- BattleTech has multiple examples in the lore (though none of them have much effect on the game's rules):
- Amongst the Inner Sphere, the Capellan Confederation and the Taurian Concordat are known for ignoring most in-universe rules of 'fair' combat stipulated by the Ares Conventions. In both cases, it's more a case of desperation than anything: The Capellans are the weakest Successor State by far and live next door to the much bigger, much richer, much more militaristic and very imperialist Federated Suns. The Suns have "liberated" Capellan worlds ever since its creation (the Confederation was created in the first place as a common defense pact against neighboring aggression), and as a result of both that (and their authoritarian government), the Capellans have very little problems with employing state-sponsored terrorism and engaging in war crimes. The Taurians, meanwhile, are a fifth the size of the Capellans, live next door to both the FedSuns and the Capellans, and are pretty much universally disliked by all their neighbours. As a result, the Concordat has a public nuclear first strike policy to planetary defense and practices universal conscription just to make the prospect of invading it as painful as possible. This focus on pragmatism has actually ended up biting them in the ass on more than one occasion: The Capellans find it extremely difficult to find allies because no-one wants to trust them, and the Taurians inevitably end up the victim of war crimes whenever they're attacked because everyone expects the same treatment from them. The Concordat was the only nation to reject the Ares Conventions on the basis that they believed the Great Houses would never honour it against them anyway. This means that every time a Successor State has attacked the Concordat, they have engaged in war crimes against them on the basis that being a non-signatory to the Conventions means they're not protected by them.
- The Inner Sphere turned to this trope during the Clan Invasion. While Inner Sphere mechwarriors have their own Code of Honour called the Honours of War, it is a lot less restrictive than the Clan practice of zellbrigen and the Inner Sphere made use of this to minimize their own casualties. The most common variant was by severely under-representing their forces during batchall (Clans willingly give away the size and disposition of their forces at the beginning of a battle, to minimize overkill), making the Clans attack them with inferior numbers and giving the technologically inferior Inner Sphere a chance to retreat or fight back more efficiently. The Clans eventually caught on to this and suspended zellbrigen against all Inner Sphere opponents, though Clan Wolf had more or less done so since the beginning.
- Amongst the Clans, three Clans in particular are known for taking a particularly pragmatic view on strategy and combat. Clan Diamond Shark is known for their extremely liberal interpretation of zellbrigen and their outright suspension of it in internal conflicts. Combined with the most active and effective military intelligence arm amongst the Clans (Clan Diamond Shark having created and operating the Clans' internet) and the Diamond Sharks are known for being extremely good at bidding just right for Trials, and winning in ways that skirt legality for the Clans. These same tendencies backfired badly on the Diamond Sharks when facing ComStar at Tukayyid, who did not follow zellbrigen and had been very careful to hide their disposition of forces. Clan Snow Raven spent much of their history scrambling for survival and as a result developed a reputation for an 'anything goes' philosophy, including disproportionate responses, where simple survival overrode all matters of honour. While this earned the Ravens few friends, this strategy ultimately saw the Ravens survive where other, stronger, Clans fell. Finally, there is Clan Star Adder, which is renown for emphasising the 'strategy' in Strategy Versus Tactics. Unlike their fellow Clans, they are a prudent, careful, long-view people, training strategists and logistics experts in a society that prizes warriors and tacticians, and can thus claim victory in campaigns even if battles are lost. In a Fantastic Caste System where Klingon Scientists Get No Respect, the Adders have a system for inter-Caste cooperation and openly demonstrate that they value every single sector of their Clan fairly and justly. This leads to an incredibly low rate of defections and desertions in all castes and means that when the Scientist-led cabal strikes the Clans' Warrior castes seeking revenge, the Star Adders are among the least affected by the rebellion. While their warriors follow zellbrigen to the letter, the Adders do their best to ensure the actual battle takes place under as favourable strategic circumstances as possible, doing things such as obsessively studying enemies to discover weaknesses, openly suggesting an Enemy Mine scenario to a Clan they're conquering so that they can punish a mutual foe and turning it into a Genghis Gambit, using various combinations of terrain, bait, and misdirection to hit enemies from their blind spots, and turning their enemies' own tactics against them, such as adopting the Inner Sphere tactic of setting up ambushes — all things their more hidebound peers detest and refuse to do, which gives the Adders ample opportunity to trounce them in battle.
- Too many Dungeons & Dragons classes to name.
