330 replies to this topic

[CloudCobra]

Any mech that's close and lets be real here all you need is one laser of any size and a power bar to clear a town of zombies. I think ideal would be the crab though all lasers so no ammo med IS so easy to find parts if the end of your world takes too long. Also i dont want jumpjets they sound cool but the last thing you want is to mess up one jump and do the zombies a huge fav.

[Flawless]

Hmmm, had to think hard about this one.

ATLAS

[PraetorGix]

CaveMan, on 29 December 2011 - 07:07 AM, said:

Stinger.

No, seriously.

They're zombies. What are they going to do, beat on your leg armor with their rotting arms? Try to bite through your diamond-steel impenetrable superstructure?

All you need is mobility to get to a spaceport so you can stomp the zombies there flat and make your way onto a DropShip and GTFO.

Exactly THIS. Replace "Stinger" with any mech with at least 2 legs at your leisure and you're good to go.

[DFDelta]

People seem to be forgetting one of the basic rules of zombie apocalypses: The undead are not always your worst enemy.

I would go for a Raven RVN-3L, tough I'd like it refitted with a Dual cockpit instead of the TAG.
I would have prefered a RVN-4L, but since sealth armor is not available in the timeframe given by the OP I'll take the RVN-3L.

2 medium beams are enough to clear out any zombies without concerns for ammo, and the SRM6 + NARC combo can be used to scare off any armored opponent I might encounter. But I'm in a Raven, so it might be best to avoid combat alltogether, a feat I can accomplish by using my advanced electronics to find any opponents early and avoid them while staying unnoticed due to my GECM.
The dual cockpit gives me room to store survival gear (mainly canned food and water) and I can even take a co-pilot with me to keep me company and who can stand guard while I rest and vise versa.

[-STEVE-]

After much deliberation... Blood Asp
Sure its pretty slow compared to most Mech's but it's got 2 gauss rifles and 4 heavy medium lasers to take on any foe (not zombie) who would dare attack me. As well as the 2 medium pulse lasers to take on any zombies. SRMs for short range backup if things get hairy or for demolition if something is in my way.
I'd keep a stockpile of gauss rounds and SRMs at home-base. 65km/h isnt that fast but nothing will stand in the Blood Asp's way for long with that loadout.

[Nebfer]

Some things to note: A single medium laser is likely able to handle most real world threats it will face (like MBTs, seriously current MBTs are not built to handle lasers that potentially have outputs in the gigawatts), You will want a unit that is ammo indipendent as posible, as where are you going to find B-tech grade ammo for missiles and autocannons? Speed is of little consern, even a 3/5 unit should be able to out run a zombie hord... unless Zombies can move at speeds over 30kph (or are being hunted by the goverment). B-tech flammers come in two types ammo based, which use a fuel as the base. and a "plasma" based one, which uses superheated air from the mechs fusion reactor, and efectivly has nigh unlimited ammo (most mechs & fusion based vehicles uses this type). Gauss Rifles might work, but would have ammo issues but find anything magnetic that will fit and you should be good to go.

Spare parts are of corse going to be an issue...

To efectivly deal with Zombie hords one will want weapons that have anti personel effects, these weapons are largely small pulse lasers and flammers.

The Firestarter makes a good choise, though the Omni might be a bit better (partiurly the Prime, B and F configs). the Jump jets would be usefull I would think

A few other mechs that might work well
Locust IIC 3 (ER Large, 2x SPL), 7 (ER med + TC, 6x AP Gauss) -if you want speed this should be a good one
Mist Lynx P with it's bevy of micro lasers and a ER Large (fast with jump jets)

Vixen 4 would also be good with it's twin micro pulse & twin medium pulse, with good ground speed and a heavy large to deal with hard targets...

Viper B would be quite efective
Vulcan 5T

Black Hawk KU prime might be ok, though it dose not have much in the way of efective anti personel weapons, though it's medium pulse lasers would be ok.

Though technicly I would think that in most cases Zombies would be using the Mob rules found in the reunification war book (in short if classed as a mob, reguler weapons would do 3 or 4 times their rated anti-personel damage, their also could be up to 100 zombies per hex as well). So even a PPC could potently kill up to 12 or 16 of them per hit (in the open and I do not think they are wearing anything that would count as armor...)

