Third Siege of Caiger Mall
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Historical Event |
| This historical event is no longer active. However, its wiki page is preserved to reflect the event's significance in Urban Dead history. Please do not edit this page or the corresponding talk page without good reason. |
| Third Battle of Caiger Mall | |||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 23rd October 2006 to 10th November 2006, 6:20 GMT | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Caiger Mall | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Zombie Victory | ||||||||||||||||
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This page details the events that took place during the third siege of Caiger Mall, in October and November of 2006. If you wish to read about the first or second sieges then you can do so at the links provided:
What Happened
In the last week of October, 2006, Caiger Mall once again became the target of a zombie horde as zombies tried to take on the survivor stronghold. For the first time in a siege on Caiger it was estimated that the zombies and corpses outside outnumbered the survivors within the mall and surrounding buildings.
Shacknews, an extremely large and coordinated horde, was the brunt of the zombie force. Just earlier, they had succeeded in taking down the Blackmore Building in the Battle of Blackmore and within 2 days overrun both it and Nichols Mall.
The survivors lacked organization, but made up for it in reputation. See the First Siege of Caiger Mall and the Second Siege of Caiger Mall for more reading on the subject.
However, reputation proved to be no match for organization and numbers; these, coupled with several rule changes (perhaps most critically, ransack and large building defence) granted a decisive victory to Shacknews and its zombie allies.
The zombie victory at Caiger Mall on November 10th shall forever be remembered as a glorious day for Zombiekind: a day when many hordes stood together, lurching as one towards an impossible dream, and made it happen.
The Siege Begins
The siege officially began with nightly co-ordinated attacks on The Latrobe Building, the NecroTech Building adjacent to Caiger. These attacks started around 23rd October and each attack saw more zombies squeezing through loose barricades and more and more survivors leaving the fight to stand in Caiger rather than defend the building. A brave few stood and would not allow the undead to enter, but as time drew on, their numbers fell.
Still, a few days into the assault, Shacknews realized it needed help, and asked the Ridleybank Resistance Front (RRF) for assistance. The RRF promptly deployed the GMT Breakfast Club assault team, as well as a host of special operatives and irregulars, to help Shacknews retain control over the Sweeney and Oxley Buildings (NTs) southwest of Caiger Mall. One week into the siege, the Feral Undead and Eastonwood Ferals answered Shacknews' request for assistance, and joined the GMT in containing the human-led revive/resupply operation near Oxley. The efforts of these allied zombie groups would have a decisive impact on the seige, allowing Shacknews to eventually focus on the mall itself.
The zombies around the mall itself at this stage of the seige were few and far between, as the Shacknews horde tried to cripple the resources of Caiger before assaulting the Mall proper.
Latrobe Falls
It was inevitable: with more than 100 zombies trying to break into the building and more and more survivors falling back to Caiger, Latrobe was left in a very vulnerable position. On 31st October, with the fog rolling outside, there were approximately 277 zombies banging on the doors of Latrobe and with only around 30-50 survivors to hand out sweets on Halloween, trouble was certain.
By the 1st of November, as the fog cleared, the destruction of Latrobe was complete with over 100 zombies inside and the building ransacked. The night that Latrobe fell, a huge survivor operation was undertaken to reclaim the building and after a massive attempt there were only 12 zombies left standing inside. However, reinforcements shambled in and helped pack the building once more. Other attempts were made to reclaim the building, but with the survivors in shock and in a disorganized mess, the attempts were feeble at best, and all NT efforts were re-based to the nearest NTs that still stood in human hands.
Breaches and Barricades
With the fall of Latrobe and also the other NT buildings in the surrounding area, Shacknews had managed to severely affect the revive system for Caiger Mall. During the second siege, revives had been almost instant: even at the peak of the battle, killed defenders were back in the mall in less than an hour. Now, however, the local cemetery was packed.
With smaller groups of zombies making sure the revives stayed at a slow rate, the main horde focused its attack on the mall itself. At first, they focused their attacks on the Southeast corner, which is generally the most packed corner in Caiger. The usual break-ins by small numbers occurred with the barricades being put back up and the zombies killed, but as the breaches became more frequent it became clear that the horde was gaining ground.
