Editing Rout (section)

==Tactics==
Feigned routs may be used as a [[military deception]] to entice an enemy into pursuing the "retreating" force, with the intent of causing the enemy to abandon a strong defensive position or leading the enemy into an ambush. This carries some risk because a feigned rout can quickly turn into a real one.

It was a favourite tactic of the Vikings and it is thought that [[Duchy of Normandy|Norman]] cavalry successfully performed a feigned rout at the [[Battle of Hastings]].

In the [[Battle of Cowpens]], [[Daniel Morgan]]'s planned retreat of the unreliable forward militia was interpreted by the British commander [[Banastre Tarleton]] as a rout, as intended.  In over-aggressively pressing the attack, the British lost cohesion and were overwhelmingly defeated in the resulting [[double envelopment]] by the Americans. This feigned rout tactic had several benefits: it was a [[ruse de guerre]] that played off British expectations that an undisciplined militia would rout on contact, creating British overconfidence; the militia screened the main American force from the British view; and by asking for only two volleys before the retreat Morgan set an achievable goal for shaky and poorly trained militia facing British regulars, as well as allowing the militia units to remain intact for later parts of the battle.

Leading up to the French decisive victory at the [[Battle of Austerlitz]], Napoleon ordered his forces to retreat. Desperate to lure the Allies into battle, Napoleon gave every indication in the days preceding the engagement that the French army was on the brink of collapse, even abandoning the dominant Pratzen Heights near Austerlitz.