zombie apocalypse.....would your gun do the job!?

[adam bussey]

This all just further compounds my earlier point about people who own swords (read: shaped pieces of metal, because as Tariq points out they are not the same thing) thinking they know how to use them when they clearly don't.

 

You think you would "stand in a doorway with a katana," a katana being a sword which is primarily designed as a slashing weapon and which requires long slashing motions (and therefore space) to be effective, and even then requires a hell of a lot skill to (a) angle the blade correctly and strike with the right technique to achieve the cut and ( not just end up with the blade lodged into your opponent (who in this scenario would then just see you as some some of treat on the end of a long metal stick and eat you). Have you ever tried to actually complete any kind of cutting exercise on a solid target with one of these swords? Or will this skill set just materialise magically?

 

Moreover, since most of that skill set comes from watching movies, have you ever seen any movie where anyone 'stands in a doorway' whilst effectively wielding a katana? Even Hollywood suspends the suspension of disbelief when an idea is that bad. And what kind of magical doorway is this anyway? Surely after you somehow completed the amazing space-defying cut that fells the first zombie it would just collapse into the room, rather than somehow floating all over the place and blocking anything at all. At best it would cause a lump on the floor that the next one would just walk across. Moreover its fall would likely just further push you into the room, thus defeating the whole object anyway and possibly trapping you in the room, and all of this is if it didn't just yank the sword from your grip as it fell.

 

I'm sorry for the rant, but If you need training to see how the 'tactics' you've described in utilising such a sword in that way to aid you aren't ridiculous then you'd have to have been immensely dense beforehand.

 

what he means is he stands in the room and makes a barricade of dead zombies in the door.

[TPI]

A Jap sword is meant for cutting not Stabbing

 

Different to European sword's which are mean't to primarily Stab then slash

 

So Ed if you didn't know that then yes many people would need showing how to fight with one in Close quarter's aswell as Pointy doesn't alway's Equal Ouchy..

 

My self the L85 is Fupping heavy enough according to certain people (Feel's quite light to me actually) to use it kind of like a hammer.

 

In reality I'd also carry my Glock but I'd use my Bushmaster Spear and my Recurve Bow.

 

Exsperience = Black Belt Fifth Dan Hakama wearing British Samurai = Tai Gyoku Ryu = Fup you it's hard to get too!

[remus]

yup and blades wear down alot quicker than people want to believe. bone has a bad effect on swords. and it will ikely eventually catch/slip out of hands thanks to blood and guts and gore. also its effectiveness is at slashing, most zombie things require destruction of brains( in the walking dead they at one point cut a zombies head off but it dosent actually kill it. similar in some others to my knowledge....

[Airsoft-Ed]

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=not+sure+if+meme&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&authuser=0&ei=TP6sUc68Laqu0QWjv4CIDg&biw=1280&bih=581&sei=Tv6sUfv_HenV0QW1toGwDg#um=1&hl=en&authuser=0&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=not+sure+if+joking+or+serious&oq=not+sure+if+jokin&gs_l=img.3.0.0l5j0i5l3j0i24.160947.163074.0.163969.11.10.1.0.0.0.110.692.9j1.10.0...0.0.0..1c.1.15.img.d7zVdDvvFuM&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.47244034,d.d2k&fp=a10a04a5587ca0d7&biw=1280&bih=581&facrc=_&imgrc=Q1SbVHj-gRUg6M%3A%3BZfY8Gby34gIGWM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fiheartguitarblog.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F05%252F1w58.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fiheartguitarblog.com%252Ftag%252Fnot-sure-if-serious-or-just-joking%3B600%3B450

 

So you're telling me that an ultra sharp sword isn't capable of cutting through rotting flesh (or anything else apparently) unless the person holding it has been trained? It's a slashing weapon... Yeah, and what? Last time I looked they have pointy ends. Next you'll be telling me I need training to stab someone with a screw driver.

 

Care to let me attack you with a sword whilst you amble towards me at 2mph? I'm fairly sure you'll realise it's not going to go well for you, even if I was a 2 year old, short sighted toddler.

