Overview
This section covers the basic concepts behind the Human Active Defense Doctrine.
“Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of
an attack." – Sun Tzu
7.1 Common Horde Tactics
As a zombie commander, the ultimate goal is the destruction
of humanity's material assets (i.e., humanity itself). During missions the zombies
will traditionally a) find the biggest human group as soon as they can, b) hit
it as hard as they can, as often as they can. Even when repeatedly beaten back,
the horde achieves the objective of reducing the overall strength of the human
forces and absorbing a substantial number into their ranks.
During node or escort missions it is not uncommon for an
experienced horde leader to focus exclusively on the objective; going directly
after strongly held control nodes while ignoring the smaller human diversionary
forces and skirmishing fire teams. This is also common during escort missions –
the main horde often focuses exclusively on reaching the VIP
asset, normally with repeated brute force horde rushes. This is beneficial to
the zombies because their ultimate goal is to keep the humans from achieving
their objective – knowing that zombies always respawn – while trading losses
like this can mean a slow defeat for the humans.
Late in the game human forces don't normally have sufficient
numbers to challenge zombies head-on in a slug match through traditional
attrition warfare. Creative human leaders should always look for other paths to
victory aside from simply trying to "stand and hold the line." Late
in the game with numbers are on their side, zombies will almost always win this
type of battle, given enough time.
7.2 Human Active Defense Doctrine
Due to the fact that the horde often seeks large
confrontations with the largest human groups, and human strength lies in ranged
fire and maneuver, the appropriate human doctrine is to constantly send out
small mobile fire teams to harass and attack the main horde. Focus should be given to attacking the
horde as it assembles and during its approach – as these are the times when
diversionary attacks are the most effective. This can be done from all
sides, but focusing mainly on the front and flanks. Enfilade or flanking fire
is effective in reaching behind the front rows of meat shields, thinning the
ranks of the zombies as they progress. Strike teams rush in skirmishing,
tagging several zeds each, before melting away. If this is accomplished
effectively you will delay or at least greatly weaken the main charge, as the
stun timers are de-synchronized and the overall active number of zeds is
reduced.
This Human Active Defense Doctrine should be employed in
every situation where large horde contact is expected. Instead of forming a
concentrated human deathball, turtling with a thin skirmishing screen and then
being hammered by repeated rushes, send out human teams to constantly attack,
divert and reduce effective combat strength – always focusing on their assembly and approach. As opposed
to a single thin skirmish line in front of the main body, disperse the main
human force into a layered defense in depth, with primary, secondary and
tertiary lines. The “quaternary” line of defense is the roaming fire teams
attacking the zombies. Always give yourself enough room/depth to absorb a horde
rush.
Remember: zombies aren’t strong in defense. Zombies don’t
normally expect repeated human attacks from all directions when they assemble
for attack. Many zombies are often unsure how to react when a human attack does
come. Use this to your advantage. Take the initiative and force the zombies to
react to you, not the other way around. Take care to conserve ammo overall – always
focus on striking during assembly and approach – and always calling out
targets.
It really is true that the best defense is a good
offense.
