The Ridleybank Resistance Front/Notable Events

This page is a record of notable battles and other important events in the history of the Ridleybank Resistance Front.

Siege of Hildebrand Mall

In the middle of October, 2005, Hildebrand Mall was subject to a 5 day and night siege, led by the RRF, the Undying Scourge and the Shambling Seagulls, and a large gathering of the feral population. As Hildebrand was being defended by several high profile survivor groups, at first the mall withstood the standard siege tactics that had served zombies so well for so long. On October 18th, two attack timers were introduced, the intention being that every zombie would attack a specific barricade at the same time, in theory bringing down even Extremely Heavily Barricaded barricades with a cost of 1 AP to each member. However, for a number of reasons, this change of tactics backfired, mostly because the publicly available timers were in full view of both attackers and defenders, meaning the optimal number of defenders were online at the right time, rebuilding the barricades, and fighting off any zombies who succesfully broke in.

On October 20th a sneak attack was planned, and private messages were sent out to "as many active RRF members as (we) could find", informing members that although the attack timer would indicate a 01:00:00 GMT attack on the North West section, the entire horde was to attack the South East at 23:00:00 GMT.

Although the sneak attack could be considered succesfull, as several sections of the mall were broken into (including the south east), and many survivors were caught by surprise and wounded or killed, it was far from a total success. Many appeared to miss the message, fail to understand the directions, or otherwise fail to follow through, leading to only a minor part of horde actually attacking. Tactically, it also did not take into account the ferals and members of other hordes who had gathered to take part in the siege.

After this, it was decided, largely by consensus that such a level of organising was against the spirit of the Ridleybank Resistance Front, and the horde returned to older tactics.

Somewhat ironically, it was after this that the Mall began to fall, over the next 48 hours the barricades were being torn down constantly, eventually the tide broke, and the mall had fallen to the combined hordes.

The attack timers have since lain unused, presumably abandoned as a tactical device.

Dia De Los Meurtos

Creedy. Perryn. Nichols. Woodroffe. Ackland. Hildebrand.''

The hordes have smashed all that oppose them.

One final name stands, the one place the humans consider to be inviolate. The Giddings Mall is a fortress, ideally located and built for a sustained defense.

The balance has begun to tilt back toward us. Where once we were the hunted, now we are the hunters. Now we dictate to the humans the future of this city.

I speak now to all the hordes, to all the unaffiliated ferals.

Let us break the back of human resistance once and for all. Let us show them that the hordes united can smash any stronghold of theirs.

Let us put our mark upon Malton with the battle to end all battles.

Who will join us?

BARHAH.

Riding on the recent wave of zombie victory, Petrosjko posted his "Call to Arms" in The Morgue, on On October 28th, 2005.

After the September defeat of The Many, Giddings Mall had developed the reputation of a undefeatable fortress, so this rallying call was met with great excitement from across the zombie population, as the most prominant hordes pledged involvement:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It has been decreed by our dread lord - the Apocalypse is coming to Giddings Mall. - Toben/Pike, of the Minions of the Apocalypse

Within hours, zombies began to congregate in the suburb of Pitneybank, and the Giddings barricades were quickly subject to repeated attack. The siege had begun in earnest, as the combined forces of the RRF and the Minions continued to breach the Giddings defences, wearing down the defenders. The support structures in the vicinity quickly crumbled, and Giddings was soon isolated. By the time of the arrival of the Undying Scourge on October 30th, the mall's collapse was clearly imminant, with the defenders growing more desperate and paniced as each breach was posted to the desensitized forums, drawing dozens of zombies each time.

At approximatly 20.00 (GMT), on October 31st, the South East quadrant of Giddings Mall fell to zombie claws. Attention was quickly turned to the South West, which had been largely untouched by this point. Within 12 hours, it too fell to zombie possesion. The defeat of the south signalled the death knell for Giddings, at this point the zombie victory was all but. By 15.00, November 1st, the North East had fallen, and finally at approximatly 20.00, November 1st, the North West was devoid of life. in the span of 24 hours, the mall had crumbled, merely five days since the very idea was first suggested. This was seen as a glorious victory for the hordes of Malton, an event quickly coined Dia De Los Meurtos, after the famous "Day of the Dead", a festival that traditionally falls on November 1st.