As they broke in, some zombies scouted the mall to find its least populated corner, which turned out to be the Northwest. Consequently, over the coming days many zombies began to focus their attack on that corner instead.
Breaches became more frequent -- at one point, nearly a breach an hour -- and the numbers in Caiger steadily declined, although it is unknown if this was caused by people who had fleeing the horde or defenders stuck at the clogged revive point. Then, the horde struck with almighty force....
Fall of the Mall
Over the course of two evenings, zombies attacked the northwest corner of Caiger Mall, killing an average of 75 humans per night and injuring countless others. On the third night of attacks on the NW corner, the Horde killed over 125 humans during its 90-minute assault, but was unable to clear the mall square of the remaining 14 humans. Within minutes of sending out an emergency request for assistance through all available communication channels, a panoply of GKs (human generator-killers), PKers (human human-killers) and Special Operations agents (human crowbar-wielding barricade annihilators) arrived. Their efforts proved to be the final push needed to clear the NW corner of Caiger Mall, and in the early hours of 10th November Shacknews raider lord warlock ransacked it, thereby preventing the humans from erecting barricades again. Soon over 300 zombies stood in the corner, sealing the mall's fate.
With the barricades down for good, the mega-horde of 350+ feral zombies outside -- which Shacknews had secretly been working to mobilize during the previous 48 hours -- flooded in through the breached corner, killing and evicting all of the mall's 900+ remaining defenders.
Result - Zombie Victory - For the first time in Malton's history, Caiger Mall -- once the bulwark of human-held malls -- had fallen completely under zombie control, with all corners ransacked and all defenders fled or eaten. The siege had lasted fifteen days.
Analysis
There are many reasons why Caiger Mall fell into zombie hands for this first time. Shacknews was arguably the most organised group in the game, and when they asked for help they made sure it was so they could focus on the mall itself. The amount of coordination that was put into the Third Siege was remarkable.
Why was Shacknews able to coordinate? Why did the humans fail to undertake basic defense strategies? Because the zombies were attempting to do something that had never been accomplished before: shut down Caiger Mall. This driving sense of purpose enabled the zombies to coordinate on a scale heretofore unseen. The humans, fighting only to repeat the two previous victories at Caiger, had no underlying sense of purpose.
Also, many survivors felt it was time for Caiger to fall; the third siege began almost exactly a year after the first siege and by then many survivors had become complacent. Few survivors responded to Caiger's requests for help, assuming it would endure as it had in the past. Caiger Mall ended up facing a well-organized group with a garrison smaller than in previous sieges. Tyler Whitney0 of the Channel 4 News Team has written his events on Why Caiger Mall Fell. You should read it.
Major Factors Of Defeat
Presented in no particular order. This list was written by Jon Pyre who was present during all three sieges and aims to provide an unbiased overview.
- Coordinated attacks. Shacknews had excellent coordination and marshaled the bulk of its forces to attack simultaneously each day. A large zombie group without metagaming results in sporadic attacks requiring barricades be broken multiple times. Metagaming allows two or three zombies to clear the barricades and allow every other zombie to spend all their AP on attacks. While Caiger faced coordinated attacks before it never was from a group as large and well-organized as Shacknews.
- Ransack. Ransack proved crucial in closing down the Necrotech Buildings. Once ransacked they could no longer be searched for syringes and the revive lines stalled. Safehouse after safehouse was occupied by large groups that only a coordinated and simultaneous survivor attack and annex could have cleared. In the absence of any survivor groups of sufficient size/organization even a horde of 10 zombies could hold a building indefinitely. Zombies were standing up and strolling back in faster than they were being cleared.
- Smaller Survivor Population. In previous sieges Caiger could often have 1000 survivors in a single mall square alone. The Third Siege population of the entire mall and nearby Necrotechs combined may have been lower than 2000. This isn't to denigrate the hard-fought zombie victory, merely to point out that survivors were less willing to provide reinforcement.
- Mall-Walking. Malls originally acted as four separate buildings. Caiger might have failed the first siege after zombies occupied one corner. In siege three once the NW corner was gone it was all over.
Quotes
In Caiger Mall: A Tribute to the Fallen Defenders
In Caiger Mall the Zombies Roam
Between the kiosk, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw Zombies fall,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Caiger Mall.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though Zombies roam,
In Caiger Mall.
