Who would make the best zombiekilling army?

[Gatorfarmer]

100 yrs war era armored heavy cavalry (not necessarily all "knights", since not everyone would be a noble). Steel armor that covers the body, or at least chain mail. Yeah, try biting through that.

Really, if it is slow zombies, almost any sort of organized military group will prevail. All you have to do is keep your wits about you, not panic, and pay attention to your surroundings.

[roOism]

Are we talking shamblers or ragers? And does it have to be out in the field or can it be in a fortified position?

Somewhere like beaumaris castle, if there was a decent water supply, a modest group of soldiers from really any ancient era (this particular castle is late 13th century) could hold out against either type of zombie for a long time. Drop rocks and such on them, and when they get in big piles throw on the pitch and drop a torch.

Plus alligators with blue phonecord bracelets of power in the moat.

[Concray]

Are we talking shamblers or ragers? And does it have to be out in the field or can it be in a fortified position?

Somewhere like beaumaris castle, if there was a decent water supply, a modest group of soldiers from really any ancient era (this particular castle is late 13th century) could hold out against either type of zombie for a long time. Drop rocks and such on them, and when they get in big piles throw on the pitch and drop a torch.

Plus alligators with blue phonecord bracelets of power in the moat.

Whichever you want, which one do you think will travell back through time and attack the empire of your choice?
Also, Braclets of Power? What were you thinking?!
Alligators have enough power as it is!
Of endurance or speed or disease-control, maybe, but Power!?
You are a sick and deranged human being...
And who would need alligators in the first place?
Those ducks look vicious!

[EmptyPockets]

Charizard

[livehistory_alnc]

I would have to go with medeival pikemen. This is the best of the phalanx and the knight. They would be best because they are at least covered in chain mail which would protect the bites if one got to close but they also use the tactics of the phalanx.

[gelgoog]

The tightness of the formation is the base of their success. Picture the overlapping shields, and the helms just exposing the eyes. Now imagine the gladiuses thrusting out into a body already hammered and off balanced by the impact of the shield.

The armor is secondary defensive technology to the shield, and the soldier would typically attack off line, thrusting to kill the opponent that faced the man next to him, and knowing that the man next to him would do the same.

Behind this line are the slingers casting lead pellets capable of shattering the skull, and centurions who have iron batons of office used to keep the lines in place, but could just as easily dispatch the infected.

The power of the Roman Legion was that it turned humans into pieces of a machine, and every piece was completely replacable. This was not "hero warfare" such as the Vikings, or samurai waged, where a battle was a series of individuals pairing up to fight, but instead very modern in its impersonal, business like approach.

You know, Concray, now you have me thinking that I really need to get in touch with some of my fellow European Medieval and Rennaissance Martial Arts instructors and try to do a pilot episode of this concept, or at least some kind of YouTube thing.

-Mike

well technically the romans did not fight in a tight formation, and especially did not fight with overlapping shields. When the entered battle they had space inbetween themselves to maneuver and to rotate tired men to the rear. Romans would be a bit ill suited to taking on zombies for a few reasons.

one, their large shield was designed to benefit their small statue compared to the gauls. So a legionare could crouch down while lifting the shield under the arms of their opponent effectively pinning their upper body while the short gladius spilled open their gutts. If the brain is the target of a zombie, then the gladius is a poor weapon for the job legionaries mostly trained to take out the hamstrings, guts and to peirce the organs by going through the armpit or downward through the shoulderblades.

What you really want is standoff ability, so most european warriors past the battle of hastings would probably be a good choice.

[darkangel98s]

Well, I appreciate the comments about bowen and their devestation, but lets be honest. Military bowmen were trained to hit a range not a target. That was the true power of archers like the English. drop heavy rain of arrows equals a win against human foes.

Against the zed, the Spartans, with their shield wall at bite height, and back ranks spearing would win. Like a killing wall.

[AgentBlack]

ancient



modern



future

[Owenstine]

future

JEEEESUS. What the hell IS that thing?

[AgentBlack]

future

JEEEESUS. What the hell IS that thing?

black templar space marine....what else?

[whateverdude]

I play medieval 2 total war and I think barbarian peasants is a good representation of zombies, plus they're both available in rome total war. And after playing both games I can assure you that any bowmen, crossbowmen, or javelin throwers are useless since they only pick off a few at a time, they mostly end up just destroying morale with dropping soldiers. Zombies don't have morale. I set up battle with peasants with battle hardened war morale so they don't run, they fight to the death just like zombies, or worse yet zmobies! KoL reference, by the way, I've got 2.6 million meat cause I bought a Mr. A and forgot to play the game for a year lol.

You have to go with any warriors that have a shield wall with spears. The best are several rows deep so you can have the phalanx formation to deal with zombies that can get past the first row of spear points. The driving pressure of large groups of people against the spear wall inevitably pushes the formation more and more back so make sure you're not up against a wall or eventually they leak by and can bite your arms.

[meatshieldChris]

skynet, gone back in time.