 

I'm fully aware that to use it properly takes skill and training, but hacking shit up sloppily is insanely freakin' easy and zombies are hardly elite warriors from Feudal Japan.

 

Unless I missed that movie?

 

Also, unless you're autistic and have to take things literally by definition of your condition, I think it's fairly obvious that I mean for them to be killed ahead of the door, so they fall into it on the floor and pile there.

 

Not to magically hover upright in the center like Jesus on a cross.

[Ian_Gere]

I did some bo and jo training when I was a teen, but with my current sword all I've done is chop up wood for my fireplace. It's quite an odd instrument - guard like a katana, double handed varnished wooden grip riveted with brass like a massive steak knife, heavy bar of 316 Stainless Steel which is straight and single edged - it's not that sharp for most of its length, only the tip and 6" or so down is properly sharp. So its legal... its main problem is no ferrule.

 

A good sword does cost a lot, but it depends what you need it to do as to whether the job takes a good sword to achieve. Cutting rotting flesh wouldn't take a good sword. The point about getting the edge caught in bone is a good one. Not in my case however because most of the length isn't sharp enough - it would just shatter any bone under a good swing of it, like a 'kin broadsword lol! Bear in mind too that light-ish imitation katanas and fantasy swords are not made from folded iron and steel, just any old mid-carbon steel tempered more for spring than hardness, even if the surface of the blade has a pattern resembling a swordsmith's hand placed mud stippled edge or a grain like a damascus steel blade: they are just patterns stamped/etched onto the metal. It would turn after the 1st cut that hit bone, but thereafter it would still be sharp enough to cut rotten flesh but not to jam into bone.

 

The problem for most of these blades is, like mine, they have no ferrule, so if you did stick 'em with the pointy end and ran the blade even just halfway through, it could be very difficult to pull back out, because flesh sucks tight against a blade unless it's flat sides have a trough or raised hollow ground peak so that air is sucked into the wound as the blade is withdrawn. My sword was made in Pakistan - it has no frills, it's just a bar of steel made for fcuking people up by chops that crush muscle and shatter bone. Decorative swords probably wouldn't last chopping through more than a handful of zombies - you'd be better off with a machete, parang, or bill-hook, or maybe a full size kukri.

 

James is right about 28 Days Later stylee zombies though, except I've never seen a zombie film where the survivors have used Molotov cocktails. You'd have to imagine that burning saturated solution of sugar in petrol with a dash of washing up liquid for that extra splash-ability would put paid to the gnash-ambitions of pretty much anything...

[Tariq]

I wouldn't carry a sword. Its quite impractical as you can't really do much else with it apart from kill, and not that effectively. Machete type blades would be the best, easier to maintain, still carry some power and tend to slice better.

 

Do love my Parang. Went camping in Malaysia, brought it back after using it for a while there. Used it over here for camping and cutting up logs for firewood. Still sharp

[remus]

any sword could kill the problem being to kill many. if zombies come one by one no pushing and shoving flip you could do it with a screwdriver. infact i dont think many of us would worry as much about the zombie apoc if thats all they are capable of. its when they pack tight in large numbers all coming through your door at once, attracting and ever increasing number of zombies that it becomes a bad tactic. course in that case lock the door, use you katanna to futher bar the door and look for a way out safely.... and if all your doing is hacking and slashing, most other melee weapons could do the same/ similar thing better.

have to say im glad noone has mentioned a chainsaw yet....

[Ian_Gere]

You'd have to modify a chainsaw to make it much use as a weapon - take the chain brake off so you can swing it around to use at various angles and reroute the air intake so that it doesn't get clogged and stop the engine if the saw goes through clothing &/or flesh (as it is designed to do). Which would also mean that one tired-arm slip from you and that's you finding the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" ironic...

 

 

 

 

(because you'll never walk again)

[Longshot]

Let's break this down:

 

"So you're telling me that an ultra sharp sword isn't capable of cutting through rotting flesh (or anything else apparently) unless the person holding it has been trained? It's a slashing weapon... Yeah, and what? Last time I looked they have pointy ends. Next you'll be telling me I need training to stab someone with a screw driver."