[dal10]

if it was not in the realistic MWO timeline i would bring a packhunter. fully humanoid with jumpjets and nice low tech parts that could easily be replaced as well as it is fast and has hands.. in the current timeline i would bring a supernova. yes it is clan tech but 6 large lasers are enough to drop almost any threat. and if you were smart you could destroy an entire zombie group in a laser shot or 2 just because the residual heat would fry the suckers even if you did not score a direct hit. if i had to go inner sphere, i would bring a thunderbolt or a battlemaster. both have primarily energy weaponry so you would not have to worry about ammo. they are big enough that most scavengers would treat you with respect. they may not like you but they will not try to attack you because they would lose far more resources than they would obtain. they both also have hands which is useful for moving things. the zombies themselves are no threat to a battlemech. so all you have to worry about is other people. if i got something that they can't put down in 1 shot they are not gonna mess with you. because they don't want to possibly lose their greatest means of protection. so most likely they will be in a bargaining mood and not mess with you.

also i would have a laser rifle and gray death scout armor stashed in an easily accessible port on the mech. that way if i have to leave for a foray the zombies still won't be able to get me. even if they pin me down i can fry them with jump jets.

Edited by dal10, 07 January 2012 - 07:01 PM.

[kaziem]

Hmm. We're assuming zombies can't pry open the cockpit, right? I was imagining a hundred zombies clinging to your mech like tiny infectious elementals. I think we're also assuming that the zombies are stupid, ie, they won't use weapons, armor, won't learn to dodge the lasers, etc... and they're slow. If we're fighting crazy fast zombies like the fast zombies from half-life 2, we might have more difficulty.

I don't have a specific mech in mind, but something in the medium/light range, equipped with electronics and pulse lasers, especially a flamer, would be good. I'd also say there should be some mechs which can use cargo capacity-- I know omnimechs can use pod space for cargo. I think it's in the rules somewhere, though I can't remember if you have to declare cargo space as separate from omni pods.

If we assume zombies are infectious in the traditional way, ie water, air, contaminated animals and food, then canned food is going to be important. I assume you could use the fusion engine to boil water to make that safe.

I'd say, find a mountain with a south-facing slope in the northern hemisphere, or north-facing in the southern hemisphere, and carve a homestead out of the rock. If your mech had hands, you'd want to build stuff.

Also, jump-jets would work like flamers, right? They channel plasma and superheated air, so they could be used to incinerate stuff.

[Catamount]

As others have noted, your worst enemy is not always zombies. I'd want something that could competently stand up to most things in a fight, and that could easy outrun what it couldn't outfight (let's face it, an Atlas would be nice, but if a desperate enough group of people with enough medium mechs decide an Atlas would be nice, and that they want what you have...). Besides, speed can also mean that if a way pops up to get off planet, you might be able to reach it first. Ammo probably isn't going to be an enormous concern at first, since BT worlds have oodles of mechs typically, and so, more than enough supplies to keep them going. Still, you never know when an unfriendly group might decide to horde something like that, so it's best not to have to deal with.


Me, I'd probably go with a Lightray. It's a newer design, and in most situations, it wouldn't be my first choice, but it seems to fit the bill nicely for zombie invasions. It's 55 tons, packs a decent punch between 4ER lasers (1 large pulse, 2 meds, 1 small), and it travels at just shy of 120kph, so there's basically nothing, anywhere, that it either outfight or outrun.


Besides that, a Madcat would be nice. It's big, tough, quite fast for its size, has a largely laser-based loadout so you're only blowing ammo on real serious human threats, um, yeah that about covers it. As others have mentioned though, maintenance might start becoming a problem with bigger chassis.

[LackofCertainty]

The "fire is not effective on zombies" thing bugs me. It's like people think that you're walking up to the zombie with a lighter and trying to start it that way. If you hit a zombie with a fire based -weapon- pretty much all of those bring their own fuel, and burn at temperatures that are going to deal massive damage to tissue very quickly. Is it going to burn a zombie to ash? No, but if you coat a zombie in napalm the zombie isn't going to walk around like a stuntman in a fire suit. Any juices left in it's skull are going to start boiling very quickly and that's more than sufficient to drop a zombie.

Also, as someone already mentioned, in MW there are many flamers that are based on super-heated plasma. That's less like starting a zombie on fire, more like cutting it apart with a giant welding torch.

As for myself, I'd definitely aim for a more utility/low tech mech. Weaponry is mostly insignificant. What matters to me is rugged, durable mechs that can go for months without repair, preferably hands so that it can help with constructing forts/walls, and that's pretty much it. Ammo based weapons seem useless. Lasers seem like wasteful overkill to me. If there's enough zombies that I don't want to just physically smash them, then give me a flamer any day.