Written on a bloody piece of paper found on a fallen military personal by Lt.Harris, a freelancer, scouting mission
When I shamble into the mall now, nothing but blood and gun shells. Zombies being zombies. when I walk around the mall now, nothing but ransacked shops. Zombies being zombies. When I look at a dead body, and see a little girls face. A zombie feeling human.
HeadCrabZombie.
"Tell me, Lord Warlock, what is best in death?"
"To crush harmanz, to see them driven before you, to hear the lamentations of their radio transmitters."
-- Lord Warlock, Most Exalted Ransacker of the Third Siege
Requiem for Caiger 11/11/06
In the north of the city of the dead
there stood a mall, where it was said
that any could find a refuge here--
man, woman, and child—from death and fear.
The undead hordes across Malton roiled
and in the fiendish fray the city despoiled;
in winter the great rampage had begun,
and every mall fell—
--all save one.
A bastion of all that was good and right,
Caiger stood alone against the night
holding the shreds of humanity close
against the onslaught of the ravening host.
For days and weeks the battle raged
back and forth over shattered barricades--
but at last the smoke began to clear
and the humans sensed that vict’ry was near.
Triumphant, from the rubble they emerged
to survey the suburb which they had purged
of the greatest threat yet to humankind—
and the survivors spread out, leaving Caiger behind.
Many defenders left, but Caiger remained
with the blood of a thousand battles stained;
a mere shadow of its former glory,
yet a shining part of the Malton story.
Now, darkness always comes again,
and gloom set in November ten:
the valiant remainder could not stem the tide,
and amid a pile of corpses at last they died.
No leader stood up to take command
of the sadly reduced survivor band,
so they fought and died in groups of one,
and zombies feasted in the setting sun.
As zombie treads echoed across the mall,
the voices of the fallen sent up a call:
“Remember Caiger as it used to be,
a stronghold of hope for humanity.”
“We had our triumphs and mistakes—
learn from them, for humanity’s sakes—
survivors still live; hold fast to our cause
and keep them safe from the zombies’ jaws."
“Remember Caiger, and learn from us
lest all of the city be crushed to dust;
fight as Caigerites used to be—
and fight for a Malton alive and free.”
--Robert G Shaw 19:26, 11 November 2006 (UTC) (apologies that the stanzas break up oddly but the wiki engine wouldn't have it any other way).
How could this happen?. How could any of this happen?. Have our are actions to play god and tamper with nature ultimately led to the ultimate extinction of our race?. The Siege of Caiger is over ending in a Zombie victory. Could this mean the outbreak in Malton and destruction of Caiger mall, A beacon of hope for the survivors could be The first real step in the invasion of Earth?. I guess it is true then, the world won't end in a bang, but a whimper.
We must get serious about destroying this scourge or all will be lost
- A nameless Marine watching The Fall of Caiger Mall
This event shows what us zombies are when we work together, a powerful and deadly weapon. -HeadCrabZombie
Remember, remember the 10th of November,
When Caiger fell
and survivors lost
I see no reason why
this should be forgot.
--Mercsenary T•RCDC 06:46, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
Doctor Preston said "Yesterday - All the zombies seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay Oh, I believe - In yesterday
Suddenly - I'm not half the doctor I used to be There's a zombie hanging over me. Oh, yesterday - Came suddenly
Why they - Had to come I don't know. They wouldn't say. I said. Something wrong now I long - For yesterday
Yesterday - UD was such an easy game to play. Now I need a place to hide away. Oh, I believe - In yesterday"
(Looks at the bottle of beer broken on the floor)
"What a waist" --Apex 03:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
Memoriam
Engraved underneath the Caiger Mall Title, written in stone and scotch...
"Sing us a song of Ron Burgundy
...who hailed from a city of sun.
He was quick with a qoute
and could never quite mope.
Stay Classy was his, cup of tea.
... ... ... ...
"Oh and there! At the battle of Blackmoore...
was Ron's Finest!...Greatest...a star....
And should they rise, well dammnit my friend.
Ron, will be there to the end.
Sing, my friend, for its killing me...
How I could do naught for a man.
Who was a fighter, a poet, a lover and God.
All with such hair, it...would...gleam..."