 

No, I'm telling you (for about the 10th time) that the katana is a weapon that cannot be utilised the way it should be - as a slashing and cutting weapon - since you chose to stand in a doorway with it! Then I'm telling you that if you want a stabbing weapon you'd actually be better off with the screwdriver since it is light, straight and only about 6 inches long, and is therefore easier to put where you want it to go, as well as being easy to retract quickly. A katana on the other hand is far heavier, curved and about two foot long, meaning that you are highly unlikely to put it where you want it to go with any degree of accuracy or force (when you bear in mind that you target here is a brain which will present itself as a target of about four inches wide and three inches high from the front) and also meaning that it is far likely that you're not going to get it back again the first time you screw up and embed it somewhere in the zombie's jaw.

 

 

"Care to let me attack you with a sword whilst you amble towards me at 2mph? I'm fairly sure you'll realise it's not going to go well for you, even if I was a 2 year old, short sighted toddler."

 

At 2mph a zombie would be over the 6 inch threshold of your doorway in under a second. This means that you have basically one chance to stab it (since we've established that only an idiot would try slashing through a doorframe) through the skull and into the brain forcefully enough to stop it completely. As also already established, that's probably just not going to happen. Moreover, even if you weren't so badly positioned in a dooorway I still doubt that you'd be anywhere near being effective at stopping this zombie because, as has been bought out here by several people who know more than you on the topic, doing it with any degree of effectivess requires skill. You would have to litterally cut the thing's head in half or off to stop it. This requires cutting through both flesh and bone, and your katana can be as 'ultra sharp' as you like but unless you land it exactly on the point of the sharp edge with the weight of the blade following correctly behind it (something which does require skill and training) you're most likely just going to find that you just keep smacking chunks out of the zombie's arms (at least until the blade dulls, as it will after the first few times it hits any bone) and that the zombie just keeps coming. The best you could hope to achieve would be just to smash its head in through repeated heavy blows with your piece of metal, and, again, there are far better bits of metal for that job than a katana. None of which work all that well in a doorway.

 

"I'm fully aware that to use it properly takes skill and training, but hacking shit up sloppily is insanely freakin' easy and zombies are hardly elite warriors from Feudal Japan."

 

Except (for the 11th time), you won't be hacking anything up in a doorway.

 

"Unless I missed that movie?"

 

I've already told you that they've never made a movie where anyone hacks anything up with a katana in a doorway; that's how stupid an idea it is. Even Jason Statham turned it down.

 

"Also, unless you're autistic and have to take things literally by definition of your condition, I think it's fairly obvious that I mean for them to be killed ahead of the door, so they fall into it on the floor and pile there."

 

So now you're not killing them in a doorway, you're just bascially stood outside a building? You're also still using your katana I assume, which is a weapon that is going to need about four foot of space minimum to wield effectively. So now you're four foot away from a doorway, the zombies attacking you can easily surround you and (here comes that magic again) the ones you kill are now apparently not just falling down four foot from the door (as the laws of physics suggest they would) but actually helping you out by taking themselves over to the doorway and lying down atop one another (moving a little bit to let you pass when you're ready to head inside I assume?). And if, at this point, you're thinking: "yeah but I'd be walking backward while I killed them so that would create a pile up as I moved through the doorway!" No (for the 12th time) as you walked backward you would once again find that you are in a doorway and so can longer wield the katana.

 

FINAL RECAP OF YOUR PLAN:

 

1, Stand four foot from a doorway.

2, Hack wildly at approaching lead zombie.

3, Have trouble getting its head because of its outstreched arms which aren't flying off like they do in the movies because you have no skill with your katana, which is also now basically blunt.

4, Hack even more wildy as you realise other zombies are now surrounding you.

5, Luckily smash the first zombie's head and then look confused as it falls sideways, nowhere near the doorway and leads to no sort of 'pile up.'

6, Retreat back toward doorway.

7, Swing at next zombie.

