The 300 vs. Dawn of the Dead

[Stravo]

Because we haven't had one of these in awhile what's your take on the movie 300 (not historical) v. the Dawn of the Dead Remake zombies?

The setting would be Thermopylae just as we see it in the movie. The 300 have to hold the pass against a similar number of undead as there were Persians in the movie for three days. The undead automatically stop attacking at sundown and attack again tirelessly at sunrise.

Leonidas discovers from the hunchback right before the battle that a blow to the head kills them and only a blow to the head kills them.

Infections from scratches and incidental wounds will not come into play, however full on bites may cause the Spartan to turn before the 3 day time limit.

What say you? Do the Spartan all dine in hell with glory holding them for 3 days or do the Spartans get dined upon by the ravenous horde?

[General Zod]

They were eventually assraped against the full Persian hoard. They'd be slaughtered against undead equivalents. No contest. Especially as the undead won't be frightened or intimidated into relenting.

[ThatGuyFromThatPlace]

if the horde stops attacking at sundown, can the Spartans keep going and slaughter the zombies during the night?

otherwise the 300 take it up the rear.

[General Zod]

if the horde stops attacking at sundown, can the Spartans keep going and slaughter the zombies during the night?

Unlike the zombies, the Spartans require sleep, rest and food.

[Zor]

if the horde stops attacking at sundown, can the Spartans keep going and slaughter the zombies during the night?

Unlike the zombies, the Spartans require sleep, rest and food.

Then 150 of them fight while the other 150 snooze and eat.

Zor

[General Zod]

Then 150 of them fight while the other 150 snooze and eat.

Zor

Then they get overwhelmed that much more quickly as half their forces will be exhausted by dawn from slaughtering immobile zombies.

[Deathstalker]

Zombies win. Zombies do not need rest or food, don't negotiate, have no morale to break, and think nothing of casualties. Spartans will have to fight twice as hard as only a head shot will completely stop a zombie. Running them through or taking a limb won't produce a casualty like it would on a living human. However, a known zombie threat brings out the whole Spartan
Army as well as the other Greeks in the first place, but stopping the zombie threat becomes a whole other problem.

[KlavoHunter]

Then 150 of them fight while the other 150 snooze and eat.

Zor

Then they get overwhelmed that much more quickly as half their forces will be exhausted by dawn from slaughtering immobile zombies.

Well, not necessarily half of them go around killing sleeping zombies in the night, but maybe 50 or so. A quick stab to a stationary head that's probably braced against the ground is infinitely easier than trying to get in a good jab with a pike to get 'em in the head as they lurch towards you, pressing against your shield wall.

Besides which, the Zombies don't end up having the stuff the Persians do that were inflicting the majority of the casualties - elite Immortals doing their own swordplay, no giant freaks, no grenadiers, no ARCHERS...

[General Zod]

Well, not necessarily half of them go around killing sleeping zombies in the night, but maybe 50 or so. A quick stab to a stationary head that's probably braced against the ground is infinitely easier than trying to get in a good jab with a pike to get 'em in the head as they lurch towards you, pressing against your shield wall.

Repeat the same jabbing motion enough times and you will wear down. If the zombies are as numerous as the Persians in the movie, the Spartans will become exhausted after doing the same action for so long, weakening their forces.

Besides which, the Zombies don't end up having the stuff the Persians do that were inflicting the majority of the casualties - elite Immortals doing their own swordplay, no giant freaks, no grenadiers, no ARCHERS...

Doesn't matter. The zombies can overwhelm them by sheer volume since they aren't affected by psychological tactics. Even the Spartans would have a hard time navigating through hundreds of corpses piled around and on top of them.

[Molyneux]

Because we haven't had one of these in awhile what's your take on the movie 300 (not historical) v. the Dawn of the Dead Remake zombies?

The setting would be Thermopylae just as we see it in the movie. The 300 have to hold the pass against a similar number of undead as there were Persians in the movie for three days. The undead automatically stop attacking at sundown and attack again tirelessly at sunrise.

