What I've been thinking about for the last week or so is the zombie. Unfortunately, I missed the ZombieWalk last weekend here in Portland. And there was a headline on OregonLive about the students at U-Dub playing some sort of zombie-tag between classes. There seems to be a real resurgence of zombie activity so I want you all to be prepared. Pretty mush all I know about protecting oneself from zombies is to keep salt around. Throw the salt on the ground and the zombie will stop chasing you and start counting the grains of salt - hopefully long enough for you to get away. That's all I got, kids.
Thankfully, my friend Sean had some spare time whilst serving his country and wrote the following, which I've stolen and reposted here for the good of the group. With apologies to Sean, I've taken the liberty of editing a bit for our decidedly mixed audience.
Be prepared:
If zombies were polite enough to come at you one at a time and waited while you changed magazines, killing them wouldn't require much thought. Unfortunately, they simply lack the higher thought processes required to contemplate things like the Law Of Armed Conflict. However, the Geneva Convention says nothing about eating your enemy so maybe they do have the law on their side.
We respectfully submit that the perfect zombie-killing weapon is something that kills them while they are way the F over THERE. Artillery is always your best option. If you happened to be so armed, APERS rounds are a good choice. Next in line would be an HE round with an air burst, preferably using a high angle trajectory. White phosphorous is a good choice too because you get obscuring smoke to confuse them plus the satisfaction of knowing they are getting burned to s**t. However, it will stink.
In the absence of the Noble Artilleryman (who could bring refinement and sophistication to even a zombie fight), you are forced to employ the tactics of the Brave, but None-Too-Bright Infantryman.
First and foremost, always take the high ground when possible. If you can sit and pick them off from a cliff, building or other high spot, always use that to your advantage. However, the old football analogy about the chicken being involved in breakfast but the pig is committed bears remembering at this point. If they surround you, you are the pig. Literally and figuratively. Always protect your means of egress.
The most basic infantry tactic is to use suppressive fire (translation: shoot like a mofo) while another team works themselves into place to assault the objective. Against the living, this works fairly well because most living people want to stay that way and a s**t load of bullets coming their way is definitely prejudicial to living.
Zombies don't care. They won't keep their heads down. They'll just keep coming at you. The obvious problem here is if you are in a tactically weak position and they get to you before you run out of bullets, you are F'd.
However, suppressive fire as a tactic does have its uses against zombies. Pretend you have two teams. Team A is in a tactically ok position. This means they can hold their own for a while, but will need to exfiltrate if things get too heavy. However, there is a tactically superior position some distance away. Team A can lay down suppressive fire while Team B maneuvers. Team A isn't really suppressing the zombies so much as killing them and keeping their attention while the other team moves.
Once Team B is in position, they can cover Team A's exfiltration, or both teams can commence to shooting because now you have them flanked. A good flanking maneuver is always fun because now the enemy has to deal with fire from two directions instead of one. Makes the whole situation a bit more manageable.
The important thing about choosing another position is the directions of fire for both teams should be perpendicular or close to it whenever possible. If the good idea fairy says he thinks he should take a team behind the horde of zombies so you can attack them from the opposite side too, kill him first because he is a fool. That configuration is stupid. Don't do it.
The question has been raised regarding the use of smoke against zombies. Smoke is a good way to hide what you are doing from the enemy (hopefully to their detriment) or to just confuse the s**t out of them because they can't see what is going on.
Also, smoke coming out of smoke grenades has a very strong smell to it, so it may confuse whatever sense of smell they have. Artillery rounds probably do too, but the author makes it a point to never get close enough to artillery smoke rounds to smell them. It's just bad practice.
The most convenient means of employing smoke is with an M203 Grenade Launcher. If you don't happen to have one, find the person who can throw the farthest and the most accurately. That big dumb dude who claims he was a quarterback when he played high school football may be your only bet.
You will want to place your rounds close enough to the zombies that you can't see them anymore, but your view of the world around you is otherwise unobscured. The smoke screen may take from a few second for grenades to a minute or so for artillery smoke to build. Don't spend much time thinking about this, just move like hell once you can't see the zombies. Best if you can be quiet at this point too. Smoke doesn't do much for hearing.
Another tactic that bears consideration is explosives. You can throw them, drop them or leave them in place until the zombies chance upon it. You can also rig booby traps to protect a position. Explosives and the knowledge to use them is a convenient thing to have. They are highly effective and very entertaining at the same time.
If you can get your hands on some Claymores, do so. Or you can improvise them with a few materials. We won't go into details on improvising claymores here. If you have the materials, particularly the explosives and the knowledge to use them, you'll know what to do. If you have the materials but lack the knowledge, best to leave well enough alone.
There are three important things to remember employing claymores against zombies. First, they should be placed about head level. If you place them low, you'll just have a bunch of zombies with missing legs coming at you. The second thing to remember is the claymore is marked "FRONT TOWARD ENEMY". Point that side at the zombies. The final thing is the claymore does have a back blast area of about 50 meters.
The importance of fire discipline cannot be overstated. If you have a s**t ton of ammo, you will probably be ok for quite some time. However, if ammo is limited or the zombies are many, you'll want to ensure you maintain some degree of awareness over how many rounds you have left.
Whenever possible, employ the one shot, one kill strategy. If you can manage more than one kill per shot, even better.