Many in the zombie community began to talk of a united zombie super-horde, and many more, fresh with the thrill of victory looked for a new, high profile target. Unfortunatly for the hordes, that target transpired to be the infamous Caiger Mall, where the RRF would suffer their first defeat.

Caiger Mall

(For more information read the full Siege of Caiger Mall article, this merely deals with the RRF involvement) On the 11th November, 2005, Petrosjko posted emergency orders. Donnie Osmond (considered a persona non grata by RRF leadership.[4] [1]) had been sighted in Caiger Mall. He ordered every RRF member to turn from their current targets, and proceed directly to Caiger Mall, where a very large siege was beginning.

The battle for Caiger was a slow and arduous siege, where, despite numerous breaches, including a temporary occupation of the southern sectors on the 26th November, the amassed Zombies made little headway.

On 01 December 2005, Petrojsko issued the following announcement:[2]

Brave warriors of the Ridleybank Resistance Front.

My brothers and sisters.

In war, the character and soul of a people, of a nation, are tested, in victory and in defeat.

And at Caiger Mall, we have tasted our first taste of the bitter fruit of defeat.

We will offer no excuses for this, no rationalizations. The harmanz have shown us that they indeed can taste some small part of the BARHAH that makes us great. In this, we can even claim a small victory, in enlightening our larval harman friends and in some way bringing them closer to the unity of the horde.

Now, we honor the valor of our warriors by designating those who served at the front line of the Caiger all those torturous weeks with the Eye of the Caiger.

As thieves in the night, the harmanz have assaulted our home while we were away. Unlike the Caigers, these scandalous cowards do not meet us in the field, and they deserve no honor, no justice, no mercy.

Let us return to Ridleybank, our home, and let us kill them all.

To me, my brave Ridleys. One battle is not the war, and we shall rise, rise, and rise again.

BARHAH!

As such, the Ridleybank Resistance Front officially withdrew from the Caiger Siege, Petrosjko stated that any members who wishes to stay may do so, be they in planned, cross horde attack groups, or simply unwilling to retreat.

The Second Battle of Ridleybank

After accepting defeat at Caiger Mall, the RRF faced a problem - while the horde's attention had been directed to a location some 30+ AP from home, several human groups had re-entered Ridleybank in an attempt to seize it from the horde's hands. At first, the feral population, and the dedication of the DOHS meant the survivors had little success, but, as more and more survivors arrived, eventually Ridleybank could be considered in survivor control.

In his defeat speech, after saluting the conduct of both the RRF and the Caiger Mall Survivors, Petrosjko turned attention to these invaders:

As thieves in the night, the harmanz have assaulted our home while we were away. Unlike the Caigers, these scandalous cowards do not meet us in the field, and they deserve no honor, no justice, no mercy... Let us return to Ridleybank, our home, and let us kill them all.' [3]

As such, the entire Ridleybank Resistance Front turned from Caiger Mall, and marched home.

Survivor tactics at Caiger had been simple, and quietly effective, however when applied to an entire suburb, the inherent shortcomings were evident.

Ridleybank does not contain a mall, meaning survivors cannot create a concentrated, fortified area, limiting combat to a 2*2 square block. Instead, combat was spread all over the suburb, leading to groups of survivors retreating to Ridleybank's hospitals, police departments and Necrotech Building, which are considered high profile targets.

However, it wasn't until December 9th that the battle turned to the favour of the RRF - when the Ridleybank HQ of the horde's key adversary, The Gingerbread Men was uncovered. A raid was quickly organised, and all inside, including almost 60 members of The Gingerbread Men were killed, effectively ending their involvement as an organised threat.

In the week following, Ridleybank was gradually being considered as back in RRF control - while resistance remained, the balance of power was quickly shifting to the horde, meaning survivors who still wished to fight were forced to rest outside of Ridleybank; limited to guerrilla tactics rather than full scale confrontation.

In recognition of this, the RRF's groups and strike teams began raiding targets outside of Ridleybank, targeting survivors who were making these incursions - killing many, and greatly reducing the threat of a significant counter-attack.