8, Wonder where sword has gone and realise it is now stuck in the doorframe.

9, Piss pants.

10, Run through doorway and manage to actually retrieve sword as you go.

11, Try to stab zombie.

12, Miss.

13, Try to stab zombie.

14, Miss.

15, Try to stab zombie and manage to drive the sword through its cheek where sword becomes lodged.

16, Shit pants.

17, Run away (provided you have entered somewhere with another exit).

18, Find new pants.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Lol, I'll have to keep an eye on you. I can scarcely imagine how you might over analyse someone making a thread about riding Unicorns with miniguns attached to them or something.

 

Sweet baby Jesus.

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/35155082.jpg

[Dan_W]

Let's break this down:

 

"So you're telling me that an ultra sharp sword isn't capable of cutting through rotting flesh (or anything else apparently) unless the person holding it has been trained? It's a slashing weapon... Yeah, and what? Last time I looked they have pointy ends. Next you'll be telling me I need training to stab someone with a screw driver."

 

No, I'm telling you (for about the 10th time) that the katana is a weapon that cannot be utilised the way it should be - as a slashing and cutting weapon - since you chose to stand in a doorway with it! Then I'm telling you that if you want a stabbing weapon you'd actually be better off with the screwdriver since it is light, straight and only about 6 inches long, and is therefore easier to put where you want it to go, as well as being easy to retract quickly. A katana on the other hand is far heavier, curved and about two foot long, meaning that you are highly unlikely to put it where you want it to go with any degree of accuracy or force (when you bear in mind that you target here is a brain which will present itself as a target of about four inches wide and three inches high from the front) and also meaning that it is far likely that you're not going to get it back again the first time you screw up and embed it somewhere in the zombie's jaw.

 

 

"Care to let me attack you with a sword whilst you amble towards me at 2mph? I'm fairly sure you'll realise it's not going to go well for you, even if I was a 2 year old, short sighted toddler."

 

At 2mph a zombie would be over the 6 inch threshold of your doorway in under a second. This means that you have basically one chance to stab it (since we've established that only an idiot would try slashing through a doorframe) through the skull and into the brain forcefully enough to stop it completely. As also already established, that's probably just not going to happen. Moreover, even if you weren't so badly positioned in a dooorway I still doubt that you'd be anywhere near being effective at stopping this zombie because, as has been bought out here by several people who know more than you on the topic, doing it with any degree of effectivess requires skill. You would have to litterally cut the thing's head in half or off to stop it. This requires cutting through both flesh and bone, and your katana can be as 'ultra sharp' as you like but unless you land it exactly on the point of the sharp edge with the weight of the blade following correctly behind it (something which does require skill and training) you're most likely just going to find that you just keep smacking chunks out of the zombie's arms (at least until the blade dulls, as it will after the first few times it hits any bone) and that the zombie just keeps coming. The best you could hope to achieve would be just to smash its head in through repeated heavy blows with your piece of metal, and, again, there are far better bits of metal for that job than a katana. None of which work all that well in a doorway.

 

"I'm fully aware that to use it properly takes skill and training, but hacking shit up sloppily is insanely freakin' easy and zombies are hardly elite warriors from Feudal Japan."

 

Except (for the 11th time), you won't be hacking anything up in a doorway.

 

"Unless I missed that movie?"

 

I've already told you that they've never made a movie where anyone hacks anything up with a katana in a doorway; that's how stupid an idea it is. Even Jason Statham turned it down.

 

"Also, unless you're autistic and have to take things literally by definition of your condition, I think it's fairly obvious that I mean for them to be killed ahead of the door, so they fall into it on the floor and pile there."

 

So now you're not killing them in a doorway, you're just bascially stood outside a building? You're also still using your katana I assume, which is a weapon that is going to need about four foot of space minimum to wield effectively. So now you're four foot away from a doorway, the zombies attacking you can easily surround you and (here comes that magic again) the ones you kill are now apparently not just falling down four foot from the door (as the laws of physics suggest they would) but actually helping you out by taking themselves over to the doorway and lying down atop one another (moving a little bit to let you pass when you're ready to head inside I assume?). And if, at this point, you're thinking: "yeah but I'd be walking backward while I killed them so that would create a pile up as I moved through the doorway!" No (for the 12th time) as you walked backward you would once again find that you are in a doorway and so can longer wield the katana.

