line of men with pikes and shields and short swords as secondary weapon so roman legion tactics
alone probably less effective, something with decent reach like one handed sword and buckler would work great
sword+shield beats any melee weapon combination in close range 1 on 1
>Zombie paratroopers
VEH DEH VEH, IN DEATH WE SERVE
throw or use as spear in close combat, it can be used in both ways
fighting in shield formation would be probably most effective
alone its definitely good slasher, even if they can't be killed they can be crippled
Any kind of hammer will do the job nicely. Head on down to the nearest aquarium and get yourself a sharksuit too, that shit's breathable, relatively lightweight, and designed to stop far more bite force than any human can produce.
I think a polish war hammer would be ideal. Light weight and is ideal for head shots. A spike to penetrate their brains and a mallet that would be less likely to get wedged. You also won't have to worry about having to sharpen it, and it will allow you to swing dozens of times before you get too exhausted. Even better is to use it as a leg sweep to trip zombies and make for easy kills.
Whereas cutting blades will get dulled going into skulls and necks all the time. So 20 zombies in your sword or axe is dull as shit and you're relying on bludgeoning more than cutting.
The first half-dozen times you swing it, sure. After that, not so much. Shit in confined spaces. Gotta worry about about it getting stuck in a zeke too.
Hammer is smaller and lighter by virtue of having about half the handle length, so no. Hammer is even better if we're going by the brain rule too. Halberds are great at poking holes in/cutting open people, but to get through a skull you'd want the as much blunt force concentrated as accurately as you can, without wearing you out too much on the swing so you can deal with a crowd.
Spears and halberds and such worked well because people don't want to rush in close, for fear of getting holes poked in them. Zeke has no such compunctions. Your big heavy swing would obliterate one, but that's too much windup, recovery, and exertion. You gotta be economical.
Fair point I hadn't considered dealing with zombies like a un relenting foe I suppose a hammer or small axe with a shield might be best for up close fighting
Don't be too quick to apologise.
It's not like there's a specific terminology that's always applied to these things. These terms can change from one source to the other.
2 years ago
Anonymous
The main difference is ultimately length, halberds always have a point and an axe head, sometimes the back spike is hooked and sometimes it is straight. But they are always over 7ft and closer to spears in size. Pollaxes could have pronged hammer heads instead of axe heads, spikes instead of hammers, or single beak-style pick heads, but they are always under 6 feet and closer to greatswords in size.
https://i.imgur.com/xiSCVBf.png
What's the ideal melee weapon for a zombie invasion? I'm thinking a mace, right?
Against undead you dont want anything that risk being stuck in rotting, unresponsive flesh. Maces without flanges or spikes would be better.
2 years ago
Anonymous
So there's no difference? >no, you see, the weapon has to be this exact shape
Autism. You can make a halberd any fricking shape you want, it doesn't have to look like that thing you saw in that game. This is why getting all your knowledge from games is a bad idea.
A halligan bar
It gets in places and generally pokey enough to end someone's life if you had to
Maces are gay, what you need is a war hammer
This bad boy,it's literally made for splitting skulls and piercing armor
Any blunt weapon would get stuck in your target on the first swing. Maces and warhammers were used against men in suits of armour for a reason.
Against a fleshy opponent, you want a cutting sword, like this falchion.
For sure, put some really energy into it and you could probably split a head down to the neck. Swords aren't modern weapons anymore, but a proper and hefty one like that falchion will do a number on a living/living dead creature if applied correctly.
Maces are short, meaning you get one shot. It's fine to carry a short weapon for tight spaces but actively pursuing that is eliminating your biggest tactical advantage: You maneuver, they don't.
Out in the open, you want the longest weapon you can get against slow dumb zombies, so that you can pick away at them and hopefully knock them down for a finishing blow rather than relying on one shot kills to the head.
And obviously the REAL best weapon against a zombie is the shovel you used to dig a hole in their path an hour ago.
>You maneuver, they don't.
Really depends, there's slow zombies and fast zombies. Then you've got the Trioxin zombie, but that's kind of a different ballpark and the world is probably entirely fricked if you got that kind of outbreak getting a chance to spread.
If we're going with realistic damage then wouldn't a concussion totally frick them up? Baseball bat would be the best choice here.
Just bonk them on the head and now they can't even stand up straight. Baseball bats have a lot of hitting area and don't get stuck.
Absolutely, or smash their fingers, now they can't really grab you that well, smash out their teeth and dislocate their jaw, and now they can't bite so good.
>Absolutely, or smash their fingers, now they can't really grab you that well, smash out their teeth and dislocate their jaw, and now they can't bite so good.
They can still puke all over you and smear their fluids everywhere on you. I can imagine someone would cripple a zombie like this and tie them up to experiment on them and get a face full of blood puke.
>Really depends, there's slow zombies and fast zombies. Then you've got the Trioxin zombie, but that's kind of a different ballpark and the world is probably entirely fricked if you got that kind of outbreak getting a chance to spread.
If you're up against the Based Brain eating Chad zombies I don't think your choice of melee weapon is going to matter a great deal.
>Maces and warhammers were used against men in suits of armour for a reason.
We have maces and cudgels from per-antiquity anon. BONK is effective armor or no armor.
The problem is that blunt weapons tend to be heavier and shorter than their sharpened counterparts. Blunt force is an inefficient means of causing damage and if you're dealing with overwhelming numbers of unarmored opponents then efficiency is going to be a priority.
Swords would be ineffective against zombies because they can’t die of blood loss and don’t need most of their organs. Blunt weapons can be used to smash the skull and destroy the brain, which is the only guaranteed way to kill a zombie. If you must have a bladed weapon, an ax would be far more effective.
That really depends on how the zombie works. If it needs the brain to function and destroying that is necessary, I would suggest that any kind of injury which paralyzes them would be valuable, clearly it still operates and it sends signals to the body to do what it does.
Further, short of magic, damaged or destroyed limbs simply can't be used, doesn't matter if you don't feel pain, if your shoulder is pulverized you're really not going to be able to make grabs or apply much force with that arm, if your entire jaw has come off, you're not going to be able to make any kind of bite worth talking about, if your pelvis is shattered, you're no longer walking, you're crawling.
Getting into magic, with something like Quake logic, headshots aren't even viable, and instead you need to render the body into pieces (typically with a bomb), so that it cannot act.
You need a very sharpened, very well shaped blade, perfect technique and a lot of luck to get a full dismemberment with a sword. It's overhwelmingly more likely that you will frick up the swing in the heat of combat and fall out of alignment, or get pushed or deflected. Even if you pull it off, your blade WILL get dull, you can't rely on severing anything with a blade against enemies that don't give a frick.
Swords would be ineffective against zombies because they can’t die of blood loss and don’t need most of their organs. Blunt weapons can be used to smash the skull and destroy the brain, which is the only guaranteed way to kill a zombie. If you must have a bladed weapon, an ax would be far more effective.
The thing is, Swords can do more damage than just loping things off and bleeding, a good cut can destroy muscle tissue and be just as effective as breaking a bone. Thrusts, provided they're broader blades, can sever a lot of muscles in the torso as well, and you NEED those to move effectively. A thin spike might not do the trick but a broader blade like a Gladius would destroy a lot of tissue.
I’m not disputing what is or isn’t a halberd, I’m just saying, cleaving pole weapons in general have short range. Look at the length of weapon protruding from their hands. That is your range. It’s not far. You do not hold the halberd at the very end to maximize range, this would make it entirely unwieldy.
see
You can actually get that full range by sliding your hand down the shaft.
You can slide your hands around and take full advantage of the length of the pollaxe without tiring our or awkwardly carrying it that way, they're very dynamic weapons.
swords require consistent sharpening with use and hacking through bones further expedites that need
Swords would be ineffective against zombies because they can’t die of blood loss and don’t need most of their organs. Blunt weapons can be used to smash the skull and destroy the brain, which is the only guaranteed way to kill a zombie. If you must have a bladed weapon, an ax would be far more effective.
right you are anons but like others have said it depends largely on what kind of zombies we are talking here, i think regardless of whether slow or fast zombies a sword is not a good weapon against them as they do not feel pain and do not immediately go down unless they receive massive trauma to the brain
if you are interested take a look at the World War Z book by Max Brooks
While it is all fictitious, the approach they took against the zombies with the "Lobo" is the way to go very reminiscent of a halberd i believe any sort of hybrid weapon with good maneuverability and option for long and short range would be ideal
a weapon derived by modifying collapsable e-tools so that it has the option of extending for distance or retracting for combat in confined spaces and has both slashing and crushing damage capabilities seems pretty logical
>Muh 5.56 Incendiary is the best anti zombie weapon >Muh artilery is useless against crowds of people
Scared that I might have teleported into the fricking past. Max Brooks is a laughingstock and his books are goofy as frick.