Other people would be a bit of a threat, but at the end of the day few people are going to want to waste resources fighting with you, even if they have a mech themselves. Sure if they're rocking an assault mech they're going to trounce your Locust, but there's always a chance that you get lucky with that one laser shot and damage something important on their mech.

Plus, why blow up your locust when they could recruit you to act as a scout for their little raider bunch. It's a lot faster to have your dinky little scout mech wander the post apocalyptic wasteland to find their next juicy target instead of wasting time waddling in random directions with their Stone Rhino, just waiting for their actuators to give out and strand them someplace.

In the end, the most important aspect for me would be... whichever mech has the roomiest and comfiest cockpit, because I'll be damned if I get out of that cockpit for just about anything.

I need to eat? Set the food on my mech's hand and I'll dump it into the cockpit myself.
I need some company so I don't go crazy? Well that's what external speakers are for.
I need to go to the bathroom? Well, I'd rather go in a bucket and dump it out from the cockpit than risk the chance that someone steals my mech. : P

Edited by LackofCertainty, 07 January 2012 - 08:09 PM.

[Omigir]

Cougar. Hands are over rated.

JJ's can clear out sombie hords around your feet. And it looks like a F*ing jet. AMERICA!

[dal10]

actually a stone rhino would be amazing to have. it has a massive flat surface on the top you could strap things to.

[Kodiak Jorgensson]

had this template for zombie survival layin arround, thaught id put it to some good use

[Felicitatem Parco]

Omigir, on 07 January 2012 - 08:27 PM, said:

Cougar. Hands are over rated.

JJ's can clear out sombie hords around your feet. And it looks like a F*ing jet. AMERICA!

"Did you yell 'America' when you hit the accelerator?"

Edited by Prosperity Park, 07 January 2012 - 11:54 PM.

[Jack Gammel]

I'm suprised that nobody seems to have mentioned the KIM-2 Komodo. A mech designed specifically to take down swarms of elementals with almost no need for ammunition (assuming the zombies don't have access to missiles)? Yes, please.

The Piranha is a tempting choice as well if you had almost unlimited ammo and wanted a good time.

The Firestarter would at least be entertaining, assuming that the swarms of flaming zombies can't crawl into the actuators and scew everything up...but maybe the Firestarter's flames are powerful enough to just melt the zombies? Oh well, it still technically relies on fuel.

[Tifalia]

I would choose a battle armour over a 'mech, for the simple reason that battle armours are able to go to places where no 'mech can as well as easier to slip in and out of in a hurry (perfect for when the walking dead breach your perimiter in the dead of night and you do not have to scramble into a jump suit, climb up some 10+ feet of ladder to your cockpit, waste valuable time inputting your personal identification code just to initiate a cold start on your 'mech which is always risky) plus there is the added bonus of no having to worry so much about repairs or spare parts or even weapons reloads.
I couldn't find any battle armour produced before the 3050s to name, so my second choice would be the Kage battle armour: 120 meter jump range, boasts a small laser (perfect for picking off zombies without having to worry about reloads) and ultra light, fast and let us not forget its stealth armour (not that that would matter much against zombies, but great against the other pockets of refugees who always try and jump everyone else for their guns and equipment) in addition to a flamer (burn my darlings!) and a machine gun for when you are in a pinch.

'Mechs against zombies is like setting a warthog against a duck. There is just no need for overkill.

Edited by Tifalia, 08 January 2012 - 02:13 PM.

[Stahlseele]

Piranha.
Mobility is KEY here.
And the kind of ammount of MG's that can take down MECHS should be GOOD for taking down ZOMBIES.

[dal10]

always a need for overkill

[Stahlseele]

Overkill?
No such thing!
There is only OPEN FIRE and I NEED TO RELOAD!

[Bushmaster]

I would have to go with 100 tons of stomping fun, Dire Wolf. Even though it would be ballistic heavy and need ammo, Id load him down w/ a couple of Defiance Killer Type T AC/10s, dual Mydron Excel LB-X AC/10s, and an aray of Armstong MiniGuns (machine guns). This is easy to find ammo and with the extra tonnage leftover and would load it down with a CASE and as much ammo as it could carry. Mowing down zombie and person alike... i.e. the red fog of death!!