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Subject: anti-zombie weapons
Dauphin    4/27/2005 1:45:30 AM
How about a mononuclear battle lash-whip combo?
 
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eon    RE:anti-zombie weapons   4/28/2005 10:28:58 AM
Flashy, but probably unnecessary. By all accounts, "zombies", whether the fictional kind, ala' "Night Of The Living Dead", or the real drugged-slave kind ala' "The Serpent And The Rose", are not appreciably tougher than a normal human, just more insensitive to shock. Anything which shuts down the central nervous system will get the job done. Or in other words, standard weapons and good marksmanship (to hit the vitals, or the brain) are really all you need.
 
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eatmee    RE:anti-zombie weapons   10/24/2005 1:11:21 AM
Tanks Big ones little ones, MBTanks, Anti-infantry rapidgattling gun tank, Flame tanks. All tough and NBC sound.
 
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ker       6/25/2007 6:03:55 PM
"Short hair, tight clothing."
 
Pole arms.  Can be lowered with force sufficent to crush skull and prevent blocking.  Can be used too distroy the stairs behind you.
 
 
 
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swhitebull       6/25/2007 11:38:23 PM

Tanks

Big ones little ones, MBTanks, Anti-infantry rapidgattling gun tank, Flame tanks. All tough and NBC sound.

Uh Uh -  Read about the battle of Yonkers in World War Z? - wrong battle, fighting  the wrong war with the wrong weapons against the wrong enemy. Zombies have no morale to break and have no fear. Their only motivation is to catch you and eat you. But they have the intelligence of a newt. and the ONLY way to kill them is to destroy the brain. A decapped head will still snap at you. Very few soldiers are trained for those head shots.
 
 
Result?  Massacre of the high tech army. They just keep coming - hundred, then thousands, then millions of them swarming from NYC.   Lines were set up on the ground, not in the surrounding heights which zombies couldnt climb. Now if the tanks were loaded with flechettes - ALL rounds -  that might make a difference, but they were armed with conventional AP, HE, HEAT, and few Flechettes. But not shells, not flame unless it fries the brain.
 
Infantry are trained to hit the body mass - not sharpshoot the brain.  Would need retraining. And in a zombie catastrophe, where logistics fall apart, bigger ticket items would be worthless -  bad bang for the kill, so to speak. Japanese polearms are excellent - blade combined with crossarms for standoff, and can sever at the neck by thrusting the moonblade. Pretty cool, as long as the head is destroyed. (See WWZ for the blind martial artist and how he survived!)
 
Best tactic?   Prepare the ground, make them come to you, form huge Infantry square,  with reserves and triple lines, a la the movie 'Zulu' , massive division resupply, with pikes  as standoff, unlimited ammo supply and resupply, NO heavy weapons (bad Kill-Cost ratio compared to shooting where a trained infantry with supply can kill hundreds) and all infantry trained to shoot the head. You start shooting the Zacks until you start building walls of them all around you, which becomes part of your defense, then pick off the zombies as they manageably try to scramble over the bodies.
 
Eventually, you will clean out an area.  Call in the cleanup crew, then move forward and repeat.
 
 
swhitebull -  just finished reading World War Z again, coupled with the Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks, son of Mel. WW Z is a book interviewing about 40 survivors from the war from across the world, from the initial outbreak in China to the spread of the infection,  to the near extermination of the human race, to the resurgence of humanity to triumph.   Well worth the reading, and wait for the movie on it next year. 
 
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TrustButVerify    WWZ   6/26/2007 4:38:49 PM
I'm unfamiliar with WWZ, but where in hell was their air support? Gunships and fighter bombers loaded with AP cluster bombs would surely make a difference. It also sounds like a perfect scenario for an Arc Light raid.
 
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flamingknives       6/26/2007 6:00:45 PM
HE shells kill by primary and secondary fragmentation, not blast or flame. Therefore HE would be viable. If nothing else it would slow the zombies down, assuming that they rely on muscle and bone structure for motion, and not magic. The same goes for air-dropped HE and artillery munitions. Land mines would be reasonably useful too A zombie without legs will be slower.

Full plate armour seems sensible for clearing enclosed spaces, although not as thick as the medieval stuff. Just thick enough to stop bites and scratches, aluminium sheet and perspex would probably do. On the medieval kick, castles and similar fortifications would seem wise. A curtain wall would enable you to take a heavy toll without undue risk to the defenders. Polearms and shield walls do not seem like a good idea, as in a crush (which you would need to stop an advancing horde) you would not have the agility to pick and choose target points. And zombies would out-push you.

Pike men and small-arms, however, makes sense.