If you can, change magazines after the last round has been chambered but before it has actually been fired. Sometimes there may be a pause in the action. Check your magazine. If you are down to a few rounds, change out.
If you are using a weapons such as a lever-action rifle, re-load whenever possible. Those two or three rounds you jam in while hiding behind that wall may mean the difference between life and death.
And finally, break contact before you run out of ammo. If you run out of bullets before you run out of zombies and can't exfiltrate, you are F'd.
We respectfully submit that the perfect zombie-killing weapon is something that kills them while they are way the F over THERE. Artillery is always your best option. If you happened to be so armed, APERS rounds are a good choice. Next in line would be an HE round with an air burst, preferably using a high angle trajectory. White phosphorous is a good choice too because you get obscuring smoke to confuse them plus the satisfaction of knowing they are getting burned to s**t. However, it will stink.
In the absence of the Noble Artilleryman (who could bring refinement and sophistication to even a zombie fight), you are forced to employ the tactics of the Brave, but None-Too-Bright Infantryman.
First and foremost, always take the high ground when possible. If you can sit and pick them off from a cliff, building or other high spot, always use that to your advantage. However, the old football analogy about the chicken being involved in breakfast but the pig is committed bears remembering at this point. If they surround you, you are the pig. Literally and figuratively. Always protect your means of egress.
The most basic infantry tactic is to use suppressive fire (translation: shoot like a mofo) while another team works themselves into place to assault the objective. Against the living, this works fairly well because most living people want to stay that way and a s**t load of bullets coming their way is definitely prejudicial to living.
Zombies don't care. They won't keep their heads down. They'll just keep coming at you. The obvious problem here is if you are in a tactically weak position and they get to you before you run out of bullets, you are F'd.
However, suppressive fire as a tactic does have its uses against zombies. Pretend you have two teams. Team A is in a tactically ok position. This means they can hold their own for a while, but will need to exfiltrate if things get too heavy. However, there is a tactically superior position some distance away. Team A can lay down suppressive fire while Team B maneuvers. Team A isn't really suppressing the zombies so much as killing them and keeping their attention while the other team moves.
Once Team B is in position, they can cover Team A's exfiltration, or both teams can commence to shooting because now you have them flanked. A good flanking maneuver is always fun because now the enemy has to deal with fire from two directions instead of one. Makes the whole situation a bit more manageable.
The important thing about choosing another position is the directions of fire for both teams should be perpendicular or close to it whenever possible. If the good idea fairy says he thinks he should take a team behind the horde of zombies so you can attack them from the opposite side too, kill him first because he is a fool. That configuration is stupid. Don't do it.
The question has been raised regarding the use of smoke against zombies. Smoke is a good way to hide what you are doing from the enemy (hopefully to their detriment) or to just confuse the s**t out of them because they can't see what is going on.
Also, smoke coming out of smoke grenades has a very strong smell to it, so it may confuse whatever sense of smell they have. Artillery rounds probably do too, but the author makes it a point to never get close enough to artillery smoke rounds to smell them. It's just bad practice.
The most convenient means of employing smoke is with an M203 Grenade Launcher. If you don't happen to have one, find the person who can throw the farthest and the most accurately. That big dumb dude who claims he was a quarterback when he played high school football may be your only bet.
You will want to place your rounds close enough to the zombies that you can't see them anymore, but your view of the world around you is otherwise unobscured. The smoke screen may take from a few second for grenades to a minute or so for artillery smoke to build. Don't spend much time thinking about this, just move like hell once you can't see the zombies. Best if you can be quiet at this point too. Smoke doesn't do much for hearing.
Another tactic that bears consideration is explosives. You can throw them, drop them or leave them in place until the zombies chance upon it. You can also rig booby traps to protect a position. Explosives and the knowledge to use them is a convenient thing to have. They are highly effective and very entertaining at the same time.
If you can get your hands on some Claymores, do so. Or you can improvise them with a few materials. We won't go into details on improvising claymores here. If you have the materials, particularly the explosives and the knowledge to use them, you'll know what to do. If you have the materials but lack the knowledge, best to leave well enough alone.
There are three important things to remember employing claymores against zombies. First, they should be placed about head level. If you place them low, you'll just have a bunch of zombies with missing legs coming at you. The second thing to remember is the claymore is marked "FRONT TOWARD ENEMY". Point that side at the zombies. The final thing is the claymore does have a back blast area of about 50 meters.
The importance of fire discipline cannot be overstated. If you have a s**t ton of ammo, you will probably be ok for quite some time. However, if ammo is limited or the zombies are many, you'll want to ensure you maintain some degree of awareness over how many rounds you have left.
Whenever possible, employ the one shot, one kill strategy. If you can manage more than one kill per shot, even better.
If you can, change magazines after the last round has been chambered but before it has actually been fired. Sometimes there may be a pause in the action. Check your magazine. If you are down to a few rounds, change out.
If you are using a weapons such as a lever-action rifle, re-load whenever possible. Those two or three rounds you jam in while hiding behind that wall may mean the difference between life and death.
And finally, break contact before you run out of ammo. If you run out of bullets before you run out of zombies and can't exfiltrate, you are F'd.
It pays to plan ahead. Happy hunting. Or defending. Or whatever.
No comments:
Post a Comment