Look I like the survival guide and WWZ as fun reads but Max doesn't know what the frick he's talking about half the time, the Battle of Yonkers is fricking awful and the perfect example of why writers ALWAYS want to skip actual conflict between conventional military and zombies
Swords require sharpening for maximum effectiveness, they’re still very effective dull. Swords concentrate a ton of energy onto a very small surface area, even dull, they will embed into someone’s skull and crack it wide open. Also, zombies are rotting flesh in almost all canon, you wouldn’t need a sharp sword to do a lot of damage to them. And while swords do require some sharpening, anyone with a modicum of practice can put a serviceable edge on one.
Halberds have piss poor range. You’re roughly gripping them in the middle, not the end. they give you no more range than a baseball bat, plus they’re pretty heavy and overkill for anything not in armor.
I think the best solution would be a halberd for more roomy ranges, and then something like a short-sword or hand axe for less spacious locations. Ideally though you'll want a gun, if they're some kind of contagious zombie you'll want to maintain a distance.
Ain't going to get through a skull easy with that
That's a good chopping and hacking blade you're looking at, you can definitely cut into a skull with a nice swing.
[...]
The main difference is ultimately length, halberds always have a point and an axe head, sometimes the back spike is hooked and sometimes it is straight. But they are always over 7ft and closer to spears in size. Pollaxes could have pronged hammer heads instead of axe heads, spikes instead of hammers, or single beak-style pick heads, but they are always under 6 feet and closer to greatswords in size.
[...]
Against undead you dont want anything that risk being stuck in rotting, unresponsive flesh. Maces without flanges or spikes would be better.
>Against undead you dont want anything that risk being stuck in rotting, unresponsive flesh.
Really depends on what kind of realism we're looking at, and what style of zombie.
Realistically, you just aren't going to put a leg to good use if it's broken, even if you feel no pain, you're gonna walk like total shit if your knee is crushed or your pelvis is shattered, and if the signal is cut off from the brain to some other part of the body, it's not being used.
Not enough fiction depicts how zombies could very reasonably be crippled by various injury, and how you wouldn't always need to disable the brain to neutralize one. If you shoot a zombie center mass and it severs his spinal cord, I'd say that's a shot which really counts because now he can't do anything.
If we're going with realistic damage then wouldn't a concussion totally frick them up? Baseball bat would be the best choice here.
Just bonk them on the head and now they can't even stand up straight. Baseball bats have a lot of hitting area and don't get stuck.
>Realistically, you just aren't going to put a leg to good use if it's broken, even if you feel no pain, you're gonna walk like total shit if your knee is crushed or your pelvis is shattered, and if the signal is cut off from the brain to some other part of the body, it's not being used.
The issue here is that you still need to land a fairly well placed and powered up strike which is tougher than just aiming, you could have your strike deflected or simply have the zombie move too much. Zombies don't feel pain or have self preservation instincts so they will trash and wiggle around a lot even after being beaten up hard. A mace needs to have the perfect design so that the spikes and flanges aid you in deliver the most focused energy possible and don't get deflected but also don't get stuck and keep you from striking again quick enough.
>Not enough fiction depicts how zombies could very reasonably be crippled by various injury, and how you wouldn't always need to disable the brain to neutralize one. If you shoot a zombie center mass and it severs his spinal cord, I'd say that's a shot which really counts because now he can't do anything.
Yeah, the issue is again if you can do it quick enough, considering you're dealing with 1 attacker just to clear the way to deal with anything between 5 to 300 others approaching you, at the very least you should be able to clear your way out and not be overly concerned with landing a perfect decisive hit.
Halberds have piss poor range. You’re roughly gripping them in the middle, not the end. they give you no more range than a baseball bat, plus they’re pretty heavy and overkill for anything not in armor.
They are basically the same thing
If it's longer than you are tall it's a Halberd. If it's shorter than you are tall it's a Poleaxe.
I’m not disputing what is or isn’t a halberd, I’m just saying, cleaving pole weapons in general have short range. Look at the length of weapon protruding from their hands. That is your range. It’s not far. You do not hold the halberd at the very end to maximize range, this would make it entirely unwieldy.
The flipside is that the space between your hands is your leverage and that means the weapon is easier to manage. You can use your torso more and arms less giving more power for less energy.
It’s definitely awesome, and powerful, but all of the anons in here were posting like it has awesome range. They’ve never held one before. You want range, get a spear.
Halberds have piss poor range. You’re roughly gripping them in the middle, not the end. they give you no more range than a baseball bat, plus they’re pretty heavy and overkill for anything not in armor.
Don't mistake poleaxe and halberd.
Poleaxe is short and fro armored man ("knight") who doesn't care about reach much because he is armored.
Halberd is for poorly armored men who want to stay out of the knight's reach.
This. A spike thru the skull.
Best two-man team would be a:
1. garden forkist to hold the zedhed in place
2. twohanded version (e.g. similar to pick ax but shorter spike) to despatch z skull
>Zombie invasion
This phrasing always cracks me up.
Imagining some sovereign zombie nation organizing a formal invasion
Zombie paratroopers, higgins boats full of zombies.
Tbh that's pretty fricking cool
Spear, preferably used through a chainlink fence, keeps a distance from them so you don't get zombaids. If you actually have to go toe to toe against a zombie a metal rod is best, flanged maces can get stuck, a rounded mace would be better.
The best weapon is your brain, though, getting into melee range against something that can't shoot you back is peak moron. Find a nice spot where you can drop a weighted object on a chain onto their heads one by one. No ammo spent, no risk to the operator.
It depends on the type of zombie in question. You'd probably use a different weapon to kill a slow undead zombie that needs to be decapitated or have its brain destroyed than you would against a zombie that is just a regular human but infected with a rage virus that causes victims to be in full-fledged chimp berserk-mode 24/7. This is without mentioning things like >is zombieism caused by a virus, bacteria, macroparasites, magic, radiation, etc.? >can you be infected by whatever causes people to turn into zombies and how does that infection spread? >how physically fit zombies are in comparison to humans? >are there any zombies out there that have any weird physical quirks to them, and if there are, how common are they? >how smart is your average zombie?
well, it depends
are they the still biologically human but hungry for flesh kind? if so, just smack them on the head really hard with a hammer, at worst it'll knock them the frick out, at best it'll outright kill them
are they the biologically superhuman, missing parts of brain and chunks of body, hungry for flesh kind? a mace, yeah
it's like a hammer but pointier and bigger, but if they're walking around with bits missing from them that would stop a normal body from functioning then you probably shouldn't be within clonking distance anyway
a poleaxe/hammer/bec de corbin whatever you call it should have more than enough length to give you the leverage to fairly easily get it unstuck if necessary, the ability to use it as a spear/hammer/pick/axe or whatever depending on the situation and specific type of hear is attractive as well
I think spears in general would be the go-to weapon for zombie poking, but pikes are essentially just long spears made to dab on people with shorter spears. If you're dealing with foes that by definition cannot use spears, I wouldn't see much reason in using something much longer than 10' or maybe 12', and even then only in cases where you really want the extra reach instead of something that's more reasonable to lug around.
Gives you way more margin of error? The frick do you mean no point, obviously you'd want the longest stick you could get if you were poking something that could kill you very easily but not protect itself.
I'd see pikes getting a lot of use around outposts and such where you could jab them out from a wall and take advantage of that extra reach while 7-8 foot spears being the norm for walking around. Personally i'd take a sword staff. sword staffs are cool
Probably not because they were not widely used until 16th century because they needed large professional armies to drill together and form a large enough phalanx from antiquity. They were used though as smaller modular groups in the 15th century supported by men at arms, crossbows, and handguns. This said,a single pike vs. A mounted knight in the heat of battle would be useful. It was pikemen that probably slowed Richard III down enough when he charged Henry Tudor that crippled his retinue knights enough for Henry to survive and Stanley to move in..
You're going to get tired very quickly when you have to lever your weapon free after every blow, not to mention how it would slow you down.
It's objectively one of the worst choices for unarmoured combat of that (fictionnaly autistic) type.
