History Main / DelayingAction

* In ''Goblin slayer'' when a inexperienced naïve group of young adventurers decide to go into a cave inhabited by goblins, they are ambushed, and completely outnumbered. The goblins manage to kill 2 members of the group with ease, and only the priestess and fighter girl are left, the fighter girl begins fighting off the horde to give the priestess enough time to escape, knowing full well the horrible fate that awaits her, so this can also count as a heroic sacrifice. Interesting enough the fighter girl is able to hold her own, until a large goblin joins the fight and breaks her leg, leading to her getting gang raped, despite this she shouts for the priestess to continue her escape.

* The Second Battle of [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]. Against a Dominion-Cardassian Fleet, the station manages to destroy 50 ships before the Starfleet crew is forced to abandon it. Before leaving, Sisko reveals that while they had focused much of the Dominion's ships, a Starfleet-Klingon task force destroyed a major Cardassian shipyard.

'''Juza:''' Ok, then, two days...''[holds his heavily bleeding wound]'' Looks like I have to sacrifice my life.

* In ''Literature/ArkRoyal'', when an unexpected alien threat surfaces, and the modern [[SpaceNavy Space Navies]] prove utterly incapable of dealing with them, the British Royal Navy sends in the obsolescent titular [[TheBattlestar armored carrier]] to try to hold off the alien advance in the slim hope that her armor and [[MagneticWeapon railguns]] will allow her to survive and deal a blow to the enemy. The initial engagement is successful, and the ''Ark Royal'' ends up destroying several alien carriers, forcing a retreat. As a result, the ship is once again sent to confront the aliens, hoping to keep them away from Earth until the major space powers can design and build ''Ark Royal''-type ships.

* The 3rd Terran mission in ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft|I}}'' involves this, where you must hold off the Zerg until rescue arrives.

** Played with in the final Protoss mission in ''VideoGame/StarcraftII: Wings of Liberty''. It takes place in the BadFuture, and defeat is unavoidable, you're simply trying to take as many Zerg with you. An optional objective plays it straight, in that other Protoss are trying to FlingALightIntoTheFuture, you need to hold out until they're done.

* The Battle of Hoth in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. The Rebels knew there was no way they could actually win: the Empire had better equipment (including heavy armor for which the Rebels had no viable counter) and too much of a numerical advantage. The ground forces and Rogue Squadron simply hoped to delay the Imps long enough to evacuate the base. The battle was considered an Imperial victory overall, though the Rebels technically achieved their objective. [[FridgeLogic Though did the walker speed ever really slow down at all?]]

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar The Battle off Samar]] had elements of this. Taffy 3, a task force commanded by Rear Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague, consisted of a half dozen Escort Carriers, three Destroyers, and four Destroyer-Escorts. They ended up being surprised by Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's Center Force, consisting of four battleships, eight cruisers, and eleven destroyers. Badly outmatched, Taffy 3's Destroyers and Destroyer-Escorts launched an attack on the Center Force, aided by aircraft launched by Taffy 3's carriers and those of nearby Taffys 1 and 2 (none of which carried bombs capable of damaging the armored heavy warships), in hopes of giving the escort carriers a chance to escape. However, Kurita was WrongGenreSavvy, assuming that this intended to buy time for Admiral Halsey's 3rd Fleet to arrive, rather than allow the carriers to escape, and ordered a retreat. In return, Taffy 3 lost a third of their ships (including two Escort Carriers), and only two of their ships escaped damage.

* ''[[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Dark Force Rising]]'': Rogue Squadron did this, trying to buy time for Luke and Han to get into their ships and let [[DividedWeFall Fey'lya]] escape with his force. Fortunately for them, Fey'lya was steered into an EngineeredPublicConfession and his people [[ChangedMyMindKid went back to help the Rogues]]. This wasn't enough. Karrde's smugglers showed up. This wasn't enough. Then [[BigDamnHeroes Bel Iblis showed up]]. [[HopeSpot This was enough]] until a second Star Destroyer appeared, and it took two counts of RammingAlwaysWorks before the day was saved.

