[CLFilms]

I recently posted an article on my blog about the importance of the 3:1 ratio in a Zombie environment. Please read the article, and I'd be happy to engage in a discussion about it.

"Zombie Survival Tip #3 - 3:1"

-CLF

[kiltedninja]

The 3:1 ratio is bumped up to 6:1 in a MOUT environment. How many people live in the closest major city to you? Palm Springs is the closest major city to my duty station, I sure as hell wouldnt have a 6:1 ratio there. If I were rollin with my squad, we'd be hard pressed to get through even with a couple who are really good in CQB and full combat load outs (which for me is about 700 rounds of 5.56, body armor and all that jazz).

[massacre07]

I like your blog, I've added it to my bookmarks.

Squad dynamics are something that has been discussed here in length with a lot of varying opinions. Some people adopt traditional military tactics while others adopt a more innovative approaches. Personally I believe an ideal situation, in a zombie apocolypse would be a slightly higher number, such as 5:1. My reasoning behind this is the eventuality of hand to hand combat and that 2 offensive elements with one support cannot sustain physical melee combat for a lengthy amount of time without rest.
I believe that effective zombie elimination tactics will be a mix of implementing modern and medieval tactics to achieve your objective. One of the most effective defensive tactics deployed in medieval history was the circular sheltron/schiltron or similarly the pike square, used by both the Scotish and Swedish. This formation is basically a tight cluster of spear/pike men where the density of their weapon is too high for the opposing for to penetrate. The reason I believe that 5 is a better number than 3 is that it is much easier to assume a formation with overlapping fields of fire (for lack of a better term as we're talking melee) with 5 while still being small enough to effectively move stealthily through an environment.
In a modern combat environment using firearms I am sure that 3:1 would be of adequate size however in a zombie combat scenario I feel there is a lot more to consider than moving from A to B and eliminating as many hostiles as possible.

[CLFilms]

I think if you delve into more complicated ratios, you're overthinking it and my reasoning is this (I probably should've explained this from the beginning, but then again- that's why I Blog ;) ) - 3:1 is best looked at in terms of efforts. In other words, 1 back, 2 front AKA 1 supporting effort, 2 assaulting efforts. I think 5:1 or even 6:1 looks more like the exact number of living to undead. If you get too scientific, you'll get drawn into details that you can cover much easier in a general respect. I'm not saying necessarily to omit important considerations. Think of it like Blackjack. If you know the basic strategy to Blackjack (if you've been to Vegas and seen those basic strategy cards, then you know what I mean), you really can't go wrong so long as everyone abides by basic strategy and sticks to it. Card counting, on the other hand, while it might increase your chances of winning requires much more work -- or in the case of Casino, it might find you in the back room with Robert DeNiro doing bad things to when you should've just stuck to basic strategy.

Additionally, if you guys would like to subscribe to my Blog, you can. You just need to click on the appropriate link on the Blog page (http://zombiespotreports.blogspot.com). Also -- feel free to leave comments on my blog. I wouldn't mind engaging in a discussion or too on there. ;)

[kiltedninja]

We always use one assault, one support and one security. Goes to show you that the tactics are different between the Army and Marines.

[CLFilms]

kiltedninja, on 26 April 2012 - 01:36 AM, said:

We always use one assault, one support and one security. Goes to show you that the tactics are different between the Army and Marines.

They're actually not that different. One of the assault elements is only their to support the main effort. I promise you Marine Doctrine is not that different from Army Doctrine. There's a reason why a lot of the schools in the Department of Defense are shared by both services.

[kiltedninja]

They arent, but there are differences, Ive seen them first hand.