Zombies are, on all save a few fronts, better soldiers than humans will ever be; they have greater strength, greater senses, are impervious to pain, are combat effective despite the loss of limbs, and they cant feel fear. This said, they are probably the most terrifying foe humanity could ever face, and if not they are surely very highly ranked. Unfortunately for us, they would also amass the largest numbers of any army on earth in at least half the time. Not only would that be true, but they would replenish their ranks with every wound they inflicted. No human army could ever boast such a fanatical and speedy recruitment process, nor could it ever accomplish the same efficiency.
With that in mind how do we improve the chances of combatants' confidence on the Z-War Battlefield?
A few of my own ideas are as follows:
widely available diagrams of weak-points and immobilizing points (kneecaps, shoulder joints, necessary muscle groups, etc.)
practical and effective combat formations against Zack (World War Z speaks about at least one)
"Know Your Foe" style pamphlets or PDF files that explain the fight tactics, movement patterns, etc. of various types of zombies (as far a we know, obviously, as, thankfully, Z-day has yet to hit)
what y'all got?
Okay, first off welcome to the site. Unfortunately, you carry the same curse as most new site members when it comes to zombies: ASSUMPTIONS. First off, the living dead are not soldiers in the same sense as the soldiers of today because a soldier fights for a cause within a belief system. We don't know if a zombie will be intelligent enough to have or know what a belief system is, in fact we don't know if they will be intelligent at all. Next, we do not know if zombies will have greater strength or greater senses. We also do NOT know if they will feel pain or not or if they can or cannot feel fear. All of these things are assumptions you have made based on the movies and folklore associated with zombies, all of which MAY have SOME basis for real life, but the only way in which we will really know for sure is if we have the opportunity to test and find out what an actual zombie would and would not be able to do and what would effect them.
About them being a terrifying foe, yes I think we can all agree that they are some pretty downright scary creatures (I mean, we are all here to learn about survival).
I like the idea of diagrams of weak-points, but who is to say that if you blow of a zombies kneecaps that it will stop moving as opposed to clawing it's way to you? I do like the combat formation idea though.
We cannot hand out "Know Your Foe" pamphlets because, to be quite frank, we don't and won't know what zombies have in store until we have the oppurtunity to study and observe them in a controlled capacity.
It really makes you rethink the way you thought about zombies before doesn't it? (Welcome to zombie knowledge shock). There are a number of posts you should consider reading which will help you better understand more about what "we" are about here. My best advice would be to take some time out and read the Site Rules, FAQ, and all of the articles (the tabs at the top of the screen: Getting Away, Fighting Back, etc). As for a good start, I suggest reading this:
Forget everything you know about zombies.
Hope this gives you some new insight and welcome to the initiative.
"Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening a mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid." G.K. Chesterton
I have a Universal Truth i have to remind people of. They were still humans at one point. Technically they still would be. No virus, no magic, Nothing short of the hand of God herself would make Zombies not human. And no matter who you are, when you see your undead mother, father, wife, husband, child, the people who in life were closest to you, walking up to you with no other intent but to kill you for sustenance for at least a brief moment you will stop. Many people would break down all together and be killed.
Though i don't agree with everything you said, much like my friend chibert, I do believe you brought up something that needs to be said, How do you console a mother who had to kill her only child, the only child she can have, so that she could face this kind of a world? How do you make a person who is Psychologically breaking down be useful? Hope they move to the anger stage of depression quickly and stay there until the threat is over? Lemme tell you something once this threat rises it will never be over. We will never go back to our old way of life. For our own sakes lets hope this end isn't soon near.
. . .problem? Good!
Good Idea posting the emotions to deal with. I think you missed one though: Love. As Shadow pointed out earlier, this emotion is one that will have to almost become a switch that a person can turn off. To speak about a human like a robot that could just switch off and not feel is not something I really don't even like thinking about because emotions I believe are partly there to help us make whatever decision on has to make at that time. The problem is that Love will tell you not kill the zombie that was your Mom, but if you don't do something to stop her, you become just like her.
A person infected is no longer a person (unless there was a vaccine and that is another debate for another time) but a monster that wants nothing more than your death. Here is an exercise for you to understand: Think about the person that means that absolute most in your life standing right in front of you. Now think about all those great and wonderful times you had hanging out and having fun. Picture yourself holding a semi-automatic handgun and them standing right in front of you. Can you pull the trigger now? When they are perfectly fine, uninfected, and healthy? (I'm sure you're thinking, why would I, they are not a threat.)
Think about how difficult it would be to pull that trigger, to know that you would end a life; not just any life mind you but the life of your best whomever. Everyone says: "Well, I'm sure if he/she was a zombie, I could do it." Well frankly, I DON'T buy it. I think that if faced with the same situation as stated above with only a few variables changed (those being that your infected friend is coming right at you and it is kill or be killed) said person is going to flinch.
