I likewise got a Z+
And I didn’t like any of their fortified building choices. If I were to choose to fortify anything, it’d be a distribution center of some kind (like a Wal-Mart distribution center). There’d be plenty of packaged goods there, most of those places I’ve seen are already completely fenced in, few windows, and not the first place the panicking populace will think of when they try to hole up (they’ll be thinking the actual wal-mart).
That’s a good point, food, weapons, crappy tools but tools and plenty of clothes. Ideally if you could find a Wal-Marts warehouse next to a Home Depot or Plumbing supply warehouse, you would be well set for the long haul. The problem is, do you know where a Wal-Mart Distro is?
Here is a list that I guess we need in case of Zombie plague or other end of civilization scenarios.
BBCF Z+ for me. I got the fortified building question right, but I disagree with their analysis of a mall. Malls, even small ones have a LOT of entrances; not only the rows of double doors ino less than 4 locations, more if there are department stores, but the service entrances too. Zombies may not have the werewithal to get in through a service entrance, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. And malls are large enough that if a crowd started coming in from one end, you could be overrun before you were aware of it. If you had an army of civilians, like if the mall was in full business swing when the zombies attacked, you might be able to do it, but a band of survivors would have to be mighty damn big to cope.
Yeah, there are two distribution centers within 45 minutes of me (one within 20 minutes) according to that site.
Plus, the added benefit is that if you can take over said place fast enough and secure it, you’re still likely to have a half a fleet of big semi trucks at your disposal if you did need to move for some reason. Disassemble some of them for extra armor, and siphon the gas out carefully and you’ve got a pretty good setup, i’d wager.
Z+ as well, I hope that’s a good score…
As far as the Assault Rifle/Rifle/Shotgun issue, here’s my take;
Rifle; with a good scope and rest (bi-pod, beanbag, forked branch, etc…), headshots are possible at extreme distance, e.g. the .22LR cartridge has a range of 1.2 miles, barring wind influence, ballistics and bullet drop, admittedly, the energy deposit at 1.2 miles would be negligible, but the round is viable to at least 300 yards, larger calibers will have greater chances of skull penetration and energy deposit, but at the cost of increased weight
Single shot break-barrel rifles are the quietest (no breech for sound to exit from) and generally the most accurate, bolt actions are just as accurate, and can be had with a clip-fed or tube-fed design, holding up to 10 rounds, semiautos are a hair less accurate, but more convenient, and will fire as rapidly as you can pull and release the trigger, clip fed and tube fed semis are the norm here, and guns like the Ruger 10/22 can take large capacity magazines as well (10-50 rounders), and can also be heavily customized with different stocks, scopes, and barrels
An excellent Zombie-slayer 10/22 (or any other rifle) setup would be;
polymer stock with a bipod
zoom scope
laser sight and weaponlight
“Bull” barrel (heavy barrel, helps to steady the weapon when shooting)
Suppressor (the .22LR is quiet enough already, a supressed .22 barely makes any noise at all, less noise to attract Zack)
long barrels are unneccecary on a .22LR, as the bullet has achieved maximum speed 18" down the barrel, longer barrels stabilize the bullet better (more rifling), but also slow the bullet down a bit (frictional drag after 18")
using the Zombie Survival Guide as a, well, guide…, Brooks reccomends the .22 Long Rifle (other variants are the more powerful and longer .22 Magnum, and the .223 Centerfire (5.56 NATO))due to the fact that a large amount of ammunition can be carried with a minimal amount of weight, the drawback to the .22LR is the small, lightweight projectile, you’d better be aiming to hit an eye socket, the temple, or the nasal cavity, the .22 may not have the neccecary power to crack the human skull
Assault Rifle; larger, more powerful cartridge, long range, but too much temptation to switch to a 3 round burst or full auto and “rock and rolling”, too much indiscriminate lead-throwing, wasting perfectly good ammunition, a single headshot will drop Zack in his place, Rockin’ and Rollin’ may be fun, but it’s a waste of valuable ammunition
Shotgun; the general “belief” about shotguns is that “you don’t have to aim”, but at the typical Zombie-killin’ range, the shot cloud has not had much time to expand, so you really DO have to aim, if you encounter a Z that’s within lets say, 10-15 feet of you, you could theoretically miss it, shotguns (lets say a 12-gauge, as that’s the most common and most popular caliber) are also heavier than rifles, and have a heavy kick, which can fatigue the shooter during extended shooting sessions, if you are using slugs in a shotgun (think BIG bullets), then you’d have to aim just like a rifle anyway
shotguns also create a huge mess on close-in Zack shots, a headshot from a 12-gauge using #4 Buckshot or bigger would create an aerosolized mist of Zombie-head, and that fine red mist of Z Cranial Contents would create a possible infection vector if the shooter was to breathe any of it in, wheras a rifle would allow you to drop Zacks from a distance
Handgun; inaccurate beyond 20 feet under stress, especially when trying to hit a small mobile target like a Zombie skull
Has anyone ever determined the actual “life” expectancy of a zombie once their available food supply has been exhausted?
Theoretically, since they’re already dead, they won’t age. But what is their rate of decay/deterioration? How long before they become non-functional?