Despite the events of "Stanstock '05", the fighting did not relent, and by the end of December, Ridleybank was unquestionably back in zombie hands, with the surrounding suburbs also feeling the heat - Stanbury Village in particular - where the survivor population fell victim not only to sporadic incursions by the RRF, but also to a fully-fledged, and highly successful assault by the Pwotters.

Barhahville

On February 3, 2006, the RRF formally announced that it had annexed the suburb of Barrville as a protectorate colony. The RRF has begun cleansing operations on the suburb.

The "Candyland" Invasion

On February 6th, 2006, Ridleybank was invaded by the Gingerbread Men, who worked quickly to barricade almost every building to Extremely Heavily Barricaded. RRF members found that although many of these buildings were found unoccupied once breached, that GBM members would repeatedly use Free Running to quickly enter and rebuild the same barricades within hours.

The attack was no real surprise, as the GBM and RRF engaged in friendly banter on ridleybank.org before the attack, where senior GBM published clues and riddles designed to give hints about the nature of the upcoming operation. However, it was also in these same posts where an understanding was reached that this battle would be soley a fight for Ridleybank, within Ridleybank, and would only involve RRF and GBM members.

Shortly after the attack (which began 5 days before the arranged time) RRF members and leadership were perplexed to discover that despite assurances to the contrary, the GBM began to pubically advertise the invasion [4], while also erroneously claiming the invasion was necessary to prevent RRF involvment in the second Caiger Mall siege:

The RRF WILL Fallback from Caiger Mall to combat this new threat, and with a smaller force besieging the Mall, Caiger WILL hold, but only if The Gingerbread Men succeed in their defense of Their Candyland. Will you take up the mantle of the common name of The Gingerbread Men and hold The Candyland for as long as possible against one of the most famous and determined zombie hoards in the game? If so, come to The Candyland and join the fun, the Gingers will be here for a very long time yet.

Ram Rock Ed First, The Master Gingerbread Man.

This statment generated significant controversy within the ranks of the RRF, who took issue not only with the percieved GBM deception, but with the reference to Caiger Mall, a siege that the RRF leadership had consistantly, and publicly declined to involve themselves with. While awaiting a response from the GBM leadership in regard to the percived deception, the RRF continued to work within the original agreement, concentrating the oft-fruitless search for GBM members within the boundries of Ridleybank.

Progress continued to be slow for the RRF, who found themselves with a relatively meager list of confirmed GBM kills [5] - which reflected the fact that despite the large amount of barricaded buildings being breached on a hourly basis, very few were found to be occupied at all.

This fact only served to generate more ill-feeling within the RRF, many members believing that the GBM were attempting to play the horde's sporting attitude against itself - a feeling that was further compounded by the discovery of Dunell Hills Police Department and Creedy Defense Force members openly operating inside Ridleybank, and an opportunistic attack on BARHAHville by Axes High and the Malton Fire Department.

On February 14th, RRF leadership declared that this was no longer considered a game, and the horde was placed on a war-time footing. Every RRF member has been recalled from current orders, in order to route the invaders in the quickest manner possible.

On the night of February 15th, in an attempt to dissuade ill-feeling towards the GBM themselves, Jorm, of the RRF made a statement that both defended the GBM leadership, and strongly warned those who were bringing the battle into disrepute : [6]

Here is what I think has happened: the original idea was a great idea and would probably have been a lot of fun. For whatever reason (doesn't matter) the initial bang didn't go off as planned. Happens. I also believe that, by and large, the Gingerbread Men that we know and love are behaving *EXACTLY* as they said they would. I believe that they haven't broken the "rules of engagement."

What I think has happened is pretty much exactly what has been said: some people who joined up recently are NOT. I don't know *these* Gingers; they are not people I know and love. As it were.

I also think (and this is where *our* sense of urgency and frustration has come in) that a bunch of other groups have decided to take advantage of the situation. They are most decidedly NOT playing by the rules of engagement (and why would they? they never agreed to them). And THEM breaking the rules makes the entire thing look bad. It's moved us from a state of "playing the game" to "actively and rabidly defending our homeland" because it's a serious invasion - and it's coming from across the borders.

