in strategy games you usually have troops at the frontline whose sole purpose is to die fighting to buy you time to execute your plans or to protect stronger troops. is this something that happens in real life / used to happen before, if so what are the logistics of it, do the troops know that they are most likely goona die, etc..
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Yes
How it works: a soldier is motivated to think as part of a bigger picture. There are a number of methods used. Ranging from making a soldier stop being a human and instead feeling like a fighting weapon. At the other end is to feel part of a unit and to value your friends and others’ lives over your own. A soldier mentality can be akin to brainwashing.
I saw an account from someone in Ukraine where they said “as a soldier, you are more effective if you already perceive that you are dead”
In practice, at a unit level, an expected human cost will be weighed against an objective beforehand. From here either reward or punishment will be used to get soldiers to obey these orders.
At an individual level there will be personalities who are more likely to run away Vs others who feel they have less to lose by putting their life down in the exchange for giving their colleagues a chance at survival.
One big and common threat used in Ww1 and prior was many armies had a doctrine of deserters being shot. I’m sure the threat of death for retreating has been used throughout history. And only from the devastation of Ww1 did this tactic start to get phased out, though some countries were still doing it in ww2.
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