Anyone sick of organised battles?

[anthorn]

Is it just me or do Zombie Apocalypse novels where the survivors have a fort or safe zone always have an organised battle and defense scheme? Even when it's only been a couple of days, the survivors seem to have organised defenses and battle plans.

I want chaos. Which is why I have changed the time scale in my novel from One year to six weeks. I want the battle to be quick and bloody. The bad guys are ex Army and just general thugs. The good guys are survivors made up of a couple of Police and Soldiers. Battles should NOT be organised all the time. So in basically one day of coming across these bad guys and escaping, the fort has come under attack. It'll be short and bloody and chaotic without any real direction, just like normal battles.

This is the final battle that takes place moments after the main characters arrive.

 

[Aminar]

The organized battles going according to plan is unrealistic. Instead of cutting your timespan just show the nature of battle. Unexpected things happen. The wrong person dies and everything falls to heck. Write what a real battle is like. Get the fear and terror and pain without making your characters look disorganized and stupid.(Or at least that's one way to handle the situation.)

 

[Dozmonic]

If it was hours after a zombiepocalypse, people would organise defences. They wouldn't leave things chaotic, they want as little left to chance as possible. In these battles, problems always arise because no plan is perfect. To have no organisation would require idiocy on the part of those who're vulnerable and that'd just leave a reader frustrated at them for not doing the obvious ;-)

 

[Kylara]

Also don't forget the survivalists (I'm sure MstrTal will agree here) who will all have plans for many such events...they will have battle plans too if they are planning on not just locking themselves away...people build houses, shelters etc for all sorts of eventualites and if you end up finding one of them soon after your zombie apocalypse it is likely that you will be armed and with a plan, surrounded by traps and with a seriously secure base...(see this http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2011/04/30/must-see-what-your-zombie-proof-house-should-look-like/)

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

I'm just sick of zombie apocalypse in general. It's why I don't watch The Walking Dead. I much preferred The Stand as a scenario-minus Randall Flag and the supernatural stuff, it's something that could actually happen and therefore was scarier to think about.


Organized battles, though? Actually, such scenario is not that bad. Of course survivors would try to find a defensible position and supplies and weapons. It's human nature. This point is rather moot to me, though. I think what we really need is a new apocalypse scenario. For instance, as far as I know, Waterworld is the only apocalypse scenario of ITS kind-global warming causing the oceans to flood out the world and society. You know, natural disaster scenarios? Or how about a world-wide totalitarian empire with power so absolute that when it falls the entire planet goes into complete anarchy and then we wipe ourselves out?

 

[kshRox]

Is it just me or do Zombie Apocalypse novels where the survivors have a fort or safe zone always have an organised battle and defense scheme? Even when it's only been a couple of days, the survivors seem to have organised defenses and battle plans.

I want chaos. Which is why I have changed the time scale in my novel from One year to six weeks. I want the battle to be quick and bloody. The bad guys are ex Army and just general thugs. The good guys are survivors made up of a couple of Police and Soldiers. Battles should NOT be organised all the time. So in basically one day of coming across these bad guys and escaping, the fort has come under attack. It'll be short and bloody and chaotic without any real direction, just like normal battles.

This is the final battle that takes place moments after the main characters arrive.

Other than a few bright exceptions like Zombie Land I've been bored with zombie movies since Night of the Living Dead.

 

[Kreil]

If your good guys include soldiers, they'll have been trained to react and plan extremely quickly and organise defences etc. Even if they're not soldiers, in any kind of chaotic situation people seem to follow anyone that comes up with some kind of plan, it's human nature.

 

[Kylara]

Don't forget the robot apocalypse :wink: http://what-if.xkcd.com/5/

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Don't forget the robot apocalypse :wink: http://what-if.xkcd.com/5/

At least major media seems to have left that one alone since The Matrix...and should have left it at Terminator.


The Matrix is a horrible, horrible thing to put a person through and the producers should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[subtletylost]

ಠ_ಠ

At least major media seems to have left that one alone since The Matrix...and should have left it at Terminator.


The Matrix is a horrible, horrible thing to put a person through and the producers should be ashamed of themselves.

Is it really that bad? (I've never seen it. I've never seen Terminator either.)

Planning things is what people do. I have a plan for zombie apocalypse ( ๏_๏ I spelled that right on my first try. (•‿•)) That plan is to trip people and run like crazy then hide wherever I can. I've never seen the appeal of the zombie scenario anyway though. I prefer giant space rock crashes into Earth. because that could be cool and completely possible plus I really liked the movie Armageddon. ( ๏_๏ I spelled this right on my first try TOO.. yay I can spell.(•‿•))

 

[Kylara]

The Matrix is a wonder in the whole scary possible (kinda) way...it's a bit meta...the second two are not great, but the first one is quite good, covers some interesting points, I really love that film, and rewatch it regularly...its idea intrigues me greatly...