I know that I would not be able to so easily pull the trigger on anyone, much less my best friend. I think that this alone is the single most deadly factor of a zombie's psychological warfare, the LOVE factor. (Thanks to Shadow for the inspiration for this post) The worse part about the zombie ( by common definition) is that is does not plan strategies or ways of warfare, it has a built in psychological weapon against humans; our own Love of each other. It is a devastating tactic. Combine that with the fact that a zombie may be non-discriminatory in who it attacks (unlike a soldier who has a moral value system and will only attack a combatant unless otherwise ordered) and you have a truly horrifying piece of inhumanity.
"Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening a mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid." G.K. Chesterton
The combat use of emotions is mostly morale exept for anger which can be used as a very minimaly atomic sized enhancer to efficiency.
"When one side goes against the other with gods gift of greater morale then their adversaries as a rule canot withstand them".This is going be one of my rules after Z-Day.The zombies wont stop therefore their morale may be equaled to a number astronomicaly greater then ours.In this case i put everything in this way.My enemy is superrioir in numbers, he will kill anyone he getsin close range of, he will never stop until either we are dead or they are dead and the enemy is he who was wounded by the enemy as well.
Knowing all this i think the only way to go is to never get into direct face to face combat unless the enemy aer thoroughly(how do you spell that ?) decimated.Mostly i would go at it like the vietnamese.Guerila warfare.This in turn would make my troops gain confidence in thenmselves and trust in the whole group.This kind of harmonical work order is the most i could ask for......Wow, i just uderstood how you guys get so off topic always.All that needs to be said now is a sugestion by sanchez on what gun to use and we have done it again.
Someone here said that if we overprepare the worst that will hapen is it will be easy.In that understanding here is my idea of what we will face.A zombie that will posses human dexterity hardly any difrent from that that it had before death or infection.Strenght increased beyond normal rates due to destruction of the brains more combat unefective functions.Decresed stamina from human levels due to incresed muscle efficiecy.And basic predatorial instincts.The zombies will be able to go without food and water and only damadge to the brain can kill them.If we can truly prepare to face even a handfull of creatures like this then we are well on our way.
First lets make a list of emotions that are going to be needed to survive and emotions that will be harmfull to that.
1)Confidence:It is probably one of the most important thing that swayed the courses of many battles in all timelines.Confidence is usualy a result of practise and good leadership.It is the most important emotion in a battle as people who begin doubting themselves begin doubting the battle then the leader then their teammates and eventualy cause a rout.
2)Hope:It is the emotion that is mosst likely the one that will keep people going through the tough times and also keep them from suicide atempts.Hope is an emotion bred by other emotions.Most notably love and friendship.
Once a man has lost hope he has lost the will to go on and will most likely just cost you one last bullet.
3)Trust in the group:This is more or less self explainatory.A man who trusts his coworkers will be much more harmonifull with them and in turn inspire others to do the same.Trust between people working together is essencial especialy in the case that we are discussing.Also it helps keep morale high.
4)Depression:It is the reverse emotion of hope.However this emotion is much stronger as humans have a natural tendency to try less then their limit.So rather then push on most people give in to depression and become a lot less effective than normal.
Dealing with it is very troublesome.The best way to go in post apocaliptic times is to supress it.Anti depresant pills are quite popular these days especialy in China and the USA.
For permanent way to deal with it ill provide a link later on to an article about that.
5)Jealousy:An emotion spawned from feeling far bellow others and greed for their possesions(whether material or mental).It is the most harmfullemotion i can think of to teamwork.As of yet i have no clue how to deal with it quicly.
6)Arrogance:The overgrowth of a persons confidence results in arrogance.Often people start feeling to great and stop trying to their fulest once they get confident.While not extremely harmfull to non-combat work it slows down progress.Incombat situations it is not likely to appear for a long while due to the fear of death beaing overpowering to it.
7)Despair:This emotion is a one edged sword.Only thing is you dont know where the edge faces.
In a case where you dont have anywhere to retreat and are under threat despair is actualy a helpfull emotion as a person no longer posseses choice on whether or not to fight and this loosens up the safety on muscle efficiency.However all other cases are harmfull and people showing sins of despair in thecurent situation should be counted as quite likely to run if posible.
8)Love:This will cover moral love for humans friendship and every other subcategory.