 

FINAL RECAP OF YOUR PLAN:

 

1, Stand four foot from a doorway.

2, Hack wildly at approaching lead zombie.

3, Have trouble getting its head because of its outstreched arms which aren't flying off like they do in the movies because you have no skill with your katana, which is also now basically blunt.

4, Hack even more wildy as you realise other zombies are now surrounding you.

5, Luckily smash the first zombie's head and then look confused as it falls sideways, nowhere near the doorway and leads to no sort of 'pile up.'

6, Retreat back toward doorway.

7, Swing at next zombie.

8, Wonder where sword has gone and realise it is now stuck in the doorframe.

9, Piss pants.

10, Run through doorway and manage to actually retrieve sword as you go.

11, Try to stab zombie.

12, Miss.

13, Try to stab zombie.

14, Miss.

15, Try to stab zombie and manage to drive the sword through its cheek where sword becomes lodged.

16, Shit pants.

17, Run away (provided you have entered somewhere with another exit).

18, Find new pants.

And how many times did you draft this?

[Pointman PUG]

Lol, I'll have to keep an eye on you. I can scarcely imagine how you might over analyse someone making a thread about riding Unicorns with miniguns attached to them or something.

 

Sweet baby Jesus.

 

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/35155082.jpg

 

ed.....totally agree!

longshot....your reply is quite funny!....but have you looked at how the context of what your saying can be taken as a bit of an insult!

I started this thread as a bit of a laugh...let your imagination run wild and let your inner child's imagination to run free......

If you want boundaries then here they are

George A Romero style shambling zombies.....thats what I grew up with

any damage to the brain counts

beheading will work but it take a minute or two for the twitching

the older the corpse....the easier it will be (so using your fully auto 350 fps rifle with a high cap mag should make a mess of a 5 week old zombie.....just dont shoot your mate thats just turned...it'll just piss him off)

zombies are scared of flames

Finally......grow a sense of humor.....its hard enough being an airsofter without this bitchin and infighting!

now everyone hug,say sorry and go fight the feckin zombies!!!

[Chippins]

Technique doesnt matter when fighting zombies with no sense of self preservation, you'd practically point the sharp end at a zombies face and wait for it to walk into it, only really gonna get probelms if you start being fancy and try to chop shit up, or your blade goes dull.

 

That said i think my ideal zombie apocalypse weapon set would be a few russian trenching tools and polearm of some sort (probably a billhook or some sort of makeshift halberd) My airsoft kit would be more useful in that I wear proper kevlar plates and have one of those badass russian K6-3 helmets to stop zombie insides getting all over my face and oakley gloves have carbon fiber knuckle plates for any altercations that may occour.

 

Carrying a fake rifle of some sort may also make other survivors think twice before starting something too.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Well, in that case PUG...

 

I'd just stand no where near a doorway with one of my large metal poles with a screw driver on the end, after having extensive, weapon specific training!

(Officer, problem?)

Ain't no zombies getting through around that area then!

Airsoft guns vs 28 Days Later style rage-zombies? You are fucked my friend.

Walking Dead style, been rotting for a few months, you'd probably have a fair chance against them. Though, not as fair a chance as you might get from, say... A hammer. Or really, anything else.

W... Wait a second... I think there's a glitch in the Matrix! D=

[Pointman PUG]

Well, in that case PUG...

I'd just stand no where near a doorway with one of my large metal poles with a screw driver on the end, after having extensive, weapon specific training!

 

(Officer, problem?)

Ain't no zombies getting through around that area then!

Airsoft guns vs 28 Days Later style rage-zombies? You are fucked my friend.

Walking Dead style, been rotting for a few months, you'd probably have a fair chance against them. Though, not as fair a chance as you might get from, say... A hammer. Or really, anything else.

