain. The guy's in prison, so this should be easy. Right?

* Exceptionally common in the StarWarsExpandedUniverse, since both the Empire and Republic ''du jour'' are generally [[WeAreStrugglingTogether riven by internal strife]] and ambitious individuals are all too happy to latch onto any plan more complicated than "go to the next room and get a drink" for their own benefit. The most impressive:
** ''[[XWingSeries Wedge's Gamble]]'': Wedge Antilles and his [[AcePilot crack pilots]]-[[DoAnythingSoldier slash-infiltration team]] are told to bring down Coruscant's planetary shields. They intend to do so by inserting a programming hook in the planetary computer system that will let them simply tell the computer to turn them off. This will be simple, they reckon, because a Rebel sympathizer controls the factory that makes hardware for the system. [[TheMole This plan doesn't go to spec]], so Wedge ends up [[IndyPloy furiously improvising]] a strategy that uses an orbital mirror satellite, a giant floating construction robot, and a bunch of black-market starfighters. It works.
** ''Literature/{{Shatterpoint}}'': Mace Windu intends to sneak into the Confederate-held system of Haruun Kal, [[SendInTheSearchTeam and find his renegade ex-Padawan]], ostensibly in charge of a local partisan movement, who may have gone a little ''HeartOfDarkness'' on them. Once he finds her, he'll just call in a Republic cruiser that will punch into the system, send down a shuttle, and jump out; no muss, no fuss. This plan goes to hell in the most direct way imaginable when the whole system [[spoiler: is a Separatist trap]] and Depa's AxCrazy associates decide they ''want'' the war to continue. Mace ends up winning, of course, but not in the way he would prefer.
** ''[[NewJediOrder Rebel Dream]]'': Perhaps the simplest of them all: all Wedge Antilles (again) has to do is not get killed defending Borleias from the Yuuzhan Vong. ([[spoiler: Well, the Advisory Council [[TheUriahGambit would prefer he die]], just not right away.]]) Between his stubborn refusal to listen to a stupid order and his [[XanatosSpeedChess particular brand of tactical genius]], he manages to not only hold the system against the unstoppable alien horde for months and withdraw in good order, rather than being overrun, he [[spoiler: sets up a quasi-independent resistance movement to take over when or if the Republic collapses]] and manages to kill one of the top Vong generals in the bargain.

A {{Sitcom}} plot where the characters are trying to pull off some kind of easy, straightforward operation; throw a surprise party, open a restaurant, or pick someone up at the airport. Either a series of things go wrong, they screw up through their own natural laziness, cheapness, or stubbornness; or one solitary thing goes awry and the whole simple plan falls to pieces.

Not to be confused with the [[Film/ASimplePlan film of the same name]], which [[PlethoraOfMistakes used a related trope]]. Also not to be confused with the band of the same name.

* Creator/TheCoenBrothers have almost made this a trademark of their films, be they comedy or drama. ''TheLadykillers'', ''Intolerable Cruelty'', ''TheBigLebowski'' ("The beauty of my plan is... its simplicity"), ''The Hudsucker Proxy'', ''The Man Who Wasn't There'' and ''BloodSimple'' all play on this trope to a substantial degree. ''{{Film/Fargo}}'' is probably their best example: Hire two crooks to kidnap your wife, and get your cheapskate Father-in-law to pay the ransom. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong?

* Played painfully straight on the ''MySoCalledLife'' episode "Life of Brian" where the simple plan is to go to the school dance. One kid changes dates, which sets off a chain reaction of people changing theirs, until nobody is happy with what results. Despite sounding comedic, the episode showed what it would be like to actually have to deal with that in real life.

* ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim'': ''All'' what Daba intended to do at the first chapter was delivering a cash card to a stranger. But somehow he got involved in a rebellion against TheEmpire and a war that spanned five planets.
* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': In episode 46 [[BigBad Dr. Hell's]] had a pretty simple plan: send two MechaMooks to infiltrate into the [[HomeBase Institute]] and planting several nukes in [[HumongousMecha Mazinger-Z's]] launching dock. Everything explodes, he wins. However that simple plan met due to his {{Robeast}}s and his troops running into abandoned babies, suicidal mothers, and at a point they got involved in a manhunt through a woodland.