Personaly it is my belief that as Chill said it would be hard to kill a human being much more so someone you realy cared about.Personaly there is just one thing that at times like these can be done.The person under the condition of caring for the person if alone should run if with a group should just go somewhere where he cant see as fast as posible.Personaly i can see people killing idiscriminately once say two years have passed after Z-Day but the moral restraints on mbeing mercifull would be more or less a plague upon ones safety.Either that or it can be a great incinetive to fight when protecting said loved one(s).
9)Anger:Probably one of the strongest and most temporary human emotions.Anger is a self deffense mechanism of the human that is aplied when a threat to a persons morals or body are recognised to be great enough.Anger is the fight mechanism of the body and thus removes the safety lock on the bodies strenght to a point where you are at maxium strenght without inducing permanent harm or muscle or any other tissue.
As a price the body moves most of the focus and maintaining muscle effectiveness and this increases the strain on the brain and usualy other areas or it are lessened in effectiveness.Siply put anger makes you physicaly stronger while making you unfocused.
This is regardless of how well you control anger.The control of anger only works up to staying the same person personality wise.
10)Fear:Fear is an extremely powerfull emotion.It is one of the drives that switch on when life threatening danger is found.As we all know the "Fight or fligh" responce im sure most realise that both are responses of fear.
Fear has several effects.First mentaly it switches off a person personality core concentrating completely to the 5 senses and the bodies efficiency.Second it increses effectivenes of a person beyong any safe capacities if needed.This goes to the point where a person can lift a car.Third it decides whether runing or faciong the danger is better.Most people without proper training are left numbed in this situation.Because fear is an overwhelmingly strong emotion it takes quite a bit of mental practice to control it.
Well as i said before feel free to add to this list as im sure ive missed a few things and made a few mistakes.Ill probably discuss this later on but i think ive wrote enough for one post.
Hey veird.I edited and the post went all the way to the back.Oh and ill edit this list whenever necesary.Mostly cause i like lists and because its less work to read a post that sumarizes 9 pages rather than said pages.
Cause wearing a tux during Z-Day will make me look good and die trying.
I have one (big) problem with your argument. Who is to say a zombie has emotions or even morale? Morale is something that requires a conscious mind and able body along with a measure of intelligence to understand why said morale is high or low. I have a hard time believing that zombies will have morale, in fact, I have an even harder time believing that a zombie will be more than a primary objective following automaton. I do not like to assume things, but an intelligent zombie (especially one that could figure out the logical process to Know that it's morale level is high or low) is not a zombie as much as an angry quisling. Morale is a human emotion and zombies (as far as I am concerned) are not human, they are monsters in a human shell.
"Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening a mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid." G.K. Chesterton
No offense but you think way to straightforwardly.What does good morale efectively do in battle ?
Keep troops from runing away.Will zombies run away.No, meaning it takes less words of typing to put it in the sense of an endless morale.Plus i liked that phrase.
Also ive been thinking about this.Today i almost got into a fight with a few guys.While they were not the best fighters(plus they were realy drunk) and i knew that it still sent way to many chills down my spine.However when a real fight begins i kinda lose all sense of fear.This brings me to my question.How hard is it to triger on and off emotions that effect bodily functions ?
I can triger hate, love,depression or any other emotion besides anger and fear.The reason im asking this is because i need help learning to deal with fear because i freze for about a second every time i am threatened(physicaly).
Cause wearing a tux during Z-Day will make me look good and die trying.
Training makes all the difference in the world.
Human beings have evolved over thirty million years into what are essentially the most efficient and effective killing machines on the planet. Our species combines the animalistic ability to kill without conscience when we believe that we are threatened, with the capacity for rational thought and prediction of future events and consequences. Often we do this in especially horrible ways.
When you "freeze", it is a result of the body and mind not agreeing on a course of action. Your mind tells you that you have to shoot the zed in order to preserve your own life, but your body is stopping you because your subconscious thinks that this "person" facing you is still your relative, or your friend. The "dumb" part of you doesn't recognize or understand the present situation.
This is where training comes in. Hundreds of hours of firing at human-shaped targets, rushing positions while a machine gun is being fired ten feet away from you, and stabbing rubber tires with your bayonet conditions your subconscious, your "dumb mind", into being able to do these things under real combat conditions.
The US military refers to this ability to act under pressure as being due to "muscle memory"; your body learns what to do early on, so that your mind does not have to force it to later.
This is why the best armies in the world have always been, throughout history, the ones which spend the most time and money on training their troops.
The problem is that there is really no way to train for being able to kill people you know on sight. One would think it would be easy to train a person to kill a zombie, simply by using moving targets and groans played through a speaker. But the problem with shooting a familiar face is that there is no acceptable way to train for that.
Melee weapons: Because there's nothing more satisfying than bashing in a zed cranium with your new best friend, Mr Crowbar™. (Product demonstration brought to you by nick47)
