Beachhead Tactic
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Beachhead Tactic
Picture: Waterlogged zombies work to establish a beachhead along the River Kevan
The Beachhead Tactic is so named because of its basic procedure: zombies invading a building work to keep the barricades down once inside, forming a 'beachhead' and allowing more of their undead brethren to pour into the building, until a critical stage is reached and the building is overwhelmed.
Method of the Tactic
The Tactic takes advantage of the undead's recent evolution pertaining to strategic thought, which allowed them to attempt to prevent survivors from rebuilding their sundered barricades. Previously, the zombies were incapable of preventing such an action, and the survivors could seal the entryways at any time. With this evolutionary achievement the survivors' barricading efforts were severely hampered, and the undead were remarkably quick to develop this tactic to take advantage of their newfound abilities.
Step 1) The barricades on a given location come down, allowing the zombie(s) to enter the building. In a large battle this can be difficult to acheive, requires very tight coordination, and may require use of the Misdirection subtactic to divert survivors away from the true target.
Step 2) Instead of then using their remaining AP to attack the survivors, the initial invading zombies use the remaining points to attack the barricades from within. This focused attack, coupled with the difficulties survivors now have with barricading in the presence of the undead, can effectively keep the barricades either completely down or very weak. The invaders have now formed a 'beachhead'.
Step 3) Beachhead Zombies stop attacking the barricades once their AP descends to 8. This way if they find themselves killed and dumped during the first critical minutes they can immediately stand up again at full health, wait for the barricades to be taken down by either zombies inside or out and rejoin the beachhead having spent only 7 AP, which is small compared to the AP required for a survivor to kill a 60hp zombie equipped with a Flak Jacket (or Flesh Rot) (12 shotgun blasts + 12 shell loads, or 24 pistol shots + 4 clip loads, not counting AP used to gather said ammo). This is basically a zombie Meat Shield subtactic designed to wear down the survivors AP at a ratio of at least 4:1 in favor of the zombies.
Step 4) With the barricades continually down or vulnerable, zombies who awaken from their foggy-minded shambling can easily enter the building and assist the beachhead undead. This continues over a much longer time compared to the first three steps until a point is reached, dependent on factors such as local survivor population, when the zombies have the ability to overwhelm the survivors, which they then proceed to do, in typical zombie fashion.
Analysis
Pros
With the new undead abilities, this tactic is frighteningly hard to conquer once successfully unleashed. Survivors are forced to wipe the beachhead out quickly before the stream of newcomers can erode their defenses and overwhelm them, apparently not an easy thing to do. And of course, invading zombies no longer have to worry about barricades going up behind them, cutting them off from their allies and/or preventing them from standing up and rejoining the zombie Meat Shield.
Cons
While very effective, the tactic is dependent on a number of things. First, the initial zombies who form the beachhead must do so with a certain amount of strength in numbers and with a useful amount of AP remaining. They must advance in such numbers as to be able to hold out against the initial survivor defensive fire. For instance, if a mere 5 zombies enters a building with 300 survivors, the five undead can attempt the tactic all they want and will fail every time. Their AP will be exhausted on the barricades and they will subsequently be wiped out before the beachhead can be established.
On the other side of the coin, there must be a significant number of zombies available to take advantage of the tactic, or else it will fail. The beachhead can be exceptionally established, set up in mere minutes, but if no reinforcements are forthcoming then the zombies already inside will have to try something else.
Counters
The Beachhead Tactic is still a young tactic, a new player on the rotting battlefields of Malton, and the survivors are still trying to adjust to it. So far, the only option available to survivors seems to be overwhelming the zombies with crushing numbers, but it is debatable as to whether or not that is even possible. One counter-measure talked about is using Combat Revives on the Beachhead zombies. This will clear the zombies quickly, prevent them from rejoining the zombie horde/beachhead, and cost only 10ap. If this were to happen some might consider it a despicable tactic and easily thwarted if the beachhead zombies have brainrot. It is also debatable whether the combat revived zombies cause more problems in human form.
Events and Responses
Historical Significance
Battle of Giddings, 2008: It was during the month-long siege of Giddings Mall by The Second Big Bash in January 2008 that the zombies evolved, and Giddings was thus the first to experience the wrath of the Beachhead Tactic. In a day long battle at the very end of the month, the tactic was successfully executed in the Mall's Southeastern corner, and the complex fell soon after.
Fort Perryn, October 2008: At the beginning of the month there were few zombies outside, then roughly 20+ got into the gatehouse and kept survivors from re-barricading the gates, therefore more zombies got in as soon as they logged in, overwelming the survivors.
Notes
This survivor feels it important to point out the new dynamic the Beachhead Tactic has introduced to Malton's large battles. Previously, large battles only had two settings: siege and massacre. When survivors had the advantage, the siege involved small to medium waves of zombies breaking in and being slaughtered (i.e. Battle of Santlerville). When the zombies had the advantage, the massacre involved a massive tidal wave of undead washing over the defenses, and the survivors would be slaughtered in their sleep (i.e. the end of the Battle of Blackmore).
However, the Beachhead Tactic doesn't fit the analogy of waves; rather, it ends with a stream of undead moving in gradually. This results in outright battle, straight-up combat that results in heavy casualties for both sides.
This page has been revised by a zombie that helped execute the beachhead attack on Giddings.
