Zombie Survival, Best Era?

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**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

So, which period of human history do you feel could best weather a full on Zombie Plague?

For me, I reckon Roman Era. First of all, population centres were typically less dense than today, and most towns, villages, hamlets and cities would have had a decent presence of armed men, who if not necessarily trained, would be experienced somewhat in hand to hand combat. From Picts, Gauls, Roman and Britoni, you wouldn't be terribly far from someone armed, and tasty enough to use it.

The only hurdle I reckon would be the general level of superstition. Would this hold people back, or spur them on? It's 50/50 to my mind. Whilst Ancestor Worship/Reverence could be a hindrance to the living who might be loathe to defile the dead by hacking them into tiny little pieces, there would be as much chance of them seeing the Zombies as already desecrated, and erm, needing to be shown the way back to the Afterlife, via the medium of a sword through the bonce serving as a one way ticket.

And even if conventional weapons of the time weren't immediately to hand, the general tools of trades would be easily turned to maiming and braining. Scythes, Hammers, Wooden Rakes, all are capable of stoving in heads and limbs!

What, and indeed, when, do you reckon?

**Frazzled**

Zombies in Somalia. Zombies don't have a chance. You're not macho with an AK, you have to have a recoilles rifle on a 4 wheeler to be macho there. EVERYONE has a machine gun.

**Orkeosaurus**

1870s or so. Mostly thinking frontier American West.

That would be neat. (Really though, it's going to depend on geography as much as era.)

**Frazzled**

Orkeosaurus wrote:1870s or so. Mostly thinking frontier American West.

That would be neat. (Really though, it's going to depend on geography as much as era.)

That would work pretty well indeed. I'd nominate Siberian or the EurAsian steppes for similar grounds.
Mongolia-any time? The whole population is mobil.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Fraz, dude. Era, not Area

Good point about the Mongols though. Highly mobile population helps, already used to sparse food etc, and not exactly limp wristed when it comes to a punch up. I guess being mounted tends to only aid when it comes to tonking someone in the head with your blade, be it spear, axe or sword.

**Frazzled**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Fraz, dude. Era, not Area

You and your use of English again gah...

Good point about the Mongols though. Highly mobile population helps, already used to sparse food etc, and not exactly limp wristed when it comes to a punch up. I guess being mounted tends to only aid when it comes to tonking someone in the head with your blade, be it spear, axe or sword.

Zombies running/walking/crawling. Mongols dancing aroudn them on horseback, shooting arrows. They'd love that. of course now days they have the horses but AKs and rifles instead of bows. A Mongol with an AK...wooowwww...

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Still feel guns are a liability, as ammo will soon become scare, and yet another commodity to kill survivors for.

**Frazzled**

Dude! When empty an AK makes a right smart Cricket Stick-comprende now?

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Absolutely not. Leather on Willow man! Leather on Willow.

Not some dodgy Russian wood.

**Kanluwen**

...

Leave it to Frazzled to come up with Zombie Cricket.

**Orkeosaurus**

The question is, will arrows be a significant force against enemies that can't go into shock?

**Kanluwen**

Flaming arrows, Ork.
Flaming arrows attached to sticks of dynamite would work even better, I'd think.

**Frazzled**

Well, you could call it zombie polo but we know:

*mongol ponies are not exactly sprinters
*mongols are like the football hooligans of history. No way would they be doing polo. I could see them headbutting zombies that get too close, just BECAUSE!

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

I'd imagine hunting heads on your arrows could really mess with their muscle, making them even slower for the ensuing combat, inevitably aiding the would be survivors.

**Orlanth**

Late 19th early 20th century.

Proliferation of reliable accurate firearms with single shot capacity (less wastage), yet greatly reduced population density than later years.

Victorians > zombies.

**Orkestra**

Pre- 1800s North America (by which I mean Canada, because I don't know much about the southern tribes)

I mean really, the First Nations could open some serious cans of whoopass on zombies. Let's look at some specific regions.

The plains (Alberta, Saskatchewan, a bit of Manitoba)
Highly mobile nomadic people who are used to fighting and hunting. Stick around in fairly small groups for most of the time, but still pass news to one another as they meet on the plains. Big gatherings at regular intervals as well.
Cons: No steel, so up close fighting with zombies could be iffy.

