Eli5 are there in the real world troops that are meant to die, if so how does that work.

Question

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..

In: 399

Answer 1

In the Napoleonic Wars era there was a thing called a Forlorn Hope, these were the first troops into the breach/over the wall during a siege. Their role was to flush out all of the nasty traps and surprises the defenders had in store. They were all volunteers, and surviving a Forlorn Hope was a guaranteed promotion.