User:Murray Jay Suskind/Battle of Barhapolis

Note: This is up on a sub-user page for now because I'm still fleshing everything out. Once the battle is over, I'll move it onto its own page. Any feedback is appreciated, just leave it on the talk page instead of editing the page itself for now.

The Battle of Barhapolis
Date:	8th May 2008 to Ongoing
Place:	Stanbury Village, especially The Went Building and Nichols Mall
Result:	Ongoing
Combatants
Survivors x Zombies
Groups
- Survivors :	The Fortress, The Kilt Store, Army Control Corps, Cannonball Crew, Upper Left Corner, Malton Rangers, Blackmore Bastard Brigade, Channel 4 News Team, Phoenix Security Services, Zone Defenders, Paradox, USSR, and assorted non-affiliated survivors
- Zombies :	RRF, Feral Undead, Minions of the Apocalypse, and assorted feral zombies
Commanders
- Survivors :	Kilt Store Owner, others (commanders of the other groups should leave a message on the talk page, sorry I don't know you by name right now)
- Zombies :	Papa Moloch, Bullgod, Keith Mooon, The RRF War Council
Strength
- Survivors :	Approx 300 (beginning) to 500 (current)
- Zombies :	Approx 100 (beginning) to 200 (current)
Casualties
- Survivors :
- Zombies :

The Battle of Barhapolis is a protracted and ongoing siege in May of 2008 between a zombie force lead by the RRF -- later joined by representatives of Feral Undead and the Minions of the Apocalypse -- and a variety of survivor groups based out of Nichols Mall and the Went Building lead by The Fortress and The Kilt Store (note: from the zombie perspective these are the two most vocal groups, if anyone else is up there taking the lead, again, let me know on the talk page).

As the battle is ongoing, it is hard to predict both the final outcome and all of the important factors in the battle. Below is a recount of the battle to date (currently just from the zombie perspective) and important factors in the current battle.

Prologue: RRF Excursion and Survivor Security

Between January and early May of 2008, the balance of the game had swung heavily toward the zombie side. Without a steady source of food near Ridleybank, Papa Moloch announced an Excursion of the RRF to tour Malton in order to find more fertile feeding grounds and to take newer zombies in the horde on a trip.

However, in late April and early May, the balance (as defined by ratio of survivors and zombies) swung very suddenly back to the favor of survivors. This sudden development alongside an absentee RRF allowed survivors to strongly build up in northern Stanbury Village and make advances into Ridleybank, including the Blackmore Building. A small handful of vigilant RRF'ers who stayed at home during Excursion sounded alarm bells, and survivors went so far as to start talking trash on the RRF's home forum. The calls got louder throughout the last week of April and first week of May as the RRF slowly wound their way to Central Malton from points southward. Survivors felt secure and unthreatened until May 8th, when the true battle began.

The Blitz of Nichols Mall

On May 8th, a combined strike force composed of the RRF's Department of Homeland Security, Auxunit 10, Team America and Gore Corps blitzed the northeast corner of Nichols Mall, quickly ruining it. The RRF, overconfident for seemingly securing the latest in a long string of quick victories, quickly fell into a fairly passive grazing pattern, throwing their bodies into the barricades at the Went Building while the survivors surprised the zombies and quickly recovered from the quick ruin of Nichols.

Back and Forth at Went

Between May 11 and May the zombies shifted tactics to starve the survivors of their revive supply by taking the Went Building. The condition of the building bounced between survivor and zombie hands. The RRF successfully ruined Went early on. But as their focus shifted back to Nichols Mall itself, survivors started chipping into zombie numbers. A determined effort to keep Went ruined succeeded for about a week, when a survivor strike team from The Fortress came down from the Blackmore Building and cleared Went. From there, while the hold was often tenuous, the survivors began a period where they held both Went and Nichols.

At the same time, a solid effort by the RRF's GMT Breakfast Club succeeded in holding the nearby Greenhow Building, forcing survivors to run the six blocks to the Blackmore Building in order to find a steady needle source.

The Old, Dead Man Speaks

As the battle dragged on, some of the zombies who stayed in Ridleybank proper grew concerned that the horde's battle in Stanbury Village would keep the Blackmore survivors secure. At that point, retired RRF Papa Murray Jay Suskind stepped up and explained why Stanbury Village was so important.

• The reason we're spending so much time at Nichols and not taking on Blackmore and regaining the homeland is that there's very little strategic distinction between this part of Stanbury Village and Ridleybank. This is one of the reasons why the horde deemed everything around this area of Malton Greater Ridleybank so long ago. The fate of Nichols Mall is the fate of Ridleybank. If we do not take the mall down, then we'll be ineffective in driving the harmanz from Ridleybank proper. The line between Ridleybank and Stanbury Village is a line on a map. If we want our homes secure, then we need to take down this monument to decadent harmanity.

This helped to dedicate the RRF to truly sieging the area around Nichols and Went, and battle lines for the RRF crossed over from the Ridleybank border into northern Stanbury Village, which some began referring to "Barhapolis" informally.

Both Sides Call for Help

During the time that zombies held the Went Building, local survivors began to call in backup. The call worked, as heavy numbers soon showed up and cleared out the Went Building and appeared to turn the tide of the battle solidly into the survivors' favor.

The RRF, realizing that the flow of ferals into the area wasn't enough to combat the sharp rise in survivors, asked for help from Feral Undead and the Minions of the Apocalypse and received the requested help within days. Zombie numbers spiked quickly, but did not appear to immediately turn the the tide of the battle.

Open Door Policy

Around this time, the mysterious powers that control Malton, saw fit to make supplies harder to find for survivors, and to re-strengthen zombies' ability to obstruct barricades. As RRF strike teams found that they could effectively hold the doors open again, zombie assaults on the Went Building grew more and more effective. The strike teams began to realize that holding the door open for non-strike team Ridleys, allies and ferals was a very effective tactic, moreso than entering a building and eating like mad. This culminated in a Team America strike that held the doors open at Went continuously between a late evening strike (US time) and the ruining of Went. A passage of time that saw 80 survivors in Went either killed or flee the building.

The Battle To Come

To be filled in as the battle continues.

Factors in the Battle

See-Saw of Buffs

At the beginning of the battle, survivors arguably benefited from increased search rates and decreased zombie obstruction of barricades as a response to the earlier surge in zombie population. However, this early advantage was off-set by a widely observed decrease in search rates and a noticeable increase in zombie obstruction of barricades. The quick survivor recovery after the initial blitz at Nichols and the zombies ability to hold the doors open at Went until it was ruined could both be attributed -- in part -- to these tweaks in game mechanics.