Maces are short, meaning you get one shot. It's fine to carry a short weapon for tight spaces but actively pursuing that is eliminating your biggest tactical advantage: You maneuver, they don't.
Out in the open, you want the longest weapon you can get against slow dumb zombies, so that you can pick away at them and hopefully knock them down for a finishing blow rather than relying on one shot kills to the head.
And obviously the REAL best weapon against a zombie is the shovel you used to dig a hole in their path an hour ago.
with proper technique you can swing a mace for hours, it is mostly hip driven. From the perspective of your pelvis it's the same as a hula hoop. Your arms are just follow through
The problem with blunt force weapons is that you'll loose more energy per hit than with a blade. Where a blade is designed to go into and through a target a blunt object will transmit all it's kinetic energy into the surface.
Swords would be ineffective against zombies because they can’t die of blood loss and don’t need most of their organs. Blunt weapons can be used to smash the skull and destroy the brain, which is the only guaranteed way to kill a zombie. If you must have a bladed weapon, an ax would be far more effective.
makes a solid point. For living people the kinetic energy transfer would confer an element of knockdown or knockback, which in a melee situation clears you some room to move.
Bladed weapons have their place, but for me, if I am outnumbered by a horde of anyone and I am limited to melee weapons, a blunt instrument will allow me to clear room to escape and find a better position. I swing maces and clubs as part of a historical (non-european) martial art and the few times i've accidentally bonked something it's been knocked back quite a distance.
If you are close enough to smack, you are close enough to get bitten or swarmed.
You would want something with a reach and a couple of friends with sturdy riot shield to keep bashing the frickers away.
And if the zombie fluids are contagious you also will want something you can throw away after couple of uses.
Unless you're fighting in a choke point these tactics aren't very effective, you just can't kill them fast enough like this and you'll get swarmed.
Even with a strong chokepoint your guys are still prone to exhaustion and will be out of gas in less than 5 minutes probably so you'll need solid training and group cohesion to swap who's fighting without your formation collapsing.
Fighting zombies is a moronic idea anyway. There's lots of ways to kill hordes without ever fighting them. The easiest way is to just drop heavy shit on their heads from above and retrieve the object with a rope.
Blunted machete-like weapon with a weighted "blade". It's dull, so it won't get stuck in flesh; it has a narrow striking surface which, combined with the weight, increases the amount of force per square inch to inflict maximum damage; and it's lightweight, so you won't tire as easily. A dude on youtube made a video about it
Spears seem indefensible to me, since skulls (especially from the front) are hard to pierced and their curved nature makes glancing blows ever more likely. Getting a face first stab all the way through is gonna be a lot of coordination and possibly luck.
Get a buddy, go at em with a mancatcher and axe/pick/hammer(especially with a straight nail pry) for solos or clearing buildings, save ammo for hoardes/groups. If you don’t want to go full moron and buy something like that, put a pointed piece of rebar through a baseball bat and seal it up with liquid nails. Now you’ve got blunt force, and an easily wrappable biohazard spike when it’s covered in zombie blood and brain. Any old piece of leather would work to cut down on its danger to you when you’re walking around with it.
For armor, a motorcycle race suit. It’s got full body leather construction, more breathable and flexible than armor, less expensive than a shark suit, with baked in armoring in the elbows, knees, and spine. good luck to them biting through leather made to stand up to 90MPH+ slides on asphalt. A motorcycle helmet may do you better in a fight with full facial protection and maximum vision. Push come to shove you’ve got a killer head but now, and a last ditch bludgeon. Going kevlar/bulletproof is a lot more weight on you and only useful against non infected.
Really the zombie apocalypse scenario should be more focused on resources and base defense. Why try and defend something with inherent dangers like an abandoned office building with tons of corners and rooms for zombos to get into. Keep your home, dig a pit full of spikes and wire up some noise traps to alert you when something eventually gets through. After that, post up on the roof and take pot shots at the zombies until they’re either completely cleared or you can slip over some fences round back.
>Spears seem indefensible to me
Spear with a cross-guard lets you maneuver the zombie around however you need to to line up a kill, tip them over, whatever.
Yeah I’m sorry but lining them up and maneuvering them seems moronic when shit hits the fan and they could be a few inches away from you. I know nobody on this site has friends but why not count on the two man mancatcher setup. Yeah you’ll need to make allies, but I hope for most of you that in the post apocalypse people are less picky about their social circles. Fighting people? They understand a range advantage and will topple getting poked in the soft bits. But assuming this is the kind of “frick blood this zombie literally just needs a brain” trope, you want to dispatch these shambling frickers ASAP. Taking the time to try and steer one (try moving something from the short side of a lever, not that easy when all it wants is YOU) is an absolutely awful plan. You’re not trying to discourage it, you want a threat neutralized. Mancatcher/high speed weighted blanket and spiked weighted thing is the only way to go imo
You literally advocated getting a friend with a mancatcher. A spear would effectively work the same way, plus it’s more lethal and can be used better in a solo situation, against humans, or even hunting. Once you stick something with a spear, you have total control over it.
Being a pole arm doesn’t make them the same thing. You can hunt with literally any weapon, or be used against a human. Those are non-points. Let’s say you e got a zombie on your spear and you try to push it against a wall, what are you going to do if that point just drives it further up your pole? If you’ve got it in the torso, now you’ve got two ends of the zombie not to frick with: the one with a mouth drooling infected bile, and the one with a metal point sticking out of it covered in infected blood.
A mancatcher is a tool focused completely on one thing, control. A spear would have you trying to move a zombie entirely focused on the single point it’s connected, where a mancatcher distributes your force more evenly along the zombies torso. I emplore you to try and move a brick one finger. Report back if it’s easier to poke it, or to wrap a finger around and move your hand.
2 years ago
Anonymous
>Drive further up the pole
Black person all along people have been saying the spear needs a cross bar, they had this shit figured out a thousand years ago.
2 years ago
Anonymous
>you can hunt with literally any weapon
Not your fricking mancatcher. And every poster advocating for spears has mentioned boarspears or something with a cross guard. It’s way more effective than your stupid mancatcher.
It really depends on what kind of pathogen is causing the zombies and the rules about contagion. In the most likely scenario it’s a parasite like Toxo spread through ingestion/fluids/blood. A melee weapon will end up fricking you unless you’re in a spacesuit with a hepa filter. Your unironic best bet is probably a silenced .22lr and you pop them in the head or spine. Most important though is a spacesuit of some kind
Came here to post this.
Heavy for its reach, but concentrates all the force into small points of impact for the entire length, from any angle. Zero coordination required.
big bonkers fight zombies and live opponents equally well, this is why maces and giant clubs feature in every bronze age epic whether homeric, iranian, vedic, etc.
what KIND of zombie invasion you mongoloid?
Walking dead scenario with slow shufflers?
Project Zomboid with a mix?
Or full on Left 4 Dead tier bullshit?
>Burns precious fuel >Motor or chain can break >Loud >Slow at doing its damage >Short reach >Sprays the zombie blood all over you so that youre almost certain to be infected when you bump your knee or hand on something
If powertools are in the equation the best bet has got to be one of them livestock boltgun whatsits, like in No Country For Old Men. Maybe rig the firing end onto a stick to give yourself a bit of range, put the gas bottle in a backpack with the cable running along your arm. Instakill with very little effort.
Aren't we basically looking at like a Bangstick that way? Not that there aren't advantages to the captive bolt over a conventional shotgun shell in that sense.
nah, go for a pool cue or something else to push them back with. if you use a mace, blood gets everywhere and you'll die of aids like you got in the habbo hotel pool
for a mace, I actually found the perfect geometry on accident in the screw-together features of a stand lamp once.
Take an axe blade: turn it 90 degrees sideways on the handle of the axe, like an adze or hoe. angle it down toward the grip end of the handle, about 30-45 degrees, so that the arc of a swing bites it into what it hits.
Then take that down-edge and sweep it in a circle the full way around the handle, so that you have an adze, more or less, with a sharp cutting edge, that does not require edge alignment.
The nice thing about this is that it can actually be relatively light, just a couple of ounces, and on the end of a long stick even a child can swing it with enough force to knock the yolk out of a zombie skull.
It would certainly combine the ease of a mace with the efficiency of an axe. However, you might find it harder to dislodge from the target. Because the blade isn't in line with the handle you won't be able to just lever out the blade when it get stuck in a skull.
>What's the ideal melee weapon for a zombie invasion?