- The rogue's "Sneak Attack" ability is probably the best-known example; dealing extra damage by specifically striking vulnerable parts of the body. There is a whole line of feats improving on Sneak Attacks called "Ambush Feats", aimed at nice things like hamstringing, disembowling, defeaning, giving a concussion, punching the throat, putting in pain, terrorizing, etc.
- The Sandstorm expansion in 3.5 includes a feat for blinding opponents with sand. Stormwrack includes grappling mechanics for holding opponents underwater until they drown.
- There's also an entire tree worth of feats devoted to this concept called "Dirty Trick". As opposed to more straightforward and formal examples of fighting styles in Dungeons & Dragons, such as Expertise or Weapon Finesse; Dirty Trick allows for any number of plausible, underhanded fighting techniques, such as gouging the eyes or striking the groin, in exchange for an apropos debuff to the opponent.
- Kobolds pretty much run on this, because they rarely if ever fight opponents in normal combat. Instead they lay traps. Massive numbers of traps. If an adventurer actually sees and attacks a kobold directly, then that kobold has made a serious mistake.
- The Dawn caste Solars of Exalted. They're natural warriors, skilled in all forms of combat. Every. Last. One. Also, Solar Hero Style is a combination of this, Improbable Weapon User, and Good Old Fisticuffs.
- All Dawns have the innate skill to be this, but it doesn't stop several from having more strict personal warrior codes.
- Fiend Caste Infernals are pretty much obligated to cheat — the First Ebon Dragon Excellency flatly refuses to benefit honourable actions, while dishonourable ones are fair game. They also get combat Charms that encourage shooting the enemy from a long way away or backstabbing, and which have effects like shutting down various kinds of resource regeneration so the enemy runs out of motes and willpower before long, backed up by the ability to literally siphon away enemy luck. And then there's the option to use Black Mirror Shintai to just straightforwardly turn into a duplicate of the enemy and use their own tools against them.
- Games Workshop games:
- Warhammer:
- Due to their Dirty Coward nature, the Skaven are willing to do absolutely anything to achieve victory, especially if it doesn’t put themselves in danger. Very few Skaven will ever accept a direct challenge and even fewer will seek challenges themselves, preferring instead to shove an underling forward — in gameplay terms, while most armies have their leaders in the front of a unit and suffer penalties from declining a challenge, some editions of the game allow Skaven leaders to be placed at the back and decline without trouble. The Skaven are also one of the few factions who can shoot into a melee against their own units, and employ Warplock Jezails to take out enemies with pinpoint accuracy.
- There's one notable story about Reiksmarshal Kurt Helborg of the Empire, where a Grail Knight from Bretonnia named Viscount d'Alembençon invaded during a border dispute, and the battle proved a stalemate so the Viscount offered a Combat by Champion between them to spare the men on both sides. The Reiksmarshal agreed. In the ensuing duel, the Viscount beat and wounded Helborg badly and stopped to express respect to his fighting spirit and regret that he would have to die. Then at that moment, Helborg gave a shout and the whole army behind him let loose a torrent of careful cannon fire, blasting the Bretonnian army to bits and sending them scattering. While he was distracted and outraged at the deception, Helborg took the chance to disarm and decapitate the Viscount. The duel was all to buy time.
- Warhammer 40,000:
- Lukas the Trickster is considered to be the the dirtiest fighter in the Space Wolves Chapter, one of the more underhanded forces of Adeptus Astartes. He went so far as to have one of his missing hearts replaced with a stasis bomb to make sure he takes the other guy out with him and so that they can only hear Lukas' laughter for the rest of eternity.
- The Raven Guard Chapter of Astartes, and their descendants, prefer far more subtle tactics to those employed by many of their fellows including guerrilla warfare and domestic terrorism.
- Gabriel Seth, Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers Chapter isn't averse to headbutting an opponent, kneeing them in the groin or ripping their throats out with his teeth. This is represented by him getting a free attack every time an opponent in close combat rolls a one.
- The Grey Knights, the Imperium's premier daemon hunters will countenance absolutely any tactic that will see victory of the forces of Chaos including calling down an Orbital Bombardment on their own location, using Xenos-designed weaponry and, in extreme cases, controlled and purified Chaotic abilities and items (note that this is a new characterization, previously their absolute refusal to work with daemon weaponry was a large part of why no Grey Knight had ever fallen to Chaos, somthing of a combination of honor and reason).