Leonidas discovers from the hunchback right before the battle that a blow to the head kills them and only a blow to the head kills them.

Infections from scratches and incidental wounds will not come into play, however full on bites may cause the Spartan to turn before the 3 day time limit.

What say you? Do the Spartan all dine in hell with glory holding them for 3 days or do the Spartans get dined upon by the ravenous horde?

Depends...do the Spartans get lawnmowers?

[ANGELUS]

I'm not familiar with Dawn of the dead zombies, but most zombies are slow and just go arount walking to get their victims instead of really fighting... that's got to count for something...

Still, it is very likely that the spartans will be eventually overwelmed. The persians did stop their atacks from time to time, but the zombies would just keep coming.

[Nephtys]

I dunno how DotD Remake Zombies are qualitatively that much better than the chumps that were used in '300'. They wouldn't have the support types like grenade throwers, or the exaggerated war elephants, or those damn post-teenage mutant ninja persians.

[Lord Relvenous]

A blow to the head for the uber-trained 300 spartans, might not be as daunting as you think. And, as you mention piles of dead bodies, if DotD zombies are anything like sterotypical zombies, they would have a hard time climbign over mountains of corpes, giving the spartans a defensive advantage. After a short while, the zombies would only be able to straggle over, not attack in mass.

[Molyneux]

A blow to the head for the uber-trained 300 spartans, might not be as daunting as you think. And, as you mention piles of dead bodies, if DotD zombies are anything like sterotypical zombies, they would have a hard time climbign over mountains of corpes, giving the spartans a defensive advantage. After a short while, the zombies would only be able to straggle over, not attack in mass.

I think you're thinking of "en masse"...and weren't Dawn of the Dead Remake zombies able to run, jump, and climb trees?

[General Zod]

A blow to the head for the uber-trained 300 spartans, might not be as daunting as you think. And, as you mention piles of dead bodies, if DotD zombies are anything like sterotypical zombies, they would have a hard time climbign over mountains of corpes, giving the spartans a defensive advantage. After a short while, the zombies would only be able to straggle over, not attack in mass.

It's not a single blow to the head, it's multiple blows repeated several thousand times that will wear them down.

[Gil Hamilton]

I don't think the zombies are going to win, to be honest. They're zombies and not organized and don't have archers (or any weapons) or cavalry. You might go, "But they're zombies. ZOMBIES!" but frankly, is that somehow worse than an armed Persian infantryman with a spear and a shield coming at you in a horde? The Spartans would need only stick to the walls of Thermopylae and there is no way the zombies are going to kill them. The zombies have no archers to get them down or ladders to assault the walls and any that make it up there are going to be a trickle and dealable by the Spartans and other Greeks. They may not be able to KILL all the zombies present, but they can certainly hold out for three days so long as they were industrious enough to put that much supplies on the walls with them.

Besides, they are depicted as Heroic Greeks, complete with Heroic Nudes, descended from the Gods, that sort of thing. If there is one thing that Greek Heroes have always been able to rise to the challenge and fight, it's monsters.




Leonidas: "Spartans! Tonight... we dine... in HELL!"

vs.

Zombie: "Hey, dudes, wanna go try that new Greek place they set up at the Hot Gates?"

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

"Tonight, we dine in Hell! It will be so full the dead will walk the Earth!"

I give it to the Spartans, especially if the zombies pussy out at night-time, giving the Spartans time to rest and eat. The rest of the day they spend stabbing and slashing, over and over. I seriously can't see any of the Spartans managing to get bitten by an unarmed, flailing undead. These guys are fucking superheroes.

[CDiehl]

They were eventually assraped against the full Persian hoard.

Well, a big part of how the Persians accomplished said assrape was by moving part of the army to the back of the pass and coming up from behind. The zombies aren't going to do that, because they don't think and have nothing to offer a turncoat to show them the path around.

