List Your "Walking Dead" Dumb Tactics

[Ben]

I didn't want to muck up the season 6 thread, but we mentioned some of the "what are they thinking?" tactics there (again!) so I'm curious to know what irks the APS "Walking Dead" fans the most regarding tactics. Note this is not an "I hate "X" and want them to get bit" thread. Just blatant tactical failures.

In the season 6 thread, Mike brought up armor again, and I have to agree that is one of my big peeves. Even if not armor, how about wearing something other than t-shirts and shorts? Leather jackets, etc. -- anything that would reduce the chance of the (after so many seasons) decomposing and weaker walkers from making skin contact with their teeth? Also gloves (see additional pet peeve below).

Also automatic weapons fire. Still too much of it for no reason. Rick actually had a good reason in last night's episode, but that was against the living, not the undead.

They still haven't discovered the .22 rimfire.

Killing zombies with knives with like 4" blades on them (relates back to gloves). Can you get your bare hands any closer to walker mouths than when trying for head stabs with a freakin' pocket knife? Machetes, please. Or at least some longer stabbing instruments that can easily be inserted into the skull, and more importantly, easily pulled back out.

What are your tactical pet peeves?

[K Frame]

Pretty much everything that they do.

So often zero situational awareness...

[Angel Eyes]

So often zero situational awareness...

Yup.  How many times was a person just standing somewhere when a walker appears from outside the camera's view and bites them?  Did they really not see or hear it?  Walkers are neither fast nor stealthy. 

(This is probably laziness on the part of the director trying to surprise the audience.)

When traveling in a group, have one or two people watching their six.  It's not difficult.

[K Frame]

Not just the six, all points of the freaking compass! 

Constant scanning, especially when you're already dealing with walkers in front of you.

[K Frame]

Regarding armor, even a denim jacket would provide a lot of protection. Want to really up the protection? Sew some fiberglass cloth on the arms. Or even leather. Hell, even wraps of duct tape would provide some protection.

[brimic]

Regarding armor, even a denim jacket would provide a lot of protection. Want to really up the protection? Sew some fiberglass cloth on the arms. Or even leather. Hell, even wraps of duct tape would provide some protection.

Motorcycle jackets, whether mesh or textile seem to be perfect for the job at hand.

When I worked in a window factory, the glass cutters would wear riveted kevlar coats that covered neck to knees with diving gloves- they offered really good puncture/cut protection and were pretty light at the same time.
Couldn't find a pic of a coat online, but below is a jacket.

[Mannlicher]

it's almost as if Rick and his merry krewe have just forgotten all the hard learned lessons of the previous few years.

Every time I watch an episode, I wonder why one one wears leather collars, leather leg guards, arm guards and gloves.  All of these would be bite proof.
Why don't they understand that a short spear is better than a Spyderco folder for those head stabs.  WHY THE HELL DO THEY KEEP USING THE FRAGILE BUTTS OF THEIR AR RIFLES AS CLUBS?  Please excuse my rant there.  :)

[T.O.M.]

God, where to begin.  Keep in mind, I'm a casual fan of the show.  I like how they play with some of the morality issues, especially kindness vs. survival.  Sometimes, I wonder about simply hanging cans  withe pebbles inside on fishing line around the perimeter as an early warning system.  Set it out 100 yards from your walls and you could have a patrol vectored in to eliminate the threat long before they hit the walls.  Want to keep it quiet, so spear it, pin it to the ground, and chop the head. 

Supply patrols make me crazy.  They wander around unknown territory in condition white.  Sweep the area, secure a building, set up overwatch, and search for supplies.  Doesn't btake a lot of people to manage that.

A final note, I hate that they split up so often.  This is a situation where strength does lie in numbers.

[BobR]

ummmmmmmmm....it keeps getting renewed by AMC. (which used to stand for American Movie Classics).

<ducks and runs>

bob

[Perd Hapley]

.

[Jamisjockey]

360 security.  Anywhere.
Camp security.

Camp OP's LP's.

Layered defenses.  

Weapons and firearms.

Sure we can break down individually bad tactics.  Unfortunately, most of the Alexandria group is alive by sheer luck.  Rick's group has fought and killed for it.

The real problem are people.  So many of the things they do and plan are thwarted by people who've gone off the deep end or are just flat greedy.  And they just don't seem to want to think about planning on dealing with people.

God, where to begin.  Keep in mind, I'm a casual fan of the show.  I like how they play with some of the morality issues, especially kindness vs. survival.  Sometimes, I wonder about simply hanging cans  withe pebbles inside on fishing line around the perimeter as an early warning system.  Set it out 100 yards from your walls and you could have a patrol vectored in to eliminate the threat long before they hit the walls.  Want to keep it quiet, so spear it, pin it to the ground, and chop the head. 

Supply patrols make me crazy.  They wander around unknown territory in condition white.  Sweep the area, secure a building, set up overwatch, and search for supplies.  Doesn't btake a lot of people to manage that.

A final note, I hate that they split up so often.  This is a situation where strength does lie in numbers.

There was a camp that some of them stayed in, in one of the early seasons that had that.

