What If...?

[Davies]

But why would he arrive in Wakanda? He only went there because the mindstone was there, he should have arrived at the shield base instead

My guess is that he arrived at the site of Zombie Strange's demise to get the Time Stone from the remains, and was ambushed by a zombie that managed to get through his tough skin there, making it all the way to Wakanda before he succumbed. Admittedly, that just defers the explanation of 'why go to Wakanda' ... maybe he retained enough Time Stone-granted awareness to know that the Mind Stone was going to go there?

 

[Stalker0]

Slow moving unarmored infantry without any regard to tactic, self-preservation and zero ranged capability? They'd have a field day, even if they deliberately deploy for show effect rather than maximum effiency.

This.

Hell if your dealing with slow zombies, all you need is:

• Two lines of spearman
• A few "spotters" whose job it is to pull any of their buddies out of the fire that get tripped up, or just in case of any shenanigan's. They are also watching for zombies in unexpected places.
• A few supply people, who ensure their spearman always have spears. Obviously some will get lost or broken as the fight goes on.

First line stabs the zombies and steps back. Second line stabs the zombies and steps back. Rinse and Repeat. As long as you have space you can basically kill infinite zombies. You can do it with a single line, but two lines gives you a bit more coverage and lets each line work at a leisurely pace so they don't fatigue too quickly.

Just start outside a populated area, blow the horn to get the zombies to come to you in a nice open field, and just begin the work. It might take a while but you will easily clear out an area of hundreds of zombies in short order.

As cool as slow zombies can look....there's no way they take out the world. At least in the World War Z movie, the zombies are so crazy fast and do that crazy group up thing that at least makes them a credible threat.

 

[Ryujin]

This.

Hell if your dealing with slow zombies, all you need is:

• Two lines of spearman
• A few "spotters" whose job it is to pull any of their buddies out of the fire that get tripped up, or just in case of any shenanigan's. They are also watching for zombies in unexpected places.
• A few supply people, who ensure their spearman always have spears. Obviously some will get lost or broken as the fight goes on.

First line stabs the zombies and steps back. Second line stabs the zombies and steps back. Rinse and Repeat. As long as you have space you can basically kill infinite zombies. You can do it with a single line, but two lines gives you a bit more coverage and lets each line work at a leisurely pace so they don't fatigue too quickly.

Just start outside a populated area, blow the horn to get the zombies to come to you in a nice open field, and just begin the work. It might take a while but you will easily clear out an area of hundreds of zombies in short order.

As cool as slow zombies can look....there's no way they take out the world. At least in the World War Z movie, the zombies are so crazy fast and do that crazy group up thing that at least makes them a credible threat.

The sheer weight of numbers, or just plain weight, would eventually do you in. No matter how many lines you've got, you can only kill them so quickly. Especially so, given the "shoot 'em in the head" limitation. Use pikes and spears, and you eventually have opponents who are too close to do anything about without giving up that distance advantage. They keep going all day. You have to stop to rest/eat/take a bio-break. Pack them in closely enough and you can't even move those weapons anymore.

Remember one important thing; the dead always outnumber the living.

 

[Stalker0]

The sheer weight of numbers, or just plain weight, would eventually do you in. No matter how many lines you've got, you can only kill them so quickly. Especially so, given the "shoot 'em in the head" limitation. Use pikes and spears, and you eventually have opponents who are too close to do anything about without giving up that distance advantage. They keep going all day. You have to stop to rest/eat/take a bio-break. Pack them in closely enough and you can't even move those weapons anymore.

Remember one important thing; the dead always outnumber the living.

But if we are talking slow zombies, a line of spears can very easily keep distance with them. Again, the goal is a nice open field where you have plenty of distance. If the zombies get a little too close for comfort....you fast walk away....you don't even need to run really. If there are just too many zombies, have the truck come around, everyone do a light jog to it....and then drive away to recuperate.

The problem a lot of zombie shows (walking dead especially) did was how the "sudden" or surprise zombies just come out of nowhere in order to suddenly create tension, but that is a ridiculous conceit, especially considering those zombies are not quiet, they are shuffling, gurgling, often making a half scream at their people, they are not stealthy in the slightest.

But if you just have a big mass of zombies coming at you....speed is your friend. Kill and move, kill and move.... you drill some people on that maneuver until it becomes second nature and no zombie is going to catch them. We also have to remember that the corpses you leave behind are your friends, as now the remaining zombies have to shuffle through this line of bodies, that will slow them, trip them, and further prevent them from engaging you too closely.

