When I was young (like, 12 or the like) I read some books (as youngers occationally do). It was a book-trilogy, Kinderen van Moeder Aarde/Het Helse paradijs/Het Gouden Vlies van Thule. They were never translated outside the Netherlands, but the titles mean Children of Mother Eath/The Paradise from Hell/Het Golden Fleece of Thule. They were utopian novels about a post-WWIII society which achieved perfection by excluding men from all decision-making. Yes, it's a feminist novel, shuttit it was well written.
The main crux was that the (women-governed) utopia of Thule was discovered (Columbus-style, except Thule wasn't nearly as primitive) by the (male-governed, militaristic, warhungry, distopian, sexist, conquering) Badeners. The Thulians or whatever they're called don't want the expidition warship to return, because they're slightly smarter than that.
At the end of the first book, this is accomplished by using children as human shields. When the ship wants to depart, a chain of ships blocks their exit. To prevent the steel-plated warship from either blasting them to bits or just ramming straight through, they man the decks with children (who it is made clear do not understand what's being done). The Badeners, despite their military background, decide against destroying them, and the Thulians win in the end. This is presented as a cunning strategy rather than a crime of the highest order. It's not the first time the Thulians showed some major protagonist-centered morality, and it was actually not the most glaring example.
In the second book, the Badeners (having heard nothing from their previous expidition) send a bigger party. The Thulians meet them on the open sea and, without warning, lure one ship on the rocks, causing it to sink resulting in loss of life for the Badeners as a means of saying ''Get out'' with premeditated murder. The Badeners do arrive and clear out (invade) part of the harbor to secure their surroundings, this without any mentioned loss of life.
The Thulians respond by sending in girls, described as 'no older than six', with poison stings containing sleeping agents. Again unwilling to massacre kids on sight, the Badeners fall for it and lose their food supply. Both sides treat this as a clever strategy. Now, the Badeners are dicks of the highest order, and would not have much regard for the laws of war, but even my young self wondered how this wouldn't result in the Badeners killing all children on sight after they were deliberately attacked by them using hidding weapons. If I knew every child could have a thorn the size of a nail between their fingers that is poisonous, I'd get rather trigger-happy about kids getting near me.
The Badeners are in the next chapter called evil because they're willing to execute civilians, after the Thulians just proved their small children were used as combatants. And that, kids, is why we don't let writers draft the Law of War.