That was my thought. If I thought my opponent could only survive a few turns I might be willing to take losses to prevent them from surviving more turns.
This is the same strategy as a company operating at a loss in order to put competitors out of business.
I think a lot of people will be tempted to say "that's obvious, you dummy!" but that's what good social science research does: it gives us a systematic explanation and principles of understanding for how people behave in groups.