Penis and possibly viagra if facing a large horde. The only way to deal with zombies is to cast off your fear and eye socket frick them right in the brain. Same approach with muslims,russians etc. Frick them in the brain, eye socket is easiest unless you use power tools
Frick it, it's a fun concept, I'll bite
Depends on what kind of zombies we're talking. If we go with walking dead style zombies I'd say a spear, fair sized club, or a ball peen hammer (in that order). Wouldn't go with a knife as a zombie would bite your ass mid gutting, and shit like normal hammers or axes can get stuck.
My personal choice for melee shit would be this. Can be made into a makeshift spear, with the added functionality of being a decent survival knife. Plus it's dirt cheap so I can have spares if I lose one
zombies are immune to blood loss for some reason so the only way to stop most of them is to decapitate them or to break their limbs. thinking a longsword is the best solution here.
Cons:
You get a lot of hand shock, hitting hard surfaces like skulls,tiring out grip strength quite fast. The handle is hollow and can bend (saw it in skalagrim video).
If they are slow and dumb and can be killed by damaging the brain then something blunt that's not too heavy.
If they can only be killed be decapitation then something sharp obviously like a machete or broadsword.
If they can "rot" and get mushy then pretty much anything.
If they are fast then you're pretty much fricked.
But the "classic" slow and dumb, blind zombie that reacts to sound shouldn't be too much of a problem anyway. I feel like your melee weapon should also offer some utility and not be the main thing you use to kill zombies.
most people have a sledgehammer lying around in the yard or garage
I think it depends if they're slow or fast zombies
but if they're hnngge speed wall-climbers then you're fricked no matter what
the problem with swords is that 99% of them are made to sit on shelves
they're most likely to fail and get people killed than take care of your next-door neighbor family of zombies
How about a spear you fricking morons. Zombies spread the virus by you ingesting their fluids and you want to use a hammer? Not to mention that spears have historically been the most-used weapon for a reason.
I was wondering how you would make a modern lance. In theory in civil/zombie unrest, you could have a horse trained like a Destrier/police horse but what would be the best way to make a modern lance? One would think Steel, but perhaps sticking with a hard Ash wood like they were traditionally made would be best because you probably want it to break on deep penetrating impact and not bring you off your horse. Not to break on purpose like a jousting lance, but a lance of war you probably still would want it to break at some point.
lances of war commonly broke just bring your saber as a side weapon also pollarded trees are perfect for large supplies of lance wood theres still quite alot of them still around and you could always grow some more
A light lance would be perfect for wqhat your thinkling though something tall enough to poke them in the head also its much less liely to drag you off if once you stick them you let it fall behind you as your ride and pull it while twisting
Yeah I think they would traditionally drop the lance as a muscle memory before it took them off their horse. Also they had high backed saddles to keep a knight on.
Get a saber instead like a chad
True, in 21st century a weapon designed for cutting is probably best and a longsword is mostly larp cope as it's designed for penetrating
A light lance would be perfect for wqhat your thinkling though something tall enough to poke them in the head also its much less liely to drag you off if once you stick them you let it fall behind you as your ride and pull it while twisting
If we're talking classic slow to medium speed zomboys that die from having their brains destroyed, a blunt object like a baseball bat would work best. If you use something like a mace, it could get stuck in one, and that leaves you vulnerable as you fight to remove the mace from it's head. Katanas and swords and such may be ok, but require more accuracy, you also have to make sure the blade is facing the right way, and regularly sharpen it. A bat is easy to use and human skills aren't that strong.
>bat
In open spaces you'd be even better off with a quarterstaff about 6-8ft long. Way more range, way more power and actually easier to use since you can put your hands further apart.
Also allows for a better thrust if you wanna push them around maybe and strikes to the legs don't require you to lean forward as much. All you need is a stone that you can bash down a thin tree and then remove the bark and branches.
Now the interesting discussion is the type of spearhead best suited for zombies. I would think something with lugs to stop them from rushing through, so a boar spear type head would be pretty good. But a lighter shaft and overall smaller, perhaps.
i wish that walking dead and other media relating to zombies never existed because they killed the genre with poz
ideally if you could not be armed with an firearm you would probably want a polearm or bardiche type of horseshit so you could stand far the frick away from the frickers and poke their heads untill they die.
everything is good anti zombie weapon if you know how to use it, unless its left 4 dead apocalypse and you turn into zombies before you fire your free us army mandated full auto m16 because some chink cough on your face.
Considering that meth heads that are high in the clouds takes more then 2 shots to drop if it isn't in the head, heart, or spine any zombies are going to be a nightmare to kill. Its actually insane to even think of going alone considering this point even the slow shuffling ones.
People survive 9mm to the head all the time. It's actually kind of hard to drop someone instantly.
That's why I was assuming movie rules where people can just walk past pic related and half-assedly stab 20 heads per minute with a screwdriver.
How much brain trauma is needed to disable a zombie anyway? People can survive with like 20% of their brain and still be normal so zombies would probably need complete annihaltion, right? Or should you just target the motor cortex so they can't move?
Why a mace? Better a sword, spear, or axe, with a spear probably your best bet. Assuming we are fight communist and leftist zombies, you can expect them to be unarmored opponents. The purpose of a flanged mace is to bite into armor. You want to be able to just and thrust. A mace is generally very small.
The bearded axe. >cleaves through bone easily >bladed weapons are more efficient at energy transfer than blunt ones >Longer bit when compared to a traditional axe means it's less likely to get stuck in flesh >Can dismember zombies if the head isn't able to be targeted >has utililty as an axe outside of combat.
Has anyone checked out some of the Honshu brand weapons? I was browsing around looking for a practical functioning modern steel sword and these Honshu weapons kept popping up. I thought it was some larp tier shit, but then I started watching some torture tests on youtube. Some look like they break easily some seem to be quite strong.
https://www.budk.com/Broadsword-5434
Also if anyone has any recommendations for good modern swords let me know. I don't want two handed. Hand and a half/Bastarrd or arming is what I'm looking for.
AS Val because silent and can be found on dead vatniks and traded for goods
USAGM shills: "How can we shoehorn anti-Russian sentiment into this zombie apocalypse thread?
>Says the best weapon for a given situation is Russian
>THATS ANTI RUSSIAN SENTIMENT
Rent free
You're so fricking obvious.
line of men with pikes and shields and short swords as secondary weapon so roman legion tactics
alone probably less effective, something with decent reach like one handed sword and buckler would work great
sword+shield beats any melee weapon combination in close range 1 on 1
frick off back to /r/isuckwienerforukraine
>roman legion tactics
You want them to carry shitty Spears that make good Javelins and throw them at the start of combat?
throw or use as spear in close combat, it can be used in both ways
fighting in shield formation would be probably most effective
alone its definitely good slasher, even if they can't be killed they can be crippled
cringe
ORKSORKSORKSORKSORKS
I can hear the rhythm
Primed to explode on impact.
Any kind of hammer will do the job nicely. Head on down to the nearest aquarium and get yourself a sharksuit too, that shit's breathable, relatively lightweight, and designed to stop far more bite force than any human can produce.
Just wrap a hoodie and sweatpants with 100 mile per hour tape.
It’s so stupid, but the most cost effective way to prevent zombie bites.
I think a polish war hammer would be ideal. Light weight and is ideal for head shots. A spike to penetrate their brains and a mallet that would be less likely to get wedged. You also won't have to worry about having to sharpen it, and it will allow you to swing dozens of times before you get too exhausted. Even better is to use it as a leg sweep to trip zombies and make for easy kills.
Whereas cutting blades will get dulled going into skulls and necks all the time. So 20 zombies in your sword or axe is dull as shit and you're relying on bludgeoning more than cutting.
>Polish war hammer
They put a fricking flanged mace on a hammer?
>So 20 zombies in your sword or axe is dull as shit
LOL
A halberd would probably be the best choice because of its range
Not enough length. A halberd like would be better.
The first half-dozen times you swing it, sure. After that, not so much. Shit in confined spaces. Gotta worry about about it getting stuck in a zeke too.
I'll take a well built long handled hammer.
>The first half-dozen times you swing it, sure. After that, not so much.
Wouldn't a hammer be just as physically taxing to use?
>Shit in confined spaces.
Fair point its basically a spear in confined spaces
>Gotta worry about about it getting stuck in a zeke too.
It would probably cleave straight through a zombie if swung with enough power.