British Columbia (the west Coast)
In addition to the natural advantages of having a system of islands to inhabit (zombies have trouble swimming, and so would arrive on islands in scattered bunches from the waves, not in huge groups). Mobility, good sources of food (fishing) walled villages, totem poles to climb to get a good view (kidding!).
Cons: Still no steel.
Ontario and Quebec (great lakes region)
This are is more problematical. Sure, they've got themselves some walled villages, and they fight a lot, but they're primarily agricultural. That means larger population centres and a more sedentary lifestyle. Which means zombies have an easier time making more zombies. Not high on my list.

This post was getting too long, so I'll sum it up.

Alberta, pre-Europeans fething up North America.

**Kanluwen**

Pshaw.

The Crusades. Because hey, what says "RAWR ZOMBIES!" like a full on, lances couched charge of heavily armored knights and warhorses?

**Brian1988**

Now.
Lets see, arrows, muzzle loaders, spears and swords are all great, but we have...
semi automatic pistols, rifles, assault rifles, shotguns, machine guns, grenades, rpgs, tanks, flamethrowers, artillery, high explosves, helicopters, bombers, rockets...
Nukes?
The lethality of these weapons is exponentially greater then what was around 150 years ago, and I believe that the effectiveness of these weapons eclipses the significant population growth that has occurred over the past century.

**Cheese Elemental**

Medieval-era China. Didn't they have batteries of black powder rockets?

**Marshal2Crusaders**

What kind of Zombies? Runners? Ragers? Shamblers? Those fething insane sprinter things from Dawn of the Dead Remake?

Are the dead dead, or infected? Are the cannibals or do they just want to kill you? All of these come into play.

Shamblers would be fun, because its like God Mode if you have the time and ammo. Runners present more of a chalenege because if you arn't fit your fethed. Rage Zombies can be shot anywhere and die, so thats lucky if you can shoot well. If you against the Parkour Zombies from Dawn of the Dead your fethed, dont even try.

**Cheese Elemental**

Shambling zombies are the only zombies. Fast zombies completely ruin the great tradition, and turn zombie-horror into zombie-action.

If you want to see zombies done well, watch the Resident Evil movies. They're shamblers, but they can get pretty motivated when they get close to you.

**Marshal2Crusaders**

Cheese Elemental wrote:Shambling zombies are the only zombies. Fast zombies completely ruin the great tradition, and turn zombie-horror into zombie-action.

If you want to see zombies done well, watch the Resident Evil movies. They're shamblers, but they can get pretty motivated when they get close to you.

Well it depends on which school of zombie science you subscribe to. Personally, I am of the mind it'll be more like a Rage Virus when it happens. The people wont be dead per se, but they wont be recovering. I would prefer shamblers, just so I could walk everywhere.

**Cheese Elemental**

You do know that the very idea of a 'zombie apocalypse' is nonsense, don't you? Furthermore, I doubt zombies of any kind would be a threat in the modern era, because if they were fast zombies from modern films like Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later, by the 'laws of zombie-ism', they would not be tough zombies, because they would still be humans, just nutty humans. Nutty humans who most certainly couldn't break down steel doors or survive a stand-off with the barrel of a shotgun.

Slow zombies would just be cannon fodder. Need to shoot them in the head? Well, you've got plenty of time to line up your shots.

**Marshal2Crusaders**

Cheese Elemental wrote:You do know that the very idea of a 'zombie apocalypse' is nonsense, don't you?

Hey! This guy doesn't believe in zombies! Get him!

**Orkeosaurus**

I think zombies should be able to move fast; they have the strength for it. I think they should really lack in agility though; they can charge, but they're slow to recover and such. And if they try to run over difficult terrain they're liable to trip. That sounds more like neurological degeneration to me.

**Cheese Elemental**

Furthermore, the commonly accepted belief is that slow zombies are true 'undead'; literally walking corpses. If this were the case, they would continue to decay (slowly) until they would no longer be able to move.

Besides, I'm more worried about the coming of the vampire/werewolf world war.

**Orkeosaurus**

Cheese Elemental wrote:Besides, I'm more worried about the coming of the vampire/werewolf world war.

gb2Myspace, emogoth.

**Shadowbrand**

I'm waiting for the next Viking raid.

NEXT STOP VALHALLA!

**Cheese Elemental**

Orkeosaurus wrote:
Cheese Elemental wrote:Besides, I'm more worried about the coming of the vampire/werewolf world war.
gb2Myspace, emogoth.

gb2prehistoric era, lizard.

**Orkeosaurus**

Aw man.