Vampire Tactics

Tactical Objective

A Trans-Mortal tactic synthesizing the DIRT:NAP, Rat_tactics, and ZK, tactics. Vampire tactics allows a coordinated survivor group to conduct extended (up to 25 days) operations completely self sufficiently without ANY local assistance from other survivors, groups or suburb infrastructure. It is suitable for use by a group either in their 'home' suburb if overrun by a horde, or as an offensive operation to retake or assault a zombie held area.

Overview

A major survivor challenge in zombie horde attacks or in zombie held areas is to survive a sleep cycle. Once killed a survivor must rise as a zombie and arrange for a revive. This takes an increasing amount of time as the balance of power in an area shifts toward zombies, becoming virtually impossible as zombies gain overwhelming numeric superiority. Zombies enjoy the significant advantage of being able to maintain continuous operations when killed (stand in place for 1-6AP) while the dead survivor's operations are interrupted to search for revives. Vampire tactics address this imbalance and allow a survivor team to maintain near continuous operations at the cost of one survivors daily AP balance.

Vampire tactics rely on the UD life cycle of Human, death, zombie, revival and Human again. After receiving a revive, yet before standing as a human again, the player is protected from attack. A survivor can stay in this SUSPENDED state between Zombie and human indefinitely. Use of this SUSPENDED state can allow a survivor team to ensure team revives are available allowing a survivor team to maintain continuous operations even in the most hostile environments.

The tactic is based on the DIRT:NAP tactic and ALWAYS maintains a survivor, with ample revive resources for the team, in SUSPENDED state. In this way even if the rest of the team is killed one team member will be able to stand up and revive the others at a pre-determined time and location ensuring that the team continues day to day operations employing applicable Rat_tactics. To a team employing vampire tactics death is only an inconvenience. The team expects to sleep, to occasionally die, but to be certain that if they die they will be able to rise the next day.

Details

Teams of from 1 to 7 are formed with minimal tool loads (Toolbox, Axe or Knife, optionally a DNA scanner, and spray can, and no more than 5-6 FAKs) The rest of the inventory load is used to carry upwards of 30 revive sticks. The team begins by sending a scout into a target area who will locate a ruined building, ideally tall enough to jump out of, to serve as base of operations. The scout, if not already a zombie, will then COMMIT SUICIDE by jumping out the window and standing up and entering the base building before they use up their AP. The rest of the team then follows beginning first by reviving the original, now zombie, scout. The scout STAYS down (becoming the team's undead vampire) and the rest of the team employs RAT tactics to barricade and disperse through the area. As the team dies they return to the base where the vampire lies sleeping. At a predetermined time, or when a given number of team members are waiting as zombies, the vampire will rise, revive, and use any remaining AP in RAT tactic objectives. The team rotates through the vampire role making sure at least one team member is always in SUSPENDED state at all times to act as resurrector for the rest of the team. A risen vampire can revive up to 5 zombies in one session going slightly into negative AP, but must ensure that one of the revived accepts the hand-off to be the next vampire.

If the team is working out of a secure enough base location starting from a full 50 AP count, if the start of the vampire revive is timed appropriately, near a half hour AP increment, a sixth revive might also be possible. If the vampire survives long enough after their 5 revives to generate 3 AP (between 31 and 90 minutes?) they would have a +1 AP, enough to perform another revive, leaving them at -9 AP.

The team can extend operations duration or team size by either avoiding death through team dispersal, as dictated in RAT tactics, or by spending periods of time conducting offensive operations during their zombie phase using ZK tactics.

Minimum Skills: Zombie Skills: Lurching Gait, Ankle Grab, Scent Death (to identify vampires). (Zombie attack skills if offensive ZK operations are planned) Human: NecroTech Employment, Lab Experience, Construction, Hand to hand Combat, Knife proficiency or Axe Proficiency. [as dictated by RAT tactics, firearms are too costly in AP to find and use to be practical in vampire situations.]

Suggested Inventory: Toolbox, Axe or Knife, FAKs (6), Revive Needles(25-30) optionally DNA scanner, and spray can (for zombie taunting or coded messages).

Disadvantages

Long lead time required to acquire the needed inventory for the extended operations run.

Strong coordination required. Meta-gaming seems the only way to ensure communication and scheduling that are a must to ensure that the team maintains a vampire at all times.

Complexity of execution runs the risk of ending up with a team of plain old dead zombies if a vampire relay hand-off is missed.

Discipline required by vampire player during potentially long inactivity periods while sleeping guard shift. The player cannot act until another player is ready to take their place.