- While many Orks prefer the simplicity of a brute-force strategy, Boyz of the Blood Axe clan are more than willing to employ such unorky concepts such as special forces operations, hit and run tactics, camouflage, and retreating if things go bad. While these tactics have a good chance of backfiring since, well, they're used by orks, many of the more successful ork warlords are Blood Axes.
- The Drukhari make up for their lack of toughness and physical strength compared to the other races with the use of all kinds of horrid hyper-advanced weapons that debilitate their foes and give them an edge in battles. Knives and splinter rifle shards coated with virulent neurotoxins, grenades that emit hallucinogenic gas, functional Agony Beams which sap strength and will from their targets to cripple them, and monofilament nets that shred their unfortunate victim as they struggle are a small number of the insidious weapons they wield. Drukhari tactics follow a similar theme utilizing raids, terror attacks or manipulating someone else (usually humans or Orks) into doing all the hard fighting for them.
- The Aeldari of the Craftworlds are masters of asymmetrical warfare. Being basically the only faction in the setting unable without significant numbers of troops to call upon when needed, most of their army consist of fast-moving, hard-hitting troops specialising in ranged combat, while their melee units, the Striking Scorpions and Howling Banshees, are more for stealth and hit-and-run tactics. The faction also makes great use of their prophetic abilities so that many of their wars are won before they even start, thanks to a Ranger getting a headshot on an Ork Warboss or Imperial general, or manipulating events in such a way that they don't have to fight in the first case.
- The Iron Warriors Heretic Astartes are siege specialists — and the guiding rule of siege warfare is "whatever works, works". While they'll usually bring the big guns to bear no matter what, they'll also happily use infiltration, cannon fodder (including captured enemy troops loaded into expendable vehicles manned by suicide cultists), spies, traitors, secret passages, and other, far less pleasant means to crack open the fortifications and kill everyone inside. This aspect is arguably what makes the Iron Warriors some of the most unpleasant bastards among the Chaos Space Marines: sure, they are pretty much all insane immoral bastards, but they still keep some semblance of humanity, brotherhood or martial honour (and even if they don't they'll still make an effort to pretend). The Iron Warriors? All they care about is their hatred and how they express it — War Is Hell to them, and they love every minute. Nothing is sacred, everyone from the lowliest cultist to the highest lord is expendable, and all that matters is victory, no matter what line has to be crossed or how many have to die to get there.
- The Alpha Legion base their doctrine around the 'Strategy' part of Strategy Versus Tactics and only commit to open battle if they've lain down the ground game and stacked the deck to their advantage. They do not shy away from using spies, double agents, False Flag Operations and strategies which screw with their opponents' heads, train cultist cells (often years in advance) to soften up their targets and provide support before the Legion takes to the field, and can and will withdraw from a battlefield before a single shot is fired if the outcome is deemed strategically unsound. They'll even mimic their opponents' battle cries to get them to hesitate, with often fatal resultsnote . While this means they tend to do poorly if they end up forced with their backs against the wall, the covert ops nature of their campaigns means they very rarely are. During the Horus Heresy a (possibly falsified) account claims the Alpha Legion decisively defeated the Ultramarines by goading them onto a battlefield of their choice and essentially caused defeat upon defeat on them until the Ultramarines Rage Quit the whole battle because their opponents were 'too dishonourable'note .
- The Tyranids, since the Hive Mind has no need, use or real understanding of something like fair fighting, no more than a hungry animal would. As long as the net result is more biomass for the Hive Fleets, it will employ any means necessary. One classic example of this was when the Avatar of Khaine attempted to challenge the Swarmlord synapse creature to a duel on Craftworld Iyanden. The Swarmlord promptly sicced a dozen Carnifexes on it, quickly overwhelming the Avatar. The Genestealer Cults also aren't above tampering with water supplies and medical facilities to better and easier spread their corruption across a host planet.
- The Imperial Guard. Humans in general are smaller and weaker (physically and mentally) than basically everything else out there, so they've had to learn to be ruthless pragmatists at all times. Aside from effective use of combined arms warfare, their guiding principle seems to be massed artillery making way for massed armor with massed lasgun-firing infantry behind them. Which isn't to say single combat isn't unknown to the average Guardsmen, they just prefer to vaporize the enemy long before that becomes an issue.
