"Whether it's the Trojan War, the Battle of Thermopylae, or the Last Stand at the Alamo, many of the famous battles in history were sieges in which small forces took on much larger armies. Unfortunately, sieges don't make good stories because the smaller force won. They make the history books because the little guys fought well, before they died." ~Michael Westen, Burn Notice. Last stand, Ep 4.18I like thousand to one odds. Love 'em. Can't get enough of them. Make it an intelligent war, I'm with you all the way.
300 Spartans (with about 10,000+ other Greeks) versus one hundred thousand (or a million, depending who you ask) Persian Imperial forces?* I'm there.
Nearly seven hundred Jewish rebels vs. a Roman legion at Masada?** I'm with you ...
The Alamo ... Okay, not so much, but I'm more familiar with the players involved, and I can't say that I liked any of them, on any side.
A hundred thousand Orcs of Mordor versus Gondor? That's at least worth an Academy Award....
In my own writing, I have a tendency to give the bad guys the upper hand as much as possible. I try not to leave it as a matter of "evil badguy gains upper hand because he's using underhandd methods, while virtuous goodguy never sinks so low." Anyone who had read even one my self defense articles knows better. When in doubt, bite a nose off, pull at an ear, gouge the eyes, and, of course, kick 'em in the groin, whenever possible. My characters fight like their lives depend on it, usually because it does.
No, when I give the bad guys the upper hand, it's because they either have better training, better equipment, more people, or all of the above.
That's when I whip out The Anarchist's Cookbook, and go to work. Because when my characters are out-manned outgunned, outmaneuvered, and when things have stopped looking grim and have moved on to "we're all going to die" ....
That's when my characters get smart, get sneaky, and become very, very dangerous.
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