Hammer is smaller and lighter by virtue of having about half the handle length, so no. Hammer is even better if we're going by the brain rule too. Halberds are great at poking holes in/cutting open people, but to get through a skull you'd want the as much blunt force concentrated as accurately as you can, without wearing you out too much on the swing so you can deal with a crowd.
Spears and halberds and such worked well because people don't want to rush in close, for fear of getting holes poked in them. Zeke has no such compunctions. Your big heavy swing would obliterate one, but that's too much windup, recovery, and exertion. You gotta be economical.
Fair point I hadn't considered dealing with zombies like a un relenting foe I suppose a hammer or small axe with a shield might be best for up close fighting
Yup, one zombie is not a problem, no threat at all. It's a whole ass neighbourhood of zombies that's the problem.
Solo one handed weapon and shield would be your best bet imo,but just imagine the kino of a phalanx formation vs a horde of zombies
Phalanx probably collapses as the mass of zombies crashes into it. Against humans it's great because generally humans don't want to die.
shield gets stuck to your army zombie could just drag you down with it the pike and shot formation is a neat compromise though
A hammer, crowbar, or Hooligan would be worse.
That's a poleaxe you fricking peasant
They are basically the same thing
No, they fricking aren't.
What are their differences?
My bad they look pretty simmiliar from afar
Don't be too quick to apologise.
It's not like there's a specific terminology that's always applied to these things. These terms can change from one source to the other.
The main difference is ultimately length, halberds always have a point and an axe head, sometimes the back spike is hooked and sometimes it is straight. But they are always over 7ft and closer to spears in size. Pollaxes could have pronged hammer heads instead of axe heads, spikes instead of hammers, or single beak-style pick heads, but they are always under 6 feet and closer to greatswords in size.
Against undead you dont want anything that risk being stuck in rotting, unresponsive flesh. Maces without flanges or spikes would be better.
So there's no difference?
>no, you see, the weapon has to be this exact shape
Autism. You can make a halberd any fricking shape you want, it doesn't have to look like that thing you saw in that game. This is why getting all your knowledge from games is a bad idea.
Its spelled polaxe or pollaxe you serf.
Any blunt weapon would get stuck in your target on the first swing. Maces and warhammers were used against men in suits of armour for a reason.
Against a fleshy opponent, you want a cutting sword, like this falchion.
Ain't going to get through a skull easy with that
A falchion would absolutely chip a skull in half and keep going
For sure, put some really energy into it and you could probably split a head down to the neck. Swords aren't modern weapons anymore, but a proper and hefty one like that falchion will do a number on a living/living dead creature if applied correctly.
>You maneuver, they don't.
Really depends, there's slow zombies and fast zombies. Then you've got the Trioxin zombie, but that's kind of a different ballpark and the world is probably entirely fricked if you got that kind of outbreak getting a chance to spread.
Absolutely, or smash their fingers, now they can't really grab you that well, smash out their teeth and dislocate their jaw, and now they can't bite so good.
>Absolutely, or smash their fingers, now they can't really grab you that well, smash out their teeth and dislocate their jaw, and now they can't bite so good.
They can still puke all over you and smear their fluids everywhere on you. I can imagine someone would cripple a zombie like this and tie them up to experiment on them and get a face full of blood puke.
>Really depends, there's slow zombies and fast zombies. Then you've got the Trioxin zombie, but that's kind of a different ballpark and the world is probably entirely fricked if you got that kind of outbreak getting a chance to spread.
If you're up against the Based Brain eating Chad zombies I don't think your choice of melee weapon is going to matter a great deal.
Says fricking who.
>Maces and warhammers were used against men in suits of armour for a reason.
We have maces and cudgels from per-antiquity anon. BONK is effective armor or no armor.
Blunt cudgels are not the same thing as winged maces. I was specifically replying to examples that would get stuck in someone.
Who said you had to hit the hardest part and make things more difficult for yourself?
Don't pretend you don't know how zombies work dummy
The problem is that blunt weapons tend to be heavier and shorter than their sharpened counterparts. Blunt force is an inefficient means of causing damage and if you're dealing with overwhelming numbers of unarmored opponents then efficiency is going to be a priority.
Swords would be ineffective against zombies because they can’t die of blood loss and don’t need most of their organs. Blunt weapons can be used to smash the skull and destroy the brain, which is the only guaranteed way to kill a zombie. If you must have a bladed weapon, an ax would be far more effective.
That really depends on how the zombie works. If it needs the brain to function and destroying that is necessary, I would suggest that any kind of injury which paralyzes them would be valuable, clearly it still operates and it sends signals to the body to do what it does.
Further, short of magic, damaged or destroyed limbs simply can't be used, doesn't matter if you don't feel pain, if your shoulder is pulverized you're really not going to be able to make grabs or apply much force with that arm, if your entire jaw has come off, you're not going to be able to make any kind of bite worth talking about, if your pelvis is shattered, you're no longer walking, you're crawling.
Getting into magic, with something like Quake logic, headshots aren't even viable, and instead you need to render the body into pieces (typically with a bomb), so that it cannot act.
Yes, I'm sure they'll be very dangerous after you've chopped off a leg and an arm. Not to mention beheading them easily in a single slice.
You need a very sharpened, very well shaped blade, perfect technique and a lot of luck to get a full dismemberment with a sword. It's overhwelmingly more likely that you will frick up the swing in the heat of combat and fall out of alignment, or get pushed or deflected. Even if you pull it off, your blade WILL get dull, you can't rely on severing anything with a blade against enemies that don't give a frick.
The thing is, Swords can do more damage than just loping things off and bleeding, a good cut can destroy muscle tissue and be just as effective as breaking a bone. Thrusts, provided they're broader blades, can sever a lot of muscles in the torso as well, and you NEED those to move effectively. A thin spike might not do the trick but a broader blade like a Gladius would destroy a lot of tissue.
see
You can slide your hands around and take full advantage of the length of the pollaxe without tiring our or awkwardly carrying it that way, they're very dynamic weapons.
An axe or tip heavy sword like a Falchion. Keep in mind that you can just flip the axe and hit with the blunt side.
swords require consistent sharpening with use and hacking through bones further expedites that need
right you are anons but like others have said it depends largely on what kind of zombies we are talking here, i think regardless of whether slow or fast zombies a sword is not a good weapon against them as they do not feel pain and do not immediately go down unless they receive massive trauma to the brain
if you are interested take a look at the World War Z book by Max Brooks
While it is all fictitious, the approach they took against the zombies with the "Lobo" is the way to go very reminiscent of a halberd i believe any sort of hybrid weapon with good maneuverability and option for long and short range would be ideal
>if you are interested take a look at the World War Z book by Max Brooks
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
a weapon derived by modifying collapsable e-tools so that it has the option of extending for distance or retracting for combat in confined spaces and has both slashing and crushing damage capabilities seems pretty logical
Collapsible weapons suck, and they suck more the longer they are.
^scared laughter^
>Muh 5.56 Incendiary is the best anti zombie weapon
>Muh artilery is useless against crowds of people
Scared that I might have teleported into the fricking past. Max Brooks is a laughingstock and his books are goofy as frick.
Look I like the survival guide and WWZ as fun reads but Max doesn't know what the frick he's talking about half the time, the Battle of Yonkers is fricking awful and the perfect example of why writers ALWAYS want to skip actual conflict between conventional military and zombies
Swords require sharpening for maximum effectiveness, they’re still very effective dull. Swords concentrate a ton of energy onto a very small surface area, even dull, they will embed into someone’s skull and crack it wide open. Also, zombies are rotting flesh in almost all canon, you wouldn’t need a sharp sword to do a lot of damage to them. And while swords do require some sharpening, anyone with a modicum of practice can put a serviceable edge on one.
Halberds have piss poor range. You’re roughly gripping them in the middle, not the end. they give you no more range than a baseball bat, plus they’re pretty heavy and overkill for anything not in armor.
I think the best solution would be a halberd for more roomy ranges, and then something like a short-sword or hand axe for less spacious locations. Ideally though you'll want a gun, if they're some kind of contagious zombie you'll want to maintain a distance.
That's a good chopping and hacking blade you're looking at, you can definitely cut into a skull with a nice swing.
>Against undead you dont want anything that risk being stuck in rotting, unresponsive flesh.
Really depends on what kind of realism we're looking at, and what style of zombie.
Realistically, you just aren't going to put a leg to good use if it's broken, even if you feel no pain, you're gonna walk like total shit if your knee is crushed or your pelvis is shattered, and if the signal is cut off from the brain to some other part of the body, it's not being used.
