User:Rosslessness/Random Rambling/Sandbox404

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404 Tactics

The information on this page or section discusses a strategy employed by 404: Barhah not found. It may not work for you. Especially if you have no Fiffy.

Siege at Ackland

Let me take you back to the summer of 2009. Across the world people were enjoying such films as Hannah Montana:The Movie and G-Force. The survivors of Malton had banished the thoughts of The Dead from their minds and only a hundred or so survivors were sill alive in Borehamwood.

In short the old cycle of death and life continued.

Random survivor group 404 Barhah Not Found were on a roll. Having spent months in Molebank they'd finally beaten the dreaded Poop Zerger and Extinction had been held outside The Pask Building for weeks at a time. They had even managed to hold Fort Perryn against the Feral Undead for 7 days, although afterwards they couldn't really explain the point of doing so.

In short they were bored, and with numbers in the high twenties, had more members than at any point in their history. With this in mind they enacted their most fiendish and well organised plan ever. - They decided to repair Havercroft.

• Note Almost every plan 404 have ever had is "lets repair X". Half the time we get there and its already repaired, or still swarming with organised Zombies and we move on. In fairness there is no planning. We just point ourselves at stuff, make a mess of it, and then see what happens. See Blackmore 4(04) for the perfect example.

Standard Practice

(mic) (update) Ackland Mall Ackland Mall was recaptured a few days ago and is in survivor hands. There are currently 17 zombies outside the SE corner. --Fiffy 06:45, 3 April 2009 (BST)

Shore Hills was the initial rally point and as we ventured north, we found that large numbers of zombies were still on the streets. However, several survivors were making a reclamation of Ackland. A strong feral cloud was holding the burb after the RRF had stormed through at the end of May, and their were still more than 100 zombies on the streets. Seizing on this 404 ignored their standard cade strafing approach and piled into the mall. At the time there were a mere 13 zombies congregating outside its south east corner. This, however was just the start of the fun.

Siege Mentality

(mic) (update) Ackland Mall Thanks to the efforts of unknown groups Ackland Mall is up and running. Would the heros of ackland please stand up? No sit down AMS. --Ricci Bobby 18:45, 6 April 2009 (PST)

404 never normally help with mall sieges. Tactically Malls are difficult to defend and getting enough active players to watch barricade levels on all corners can be a nightmare. Initial progress was good, with a dozen or so 404'ers defending against a similar number of zombies. Cade watching meant that over the first day only a single zombie got inside.

In the meantime 404's semi fictional, and entirely gin-soaked diplomat Little Fiffan Zinja began searching for whatever survivor support was available, most actively with Ackland Mall Security and the DEM.

The news wasn't brilliant. AMS could provide scouting and local zombie contacts, but weren't even able to tell us how many members were currently in their group. The DEM weren't active in the area, so a general appeal was made, but no promises.

In short, we were on our own.

Now we came to a bit of a problem. Normally 404 are the people nipping in the back door and repairing those empty warehouses whilst everyone else was concentrating on the mall. But now the opposite was true. With many buildings still ruined, a fully repaired and lit mall was a huge distraction to all the zombies present. The first few days had taught as that the horde of zombies (now 20+) was not organised. Survivors logged on to see cades at lightly, or heavily, but never doors wide open with cade blocking zombies inside. The attacks continued on the south east corner. Survivor mentality inside the mall reflected this and the other three quadrants had rarely more than two or three survivors inside. If the zombies were organised, we'd have been finished as they could have switched attacks to a poorly defended corner.

Of course, this is true of every Mall Siege since cade blocking was introduced. What happened next was both interesting and unique. A perfect storm of events culminated in what was probably the last successful siege defence in Malton History.

Coat-tailing

As a small aside to the larger picture, Havercroft is the closest we ever got to a big horde. The RRF had only left three days before we arrived, so for once in our lives repair costs were low. As zombies were slowly drawn to the mall, freerunning routes to NT's were cade strafed and TRP's were barricaded wherever possible.

As an example, on the 2nd April only 6 Structures We're repaired in the suburb. By the 4th of April this had risen to 48.

SCOUTING MAP.

http://wiki.urbandead.com/index.php?title=User:Fifth_Element/Sandbox&diff=prev&oldid=1426204

Survivor Rescue

(mic) (update) Ackland Mall Mall is in survivor hands with all corners powered and fully barricaded. There are 35+ zombies outside the SE corner. --Major Dick 02:17, 7 April 2009 (BST)

Pretty soon things turned for the worst. Zombie break-ins became more common (and weren't really helped by own own members dying of infection and letting off feeding groans). Survivor numbers were pretty static, and the feral horde kept growing and growing.

Help, was at hand. Several Malton Rangers turned up to bolster defences and a small squad of MFD Firefighters were instrumental in keeping the mall safe for a few more days.

But zombie numbers were still rising outside. With this in mind there was only one choice left to us.

We had to die.

A Growing Problem

Of course the feral horde still grew. But for once 404 were sneaky. With increased survivor numbers, and repaired buildings popping up everywhere some members suggest a truly unique plan.

The first step was knowing our enemy. 3 or 4 members of 404 who met their untimely death went and stood outside the South East Corner of the Mall. Every time a zombie stood, or groaned, or destroyed the barricades we contact listed their ID number. IN 36 hours, we had over 40 zombies identified out of a horde that was still growing. At this point bodies and zombies totalled 60.

Stage two was slightly more insidious. Every Hotel, Building and Tower in the suburb was barricaded to EHB.

Then the real fun began.

• Note on feral mentality.

A typical feral siege results in a break based on some fairly simple facts.

1. Feeding groans attract more ferals.
2. A Feral zombie logging on everyday to see more zombies at their location than the previous day knows that soon they'll be able to break in by sheer force of numbers.
3. If a feral thinks that they are about to break into a mall, they aren't going to leave.

• In order to break a feral siege you need to break this pattern.

With this in mind the way forward was simple. The only way to break the siege was to split the horde. So on the 8th of June the horde were attacked in a real time strike. Like the Battling Blackmore Bastard Brigade before us, we charged outside and into the horde.

Of course our weapons weren't guns. They were needles.

The Charge of the Life Brigade

And so over a 15 minute period 7 members of 404 hit the horde. Having 30+ Zombies contact listed meant that we knew who we were reviving without having to rely on DNA Scanning.

Some members only revived a single zombie, others revived five, knowing full well you could not return inside for safety. Suddenly a horde of almost 40 zombies became a handful of rotters.

Over the next 24 hours the combat revived zombies did many different things.

• The Dual Natured players left to help the survivor cause.
• Some Zombies stood up and asked other zombies to eat them.
• Some Zombies attacked the survivors standing on their square.
• Some zombies went to the nearest Tall building to commit suicide, only to find they were all EHB.

What none of these zombies continued to do, was to attack the mall.

Ferals logging on found that the horde of 30+ zombies that was going to help them attack the mall was gone. Their chance of an easy meal was gone. Other targets became more tempting. Specifically Martha.

Martha

(mic) (update) Ackland Mall Tha mall is in survivor hands, with one lone zed outside the south-east corner. --Alex1guy 09:18, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Of course their was another incentive for the ferals to leave. As Havercroft came back to life a small feral horde had been terrorising the north of the suburb around Ephram and Martha Hospitals. This was the final incentive the ferals needed. An easier target was more tempting.

Celebration Dance

(mic) (update) Ackland Mall There are no standing zombies. Zero. Three dead bodies in the SW, one more revivifying. --Ryvyoli Y R 22:35, 12 April 2009 (BST)