If the zombies can be made to come on en masse, then machine guns, used properly, would be effective. A more stable mount, better range, better fire control. A slow firing weapon like the .5 or a Vickers would be more useful as high rate of fire does not gain you anything against an opponent who is in plain sight and moves slowly.

I have to say that WWZ sounds like the sort of book that makes assumptions as plot devices - i.e. the military are really, really stupid and gratuitously incompetant, rather than devise a way for the threat to realistically overcome them.
 
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00_Chem_AJB       6/26/2007 7:14:37 PM
Air burst munitions, MLRS "steel rain." And if they still rely on the CNS, VX, sarin, other organic phosphates.
 
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swhitebull       6/26/2007 10:36:11 PM

Air burst munitions, MLRS "steel rain." And if they still rely on the CNS, VX, sarin, other organic phosphates.



All you wind up with is shredded putrefying zombie flesh, unless you get lucky with a head shot.  Nerve agents and gas wouldnt work - they're already dead and dont breathe!!  Best you could do is immobilize them. Again,  look at the Battle of Yonkers!!! It was tried - and failed.
 
I still think the best approach is a lobotomizer for closein work - part spade, part moon-axe, all japanese, and all stainless steel, after the infantry-squares have done their work in building zombie walls.
 
 
swhitebull  - I take my zombies seriously.  The remake of Day of the Dead is coming out, and next year,  World War Z from Max Brooks hits the screen, courtesy of brad pitt's production company.
 
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swhitebull       6/26/2007 10:43:04 PM

HE shells kill by primary and secondary fragmentation, not blast or flame. Therefore HE would be viable. If nothing else it would slow the zombies down, assuming that they rely on muscle and bone structure for motion, and not magic. The same goes for air-dropped HE and artillery munitions. Land mines would be reasonably useful too A zombie without legs will be slower.

Full plate armour seems sensible for clearing enclosed spaces, although not as thick as the medieval stuff. Just thick enough to stop bites and scratches, aluminium sheet and perspex would probably do. On the medieval kick, castles and similar fortifications would seem wise. A curtain wall would enable you to take a heavy toll without undue risk to the defenders. Polearms and shield walls do not seem like a good idea, as in a crush (which you would need to stop an advancing horde) you would not have the agility to pick and choose target points. And zombies would out-push you.

Pike men and small-arms, however, makes sense.

If the zombies can be made to come on en masse, then machine guns, used properly, would be effective. A more stable mount, better range, better fire control. A slow firing weapon like the .5 or a Vickers would be more useful as high rate of fire does not gain you anything against an opponent who is in plain sight and moves slowly.

I have to say that WWZ sounds like the sort of book that makes assumptions as plot devices - i.e. the military are really, really stupid and gratuitously incompetant, rather than devise a way for the threat to realistically overcome them.

the military was initially incompetent - at the top levels - in dealing with the zombies. underestimated the numbers, the logistics, the tactics and force mix. Not atypical of generals fighting the last war, but not prepared to fight a current one. That was the point of Brook's battle of Yonkers. He goes into the affects of CAS, MLRS, etc. as well. His revised winning tactics were the ones I outlined above, thru trial and error, and body armor based on modernized chainmail, and discusses the use of castles in Europe and safe zones.
 
swhitebull - read the book,  its worth it, and I couldnt put it down - took 2 nights to read. He interviews 40 people for their experiences during the war. Neat approach. No shield wall, just kill zones to build the zombie walls, which slows down the hordes, backed up by TONS of ammunition, with resupply by helo. As a plot device, it works, since the military chose the time and place of the defense. Also, he sets up attractor spots - human bait- to attract zombies, but are impregnable fortresses, thus allowing the military to move into positions to choose their battles.     

 
 
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00_Chem_AJB       6/27/2007 8:25:27 AM




Air burst munitions, MLRS "steel rain." And if they still rely on the CNS, VX, sarin, other organic phosphates.





All you wind up with is shredded putrefying zombie flesh, unless you get lucky with a head shot.  Nerve agents and gas wouldnt work - they're already dead and dont breathe!!  Best you could do is immobilize them. Again,  look at the Battle of Yonkers!!! It was tried - and failed.

 

I still think the best approach is a lobotomizer for closein work - part spade, part moon-axe, all japanese, and all stainless steel, after the infantry-squares have done their work in building zombie walls.

 

 

swhitebull  - I take my zombies seriously.  The remake of Day of the Dead is coming out, and next year,  World War Z from Max Brooks hits the screen, courtesy of brad pitt's production company.


Ok so any one have an idea on what makes a zombie function biologically, while yes a nerve agent wont "kill" them it will still immobilize them, and things are easier to destroy when they aren't moving. Also if the zombie relies on the brain, if you blast it's leg or arm of, then those severed limbs aren't going to continue their advance, as there aren't in any way attachted to a brain.
 
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