WAR

On February 19th, 2006, the RRF formally announced its decision to declare war. Citing repeated harman incursions into their territories, the RRF announced that it would be taking the fight to the homelands of their aggressors. All survivors are to be devived; the ground is to be scorched; all children and dogs eaten; all shrubbery burnt. A call has been made to all zombie hordes, large and small, to join the RRF in cleansing the human menace from central Malton once and for all.

Throughout February, the RRF worked over some of the suburbs surrounding Ridleybank and Barhahville, in an attempt to punish the freedom-hating human guerilla groups using the neighboring suburbs to stage attacks. After some successful operations (with some help from the Pwotters), the bulk of the RRF force was sent to lay siege to Tynte Mall in Pimbank, believed to be a hideout for harman terrorists, most notably Paradox.

The RRF remained at war until March 17th, when it declared victory over the entire harman menace and decided to take a vacation, the EXCURSION.

EXCURSION

On March 17th, 2006, the Ridleybank Resistance Front announced EXCURSION, a new era in the RRF's existence. While in the past, the horde worked in divided groups, now the entire horde would operate together, as a solid unit, Group 0.

RRF Group 0 has set out from Ridleybank en masse, on a great vacation across Malton, united. Papa Petrosjko had this to say:

RIDLEYS!

For months we have fought the harman menace wherever they roamed. From Darvall Heights to Penny Heights, we have roamed and ranged from one (nearly) one end of this city to the other.

We have crushed police departments. We have emptied hospitals. We have slaughtered Necrotechs. We have brought entire malls down around the ears of the harman menace.

We have brought WAR to Malton, not out of aggression, hate, or other harman emotions, but out of love and a desire to bring BARHAH to our primitive harman ancestors, to embrace them to our bosom.

We have fought a vast, mighty crusade, culminating in the destruction of the defenses of the infamous harman stronghold, Fort Creedy.

And now it's time to PARTY!

Yes, my Ridleys, we're going on shore leave. War's won. It's over. We are just so much more intrinsically cool, classy, and sexy than the rampaging harmans, grubbing about in their little buildings.

In celebration of our latest and greatest EVAR victory, we're taking our squaredancing on the road, in the finest tradition of the old horde. The RRF Victory Tour will include a Mayoral Parade for the soon-to-be-elected mayor of Barhahville, dancing, romancing, and the finest sights to be had in the city!

Will there be free-range harman brains to be had? More than you can carry!

What groups, you ask? All of them. Beyond the Honor Guard, led by the Warmaster himself and Patrucio's noble Packers, the entire horde will be going on a rollicking rampage through Malton just like the good old days.

Once more, we will march as a horde united. Once more, we will smash all that come before us. Once more, they will remember why the most feared horde in all of Malton is the Ridleybank Resistance Front. But most of all, we're going to have the most fun we've ever had in this game, and we're going to bring our special brand of hell to all our harman friends' doorstep.

(The full thread is located here).

Only a small honor guard, consisting primarily of the Packers (the strike team) remain within Ridleybank while the horde is on vacation.

The horde's first stop was Fort Creedy, where they joined the Barhah Brigade, GMT Breakfast Club and Group 2 in the assault on the Fort. Within hours Creedy had fallen, and a party atmosphere was reported within the horde. Group 0 continued to raze the surrounding buildings for several days, before moving through Edgecombe and into Tollyton. Tollyton was famously the home of Paradox, who had recently claimed "victory" over the RRF after a "barricade-strafing" operation into Ridleybank. However, group 0 reported minimal Paradox resistance despite a high survivor population, a report confirmed by Paradox officials:

Yes, Tolly is under siege again, and most of us busy on other missions, if you want to leave Tolly for a few days, you are smart, come back when they leave, we'll be here. - lustindarkness

With it's self-proclaimed guardians absent, Woodrofe Mall fell within 24 hours, and within 2 days Tollyton was completly razed. Afterwards, the Excursion continued into East Grayside and West Grayside, before moving down into Wyke Hills and Buttonville. While there, the horde joined the Undeadites in the destruction of Buckley Mall. From Buttonville, Group 0 quickly moved through Williamsville, only to find the entire area devoid of life. As such, the horde was called to Lockettside, where they bagan to besiege Tompson Mall. Although heavily populated, Thompson proved to be a easy kills, and within days Group 0 fixed their sights on South Blythville's Marven Mall.