 

[Rune]

But if we are talking slow zombies, a line of spears can very easily keep distance with them. Again, the goal is a nice open field where you have plenty of distance. If the zombies get a little too close for comfort....you fast walk away....you don't even need to run really. If there are just too many zombies, have the truck come around, everyone do a light jog to it....and then drive away to recuperate.

The problem a lot of zombie shows (walking dead especially) did was how the "sudden" or surprise zombies just come out of nowhere in order to suddenly create tension, but that is a ridiculous conceit, especially considering those zombies are not quiet, they are shuffling, gurgling, often making a half scream at their people, they are not stealthy in the slightest.

But if you just have a big mass of zombies coming at you....speed is your friend. Kill and move, kill and move.... you drill some people on that maneuver until it becomes second nature and no zombie is going to catch them. We also have to remember that the corpses you leave behind are your friends, as now the remaining zombies have to shuffle through this line of bodies, that will slow them, trip them, and further prevent them from engaging you too closely.

When your enemies are effectively infinite, space isn’t really a luxury you will have for long. Even if you never get backed up against a wall, eventually you're going to get flanked.

Spears are a terrible option, because they can only attack one zombie at a time. Napalm, on the other hand, will actually remove the zombie from existence. It’s a much better choice. Until the burning zombies close, that is. Which they will, because: see above.

 

[Ryujin]

Except that the corpses that you leave behind aren't your friends. They're effectively converts to the enemy cause. And the problem with relying on movement as your final line of defence is that something inevitably goes wrong. Accordion Effect means that you lose whole lines, who can't get away in time. As I said previously the sheer mass of bodies means you can't take them all down, before at least some are in hand-to-hand range. When the enemy doesn't care about losing "troops" and has sufficient numbers, attrition wins.

 

[Mirtek]

I never watched Walking Dead. Only saw a few scenes occasionally when walking in on my brother watching an episode.

What I take from what little I saw is that the zombies are very much treated as nuisance.

I remember one scene with a huge horde. Must have been walking toward an encampment or something, but there were 3-4 people obviously tasked with changing their course. They did this by slowly driving a pickup in front of the horde and leading them on by playing music (?) or maybe just generally being noisy. They were leading the horde along a road leading through a forest and some zombies started to walk off. So two guys jumped from the pickup, walked next to the horde and just graped any zombie that started to veer off by the shoulders, turned him around and gave it a shove in the right direction. That was a horde hundreds strong and the two humans didn't seem to give a ####

Another scene I remember were a small group of survivors walking along a railway or road and coming upon a dozen or so zombies. They basically just yawned and slaughtered them with bats and knives, etc. Looked almost like a comic relief scene really. There was one survivor who just kept a smaller zombie away with a stiff arm to the forehead while the zombie uselessly flailed his shorter arms trying to reach the larger human. After watching it for a few seconds he then just stabed a knife into the zombies brain

 

[Ryujin]

I never watched Walking Dead. Only saw a few scenes occasionally when walking in on my brother watching an episode.

What I take from what little I saw is that the zombies are very much treated as nuisance.

I remember one scene with a huge horde. Must have been walking toward an encampment or something, but there were 3-4 people obviously tasked with changing their course. They did this by slowly driving a pickup in front of the horde and leading them on by playing music (?) or maybe just generally being noisy. They were leading the horde along a road leading through a forest and some zombies started to walk off. So two guys jumped from the pickup, walked next to the horde and just graped any zombie that started to veer off by the shoulders, turned him around and gave it a shove in the right direction. That was a horde hundreds strong and the two humans didn't seem to give a ####

Another scene I remember were a small group of survivors walking along a railway or road and coming upon a dozen or so zombies. They basically just yawned and slaughtered them with bats and knives, etc. Looked almost like a comic relief scene really. There was one survivor who just kept a smaller zombie away with a stiff arm to the forehead while the zombie uselessly flailed his shorter arms trying to reach the larger human. After watching it for a few seconds he then just stabed a knife into the zombies brain

In zombie worlds I tend to think of the zombies like inclement weather. You've got anything from a gentle rain, to hurricanes and tornadoes.

When it comes to how dangerous individual zombies are, in TWD, there's a serious lack of continuity. Sometimes they can't muster the energy to get through a curtain, then at other times they literally tear a person in half. Ignore people one minute and let themselves be "guided", then another minute they turn and swarm for no apparent reason.

 

[trappedslider]

Feels like zombie talk needs it's own thread

Edit: in the comics fury had planned to nuke NYC but then quicksilver was bitten.

 

[embee]

TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" was all about invasive species. Not quite plague blankets, but in the running.

What if a redshirt coughs? The microbes that could potentially be introduced to alien planets is too terrifying to imagine.