Not enough fiction depicts how zombies could very reasonably be crippled by various injury, and how you wouldn't always need to disable the brain to neutralize one. If you shoot a zombie center mass and it severs his spinal cord, I'd say that's a shot which really counts because now he can't do anything.
If we're going with realistic damage then wouldn't a concussion totally frick them up? Baseball bat would be the best choice here.
Just bonk them on the head and now they can't even stand up straight. Baseball bats have a lot of hitting area and don't get stuck.
>Realistically, you just aren't going to put a leg to good use if it's broken, even if you feel no pain, you're gonna walk like total shit if your knee is crushed or your pelvis is shattered, and if the signal is cut off from the brain to some other part of the body, it's not being used.
The issue here is that you still need to land a fairly well placed and powered up strike which is tougher than just aiming, you could have your strike deflected or simply have the zombie move too much. Zombies don't feel pain or have self preservation instincts so they will trash and wiggle around a lot even after being beaten up hard. A mace needs to have the perfect design so that the spikes and flanges aid you in deliver the most focused energy possible and don't get deflected but also don't get stuck and keep you from striking again quick enough.
>Not enough fiction depicts how zombies could very reasonably be crippled by various injury, and how you wouldn't always need to disable the brain to neutralize one. If you shoot a zombie center mass and it severs his spinal cord, I'd say that's a shot which really counts because now he can't do anything.
Yeah, the issue is again if you can do it quick enough, considering you're dealing with 1 attacker just to clear the way to deal with anything between 5 to 300 others approaching you, at the very least you should be able to clear your way out and not be overly concerned with landing a perfect decisive hit.
If it's longer than you are tall it's a Halberd. If it's shorter than you are tall it's a Poleaxe.
I’m not disputing what is or isn’t a halberd, I’m just saying, cleaving pole weapons in general have short range. Look at the length of weapon protruding from their hands. That is your range. It’s not far. You do not hold the halberd at the very end to maximize range, this would make it entirely unwieldy.
The flipside is that the space between your hands is your leverage and that means the weapon is easier to manage. You can use your torso more and arms less giving more power for less energy.
It’s definitely awesome, and powerful, but all of the anons in here were posting like it has awesome range. They’ve never held one before. You want range, get a spear.
You can actually get that full range by sliding your hand down the shaft.
Don't mistake poleaxe and halberd.
Poleaxe is short and fro armored man ("knight") who doesn't care about reach much because he is armored.
Halberd is for poorly armored men who want to stay out of the knight's reach.
I’ve always fantasized that in a zombie apocalypse I would make myself medieval armor and then I’d be safe.
A good demo tool would be the most useful. Allows you to crack skulls and open passageways without missing a beat.
A halligan bar
It gets in places and generally pokey enough to end someone's life if you had to
This. A spike thru the skull.
Best two-man team would be a:
1. garden forkist to hold the zedhed in place
2. twohanded version (e.g. similar to pick ax but shorter spike) to despatch z skull
If we're doing teamwork then maybe add a bunch of these to keep them at a safe distance while one does the stabby-slashy thing.
>Zombie invasion
This phrasing always cracks me up.
Imagining some sovereign zombie nation organizing a formal invasion
Zombie paratroopers, higgins boats full of zombies.
Tbh that's pretty fricking cool
>Zombie paratroopers
VEH DEH VEH, IN DEATH WE SERVE
Maces are gay, what you need is a war hammer
Spear, preferably used through a chainlink fence, keeps a distance from them so you don't get zombaids. If you actually have to go toe to toe against a zombie a metal rod is best, flanged maces can get stuck, a rounded mace would be better.
The best weapon is your brain, though, getting into melee range against something that can't shoot you back is peak moron. Find a nice spot where you can drop a weighted object on a chain onto their heads one by one. No ammo spent, no risk to the operator.
This bad boy,it's literally made for splitting skulls and piercing armor
Go with the modern version, a geologist's hammer
I have one
it splits stone like its nothing
That's a great hammer right there
It depends on the type of zombie in question. You'd probably use a different weapon to kill a slow undead zombie that needs to be decapitated or have its brain destroyed than you would against a zombie that is just a regular human but infected with a rage virus that causes victims to be in full-fledged chimp berserk-mode 24/7. This is without mentioning things like
>is zombieism caused by a virus, bacteria, macroparasites, magic, radiation, etc.?
>can you be infected by whatever causes people to turn into zombies and how does that infection spread?
>how physically fit zombies are in comparison to humans?
>are there any zombies out there that have any weird physical quirks to them, and if there are, how common are they?
>how smart is your average zombie?
Anything that can crush bone with ease.
Armor is probably more important; full body plate would be required to prevent infection
well, it depends
are they the still biologically human but hungry for flesh kind? if so, just smack them on the head really hard with a hammer, at worst it'll knock them the frick out, at best it'll outright kill them
are they the biologically superhuman, missing parts of brain and chunks of body, hungry for flesh kind? a mace, yeah
it's like a hammer but pointier and bigger, but if they're walking around with bits missing from them that would stop a normal body from functioning then you probably shouldn't be within clonking distance anyway
a poleaxe/hammer/bec de corbin whatever you call it should have more than enough length to give you the leverage to fairly easily get it unstuck if necessary, the ability to use it as a spear/hammer/pick/axe or whatever depending on the situation and specific type of hear is attractive as well
Did somebody say lllllength?
Perfect for a zombie kebab (live or dead)
>muh pike
Is this even useful used individually out of formation?
there is one hema manual (Pascha) on fencing with the pike...
https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Johann_Georg_Pascha
not entirely convinced it'd be a good choice, but it appears possible.
I think spears in general would be the go-to weapon for zombie poking, but pikes are essentially just long spears made to dab on people with shorter spears. If you're dealing with foes that by definition cannot use spears, I wouldn't see much reason in using something much longer than 10' or maybe 12', and even then only in cases where you really want the extra reach instead of something that's more reasonable to lug around.
Gives you way more margin of error? The frick do you mean no point, obviously you'd want the longest stick you could get if you were poking something that could kill you very easily but not protect itself.
I'd see pikes getting a lot of use around outposts and such where you could jab them out from a wall and take advantage of that extra reach while 7-8 foot spears being the norm for walking around. Personally i'd take a sword staff. sword staffs are cool
Probably not because they were not widely used until 16th century because they needed large professional armies to drill together and form a large enough phalanx from antiquity. They were used though as smaller modular groups in the 15th century supported by men at arms, crossbows, and handguns. This said,a single pike vs. A mounted knight in the heat of battle would be useful. It was pikemen that probably slowed Richard III down enough when he charged Henry Tudor that crippled his retinue knights enough for Henry to survive and Stanley to move in..
You're going to get tired very quickly when you have to lever your weapon free after every blow, not to mention how it would slow you down.
It's objectively one of the worst choices for unarmoured combat of that (fictionnaly autistic) type.
One of the worst behind a hammer, mace, various improvised bludgeons, and several kinds of sword.
Maces are short, meaning you get one shot. It's fine to carry a short weapon for tight spaces but actively pursuing that is eliminating your biggest tactical advantage: You maneuver, they don't.
Out in the open, you want the longest weapon you can get against slow dumb zombies, so that you can pick away at them and hopefully knock them down for a finishing blow rather than relying on one shot kills to the head.
And obviously the REAL best weapon against a zombie is the shovel you used to dig a hole in their path an hour ago.
Soz but you are gonna need a silver mace.
You'll get tired swinging half of these in less than ten minutes and get eaten alive.
If you're that fat you'll get eaten alive anyway. A slightly lighter weapon isn't going to help at all.
with proper technique you can swing a mace for hours, it is mostly hip driven. From the perspective of your pelvis it's the same as a hula hoop. Your arms are just follow through
The problem with blunt force weapons is that you'll loose more energy per hit than with a blade. Where a blade is designed to go into and through a target a blunt object will transmit all it's kinetic energy into the surface.
for undead
makes a solid point. For living people the kinetic energy transfer would confer an element of knockdown or knockback, which in a melee situation clears you some room to move.
Bladed weapons have their place, but for me, if I am outnumbered by a horde of anyone and I am limited to melee weapons, a blunt instrument will allow me to clear room to escape and find a better position. I swing maces and clubs as part of a historical (non-european) martial art and the few times i've accidentally bonked something it's been knocked back quite a distance.
a crowbar is more sensible.
if you're needing a dedicated weapon for melee, you've fricked up, probably terminally.
