Catwalk of Hope and Love it ain't

Having hit level 28 on Der Riese and feeling kinda been there, done that about it, Blackwalt, Graybush and I decided it was time to master Shi No Numa, or as it is more affectionately known, the Zombie Swamp.

Now, we've never had much luck here, since it is far more wide open than the other maps and we've not managed to find a spot to hold a line of defence for any period of time. By our calculations, level 15 was our PB before last night.

Graybush and I had discussed the other night, while valiantly trying to defend the tickle trunk room in Verruckt after Blackwalt (pussy) went to bed. We figured we need to find a place in Shi No Numa that we could defend like we do the COHAL.

What I would have seen if I turned around

Last night, the three of us decide to see what we can find. After surviving the required first several levels and creating a Floor Guy™, we ran around, opened doors, bought power-ups and searched for a defendable location. We ended up deciding, after some debate, that it was possible the entrance to the zip line platform (above) may work. We had clear view of both directions the zombies could come from, we were reasonably contained, could not be attacked from behind and had a handy escape option in an emergency, if we brought the platform over to this side before trying to defend.

Awesome. And it might have worked. We did learn some drawbacks to the theory though. Firstly, without the ability to upgrade our weapons, as in Der Riese, their effectiveness waned with each wave. Also, without upgraded weapons and their additional ammo, we ran out of ammo more quickly with no ability to get more for our tickle trunk weapons. It was also more difficult to create Floor Guys™, since we didn't have Monkey Bombs (Der Riese) and no killing area to lob grenades into. These were the technical drawbacks to the plan.

From Blackwalt's designated spot: Stormblade running in late to his positionOther drawbacks included our natural tendencies. None of us seem to be able to ask for help when we are being overwhelmed. We figure we'll manage to get out of it ... somehow. Add to that Graybush's natural tendency to try to cover everyone other than himself, or my inability to say anything until the Revive tag appears over my head. Also, the idea of having the zip line platform as an escape route was a good one, except for said natural tendencies. Last night, during a particularly intense attack, Blackwalt suggested the zipline, Graybush and I agreed. Graybush got to the back and Blackwalt joined him while I was covering. I started backing up onto the the platform while shooting zombies when I hear Graybush say 'Um...'. Since this usually precedes disaster, I was not surprised to find that I had fallen into the swamp below where the platform should have been and Graybush and Blackwalt were safely at the hut at the other end of the line.

While trying to make it back to where the platform should have been, I got knocked down. Blackwalt did manage to fight his way back to me to revive me, but at that point I had lost my perks. So had Graybush. We managed to survive into the next round but without perks, we were quickly overwhelmed. Level 19. New record!

It was a start. We will have to make more attempts to get further. At least it made Shi No Numa playable, which is good for us zombie killers at least.