 

W... Wait a second... I think there's a glitch in the Matrix! D=

 

 

 

feckin LOL.....:-) <3

[Black Death]

Interesting thread. For me it's got to be drop the airsoft guns and pickup twin knuckle dusters with knife points at the sides. If you are quite handy with your fists you would be surprised how useful this would be. Use the duster edge for cracking skulls and ribs, and the pointy side for piercing eye sockets, throats and hearts and lungs.

You have zero reloads and carry very very little weight as well as being extremely agile (as apposed to holding a gun or spear/sword). You are very free to take any stance required or desired and can even throw in a couple of cheeky elbows, kicks and knees to soften them up

 

 

(And yes I have learnt to actually fight.... And no I am not a phsycho lol)

[Ian_Gere]

@Longshot: I'm hardly one to criticise anybody for essay writing on forums, or for taking essentially meaningless discussions in deadly earnest, because i do both and have very good reasons for why... however, in this thread i'm convinced you are being intentionally obtuse for the sake of 'winning' an argument, which is fine on a forum dedicated to, or with a predilection for, pure rhetoric, but feels unhelpful here, even in a daft thread...

 

I think it's fairly obvious that Ed intended to use his katana/doorway combination in the only sensible way - while standing just inside the doorway, with enough room inside the room/hallway/etc to swing and/or maneuver a standard length 30" katana, he would use its length to either stab the only zombie that could get near him, through the doorway, through the brain, or slash if the stabbing proved impossible. Any defeated zombie would fall where it stood, right in front of and in the doorway, creating a trip hazard for those coming behind.

 

I have reservations about an untrained person's ability to successfully stab a moving head sized target and recover a 30" flat sided blade, however taking the zombies' complete lack of self defence into consideration, I think that on balance that 1st zombie would not get through the door. Thereafter, due to the trip hazard, Ed would have sufficient time to use a foot to brace the body while he recovered the blade, but he would require good luck to bring it to bear on the 2nd zombie while still close enough to the doorway to pile the 2nd dead on top of the 1st...

 

I think that stabbing through the mouth would be effective. It would allow the severance of the brainstem, either in the 1st thrust or, partially acting against the mandible as a pivot, during recovery.

 

I have been attacked with a baseball bat twice in my life. Neither occasion went that well for me, but obviously I did not die, and, you'll have to take my word for it that, the only reasons I came out of either encounter without sufficiently grievous bodily harm to prevent me from taking up airsoft years later was because, despite the injuries I did receive, I remained enough of a threat to my attackers with my bare hands to decide that they had made their point...

 

I don't feel that I could have done anywhere near so well against a sword.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Thank you, Ian.

 

My faith in humanity has been restored.

 

Well... A bit.

[fivezerothree]

I'm surprised about the amount of knife/sword owners in this thread! No gun owners though... Unless I've missed it. I'd use the family 12 gauge. Next door neighbor has a pump action too.

 

I've also had my eye on a lovely Kukri blade, I have no reason to buy it other than to admire it in the flesh. If I had it I assume it'd be one of the best to use in this hypothetical scenario.

[Longshot]

I wouldn't say I was being 'obtuse' - I understand perfectly well what people were describing they think they could do - but I'll certainly admit to being very picky; and I do like to win arguments!

 

The problem with this whole scenario for me is two-fold. Firstly, zombies that can only be killed by destroying the brain are magical and have no scientific basis whastoever. As a result the whole scenario requires us to magic up our own definition of the zombies' capabailities. If we rule out 'fast moving zombies' (I'm not going to say '28 Days Later zombies' since there are no zombies in that film) then we're left with 'shamblers.' Personally I imagine these things would still have the ability to raise their arms in defence and swing at you aggresively, even though they may move slowly. I also imagine that since their limbs, muscles and bone are magically holding them together and still moving them that they would also be relatively strong if they got their hands on you. Most people on here, however, are imagining their zombies as moving as slowly as possible, with no head movement at all and having bone and muscle that is paper thin and therefore requires little to no strength to cut through or pierce. I have no idea how such a thing could still move or stand, but since it is a magic thing I'll happily concede that, in this case, any idiot could stand there with a £150 piece of moulded metal that has an edge on it (and a laser etched hamon for good effect) that they want to call a katana and could, given the fact that they have pretty much unlimited time to kill the zombie (as it now seems to pose no significant threat) simply hack or stab it up and then drag its corpse to wherever they wanted it.