A sword, mace, axe etc is going to be no use in opening locked doors, medical cabinets, etc, which will need a force multiplier.
If you are close enough to smack, you are close enough to get bitten or swarmed.
You would want something with a reach and a couple of friends with sturdy riot shield to keep bashing the frickers away.
And if the zombie fluids are contagious you also will want something you can throw away after couple of uses.
Unless you're fighting in a choke point these tactics aren't very effective, you just can't kill them fast enough like this and you'll get swarmed.
Even with a strong chokepoint your guys are still prone to exhaustion and will be out of gas in less than 5 minutes probably so you'll need solid training and group cohesion to swap who's fighting without your formation collapsing.
Fighting zombies is a moronic idea anyway. There's lots of ways to kill hordes without ever fighting them. The easiest way is to just drop heavy shit on their heads from above and retrieve the object with a rope.
Pepper spray or tazer. Come zombie apocalypse and you'll thank me.
>pepper spray
How bad would the effects be on a zombie if they're completely pain resistant? They'd still go blind, right?
Depends on type. Supernaturals sense your lifeforce or some shit so it would do fricking nothing.
Blunted machete-like weapon with a weighted "blade". It's dull, so it won't get stuck in flesh; it has a narrow striking surface which, combined with the weight, increases the amount of force per square inch to inflict maximum damage; and it's lightweight, so you won't tire as easily. A dude on youtube made a video about it
Based ZNA enjoyer
Spears seem indefensible to me, since skulls (especially from the front) are hard to pierced and their curved nature makes glancing blows ever more likely. Getting a face first stab all the way through is gonna be a lot of coordination and possibly luck.
Get a buddy, go at em with a mancatcher and axe/pick/hammer(especially with a straight nail pry) for solos or clearing buildings, save ammo for hoardes/groups. If you don’t want to go full moron and buy something like that, put a pointed piece of rebar through a baseball bat and seal it up with liquid nails. Now you’ve got blunt force, and an easily wrappable biohazard spike when it’s covered in zombie blood and brain. Any old piece of leather would work to cut down on its danger to you when you’re walking around with it.
For armor, a motorcycle race suit. It’s got full body leather construction, more breathable and flexible than armor, less expensive than a shark suit, with baked in armoring in the elbows, knees, and spine. good luck to them biting through leather made to stand up to 90MPH+ slides on asphalt. A motorcycle helmet may do you better in a fight with full facial protection and maximum vision. Push come to shove you’ve got a killer head but now, and a last ditch bludgeon. Going kevlar/bulletproof is a lot more weight on you and only useful against non infected.
Really the zombie apocalypse scenario should be more focused on resources and base defense. Why try and defend something with inherent dangers like an abandoned office building with tons of corners and rooms for zombos to get into. Keep your home, dig a pit full of spikes and wire up some noise traps to alert you when something eventually gets through. After that, post up on the roof and take pot shots at the zombies until they’re either completely cleared or you can slip over some fences round back.
>Spears seem indefensible to me
Spear with a cross-guard lets you maneuver the zombie around however you need to to line up a kill, tip them over, whatever.
Yeah I’m sorry but lining them up and maneuvering them seems moronic when shit hits the fan and they could be a few inches away from you. I know nobody on this site has friends but why not count on the two man mancatcher setup. Yeah you’ll need to make allies, but I hope for most of you that in the post apocalypse people are less picky about their social circles. Fighting people? They understand a range advantage and will topple getting poked in the soft bits. But assuming this is the kind of “frick blood this zombie literally just needs a brain” trope, you want to dispatch these shambling frickers ASAP. Taking the time to try and steer one (try moving something from the short side of a lever, not that easy when all it wants is YOU) is an absolutely awful plan. You’re not trying to discourage it, you want a threat neutralized. Mancatcher/high speed weighted blanket and spiked weighted thing is the only way to go imo
You literally advocated getting a friend with a mancatcher. A spear would effectively work the same way, plus it’s more lethal and can be used better in a solo situation, against humans, or even hunting. Once you stick something with a spear, you have total control over it.
Being a pole arm doesn’t make them the same thing. You can hunt with literally any weapon, or be used against a human. Those are non-points. Let’s say you e got a zombie on your spear and you try to push it against a wall, what are you going to do if that point just drives it further up your pole? If you’ve got it in the torso, now you’ve got two ends of the zombie not to frick with: the one with a mouth drooling infected bile, and the one with a metal point sticking out of it covered in infected blood.
A mancatcher is a tool focused completely on one thing, control. A spear would have you trying to move a zombie entirely focused on the single point it’s connected, where a mancatcher distributes your force more evenly along the zombies torso. I emplore you to try and move a brick one finger. Report back if it’s easier to poke it, or to wrap a finger around and move your hand.
>Drive further up the pole
Black person all along people have been saying the spear needs a cross bar, they had this shit figured out a thousand years ago.
>you can hunt with literally any weapon
Not your fricking mancatcher. And every poster advocating for spears has mentioned boarspears or something with a cross guard. It’s way more effective than your stupid mancatcher.
>cringe
It really depends on what kind of pathogen is causing the zombies and the rules about contagion. In the most likely scenario it’s a parasite like Toxo spread through ingestion/fluids/blood. A melee weapon will end up fricking you unless you’re in a spacesuit with a hepa filter. Your unironic best bet is probably a silenced .22lr and you pop them in the head or spine. Most important though is a spacesuit of some kind
>B A R M A C E
>A
>R
>M
>A
>C
>E
Came here to post this.
Heavy for its reach, but concentrates all the force into small points of impact for the entire length, from any angle. Zero coordination required.
My dick
spear and shield
big bonkers fight zombies and live opponents equally well, this is why maces and giant clubs feature in every bronze age epic whether homeric, iranian, vedic, etc.
Use something that you can also use as a tool. My first choice would be a crowbar.
This thread is proof of reddit being on here
Of course Reddit is here. PrepHoleners wander off to reddit just as often as redditors wander into PrepHole.
Reddit and PrepHole are basically brothers with a feud
Your right, and it's sad that this is the funnest thread here
what KIND of zombie invasion you mongoloid?
Walking dead scenario with slow shufflers?
Project Zomboid with a mix?
Or full on Left 4 Dead tier bullshit?
Pole arm or spear. With shield of course
>wielding a spear with one hand
You're better off using a spear with both hands.
Don't you rip off my Project Zomboid tactic.
I'm very disappointed in all of you.
>Burns precious fuel
>Motor or chain can break
>Loud
>Slow at doing its damage
>Short reach
>Sprays the zombie blood all over you so that youre almost certain to be infected when you bump your knee or hand on something
Nah bad choice.
OP had it right.
>Requires 2 hand
A classic, but from a realistic point of view not very efficient without a number of modifications.
If powertools are in the equation the best bet has got to be one of them livestock boltgun whatsits, like in No Country For Old Men. Maybe rig the firing end onto a stick to give yourself a bit of range, put the gas bottle in a backpack with the cable running along your arm. Instakill with very little effort.
I like your thinking.
Rig it to the end of a stick like a polearm.
Aren't we basically looking at like a Bangstick that way? Not that there aren't advantages to the captive bolt over a conventional shotgun shell in that sense.
That’s pretty much what I was picturing from his description. Noise and not having to manually reload being the main advantages.
>it's another thread where spearCHADS will inevitably reign supreme
Senor Lobo
nah, go for a pool cue or something else to push them back with. if you use a mace, blood gets everywhere and you'll die of aids like you got in the habbo hotel pool
for a mace, I actually found the perfect geometry on accident in the screw-together features of a stand lamp once.
Take an axe blade: turn it 90 degrees sideways on the handle of the axe, like an adze or hoe. angle it down toward the grip end of the handle, about 30-45 degrees, so that the arc of a swing bites it into what it hits.
Then take that down-edge and sweep it in a circle the full way around the handle, so that you have an adze, more or less, with a sharp cutting edge, that does not require edge alignment.
The nice thing about this is that it can actually be relatively light, just a couple of ounces, and on the end of a long stick even a child can swing it with enough force to knock the yolk out of a zombie skull.
So a Disk Mace?
It would concentrate the force into a relatively small point, allowing it to break through the bone and destroy the brain pretty easily.
It would certainly combine the ease of a mace with the efficiency of an axe. However, you might find it harder to dislodge from the target. Because the blade isn't in line with the handle you won't be able to just lever out the blade when it get stuck in a skull.
