Announcing: The Zombie Combat Manual
Everything you knew about undead combat is about to change.
The Zombie Combat Club is proud to announce the publication of:
If you’re a fan of the ZCC, you’re going to devour The Zombie Combat Manual. With over 300 pages and 90+ illustrations of zombie anatomy, weapons, and combat techniques, The Zombie Combat Manual is your go-to guide for fending off mobs of revenants in hand-to-hand combat. The manual expands on everything you’ve read on the site, plus much more:
- Detailed evaluations of popular and unusual zombie combat weapons
- New strategies for long-range, melee, and close-quarters combat
- Step-by-step illustrated zombie fighting techniques
- Combat exercises, fitness routines, drills, and zombie training simulations
- More first-person accounts of vicious undead combat
This is the only manual available that provides everything you need to know to prevail against the walking dead in lethal hand-to-hand combat. When your ammunition runs out and the dead remain, you’ll be glad you kept a copy in your go-bag.
Published by Berkley Books. Available at all major bookstores and online on April 6th, 2010.
Click here to pre-order your copy on Amazon today!
The ZCC Twitterfeed
We swore an oath that we would never open up a Twitter feed until we were committed to actually using it on a regular basis, as there is nothing more depressing than an inactive Twit. Well, the time has come, and the feed is active:
The reason we’ve decided that now is the time to open up this channel is because plenty of new updates, news and activity will be coming down the pike over the next several months, and tweeting, however ridiculous a word, may be the best way to keep you ZCC’ers in the loop up to the minute. Plus, we’ll probably be sharing some cool things over Twitter that may not always make it back on the site.
That’s your cue - Follow the Zombie Combat Club on Twitter here.
HQ
The Shop Is Now Open
To better identify Combat Club members in public, many of you have sent messages to headquarters requesting that we create merchandise displaying the Zombie Combat Club logo. We’re pleased to announce the launch of the Zombie Combat Club Shop, which now contains the Official Combat Club T as well as a few other items.
ZCC members personally tested the Speed Motivation Wicking T at a half-marathon event last week, and are pleased with its performance as well as the attention it garnered:
We will continue to add items and will notify members as new products are released. Should you have any suggestions or item requests, please let us know.
Visit the Zombie Combat Club Shop here or on the navigation bar above.
HQ
Post Undead Combat Trauma
May 21, 2009 by HQ
Filed under Blog, Mental Preparation
Recently, a celebrity made the headlines for attacking a photographer in an airport seemingly without provocation. The celebrity’s excuse was that, as a result of his participation in a film with undead subject matter, he had mistaken the picture taker for a walking corpse.
While his excuse was summarily dismissed and mocked by the general public, said celebrity brought to the forefront an actual affliction suffered by those who experience long-term exposure to the living dead.
Zombie combat can be one of the most traumatic events an individual can experience. The greater tragedy is that it occurs not just among professional warriors, but with the civilian population as well. Combat with the living dead is also the type of conflict where only one combatant is left standing at the conclusion of an engagement – ideally the living one. For untrained citizens required to eliminate a walking corpse to survive, the emotions felt following a successful combat engagement can be overwhelming, and similar to the post-traumatic stress experienced by warriors after combat. There is also the situation of individuals who have experienced solitary isolation during an extended outbreak, their only interaction with other beings having been undead. These individuals have extreme difficulty relating to the living, and will often launch into an unprovoked attack towards any organism with whom they come into contact, living or undead. This may be what the aforementioned celebrity experienced.
A diagnosis has emerged from the medical community specifically pinpointing these unique types of civilian maladies – PUCT, or Post Undead Combat Trauma.
As much as we try to detach ourselves from the human element of our attackers, there may be times when you experience feelings of extreme remorse, regret, and unhappiness for having to eliminate an undead attacker. These feelings are completely normal, and do not imply weakness, cowardice, or lack of nerve. It is recommended that you confront these feelings honestly and allow yourself to work through them when the opportunity and safety of the situation allows. Discussing these feelings with others that have shared similar experiences, perhaps in your own combat group, can help dissipate these painful thoughts. If the mental trauma does not subside and becomes increasingly debilitating, it is advised that you seek professional help from a physician specifically trained to deal with PUCT.