 

Secondly, and what actually annoys me more, is that people have no experience of fighting in the style they claim they would employ yet think they could do it because someone in a work of fiction did so. Why is nobody saying "I'd stand 10 foot from the doorway just throwing throwing knives into the eye sockets of any zombie that came through!"? The answer, I imagine, is because people (probably having attempted to actually throw something sharp at a board at some point and realising it's not actually as easy to do as it looks in the movies) accept that they couldn't do it with any reasonable level of power or skill unless they had practiced it for a very long time. Yet when it comes to swords in particular everyone decides that they could easily use it the way they do in the movies, with no practce whatsoever, despite the fact that they have never actually tried to cut anything with their swords. Indeed if they had ever taken a sword to anything that remotely resembles a human limb they would realise that it is not easy to cut apart in a single stroke at all (though again, I'll happily concede that when fighting a paper thin zombie this of not going to be such a big issue). Furthermore and finally (finally! ) if there was a horde of zombies to deal with you'd have to be cutting over and over again and also probably doing so in a situation of high stress. It's at this point that people with no experience of fighting whatsoever realise that continous combat is very tiring and requires trained muscles - especially if it's combat that involves wielding a big lump of steel! Moreover, adrenaline is a great thing if you are used to dealing with it, but will mess you up completely if you're not (as most people who don't train any fighting style at all or train incorrectly often find, to their detriment, when they end up in any real confrontation).

[Black Death]

Some very valid points in there pal, especially the adrenalin one. If anyone here has ever trained for combat and have had the opportunity to go up against 'the angry man' (man in a very well padded suit and helmet who literally feels no pain and just keeps coming back at you) you will appreciate how this goes down. The less experienced persons adrenalin kicks in and they go nuts attacking the angry man and are literally 'spent' (no energy left) in under a minute. Adrenaline is good for raising the body's power but crap for stamina (unless you know what your doing). I have done angry man sessions with a sword (rubber/wood/plastic of course) and its incredibly nakering. Swinging that heavy sword is a lot harder then you think and recovering it to the next swing able position is longer than you think as you are totally committed with every swing.. Considering in a zombie apoc you will be running, climbing, jumping, crawling a lot as as fighting of course you would be better off with something small and light but still potentially deadly (hence the knuckle dusters with knife ends). You can throw a lot more punches and be more accurate and last longer then swinging swords plus you still have your hands ready to climb, grab, hold etc. That said though if you punch like a girl this wont help very much lol

I think it all comes down to training and experience. The average man would be pretty useless with most weapons, whereas chuck Norris could kill a whole heard of zombies with a tea spoon!

[sp00n]

longshot, allow me to use a gun analogy, anyone can use a sniper rifle ... yet to use it well you must have skill/training etc.

 

just out of interest, i take it you practice sword fighting? (this is no way intended to come across as i am having a go, i am just interested if you do)

 

my own personel experience with flesh cutting etc, was when i was doing some work at a pig slaughter house (i am a electrician by trade), from my experience, i can say that a circular saw with a masionary bit in will not cut through flesh ... however a saw blade is a different story

[Ian_Gere]

I could do Chuck Norris with my bare hands.

 

I wonder if Chuck-Norris-Zombie would be any harder to kill than, say, Paris-Hilton-Zombie?

 

Oh sod it...!