Considering that the zombies don't have to stop from dawn to dusk, they will eventually wear down the Spartans well within the three days. For one thing, the Spartans are still human beings, despite claims to partial divinity, and must stop to rest several times during the day. The zombies, unlike the Persians, will not retreat, so they'll get no chances to rest. They'll tire, wear out and get overrun. Even if a few survived the first day, they'll be so exhausted and wounded they won't have the energy to attack the vulnerable zombies overnight.

For another thing, I doubt the Spartans' weapons (short iron-bladed swords and spears) will penetrate the skulls of the zombies to damage the brain, which is the only way to kill them. The weapons will probably break because they're not designed to be driven into bone over and over, and the hafts of the spears (which looked pretty light) won't have enough weight to be used as bludgeons. Even if the weapons were invincible against skulls, I don't think even the Spartans would have the skill and discipline to aim and strike at the head only during a battle. If one of them thrusts his spear into the guts of a zombie, that zombie will just drag itself down the length of it and rip the man apart.

However, a known zombie threat brings out the whole Spartan
Army as well as the other Greeks in the first place

I'm going to assume that, while this scenario happens later, at Thermopylae, Leonidas has his 300 and the few others who came along. Even if he had every Spartan capable of wielding a weapon, plus troops from all over Greece, a zombie horde the size of the army the Persians fielded in the movie would still have a sizable numerical advantage. The Greeks all have the same weapons as the Spartans, and they have to wreck each zombie's brain to kill it, so the zombies will eventually bulldoze through them, picking up new recruits as they kill. Soon, the knowledge that despite the best efforts of their best fighters, the enemy gets bigger while they shrink will scare the hell out of the Greeks and they'll flee out the back of the pass and back to the walls of their cities. Once besieged, they might have a little better chance of winning, since they'll figure out that they can go out at night to kill the zombies while in torpor. Then it's a race to finish them before their food runs out and they starve.

[General Zod]

I seriously can't see any of the Spartans managing to get bitten by an unarmed, flailing undead. These guys are fucking superheroes.

Who wear no armor whatsoever. Honestly, if they're walking around like they were in the movie with nothing but a loincloth, some of them will be bitten and turned into zombies.

[Darth Yoshi]

Would decapitation be any more effective at killing the zombies? I mean, the point is to render the zombie brain unable to control the rest of the body, and decapitation does that just fine. Of course, then the question shifts to whether or not Greek swords can reliably take off heads.

[General Zod]

Would decapitation be any more effective at killing the zombies? I mean, the point is to render the zombie brain unable to control the rest of the body, and decapitation does that just fine. Of course, then the question shifts to whether or not Greek swords can reliably take off heads.

Greek swords are much more suited as thrusting weapons as opposed to slicing, so not terribly likely. Their best bet would be to take a mace and start bashing away at the heads.

[Gil Hamilton]

Greek swords are much more suited as thrusting weapons as opposed to slicing, so not terribly likely. Their best bet would be to take a mace and start bashing away at the heads.

Are we talking about actual Greeks here or the Spartan Supermen depicted in Frank Miller's 300?

[Molyneux]

Greek swords are much more suited as thrusting weapons as opposed to slicing, so not terribly likely. Their best bet would be to take a mace and start bashing away at the heads.

Are we talking about actual Greeks here or the Spartan Supermen depicted in Frank Miller's 300?

Judging from the OP, it seems we're talking about Miller's 300.

[Stravo]

Greek swords are much more suited as thrusting weapons as opposed to slicing, so not terribly likely. Their best bet would be to take a mace and start bashing away at the heads.

Are we talking about actual Greeks here or the Spartan Supermen depicted in Frank Miller's 300?

Judging from the OP, it seems we're talking about Miller's 300.

We are indeed, we're talking about wholesale substituion of the DoD remake zombies plunked right down into the 300 movie. Slo Mo naked Greeks against fast moving ravenous zombie horde.

[Jason]

Would the Spartans be able to fight them in shifts during the day? Maybe have 100 Spartans fight while the other 200 rest/eat, giving them 3 fighting shifts. This might at least be possible once the bodies start to pile up, giving the Spartans defensive structures to work with and slowing down the zombie horde considerably.