Article 2: Zombie Tactics by Class:Class 1 - Walkers Slow walk.
Can’t climb stairs
Stealthy (Until humans detected).
Human detection device.
One shot to the chest or back.
30 second respawn.
Walker Attributes:When people hear the word "Zombie," this is what they think about. Your run of the mill slouch-and-moaner. They've been dead for a decent amount of time, so their motor skills have atrophied. They move from a slow shuffle to a moderate walk. In the case of the towers, where humans are hiding up the stairs, Walkers can not climb up after them. They're also fragile: one hit to the chest and they're dead. These zombies are totally silent until they see a human. Then they moan. This moan is echoed by the next nearest zombie, and so on. They’re saying "Dinner's over here! Follow my voice." These zombies have a 30 second respawn timer when shot in the chest or back. When stabbed with a melee weapon, they’re stunned for 10 seconds.
How to Play a Walker: You are slow. Period. Move from a slow shuffle to a moderate walk. Your body is decomposed, so you're not going to compete in the 100- yard dash.
BUT, you’re also deathly silent. Unlike the Runners, who have to roar and moan constantly, you can sneak up on the enemy team until the last possible second. Use it.
You're also the early warning system for every other zombie in the place. One problem we encountered on the Oct. 22nd training game was that zombies had NO way to tell the whole team where the humans were. They have radios, we don’t… but we do have the Walkers. When a walker sees a human, they moan. The nearby zombies also moan, and follow the sound of the first zombie. The more moans at once, in the same place, the more humans there are to eat. EVERY zombie should listen for these moans, gauge the direction, pass the moan along, and then follow it to the source. As long as each Walker remembers this VITAL duty, we will ALWAYS outnumber the humans.
When a Walker is hit once in the chest or back, they're dead. And by all means, make it dramatic. Rival the acting chops of Marlon Brando
BUT, you don't have to stay there... If you fall and stay there, you're stuck for those 30 seconds in full view of the humans. Once you're back up, they can shoot you again for another 30 seconds, and camp your corpse. It's a waste of a minute. Alternative: Once you're "killed," do your death scene, but then crawl up into a half-crouch and "drag” your body away from the humans. Simulate an injured animal, stumbling away to safety. As long as you're not standing "stock-straight” upright,” they are less likely to see you as a threat, and let you limp away (remember their ammo limit). Now once you're out of sight, count to 30 while you find another direction to attack from. By the time you hit “30-missisipi,” you’re ready to rush them from a different angle. The key difference is you're using your “death” to slump away, rather than wasting time laying there. You've just cut your respawn time in half, while still obeying the rules.
The only exception to this is when a team of humans are moving past your corpse. If you try to get up and “grab them” when one is passing within arms reach, he will tap your chest with his melee weapon (plastic knife, etc). This Tap is a temporary stun, at which point he’ll continue moving past you. His buddies behind him might tap you as well, so you get a chain of tap-tap-tap as they move past you. This means you slump back down long enough for them to all pass you by, and exit the room. That’s what it’s used for.
BUT, don’t let them do this if they’re camping a room, and you’re stuck inside of it. Nobody wants to be tapped into boredom because they can’t get away. So, if a human is holed up in a room and doesn’t plan to leave, and they tap you with a melee weapon, simulate the stun effect… while slumping towards the doorway. They can tap you all the way to the door if they want, your body language and direction make it clear they you’re out of the fight and out of their hair. Then just shake off the stun effect, and come back at them again.
Class 2 - Runners Fast power walk.
Can climb stairs.
Always loud (no humans required).
Can serve as the distraction.
One shot to the chest or back.
15 second respawn.
Runner Attributes: Unlike Walkers, Runners are fast. Not as fast as a human. But fast enough to be a threat to distance-weapons. This is because Runners are recent kills, and their bodies are still in decent condition: this includes motor skills. They move at a rapid power-walk. Travelling those long hallways is less of a problem for a Runner. One other benefit of a Runner’s motor skills: they can climb the stairs that lead up to each tower. Walkers cannot.
He’s also loud, all the time. While a Walker will stay silent-as-death until a human is in arm’s reach, the Runner will be roaming the long hallways broadcasting their presence to every human in earshot. You might as well wear a bell on your neck boys and girls; sneaky-types need not apply for the Runner class.
Whether this is a strength or weakness, depends on how you use it.
One shot to the chest or back, and a Runner is dead for 15 seconds. A melee tap to the chest or the back, and he’s stunned for 10 seconds: just long enough for the human to get out of reach.
How to Play a Runner: Power-walk, animal-style! Runners move at a rapid power-walk, and can close the distance fairly quickly. Their backs are hunched forward, like a bipedal animal on the prowl. The Walker looks drowsy, but the Runner looks predatory!