HQ
Zombie Defense Lecture: NYC - March 3rd
For ZCC Members in the NYC area, the Zombie Combat Club will be giving a lecture on Zombie Hand-to-Hand Defense at Union Hall in Brooklyn, NY on March 3rd.
Details are below:
Topic: “Zombie Hand-to-Hand Combat: Effective Non-Ballistic Undead Neutralization Methods”
This presentation will cover the proper way to engage the living dead in combat without a firearm, and survive. Topics will include: anatomy, weapons, techniques, and common misconceptions of confronting a ravenous walking corpse.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 - 8 pm (doors at 7:30)
Union Hall in Park Slope
702 Union St. @ 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY
$5 cover
More information on our Facebook page:
Analysis: Projected U.S. Deaths by Living Dead
A report was recently released by a U.S. research group analyzing the percentage of deaths throughout regions of the United States by various natural hazards, including lightning, heat, flood and earthquake. While quite comprehensive and insightful, the report fails to include one particular hazard: death by the living dead. This lack of inclusion is logical, as the group’s analysis is limited to that of “natural” hazards, and the contagion that causes the dead to rise and devour the living has yet to be determined to be natural, manufactured, or intergalactic in nature.
Researchers at IUCS have looked to fill this gap, cross referencing the information in the report with quantitative data collected by the undead bio-research policy institute to forecast the probability U.S. regions would fare in an outbreak of the walking dead. The following is their projection map:
While the full report accompanying this analysis was limited to internal distribution and not publicly released, the following data points were provided to the ZCC:
1) Since the variables of a zombie outbreak are too numerous to accurately project widespread infection, a significant portion of this report is speculative. The analysis is based on an equal distribution of simultaneous undead outbreaks across the continental U.S., rather than a small-scale epidemic, or “slow burn,” affecting a particular area and spreading throughout bordering regions.
2) Due to their population density and presence as international travel hubs, both East and West coasts would be severely impacted, regardless of the outbreak type. Major metropolitan cities within these coasts would fare the worst.
3) States which share natural resources such as the Rocky Mountain ridge lines and the Grand Canyon would fare more favorably, both due to obstructive nature of these elements and the lower population density present within these regions.
4) There would most likely be no comprehensive “safe zones” that transcend whole regions of the U.S. Rather, there would be areas of each state that would function as a security-cleared safety nexus. The size and scope of these nexuses would depend of the speed of mobilization by local government, as well as the proximity of undead outbreak. Long-term sustainability of each nexus would depend upon the size and severity of the outbreak, as well as the quality of the security forces manning the zone.
5) Northern regions would have the benefit of winter weather limiting the scope of a potential outbreak, depending on the season, but inclement winter weather would cause as many, if not more fatalities as the living dead.
6) With less means of evacuation, limited access to defensive training, and lack of disposable income to secure adequate weapons, poorer regions of the country would suffer greatly during an undead outbreak, as would regions with the oldest per capita populations.
Additional information will be distributed by the ZCC as it is released.
HQ
New Briefing Released: Battle-Ready Fitness Traits
A new briefing has been released, describing the importance combat fitness plays during a hostile engagement with a walking corpse.
Review this briefing in the Conditioning section at this link.
HQ
Battle-Ready Fitness Traits
December 16, 2008 by HQ
Filed under Combat Fitness
The difference between having a base foundation of fitness and having a battle-ready physique is like that of day and night. As mentioned previously, without a sufficient level of strength and stamina, defending yourself against the living dead will drain your body’s reserves as fast as a horde of ghouls can strip the flesh from a victim’s bones.
This is not a question of health, youthfulness or vanity. You will not measure yourself against bodyfat calipers, body-tape measurements, or nonsensical Body Mass Index (BMI) ratios. Being combat fit in an undead world means that you are prepared for any situation that involves dealing with the living dead.