[DOOMCREW]

MONGOL HORDE!
mobile nomads can live off the land, well discplined and drilled for all possible encounters, use of bows and lancers reduces risk of infection, mobility keeps them out of shamblers range, and well lets face it they're brutal killers to boot.

[thesupremeking]

if it was in the future we would only need one Spartan

[AZMedic]

if it was in the future we would only need one Spartan

Oh jeez, a halo fan boy.......

He could take some of them. He needs sleep and other stuff though.

[Explorer]

Post Removed by Author

[callista]

Those of you going for people with ranged weapons should consider that there's always an issue with ammunition. Compared to humans, zombies have a smaller target to hit and not even a guarantee of disabling the zombie if you do hit that target. And if these are the classic "zombie hordes", there will be a lot of them. Modern zombie hunters might be able to stockpile ammo, but an English longbowman can only carry so many arrows. Ammunition takes time to make, too, and in a long-term fight, running out seems just about inevitable.

I would place my bet on any group with high mobility and weapons with a bit of reach, to take advantage of the classic zombie's two biggest weaknesses: One, it's slow; and two, it's only dangerous if it can grab hold of you.

My preference completely changes with Rage type zombies, though. In that case, I agree with the people who like the longbows.

[roOism]

I remember seeing a short clip from an older film about a battle between two armies consisting of mostly of pikemen. There was a static line on either side of pikemen taking shots at each other, (almost looked like an SCA battle minus hockey gear) the one things that stood out was that there were men on either side that would crawl on their knees under the canopy of spears and do some down and dirty knifework against the enemies. Now put this in a zombie application. With a wall of pikemen, if just one zombie crawled under the wall of spikes and managed to nibble on an exposed ankle or shin, suddenly there's a zombie in your midst and the pointy end of your main weapon is twelve feet away. Depending on the flavor of zombie infection you'd soon have a mass of pressed bodies with the guy you're stuck next to trying to go for the jugular and your weapon is pinned in the press. No thanks.

I'm still holding out for a well fortified and garrisoned keep. If the zombies come in full force, just throw on the hot pitch and send a few flaming arrows their way and you'll have zombie toast in no time. Then drop rocks on and hack away at any stragglers that manage to make it up the wall.

[Dr Jekell]

I will vote for:

Barney singing his theme song one one corner

And

The telly tubbies doing their song and dance on the opposite corner

This will be enough to make the zombies go suicidal (is that the correct term?) and will willingly grab any nearby implement/firearm and re-dead themselves to get away.

[GunnBorn]

paladin/knight

[callista]

Well, the armor's nice; but your basic knight in full plate would be pretty slow--nowhere near as slow as a zombie, but not fast enough to really take advantage of a live person's speed, and tiring faster than a more lightly armored guy... I don't know, maybe plate armor has its merits. They would be mostly defensive.

Now that would make for an interesting story, though. Start a zombie apocalypse during the Crusades...

I don't really like the chances of anybody who's using a "bunch up and stab things with spears" strategy; they aren't mobile enough. With zombies you're assuming probably superior numbers, definitely the ability to ignore anything less than extreme injury or a headshot. Spears are great. Keeping a zombie past arm's length is great. Bunching up with your buddies and using tactics that assume you're going to pretty much stay put, I don't like.

[meatshieldChris]

He could take some of them. He needs sleep and other stuff though.

Skynet doesn't need sleep

[Chadwick]

The Celts.

Cutting the heads off their enemies was common practice. Though they did often run into battle naked, offering less protection from bites, scratches, and so forth.

The Romans excelled in military tactics, but their troops were tightly packed, and if they didnt know how the virus/disease/whatever was trasmitted, then it could have easily spread amongst them.

[TheGunslinger]

I remember seeing a short clip from an older film about a battle between two armies consisting of mostly of pikemen. There was a static line on either side of pikemen taking shots at each other, (almost looked like an SCA battle minus hockey gear) the one things that stood out was that there were men on either side that would crawl on their knees under the canopy of spears and do some down and dirty knifework against the enemies. Now put this in a zombie application. With a wall of pikemen, if just one zombie crawled under the wall of spikes and managed to nibble on an exposed ankle or shin, suddenly there's a zombie in your midst and the pointy end of your main weapon is twelve feet away. Depending on the flavor of zombie infection you'd soon have a mass of pressed bodies with the guy you're stuck next to trying to go for the jugular and your weapon is pinned in the press. No thanks.

I'm still holding out for a well fortified and garrisoned keep. If the zombies come in full force, just throw on the hot pitch and send a few flaming arrows their way and you'll have zombie toast in no time. Then drop rocks on and hack away at any stragglers that manage to make it up the wall.

Nuh. They were well aware of the problem 'wounded' soldiers could cause to the rest of them.

The Macedonians had 'lizard killers' on the end of their pikes to deal with wounded/dying soldiers as they marched past. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_fo ... e_Armament

Well fortified keep = penned in. A big enough horde would keep you pinned in forever. They don't need food or sleep and they don't go away. They''ll wait you out.