Armour

In the midst of a zompocalypse there’ll be the threat of being bitten, shot, stabbed, slashed up, punched, kicked, cut, scratched and generally pushed around. As society breaks down access to medicine and bandages will become nearly non-existent, even a small scratch –if infected- could lead to your demise. To avoid getting infected you need to avoid getting scratched, and how do you avoid getting scratched? The answer is armour!

Below I will outline the different types of armour available to you and their basic attributes. I will, later, go into more detail for each specific armour type in their own article.

Plate Armour

Plate Armour is made of large metal plates that cover the chest and sometimes the rest of the body as well. Plate armour is very effective against swords, spears, pikes and to some degree arrows. Plate armour is, however, heavy and restricts movement. It is also useless against firearms.

Chain mail

This armour consists of thousands of small metal rings linked together. It offers good defence against slashing attacks as well as thrusting and piercing. It is less effective against blunt force trauma than plate armour and is also ineffective against firearms. While it is more flexible than plate armour it is also somewhat heavier.

Kevlar Vest

A Kevlar vest is a sort of fabric which is bullet proof to regular firearms. This makes it very ideal if you are going somewhere where there are hostile survivors. Kevlar is also moderately light weight and flexible allowing good freedom of movement. Remember, even if you are wearing a bullet proof vest you can not simply ‘shrug off’ bullets. Being shot, while not killing you, is likely to wind you, bruise you and can even fracture ribs. Also remember that zombies don’t use guns, and they are more likely to bite you on your limbs than your chest.

Riot Gear

Riot gear often consists of plexiglass shields and face visors, body armour for the chest, arms and knees. This riot gear can be very useful as it offers protection against melee combat, thrown objects and even small arms fire. The clothing and face guard will protect all most all of your body from being bitten. Another pro is that riot gear is actually produced at a fairly large scale now-a-days (unlike Plate armour and chain mail), meaning you might actually get some!

Clothing

Just regular, everyday clothing can be one of the greatest types of armour. If you think that it is unlikely for you to be shot or to run into hostile survivors a sturdy pair of jeans and a long sleeved short can give you suitable protected against small scratches and even bites. Try and find a leather jacket, comfortable and broken in hiking boots, a cap, thick leather gloves and jeans.

Important Notes

Remember that your enemy will most likely be zombies. They scratch, bite and claw and you should concentrate on being protected from these. Chain and Plate armour will just hinder your movement, riot gear and Kevlar will eventually weigh you down. Armour like this should only be used when going into unknown, possibly hostile territory. Because, even though you might feel epic as a knight in shining armour or as a commando covered in full body armour, freedom of movement is your greatest asset against your zombie foe.