-Zeratul Luke-
It waits for the fourth siege to begin.
The Siege Timeline
This section details each days' events during the third siege of Caiger Mall. Please note that these events were posted by individuals and could have a biased opinion.
- October 24th, 2006
- First assault on Latrobe. Break in of about 40 zombies. Casualties unknown.
- October 25th, 2006
- Second assault on Latrobe and St. Isidore's. About 60 zombies in Latrobe. Casualties estimated at 30 in Latrobe and unknown in St. Isidore's.
- October 26th, 2006
- First assault on Caiger Mall (SE) and Holloms Auto. Breakin of about 90 and 10 zombies respectively. Casualties estimated at 80 to 100 total.
- October 27th, 2006
- Wagner and Isidore overrun by a horde of about 50 undead. Human casualties estimated at 60.
- October 29th, 2006
- Though it wasn't exactly quiet, organized siege activity by zeds seemed to dip over the weekend.
- October 30th, 2006
- Another standard night. The population of Latrobe was yet again lower than past nights, but the zeds were thrown to the curb before they could kill everyone inside.
- October 31st, 2006
- Fog settles over Caiger, accompanied by a major breakin of about 90 zombies in Latrobe. Eventually repulsed with just 20 of the original humans surviving, after reinforcements arrived from Caiger.
- November 1st, 2006
- The undead win their first major victory, ransacking the Latrobe Building after a week of on-and-off raids. About 100-130 zombies spent the night swaying inside.
- November 3rd, 2006
- Small feral raids on Caiger throughout the day kill about 10-20 humans per day. Shacknews led more coordinated strikes on each day which killed about 30 humans. The revive lines begin to choke as zombies hold 4-6 of the 7 Necrotechs in the area at any one time.
- November 5th, 2006
- Repeated raids on NW and SE corners, both breached, taken and retaken by survivors several times, causalties heavy. SE generator briefly destroyed.
- November 6th, 2006
- The weekend is over! 75 harmanz died in various corners of Caiger thanks to a pretty thorough breakdown of the cades with no survivor response. Latrobe is, as ever, zambah territarah.
- November 7th, 2006
- Occasional break ins have lead to no powered generators in Caiger.
- November 8th, 2006
- There are a pile up of zombies in the revive points in the Caiger/Darvall Heights area, possibly due to the loss of the latrobe and Hermen necrotech buildings, resulting in fewer syringes being produced. Over 50 Zeds in the cemetery and over 20 in the yeandil towers. reinforcements with syringes are requested, I estimate about 1100 survivors in caiger mall at the moment, but about 500 in the SE corner, which yesterday was under siege from 200-300 zeds. Holloms Auto Repair was repared for a short period of time, then broken into again.
- November 9th, 2006
- Survivor numbers in the mall are roughly 1100,700-800 of which are in the SE and Ne corners. the surrounding buildings seem to be suffering, most left wide open, so survivors without the free running skill i suggest you stay away from Caiger, wit h the relatively safe mall almost always at Eh barricaded. the revive points are clogging up, with the cemetery in Darvall heights at over 90 zombies. the latrobe NT still ransacked with 50 or so zombies inside. the herman building NC seems to be constantly exchanging hands between survivors and zombies, when i last checked it was VS barricaded. The sweeney building 2S of is also ransacked, but with only a minor zombie presence inside.--Yanksta 23:42, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
- UPDATE -- The northwest corner of Caiger Mall has been cleared and ransacked ( http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6355/caigersackedxj0.png ). Aided by a legion of feral undead, as well as a group of irregular PKers disgusted by the dishonorable human barricade-zergs, the Horde ransacked the northwest corner of Caiger Mall at 10:43pm EST. Over 115 zeds are now standing inside the mall, cramming limes into the sphincters of the slain humans and singing merry songs of appelflappen. Official credit for the ransack goes to Lord Warlock, whose name shall be remembered for all time. Chronolith 04:02, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
- November 10th, 2006
- The southwest corner of Caiger Mall was ransacked at 7:43am. For the first time in a generation, the number of zombies inside Caiger Mall outnumber its human defenders. Chronolith 12:52, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
- Caiger Mall has fallen. User:Alan 11:10, 10 November 2006 (EST)
