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, this happens in the real world. In World War I, for example, it was a giant war of attrition, and troops that went “over the top” of the trenches into machine gun fire were almost certain to die. In Ukraine today, Russian troops are apparently dying in suicidal charges. Even the expert troops in such situations tend to think of themselves as already dead, otherwise there’s no way they could risk death again and again. One reason young men are recruited as soldiers is that they have a hard time comprehending that they can really die.
Historically, it hasn’t been as common among American troops, who have had the luxury of more artillery and ammunition and placed more value on soldiers’ lives. But it was pretty common in the American Civil War. Ulysses S. Grant, in particular, was accused of waging a war of attrition during the final battles of the war, but at that point many of the Union troops supported him because one way or another they wanted the war to end, even if it meant their death. Better to die for a victory than to die for a stalemate.
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