Depends on the source material…
Brooksian Zombies; the Solanum virus slows the decay of the host body (mainly by making the corpse too hostile for the microorganisims that cause the decay process), 3-5 years of combat effectiveness tops for the Brooksian Zombies, that’s 3-5 years for each shambling corpse, and since Zacks didn’t all ressurect at the same time, well…
Romero Zombies; Looks to be similar to Brooksians, 3-5 years
O’Bannon Zombies; (Return of the Living Dead) very durable zombies, they can range from freshly-dead to nothing more than skeletons, dismemberment does not seem to work, as the “pieces” will come after you, destruction of the brain and/or burning/cremation will stop the corpse, but re-release the Trioxin gas back into the atmosphere
Umbrella Zombies; short-duration zombies, I’d hazard under two years, due to the rapid decomposition
Rage “Zombies”; as these are nothing more than really pissed-off humans with a megadose of adrenaline, there’s no “rotting” to speak of, whatever can kill a Human can kill a Rager
I Am Legend “Zompires”(thanks to the Rifftrax forum for that term); as long as they’re not exposed to sunlight, there seems to be no limit to their existence, they don’t seem to rot away
Jason Voorhees; dunno, 11 movies and he seems to be going strong to me, the only thing that can kill him is the “Box Office” weapon…
Reavers; like Rage Zombies, they’re human, so whatever kills a human can take down a Reaver (or you could just sic River on 'em…
)
Hmm, River Tam Vs. Jason Voorhees, who’d win that one?
Jayne.
I don’t know about that.
Day of the Dead, and the more recent Land of the Dead both seems to take place a considerable amount of time after the initial outbreak. Especially Land of the Dead.
I am personally of the option that the Romero zombie are essentially immortal, especially given that the Doc in Day of the Dead has them down to brainstem and spinal cord, and the faceless pussbag still attempts to attack.
Land of the Dead (only saw it once, so don’t know if they get specific) takes place presumably years after the initial outbreak, and the Zed’s there are not rotting or falling apart at all.
ETA: River Tam vs. Zombies. I’ll be in mah bunk.
Me, too! Yay!
Sorry, even with your fancy laser, your 10/22 doesn’t do shit against large game–which Zombies most definitely are.
[quote]
Shotgun; the general “belief” about shotguns is that “you don’t have to aim”, but at the typical Zombie-killin’ range, the shot cloud has not had much time to expand, so you really DO have to aim,
[quote]
So the drawback is that I would have to “aim”? Oh no!
They are not inherently heavier than many hunting rifles IME.
Stop being a wuss.
And there lies its main advantage–versatility. With a detachable scope, collapsable stock, and a variety of ammunition, you have all the best features of the long range and short range weapon… as well as the knock down power in close range. These are zombies. Putting holes in them with your dinky little .22 is not going to stop them. You need to knock them down, and blast limbs and heads off of them. Plus you can use it to easily blast padlocks and hinges as the need arises. And nobody said the shotgun couldn’t be semiauto or, hell, even full auto. Though a full auto shotgun would be unecessarily heavy. A good Benneli M1 semi-auto would do nicely!
You can drop them from a distance with the shotgun as well. But why would you be shooting them from so far away? Wouldn’t that just draw attention to yourself?
And back to the machete. I think the chopping up and decapitating zombies is more important than the impromtu opening of a random wooden crate. And edged weapon is a wonderful versatile tool. A blunt object for smashing things?? Ever heard of a rock? Prying? I’m sure when the need for prying presents itself, I can find something laying around. Throughout my day, I find the need to cut something comes up far more often than the need to bash something or pry it. I think this ratio would stay the same in the event of WWZ.
And any test that thinks you are not much safer driving around a truck… no wonder so many people die in Zombie movies. People are fucking retarded.
Overall, I got an “A,” even though I clicked on the wrong answer on the medical question- I accidentally said I could treat “none of these” instead of “all of these.”
I got a Z+ but then again I did often plan on how to defend my apartment complex from zombies when I was laying in bed waiting to fall asleep. It was an great location. No ground floor apartments, the entrance to the building was via a windowless steel door, and it was within three blocks of: a gun store, two grocery stores, a police station, and a mall. A military base was right near by too. Of course in a real zombie invasion I’d go to one of the Bell South buildings in my city. They all look like they were built to withstand an attack by Godzilla during a nuclear war.
I got B, C, D and F for a total of Z+. Now, I don’t know a lot about weapons, so that works against me. And it might also explain why I defended myself against a zombie attack with a steak knife last year.
I got a C! Can I stay close to a bunch of you other guys? I’ll handle the grenades.
Sure! Now go down those stairs and check behind that door, okay?
Z+ here…Though I think I would use the decapitated bodies as sandbags when the mall fortifications failed.
Nice knowin’ ya, though.
I got solid B’s except and F for emotional, whatever that means.
but I’m primarily a Romera era zombie survivor, so I got a few wrong that way.
Additionally, I must protest the statement that a katana and a gernade are not much use. true, they may not be fatal, but disableing the limbs on a group of zombies is certainly useful
I don’t know what the state of the art is when it comes to grenades, but the examples I’m familiar with are unlikely to blow off a limb unless it is very close to the zombie. You still might disable a limb with shrapnel, but it might be difficult to distinguish between a disabled and a functional limb.
I got a Z+, by the way.