[White Horseradish]

Took them, what, 3 seasons to find a Mosin, which is about as perfect a zombie killer as there is?

Hell, raiding any milsurp store should yield an ample supply on bayonets easily mountable to poles of different kinds.

[MechAg94]

Hell, just some decent angle iron and hack saws could make good enough spear points.  I always wondered why no one ever used a shield wall and Greek phalanx tactics against zombies.  I guess TV/Movies never do anything resembling a formation.  Normally, the professionals all get killed and the amateurs win.

Even window bug screens might make a decent make-shift bite guard.  

[Ben]

 I always wondered why no one ever used a shield wall and Greek phalanx tactics against zombies.

Man, would I love to see somebody make a short of Lagertha leading her Vikings against a Walking Dead horde!

[Blakenzy]

A simple double layer canadian tuxedo would make them very bite and scratch resistant. And gloves!

If a bite or scratch is dangerous, undead bodily goo must be so as well. There seems to be little attention payed to biosecurity measures, and tools/weapons as well as characters are frequently covered in hazardous material.

Come on use short spears or pikes instead of pocket knives.

No reconditioning of large vehicles to trample large undead groups?

Since the quarry was such a good trap that kept the area walker-free, they should have just reinforced the exits and kept all the undead there.

[TommyGunn]

A simple double layer canadian tuxedo would make them very bite and scratch resistant. And gloves!

If a bite or scratch is dangerous, undead bodily goo must be so as well. There seems to be little attention payed to biosecurity measures, and tools/weapons as well as characters are frequently covered in hazardous material.

Come on use short spears or pikes instead of pocket knives.

No reconditioning of large vehicles to trample large undead groups?

Since the quarry was such a good trap that kept the area walker-free, they should have just reinforced the exits and kept all the undead there.

Everyone is "infected" with whatever the agent that causes zombification, so I don't think zombigoo would  be bothersome.  Plus, in the first season they learned that if they put zombigoo on them the zombis (yea, walkers...whatever) would be fooled into thinking the living were also walkers.
Putting the goo on caused a bad case of BO but it didn't hurt anyone.

[K Frame]

"Everyone is "infected" with whatever the agent that causes zombification, so I don't think zombigoo would  be bothersome."

Except... bites are, for whatever reason, fatal. Jim from season 1.

You'd think if a bite is fatal, a cut exposed to zombigoo would trigger the same reaction.

[K Frame]

I've often thought that a piece of sharpened drill rod, tempered to give it some flexibility, or a similar material, ground to a sharp point, and attached to a stout handle, like a pick or ax handle, would be a great zombie eradication tool. Stout, easy punch through hard skull, and easy to remove. If the spear part gets broken, you still have an axe or pick handle as a club.

Of course, I'd rather have a katana.

[Ben]

There are just so many "poke a hole in the head" options that are better than knives that it's ridiculous. In Walking Dead world, I think the characters probably walk past hundreds of items laying in the street that would make better brain pokers than their knives. At this stage in zombie decomposition, you don't even need a really pointy end. An unsharpened piece of rebar would push through the skull.

[MechAg94]

That is why I mentioned angle iron.  Surely there would be scrap metal places around where they are wandering.  Cut a point into the iron and tie it to a spear.  If nothing else, find a secure high point just out of reach and start spearing heads. 

[RocketMan]

The producers should hire some APS members as technical advisers.  However, if they followed the APS tech advisers advice, the show would become boring pretty quickly and be cancelled as actual danger to the characters would be greatly diminished.

[K Frame]

Talked with a friend of mine a few minutes ago.

He's a DC, so he's got a pretty good idea what goes on with bones.

He also has a problem with the ease with which a toothpick can penetrate a zombie's skull. The bones don't really soften during decomp. If anything, they get harder as they dry out. After all, they're largely calcium, which means that they're a rock.

As Dave put it... "Death onset osteoporosis must be one of the side effects of zombiism..."   

[HankB]

. . . They still haven't discovered the .22 rimfire . . .

Uhhh . . . until just recently, .22 rimfire has been in short supply these last few years, and that's WITHOUT a zombie apocalypse.

My peeve is the noise they make when on patrol - they KNOW zombies are attracted to sound, and they KNOW there are "non-zombie" bad guys out there . . . and yet they banter back and forth about irrelevant cr@p when they should be paying attention to what's around them. I think someone mentioned they're going around in "Condition White" . . . well, it's usually a noisy "Condition White." 

[brimic]

Spears have been a near perfect weapon for millenia for good reason- good reach and lethality. Up closer, a framing hammer would be good- I think I rememebr one of the characters carrying a hammer in his belt.

[Ben]

Talked with a friend of mine a few minutes ago.

He's a DC, so he's got a pretty good idea what goes on with bones.

He also has a problem with the ease with which a toothpick can penetrate a zombie's skull. The bones don't really soften during decomp. If anything, they get harder as they dry out. After all, they're largely calcium, which means that they're a rock.

As Dave put it... "Death onset osteoporosis must be one of the side effects of zombiism..."   

Interesting, I would not have thought about that regarding the bones.