StarDestroyer.Net BBS

SylasGaunt wrote:Can Someone PM me with the location of the SDN safehouse? I finally made my way to Grigg Heights with my military char.

Dalton wrote:I've joined up as Daltonator.

Qwerty 42 wrote:out of curiousity, how does one defeat a zombie horde? Obviously, based on the recent successes the RRF has enjoyed, such things are uncommon, but they do happen, such as what happened with PARA and the Many. How does that work, though? If you kill a person you've zombified them, but if you kill a zombie then you've bought 5 hours at most, unless you syringe them, but surely a zombie defense doesn't revolve around syringing everything. Do they just fight until they fall or the horde gives up, or what?

This is something I've discussed from both sides of the issue.

The simple fact is, humans cannot win set-piece battles against a sizable horde. The fact that they always will win the initial skirmishes causes them to delude themselves into thinking they can win the war.

The much-maligned Ankle Grab skill is there to compensate for the human player/zombie player imbalance, running a bit over two to one in favor of the humans, last I saw. After all, the strength of the horde is the endless wave attack.

Now, how do you defeat the horde? Short answer, you don't. Another horde's player put it best on the unofficial board- they're like the weather. You don't shoot at a hurricane. You batten down the hatches and ride them out. The problem with facing them straight-up is that you can knock them down all day long and they'll just keep bouncing up and laughing in your face.

Quite literally, in the case of my horde. We have dedicated meatshields who take pride in absorbing the fire for their fellows. These are the ones who take the majority of fire on the first day or two while the survivors are busy deluding themselves into thinking they can win against a siege.

Then the achilles heel comes in, as ammo supplies have vanished in a blazing orgy of destruction, the survivors are contending with the infections from the various failed assaults, and the defenses crumble all at once. These sieges end with lightning speed, typically, as the breakthrough comes and the death toll starts rising. Giddings technically lasted five days, but the bulk of our forces didn't arrive until the latter three days, and the 'impregnable fortress' actually held out worse than Hildebrand mall. But then, Giddings was always overrated simply because they managed to beat half The Many anyway.

Now, how do you fight a long-term war with a horde? It's doable, but it involves frustrating them.

Humans have the following advantages- Firepower, on the short term. A maxed-out, fully loaded human can drop between three and five zombies on a single pass, with a bit of luck. This is balanced, however, by the need to scrounge for ammo.

Fortification- Not for the reason most of the kiddies think. Remember what uncle Patton said about fixed fortifications, it's doubly so in this game due to the endless wave a horde can throw at any position. No, the key with fortification is that every AP spent by a human on it, at least 3-4 APs on average by a zombie player. Remember what I said before on the private board, the most critical resource of the game is AP. You can't attrite a horde in a meaningful fashion. You can, however, attrite their AP enough to frustrate the holy hell out of them.

Mobility- The huge human advantage, especially because any large horde will have plenty of junior members who take longer to get into position due to the 2 AP per move cost. Free running means that humans can zip across the map with relative security, the main drawback being the rather silly fact that one can't look out the windows to know if there are a hundred zombies standing around outside one's chosen safehouse of the moment.

But in combination with Construction, here is your tactic to stymie the horde, and be able to do it with roughly a one to three ratio of humans to zombies- dedicated construction, and building-clearance. Stay outside of their target area, free-run in, barricade like crazy all along the chain. If they're heavily into buildings, don't bother even trying to clear them, and instead focus on barricading up. Members outside the barricades will waste time and effort tearing them down, only to stomp into an already-infested building.

Pre-Ankle Grab, I'm still fairly sure we could've taken the Scourge with the help of those Emerald Guard strike teams by following this strategy.

Stick to the classic guerilla warfare approach- if they're coming, get the hell out of the way. Don't give them a center of gravity to strike at, and make them waste time on an endless parade of decoys and small-change targets.

fgalkin wrote:

Dalton wrote:I've joined up as Daltonator.

Where you at? I might take you under my wing if you're anywhere near me.

Matt Huang wrote:east becktown? I think I have a char in the area, but he's outta syringes.

Matt Huang wrote:Depends on what class you started off as.

Dalton wrote:

Matt Huang wrote:Depends on what class you started off as.

I'm a Consumer, and I'm looking for the group.