You also sound different. You’re the growling roar to the Walker’s moan. (Doesn’t have to be exactly that, but every zombie should be able to tell the difference between the two classes, just by the sound). This ensures that zombies can home in on the Walker’s moan towards human prey, without getting sidetracked by mistaking a Runner’s noise for a Walker’s.
The Walker is allowed to be quiet until they spot a human. That’s their job. You don’t have that luxury. You should be making noise all the time; the more the better.
But this might not be a weakness, if you play your role right. Runners can coordinate which halls to roam, and make as much noise as possible. This could actually funnel humans towards quieter paths, and into ambushes by a roomful of silent Walkers.
Runners can also be a useful distraction. A dual Runner / Walker team can rack up quite a meal with the following tactic:
A runner spots a team of humans at the end of a long hallway. He screams and goes on a berserker charge towards them. The lead human drops him with a chest shot. He’s so focused on dropping the Runner… that the Walker hiding behind the doorway next to him reaches out and grabs him before he can swing his weapon around. The loud Runner distracts from in front, while the stealthy Walker ambushes from the side.
But like all zombies, you will be shot sooner or later.
When you are, slump away from human eyes. Count to 15. Then hit them again from another direction. Speed is the key.
Class 3 - Soldiers Former U.S. Soldier, now a zombie.
Slow walk.
Stealthy (Until humans detected).
Human detection device.
Still wearing body armor, so...
3 shots to the chest OR 1 shotgun blast to the chest.
30 second respawn.
Soldier Attributes: There won’t be too many details here, for only one reason. Soldier Zombies act the exact same way as Walkers, except they’re wearing body armor. Soldier Zombies are members of the other teams (U.S. Special Forces and PMCs) that were killed and not healed by medics. They were “Left 4 Dead” and are now well protected zombies. They move at the same speed as Walkers, due to their being weighed down by Kevlar plates. They’re just as stealthy as Walkers. They also perform the same early-warning duty as Walkers: when you see a human up close, moan to your brothers. But unlike Walkers and Runners, it takes more to kill a Soldier Zombie. Either three shots to the chest / back, or a single blast with a shotgun. There’s a long, story-based reason for this, but the short version is that rifles need 3 shots to blast past the body armor. But a shotgun round (usually the tri-shot springers that UTG makes, but maybe single-bb shotguns too: ask an MTT staff member for the final word) does enough damage up close in real life that it’s comparable to three rifle shots. These guys are still slouching and moaning, but they’ve got a little more time to close that distance and eat you, thanks to the Army Supply Office.
How to Play a Soldier: Everything you read about the Walker in regards to movement speed, stealth, early-warning duty, and role-playing, applies to this class as well.
He’s moving at a slow shuffle, he’s silent until he sees a human, he guides his undead buddies towards prey via moaning, and he generally acts like a Walker.
BUT, he MUST remember that he’s got better protection than his Walker brothers. It’s unfortunate but true that in the heat of a game, when an airsoft rifle is pointed at your chest, people tend to fall back on their reflexes and learned behaviors. Airsofters are conditioned to feel a single hit to the chest, then call “Hit!” It’s how we play. I know that I’ve been in game modes with 3-shot rules before, but walked off the field after a single hit. That’s because I was so used to “Shot-‘Hit!’-Regen,” that I forgot I still had 2 more chances to stay in the fight.
Before the game on Oct. 30th, potential Soldiers have to condition themselves a little differently. Train yourself to feel three shots to the chest with a rifle, then drop. If it’s 1 shot, ignore it, 2 shots, ignore it, 3 shots… yer out!
This is important to tactics, because the Soldier can close short distances for longer than Walkers. This might make a viable tactic for room entries: the Soldier takes point with a string of Walkers right behind him. He becomes a 3-use riot shield. He can stumble through a doorway with humans in front, and have enough time to clear it before he calls that 3rd hit. By acting as a B.B. sponge, he manages to clear the doorway, and buy enough time for his Walkers to swarm up behind him, and into the room where the humans are surrounded and devoured. If plain Walkers tried that, they’d fall one after another like dominos. If a Soldier leads the way… they just may stand a chance.
The only exception to this rule is with shotguns. A shotgun at close range (and maybe any range, check with an MTT staff member) counts the same as three rifle / pistol hits. So a human team that’s holed up in a room with a Soldier and Walker horde right outside, should have their shot gunner covering that door.
When a Soldier finally goes down, he should slump and crawl away just like his brothers. His respawn count is 30 seconds when shot with a ranged weapon, only 5 seconds when stunned with a melee weapon.
Class 4 - Tank Staff member playing Tank.
Only 1 Tank at a time, per mission.
Big... REALLY Big!
Impervious to small arms fire.
Slow Shuffle.
Confined to hallways with no low-hanging doorways.