 

@Longshot: as BD says, some very valid points, but the point of the doorway is to limit the zombie's potential movement - you literally couldn't miss. I agree that how much damage an untrained person could do with a sword is debatable, but taking me with my sword as the example - I am strong enough to swing it with enough force and it is heavy enough that no outstretched arms would deflect it significantly, if I was going for a downward chop, from my right to left, to the zombie's neck/shoulder interface. The resulting wound would kill a real person by shattering their vertebrae, severing the spinal column, and they would also exsanguinate. Dunno if merely separating the brain from connection to the nervous system would kill a zombie, but the force of the blow would stop it in the doorway, and, since there would be no significant suction from flesh to blade, recovery straight back before raising the blade straight up rather than swinging back (to save energy and time) would be a doddle - I would get a 2nd go which would sever the head, or leave it hanging by skin down the zombie's back or chest...

 

How long could I keep it up for (ooh er missus)? Fear is a great motivator and yeah adrenaline can make a person tremble and initially feel weak, micturate, fill their boxers, and/or puke, all of which are unpleasant, but do not preclude them fighting when their lives are at stake. In my own case, I have had some experience fighting real 'angry men', so I expect that I wouldn't suffer more than a little piddle...

 

Having met Ed on a number of occasions, I would expect him to do ok. He might well suffer some ignominious incontinence, but that would not stop him doing the business if his life were at stake.

[Longshot]

"just out of interest, i take it you practice sword fighting? (this is no way intended to come across as i am having a go, i am just interested if you do)"

 

Not really, not in the same sense as Ian does wherby I'm following a specific art form of it at least, though i have recently begun doing some training in Eurpoean medieval style weapons (primarily spear, kite shield and axe based stuff - though this is generally fighting in formation and shield wall rather than one on one). My structured experience is all in unarmed stuff. I've been an MMA instructor for about 11 years now, but spent time as a British Combat Association instructor back in the day when RBSD was all the big thing there for a while, so I've done some weapon based training through that. My interest in weapons is primarily collecting, reading about and playing with them, and I've amassed a ridiculous amount of them over the years! The difference, to a degree, is that I keep a pell to use in my back garden and did (before my son came along) have a pole with a big spike sticking out of it for attaching things to and practising cuts on or destruction testing weapons on.

 

From my experiene I would say the problem with saying "anyone can use a sword" is that it is as true as saying "anyone can throw a punch;" it is true, but anyone who actually knows about throwing punches will tell you there's a lot more to doing it than simply throwing your arm out with your fist clenched, it takes timing technique and (particularly in a high adrenaline situation) the sort of muscle memory that only comes from a lot of training. Despite my limited explerience with swords, I'd have to say that they must be regarded in the same way; it's more than just swinging the lump of metal. When I've done cutting tests with swords (and I'm talking about cheap stuff as well as using my good expensive katanas and my Albion made European swords) I've found that I'm not all that bad and killing fruit, veg and lumps of meat - as long as they stay perfectly still and I can line them up nice and slow and really concentrate on a good cut. But would I feel confident in a 'sword fight' as a result? No! I'd start swinging like a mad man and probably hit with the flat of the blade more often than not (I end up doing that even on the fruit!), and I know I'd get tired fast. That said, I'd still rather have the sword than not when faced with zombies!

Lastly, I have nothing against the idea of trapping things in a doorway - it's not a bad strategy at all - I just don't think that a katana is the right tool for the job since (unless you were good enough to drop it in one solid cut) you'd have to be significantly far away from the door to swing the sword at anything coming through several times (and the thing would have to be through the doorway before you could hit it with any meaningful downward strokes) so I just don't believe it would fall into the door as you would hope. Personally, if I wasn't going to have to drag it around with me afterwards, I'd take a large shield in that scenario, something like a Roman scutum, stand in the doorway with my body behind it allowing the undead to build up, and then take a short/medium length, relatively light straight-bladed weapon like a Roman gladius, and stab away at any heads you see. That would guarantee your protection behind the shield, the pile of bodies blocking the door (as you're now actually killing them in the doorway itself) and eliminiate any danger of hitting walls, ceilings and doorframes that you're inevitably going to face with any weapon that requires a swinging motion.

[Pointman PUG]

My weapon requires a swinging motion....and it always put my wife on her back....even if it is in a small confines of the bedroom!!!....also if your wife finds you blow drying your penis after a shower and she asks "what are you doing!" the wrong reply is "heating your dinner"...