False Defender Tactics

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Zombie Tactics
The information on this page or section discusses a zombie strategy.

False Defender Tactics is a strategy to weaken the defence of multi-section buildings such as malls. Standard survivor practice is to spread defenders evenly between all sections of the mall in order to strengthen the weakest block. False Defender Tactics takes advantage of this practice.

Initial conditions

A mall is being defended, and a large organised pro-zombie group wishes to take it over.

Steps

  1. The attackers will need a reasonably large number of players willing to be the false defenders. These should be pro-zombie humans, such as death cultists.
  2. The false defenders enter the mall and congregate in one block. It is very important that the fake defenders appear to be genuine.
  3. The true defenders correctly notice that one block has more survivors, and re-distribute themselves throughout the mall. This means the number of actual defenders in most blocks increases, but in the current block the number of true defenders decreases.
  4. (Optional) The fake defenders attack other survivors in their section of the mall.
  5. The false defenders leave, leaving few actual defenders behind.
  6. A horde of zombies attack the weakened block of the mall, and face fewer defenders than they would have had the false defenders tactic not been employed.
  7. Once one section of a mall is ruined, the rest falls much more easily.

Example

Beginning - only real defenders present

12 12
12 12

The number of real defenders in each block of a square mall is shown in green.

False defenders enter

12  12 
12 
12 
12 

The number of false defenders is shown in red. To defenders who don't know the fake defenders are fake defenders, there appears to be 24 defenders in one block, and only 12 in the others.

Real defenders re-balance themselves

15 15
3
12
15

Believing the mall's defences to be unbalanced, defenders spread themselves evenly, making there seem to be 15 defenders per block. Notice how there are now fewer real defenders in the bottom left than there were at the start.

False defenders leave

15 15
3 15

The bottom left corner is now very vulnerable to attack.

Advantages

  • Leaves a block of the mall weak, making the whole mall vulnerable
  • False defenders use this strategy this as well as attack
  • Unusual and novel
  • Costs very little AP

Disadvantages

  • Complex
  • Requires high degree of organisation to succeed
  • Requires time to allow for defenders to re-distribute themselves
  • Not guaranteed to work
  • May fail if tactic is recognised
  • False defenders who don't leave at the right time may get in the way of attackers
  • Difficulty of finding large numbers of pro-zombie humans.

Formula

"no" means "number of"
"no fakes" means "the number of fake defenders"
Total "defenders" present = no blocks*average no real defenders per block + no fakes
Real+fake defenders present per block = (no blocks*average no real defenders per block + no fakes)/no blocks
							    = average no real defenders per block + no fakes/no blocks

Real defenders present in weak block = real+fake defenders present per block - no fakes
 				     = average no real defenders per block + no fakes/no blocks - no fakes
				     = average no real defenders per block + no fakes*((1/no blocks) -1)
				     = average no real defenders per block - no fakes*(1 -(1/no blocks))

Overall effect on real defenders in weak block  = after redistribution, real defenders present in weak block - average no real defenders per block
						= average no real defenders per block - no fakes*(1 -(1/no blocks)) - average no real defenders per block
						= - no fakes*(1 -(1/no blocks))
 
So, Number of real defenders who leave the weakened block = no fakes*(1 -(1/no blocks))

Note

This article is written from the perspective of humans being the defenders of a mall since that's the most common scenario, but it could also work if the zombies were defenders, with humans attacking.