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

ಠ_ಠ


Is it really that bad? (I've never seen it. I've never seen Terminator either.)

I've seen the first Matrix.

...

It was so bad I blatantly refused to watch the second and third. First off, I don't like Keanu Reeves at all because he has the emotional range of a stone. Second, the moves were all cheesy as hell. And there were other things just bad with it.

Terminator was good for its era and I think that's where it should have stayed, but no, Hollywood had to resurrect the franchise with #3.

And I always seem to be the only one who hated the Matrix. Just as some good actors, no matter how much you love their stuff, can't save a movie, well...I like Laurence Fishburne just fine, but he didn't save Matrix.

 

[Kylara]

You don't like Keanu! :O hehe bullet time originated in The Matrix, I think it is very clever, I really enjoy it, one of my favourites...it gets better Karn once you're past the beginning...

Second and third ones are a bit meh, you're not losing out on too much, but the first one...give it another go, go on, dare ya!

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

No thank you. I sat through the entire thing and I wanted to gouge my eyes out. And really, at the end, all of a sudden Nero sees everything as binary code and blah blah blah blah happens?

The only emotion I have ever seen Keanu portray is that scream of defiance he let out in Bram Stoker's Dracula when the vampire handed the baby off to his women. Otherwise he's stonefaced and speaks as flat as a frozen lake.

 

[Sapheron]

Complete chaos on the part of people trying to fight usually results in a loss, and having the heroes wiped out like a group of incompetents doesn't make for a good story.

I quite like the Matrix. When I saw it at... twelve, perhaps? It was amazing. Now as something a little more adult I'd demote it to just being good. The second and third were, are and always will be terrible. Also, Keanu Reeves is meant to be a really nice guy, even if his emotional range is only slightly better than Orlando Bloom.

As for The Terminator. It's an Arnie film. That's a genre in itself. A hero and inspiration to true men everywhere.

 

[prizzley]

I'm just sick of zombie apocalypse in general.

I am too but then one stands out from the same old story - Justin Cronin's the Passage.

 

[MstrTal]

I like zombie stuff if only because my 6 year old daughter loves zombies. Nothing delights me more than playing Left4Dead and hearing her giggle and scream shoot him daddy! or the sequel when she yells "Chop his head off!" and "Oh No a TANK!" its a precious bonding moment. She will sit contentedly for hours watching zombie flicks and she knows they are not real before anyone comments.

As to organized battles, at least in film, I always loved that FUBAR moment when something major happens and the best laid defense of attack strategy gets turned on its ear and everything goes to hell.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

I like zombie stuff if only because my 6 year old daughter loves zombies. Nothing delights me more than playing Left4Dead and hearing her giggle and scream shoot him daddy! or the sequel when she yells "Chop his head off!" and "Oh No a TANK!" its a precious bonding moment. She will sit contentedly for hours watching zombie flicks and she knows they are not real before anyone comments.

As to organized battles, at least in film, I always loved that FUBAR moment when something major happens and the best laid defense of attack strategy gets turned on its ear and everything goes to hell.

Well do I know L4D. And the stupid tanks...ugh. When playing, have you two ever had an F--- Me! moment when you come up across both the witch and the tank at the same time?

 

[MstrTal]

Yeop! I would rather run into a Tank over a Witch any day both at the same time is a nightmare. UGG!

Actually The wife and I play my 6 year old spectates. I prefer L4D2. Favorite tactic in L4D2 is to throw a bilebomb on the Tank and the or Witch and run like crazy in the opposite direction. Of course I am the crazy type who likes to melee the game.

 

[Jake Reynolds]

I am too but then one stands out from the same old story - Justin Cronin's the Passage.

Urg, gotta say I had some issues with the Passage. I found some elements really, really, corny (her name is Alisha 'Blades'? Really?), and the 'monsters' were straight out of the movie version of I am Legend, which I didn't like them in either. The only character who I thought was interesting was Wolgast, and then I realised at a certain point that the novel had suddenly gone in another direction. The schism between the two eras just made me think it should have been a broader tale told over a few books rather than elbowed into one. Also, pretty much every scene in the whole survival section of the novel has been done before in other zombie/apocalypse stuff.

Sorry, rant over. I feel better.