* [[ComicBook/XWingSeries Rogue Squadron]] did this in ''[[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Dark Force Rising]]'', trying to buy time for Luke and Han to get into their ships and let [[DividedWeFall Fey'lya]] escape with his force. Fortunately for them, Fey'lya was steered into an EngineeredPublicConfession and his people [[ChangedMyMindKid went back to help the Rogues]]. This wasn't enough. Karrde's smugglers showed up. This wasn't enough. Then [[BigDamnHeroes Bel Iblis showed up]]. [[HopeSpot This was enough]] until a second Star Destroyer appeared, and it took two counts of RammingAlwaysWorks before the day was saved.
** [[TheCaptain Wedge]] [[FourStarBadass Antilles]] ''loves'' these, since his particular style of warfare makes them ''work''. Case in point: the [[Literature/NewJediOrder Siege of Borleais]]. All told, the siege involved an entire fake secret engineering project, an entire ''real'' secret engineering project, a planetary bombardment ''by the garrison defenders'', a Super Star Destroyer dropping into the middle of the enemy fleet... oh, and [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome the wholesale evacuation of the garrison]] before the final battle. Borleais cost two entire Vong fleets and a planetary garrison, and was a ''huge'' embarrassment to their command staff.
** Wraith Squadron's first real action was covering the evacuation of their training base when a Star Destroyer allied to Warlord Zsinj showed up. Things go from bad to worse when one of the transports is delayed in launching, but then we get a taste of what the squadron is capable of when a pilot wonders, "what if we gave them a juicier target to go after?" Cue an improv radio program where two Wraith X-Wings and two A-Wings pretend to be the ''Millennium Falcon'' suffering some engine problems.

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** [[TheCaptain Wedge]] [[FourStarBadass Antilles]] ''loves'' these, since his particular style of warfare makes them ''work''. Case in point: the [[Literature/NewJediOrder Siege of Borleais]]. All told, the siege involved an entire fake secret engineering project, an entire ''real'' secret engineering project, a planetary bombardment ''by the garrison defenders'', a Super Star Destroyer dropping into the middle of the enemy fleet... oh, and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome the wholesale evacuation of the garrison]] before the final battle. Borleais cost two entire Vong fleets and a planetary garrison, and was a ''huge'' embarrassment to their command staff.

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar The Battle off Samar]] had elements of this. Taffy 3, a task force commanded by Rear Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague, consisted of a half dozen Escort Carriers, three Destroyers, and four Destroyer-Escorts. They ended up being surprised by Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's Center Force, consisting of four battleships, eight cruisers, and eleven destroyers. Badly outmatched, Taffy 3's Destroyers and Destroyer-Escorts launched an attack on the Center Force, aided by aircraft launched by Taffy 3's carriers and those of nearby Taffys 1 and 2 (none of which carried bombs capable of damaging the armored heavy warships), in hopes of giving the escort carriers a chance to escape. However, [[WrongGenreSavvy Kurita assumed that this was actually a delaying action]] for Admiral Halsey's 3rd Fleet to arrive, rather than allow the carriers to escape, and ordered a retreat. In return, Taffy 3 lost a third of their ships (including two Escort Carriers), and only two of their ships escaped damage.

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar The Battle off Samar]] had elements of this. Taffy 3, a task force commanded by Rear Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague, consisted of a half dozen Escort Carriers, three Destroyers, and four Destroyer-Escorts. They ended up being surprised by Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's Center Force, consisting of four battleships, eight cruisers, and eleven destroyers. Badly outmatched, Taffy 3's Destroyers and Destroyer-Escorts launched an attack on the Center Force, aided by aircraft launched by Taffy 3's carriers and those of nearby Taffys 1 and 2 (none of which carried bombs capable of damaging the armored heavy warships), in hopes of giving the escort carriers a chance to escape. This would turn out to be a famous [[SubvertedTrope subversion]], however, as Kurita assumed that this was actually a delaying action for Admiral Halsey's 3rd Fleet (which were in fact too far away to arrive in time), and ordered a retreat. In return, Taffy 3 lost a third of their ships (including two Escort Carriers), and only two of their ships escaped damage.

** Though with UsefulNotes/WestGermany's insistence on "forward defense", that their country be defended right up to the border with EastGermany, it was really more like trading lives for NATO Army Groups to mobilize their corps and the mentioned REFORGER reinforcements to arrive.

** Though with WestGermany's insistence on "forward defense", that their country be defended right up to the border with EastGermany, it was really more like trading lives for NATO Army Groups to mobilize their corps and the mentioned REFORGER reinforcements to arrive.

A delaying action is a battle fought by a clearly outnumbered and out-gunned force to try and hold up a superior force. The aim is to buy enough time for other friendly forces to a) escape or b) [[TheCavalry arrive]].

This may involve a HeroicSacrifice, but ideally, you aim to perform a TacticalWithdrawal before being slaughtered. The military equivalent of either YouShallNotPass or holding a position until the BigDamnHeroes show up.