Only option: stun it with frag grenades or M203 nerf ball.
frag grenade stuns tank for 10 seconds.
M203 shot stuns tank for 30 seconds.
Tank Attributes: Now THIS is where it gets fun! Anyone that missed the Oct. 22th or Oct. 29th Zombie Survival Trainings definitely missed out on a sneak-peak of something truly awesome! I won’t give away the construction details, but suffice it to say… the Tank is a prop that’s worn and operated by a lucky SOB of a staff member. This thing is HUGE! Easily 1 ½ Michael Jordan’s tall, and 2 Jesse Ventura’s wide. The prop’s hands (controlled by the staff-member) are bigger than my face. If you looked straight ahead at this thing, you’d be staring at his crotch. Okay, sorry for the rant, now back on-topic:
Details are in the story, but the gist is that the Tank is a simulated experiment of Zombie modification by the private company that operates the PMCs. Sort of a weaponized zombie that’s been shot full of steroids. He’s designed to bulldoze through squads of soldiers and rip apart a Main Battle Tank like it’s made of rice paper. Story version, there’s only four of them in existence. Gameplay version, there will only be one Tank active in any one mission (Same prop, 4 different missions).
First attribute, this thing is huge. Mike Simpson couldn’t even fit it through any of the doors because the threshold was too low. He said that he’s thinking of chopping it down in size to allow it to cross a specific threshold in one of the hallways.
But that’s essentially the drawback to its size. It can’t follow humans through low-hanging doorways. This means that it’s confined to roaming certain hallways, and can’t chase a human team into a room. But nothing’s stopping it from camping that doorway…
Second attribute, it’s impervious to small-arms fire. This means that you can shoot AEGs, Shotguns, and pistols at the guy wearing it all day long… he won’t be calling any of those hits. The Tank soaked up those weapons in the video game, so why should they do any damage here?
Third attribute, and weakness: he’s slower than a Walker. The staff-member role-playing the Tank will be walking at a slow, slow shuffle. As long as other zombies aren’t slowing the humans down, they should be able to outrun this thing easily.
The only way to damage the Tank is to stun it with either a Frag Grenade (non-functional) OR an M203 loaded with a soft nerf ball. I think a Frag Grenade stuns it for 10 seconds, while the M203 stuns it for 30 seconds. It won’t kill it, but it’ll buy enough time for the humans to get away. Details for how to employ non-functioning Frag Grenades will be detailed in another guide for the Special Forces and the PMCs (If they have Frag Grenades).
How To Utilize the Tank: Since a staff-member will be playing the Tank, this guide is for the other classes. Our tactics will revolve around how we coordinate with the Tank.
His girth means that he can only roam certain hallways. So Runners should roam other hallways in order to funnel humans away from them… and into the Tank’s path.
The Tank is impervious to small-arms fire. Other zombies are not. This means that the best tactic is to use him as moving cover. When a pack of humans have a hallway locked down, and we need to push in close, the Tank will lead the way. Anyone who played MTT’s Black Hawk Down game as the Somali Militia, remember when we used the Technical as moving cover on the last push to the American held Gas Station? Same thing here.
When the humans see a Tank rumbling towards them, their first defense will be to run for the nearest room with a low-hanging doorway. The Tank can’t follow them in. BUT, the tank can and will camp right in front of that door, using its body to block them in. Essentially, he’s sealed off that exit. Zombies can, and should, pour through that doorway underneath his arms. The opposite exits (there will always be at least one or two other exits) must be swarmed by the remainder of the zombie team. Walkers, Runners, and Soldier Zombies should camp those exits and stage Horde Rushes through them. With the Tank blocking their backdoor, and Hordes of zombies flooding through their front, we wear them out by attrition.
But hurry up to surround them, and rush them as soon as you have a good number of zombies at each door. Because every fireteam of U.S. Soldiers, and maybe PMCs and civilians have a grenadier / boom-guy with them. His job will be to either throw a frag at the Tank’s feet or launch an M203 Nerf into his chest. Either hit stuns the Tank, which means he’ll stagger back and away from the doorway. He’ll be dazed and confused for 10 – 30 seconds, just long enough for the humans to rush out past him and escape the hallway. If that happens, regular zombies have to slow them down long enough for the Tank to regain his wits, and chase after them.
Okay folks, that's it for article 2. Those are the only ones I have so far. I'll post more as I come up with them.
BUT, this isn't a 1 man show. If anyone has ANY ideas about the upcoming game, from ANY of the teams (SOF, PMC, Civilian, or Zombie), please share your ideas about how to advance your team's chances, and to advance the game. Forum discussions are like Bell-Ringer Charity Buckets: they're better when everybody throws their 2 cents in... Dam*, that was corny, hehe.