- The T'au. Though just as fanatical as every other 40,000 faction, the T'au are strange in that they don't particularly honor last stands or suicidal charges. They're perfectly willing to withdraw in good order and establish punishing fighting retreats and consider a commander who holds to the last rather than retreat to be foolish. They also are capable of advancing and remaining in good order, consolidating gains carefully. Like the Imperial Guard, they specialize in combined arms; unlike the Guard, they do not take things they're bad at and try to become mediocre, instead favoring specializing in what they do well (namely shooting and controlling the engagement). They have a lot of deceptive techniques, don't rely on single powerful heroes to carry them, and generally behave like they and the Guard are the Only Sane Man in the setting.
- Dirty Fighter specialists from the 2016 Edition of Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team are experts at using every trick in the book to gain an advantage in combat. In-game this was represented by the specialist being able to take skills such as Blinding Distraction, Low Blow or Poisoned Weapons.
- Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: This is the Kruleboyz's hat; as the Orruk Warclan that most reveres Mork, the God of Kunnin', they absolutely do not believe in a fair fight, and will use tactics that other Orruk's wouldn't even think of, like poisoning your opponent before the fight, luring in a bigger monster to break them for you, sabotaging their defenses, or just outright ambush. Notably, they're the only Orruk Warclan that makes use of snipers (the Ironjawz have no ranged units whatsoever, and Bonesplitterz archers are more about Rain of Arrows).
- Warhammer:
- Hunter: The Vigil: Hunters are actively encouraged to use dirty tricks, called "tactics", to gain an edge over the monsters. Conspiracies are also given endowments, abilities and tools that give them an even-footing with (and sometimes an advantage over) the monsters being hunted.
- In Nomine: In contrast to Laurence's honourable knight-paladin approach to battle, Michael under no illusions as to the dignity and honour of war — he fights to win, whatever it takes.
- Paranoia: The main book includes a "Tips for Traitors" section with such advice as "Don't shoot at your buddy the first excuse you get. This gives him a chance to shoot back. That's dumb. Wait till he's busy with something else (better yet, give him something else to keep him busy), then shoot at him. Even better, Make It Look Like an Accident and he may not even realize he's being targeted, or at least may not be sure who's behind it. Or try to convince someone else to shoot him. Or just collect (or manufacture) evidence and throw him under the bus during the debriefing."
- In addition to sneak attack and other elements from Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder introduces the Dirty Trick maneuver, which can give temporary penalties if successful. There's also a feat chain to improve both how well the player can perform a dirty trick as well as make the deleterious effects last longer (it also makes the player able to resist enemy dirty tricks, presumably because they see it coming). Samples that the game gives include a Groin Attack to give the sickened condition and A Handful for an Eye to temporarily blind a foe.
- Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution expects you to be this, to some extent. It stats damage from such things as bar stools, broken bottles, telekinetically thrown manhole covers, exploding cars, and being pistol whipped.
- Everybody does this in Starfleet Battles (or they lose and look stupid while doing so). Special mention goes to the WYN Cluster Defense Force, composed of a few captured ships, a few purchased pirate vessels, and mostly a load of modified freighters that pose no threat at all to a real warship...except that they only fight warships that are effectively crippled by coming through the radiation field surrounding the Cluster.
- Werewolf: The Forsaken has the Irraka, the Auspice of the new moon. Where other werewolves are warriors and bards focused on values such as Honor, Glory, and Purity, their focus is Cunning and stealth. A common idle thought among the Irraka is, "How can I kill everyone in the room as fast as possible?", and they see nothing wrong with taking advantage of disabilities, old injuries, allergies...
- In X Wing Miniatures, the Scum and Villainy faction as a whole is prone to this. Apart from a handful of Rebel ships with the correct upgrade, only the Scum can take Illicit upgrades. Sample illicit upgrades allow Scum pilots to take a hit of glitterstim for temporary super-focus, cloak on a ship that normally can't do that, make attacks against ships that would normally be out of their line of sight, explode when killed, hack stressed-out enemy ship systems to inflict damage, deploy debris in the path of enemy vessels, and fry their own systems for a desperate but unavoidable stab at a nearby ship.
- In the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, Battlin' Boxer Rabbit Puncher gains its name from the rabbit punch; a blow to the neck or to the base of the skull which is illegal in professional boxing and other combat sports. This references how Alit was willing to cheat in his tag duel with Nistro against Yuma and Dextra.
- Also from that duel is Battlin' Boxer Cheat Commissioner, who presumably doesn't enforce a clean fight.
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