With a combat-ready build, you enhance several traits in your physique that will be essential when battling a walking corpse:
Strength - without adequate strength, you will lack the ability to defend yourself from an innumerable quantity of undead attackers, especially if you need to do so without the use of a firearm. It takes a considerable amount of power to deliver a finishing blow to the skull of a zombie. Imagine having to do it dozens, even hundreds of times a day. Strength will be a key factor in your level of survivability.
Endurance - surviving an undead attack is a marathon, not a sprint. The objective is not about destroying the largest number of combatants in the shortest time possible. The objective should always be to eliminate those that pose a clear and imminent threat to your existence.
There have been many incidents recorded where an eager combatant attempted to muscle his way through a horde of ghouls, only to exhaust himself halfway though his attack, losing the ability to both eradicate the threat and escape with his life intact. During an undead outbreak, you may also be required to travel long distances to a potential safe zone, most likely on foot with the undead at your heels. Your endurance level will be critical in such situations.
Accuracy - when engaging in combat with the living dead, the goal is to work smarter, not harder. It may require you five blows to destroy a single zombie, or it may require one. The difference depends not simply on your strength, but moreso on the accuracy of your strikes. Thus, it is often not the strongest who survive in an world of the undead, but the most well-prepared.
As you develop your skill and precision, you will expend less time and energy in every undead combat encounter; time and energy that can be used for other purposes to ensure your survival and that of others in your keep.
New Weapons Briefing Released: The Staff
A new Weapons briefing has been released, covering one of the most basic of long-range weapons: the Staff
Review this briefing in the Long-range Weapons section at this link.
HQ
Long-range Weapon: Staff
November 11, 2008 by HQ
Filed under Long Range
The staff - limited ghoul neutralizing ability
The staff has a long history in both Asian and Western combat arts. Known as the bo in Japan, the guin in China, and the quarterstaff in Europe, it is generally hewn from different varieties of hardwood and six to eight feet in length.
With no sharp edges to cut, nor weighted ends to increase striking damage or penetration, the staff is primarily considered a non-lethal weapon popular with individuals, such as monks or friars, who would typically show mercy (or “quarter,” hence its English namesake) towards their attackers. Mercy, however, is a trait that cannot afforded to the living dead.
The skill required to deliver a single neutralizing blow with a staff, with its lack of an aggressive point and equal weight distribution, is very high indeed. Individuals who can do so consistently have typically trained with this weapon for years.
Target Areas
Given the staff’s weight, dimensions and the skill required to wield it effectively, thrusting attacks to the cranium have limited effect on the undead. It is extremely difficult to penetrate a ghoul’s brain case with a thrust from a staff, even if directed towards vulnerable areas, such as the eye socket. The circumference of the weapon is typically larger than that of the average eye socket, not to mention the precision required to deliver such a blow. Centrifugal attacks will also do minimal damage on the undead skull, mostly superficial in nature depending on your strength and ability to generate momentum with the weapon.
Combat Strategy
With a limited ability to quickly deliver a neutralizing blow, how useful is this weapon in undead combat? The most effective use of the staff, or any staff-like implement, is using it to obstruct an attacker’s onslaught by using the length of the weapon to keep the ghoul at bay. This can be done by grasping the middle and end of the staff with both hands and forcing the tip into the midsection of the zombie.
In executing this technique, there is a slight chance of the ghoul grabbing or pushing the weapon out of the way. Should this occur, pull back and reset your weapon, and force the tip back into the corpse’s midsection. Most zombies will be too focused on reaching their prey to execute such a defensive maneuver.
Using this strategy, you can keep a zombie at an adequately safe distance indefinitely, as long as you have the strength to continue to do so. Do not underestimate the usefulness of this tactic, as it may provide a small window of time for you or your party to escape. This technique can be also used in coordination with another human to pin the ghoul against a surface while your teammate delivers a finishing blow. If you have a sufficient strength and weight advantage over your attacker, you can also use this technique to maneuver the zombie backward and drive it over a ledge, cliff or embankment.
Given the limited destructive power provided by the staff, it should be your last resort if no other weapons are available. It does provide some advantage over being completely unarmed, and can be used effectively in a team-based operation.