Spear with a combat shovel as a sidearm
>What's the ideal melee weapon for a zombie invasion?
Penis and possibly viagra if facing a large horde. The only way to deal with zombies is to cast off your fear and eye socket frick them right in the brain. Same approach with muslims,russians etc. Frick them in the brain, eye socket is easiest unless you use power tools
Zweihander, maybe a claymore
speargun or harpoon
Frick it, it's a fun concept, I'll bite
Depends on what kind of zombies we're talking. If we go with walking dead style zombies I'd say a spear, fair sized club, or a ball peen hammer (in that order). Wouldn't go with a knife as a zombie would bite your ass mid gutting, and shit like normal hammers or axes can get stuck.
My personal choice for melee shit would be this. Can be made into a makeshift spear, with the added functionality of being a decent survival knife. Plus it's dirt cheap so I can have spares if I lose one
zombies are immune to blood loss for some reason so the only way to stop most of them is to decapitate them or to break their limbs. thinking a longsword is the best solution here.
Cons:
You get a lot of hand shock, hitting hard surfaces like skulls,tiring out grip strength quite fast. The handle is hollow and can bend (saw it in skalagrim video).
It depends on the type of zombie.
If they are slow and dumb and can be killed by damaging the brain then something blunt that's not too heavy.
If they can only be killed be decapitation then something sharp obviously like a machete or broadsword.
If they can "rot" and get mushy then pretty much anything.
If they are fast then you're pretty much fricked.
But the "classic" slow and dumb, blind zombie that reacts to sound shouldn't be too much of a problem anyway. I feel like your melee weapon should also offer some utility and not be the main thing you use to kill zombies.
i feel like an axe like that probably has a high % of getting stuck in zombie skull but also has high damage attributes
mace has too much blood splatter for zombies you will get infected
anything that will consistently crush a brain through a skull will cause blood splatter.
that is why Naganata is superior
>zombie invasion
>put on full body chainmail
>never get bitten
>???
most people have a sledgehammer lying around in the yard or garage
I think it depends if they're slow or fast zombies
but if they're hnngge speed wall-climbers then you're fricked no matter what
I don't have a sledge but I do have a longsword and a katana
also a spear and myriad knives
the problem with swords is that 99% of them are made to sit on shelves
they're most likely to fail and get people killed than take care of your next-door neighbor family of zombies
If you buy dogshit wall hangers yeah. I buy well made swords and do cutting practice
Yeah everything I have is very much real and very sturdy. The swords are from Ronin and the spear is from Condor.
Even against “slow” zombies, too difficult to ensure a solid point of impact in the dark or heat of the moment
See:
>short enough to use indoors and keep in my backpack
>fast enough for good follow up shots
>bonk
and also good for lonely nights
Also doesn't get stuck. Doesn't need to be sharpened and pretty easy to replace.
How's that thing called?
club
>Zombie apocalypse scenarios
Did I time travel back to 2012?
If only, anon. If only.
To what extent are “””silenced””” shotguns an actual thing?
shout as loud as you can, a suppressed shotgun is still louder than that
Silencers and shotguns really depend on velocity and muzzle blast. Subsonic loads are the real deal.
How about a spear you fricking morons. Zombies spread the virus by you ingesting their fluids and you want to use a hammer? Not to mention that spears have historically been the most-used weapon for a reason.
For me, it‘s the chainsaw
Groovy
Unironically
I remember this dude, this was from The Clankening, right?
Come and get me you brain eating gutter punks
>OP: i promise not to get political
>Three meads later:
Pickup with two guys in the back and a bed full of lances
I was wondering how you would make a modern lance. In theory in civil/zombie unrest, you could have a horse trained like a Destrier/police horse but what would be the best way to make a modern lance? One would think Steel, but perhaps sticking with a hard Ash wood like they were traditionally made would be best because you probably want it to break on deep penetrating impact and not bring you off your horse. Not to break on purpose like a jousting lance, but a lance of war you probably still would want it to break at some point.
lances of war commonly broke just bring your saber as a side weapon also pollarded trees are perfect for large supplies of lance wood theres still quite alot of them still around and you could always grow some more
Yeah I think they would traditionally drop the lance as a muscle memory before it took them off their horse. Also they had high backed saddles to keep a knight on.
True, in 21st century a weapon designed for cutting is probably best and a longsword is mostly larp cope as it's designed for penetrating
A light lance would be perfect for wqhat your thinkling though something tall enough to poke them in the head also its much less liely to drag you off if once you stick them you let it fall behind you as your ride and pull it while twisting
If we're talking classic slow to medium speed zomboys that die from having their brains destroyed, a blunt object like a baseball bat would work best. If you use something like a mace, it could get stuck in one, and that leaves you vulnerable as you fight to remove the mace from it's head. Katanas and swords and such may be ok, but require more accuracy, you also have to make sure the blade is facing the right way, and regularly sharpen it. A bat is easy to use and human skills aren't that strong.
>bat
In open spaces you'd be even better off with a quarterstaff about 6-8ft long. Way more range, way more power and actually easier to use since you can put your hands further apart.
Also allows for a better thrust if you wanna push them around maybe and strikes to the legs don't require you to lean forward as much. All you need is a stone that you can bash down a thin tree and then remove the bark and branches.
Spear and a shield.
Now the interesting discussion is the type of spearhead best suited for zombies. I would think something with lugs to stop them from rushing through, so a boar spear type head would be pretty good. But a lighter shaft and overall smaller, perhaps.
A bat is balanced autistically, please use that and get rekt
i wish that walking dead and other media relating to zombies never existed because they killed the genre with poz
ideally if you could not be armed with an firearm you would probably want a polearm or bardiche type of horseshit so you could stand far the frick away from the frickers and poke their heads untill they die.
everything is good anti zombie weapon if you know how to use it, unless its left 4 dead apocalypse and you turn into zombies before you fire your free us army mandated full auto m16 because some chink cough on your face.
Assuming you have to take out the brain, are we using movie rules? Like, does piercing the brain in any capacity take it out instantly?
If so, whatever the spear equivalent of a bodkin point is. No barbs, no wings, just a mean piercing thrust.
If you actually have to do significant damage, take out the brainstem, and if you want to function in closer quarters, it has to be a copis/falcata.
I've literally never felt a thing that felt better suited for chopping into heads, including axes.
for me its the Bhojpure
Considering that meth heads that are high in the clouds takes more then 2 shots to drop if it isn't in the head, heart, or spine any zombies are going to be a nightmare to kill. Its actually insane to even think of going alone considering this point even the slow shuffling ones.
People survive 9mm to the head all the time. It's actually kind of hard to drop someone instantly.
That's why I was assuming movie rules where people can just walk past pic related and half-assedly stab 20 heads per minute with a screwdriver.
How useful would zombie corpses be as a fuel source?
They would meet to be dried out like cow chips otherwise you're wasting good fuel to get them to burn
Alright, so lure them to the desert and let them bake in the sun after you split their skulls, then.
stack them like bricks to be fair though they probably make good leather the bones would be useful for knife scales and hand lucets and practical shit
How much brain trauma is needed to disable a zombie anyway? People can survive with like 20% of their brain and still be normal so zombies would probably need complete annihaltion, right? Or should you just target the motor cortex so they can't move?
The fricking lobo you mongoloids
i fricking love world war z great book shitty everything else
Why a mace? Better a sword, spear, or axe, with a spear probably your best bet. Assuming we are fight communist and leftist zombies, you can expect them to be unarmored opponents. The purpose of a flanged mace is to bite into armor. You want to be able to just and thrust. A mace is generally very small.
Yeah I’d say a mace, because even if you cut off its hand it’s gonna stab you with its protruding bone.
The bearded axe.
>cleaves through bone easily
>bladed weapons are more efficient at energy transfer than blunt ones
>Longer bit when compared to a traditional axe means it's less likely to get stuck in flesh
>Can dismember zombies if the head isn't able to be targeted
>has utililty as an axe outside of combat.
Has anyone checked out some of the Honshu brand weapons? I was browsing around looking for a practical functioning modern steel sword and these Honshu weapons kept popping up. I thought it was some larp tier shit, but then I started watching some torture tests on youtube. Some look like they break easily some seem to be quite strong.
https://www.budk.com/Broadsword-5434
Also if anyone has any recommendations for good modern swords let me know. I don't want two handed. Hand and a half/Bastarrd or arming is what I'm looking for.
Get a saber instead like a chad
baseball bat