base of ooperations.

[Gamer]

I don't see how a missile silo is going to be even slightly ideal.
Limited water, food and storage space and you are pretty much stuck if the hordes find you.
All escape tunnels are still inside fence perimeter so you would still have to get through them to escape.
How are you even getting inside in the first place.

Personally I'm going with an oil platform.
Water desalinization plants, built in refining capability for generators, plenty of fishing and don't have to worry about zombies getting on board, unless there are flying zombies now.

[azazel1024]

Zeplin could be a resonable option despite what I had been saying before. You'd just have to be pretty good/lucky about salvage and keep on top of it for fuel for keeping the hydrogen bladders topped off.

Also a large sail boat would be a good option.

Lastly I'd go with a high/fortified island. England has a few good examples of old 19th century forts built on islands with 30-50ft sheer rock cliffs with 20-30ft masonry walls on top of that. That should keep a zed out.
-Matt

[Gamer]

I don't see how a missile silo is going to be even slightly ideal.
Limited water, food and storage space and you are pretty much stuck if the hordes find you.
All escape tunnels are still inside fence perimeter so you would still have to get through them to escape.
How are you even getting inside in the first place.

Personally I'm going with an oil platform.
Water desalinization plants, built in refining capability for generators, plenty of fishing and don't have to worry about zombies getting on board, unless there are flying zombies now.

Check out the topic I did "A Survivor's Journal: Creature Coterie". Flying zeds exist...

Don't care if they are in your story, IF they are in the latest DR book itself however that might explain why none of the people in the group want to play it and I won't bother getting it either.
Don't want another max brooks-resident evil ripoff, have enough of them already.

[Thinyser]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_Royale

My Freehold of choice in an apocalypse, zombie or otherwise.

That looks nice!... but no power generation or fortifications or easy transport of materials and few local raw materials.

Wait! I know why you picked it. Go to the google maps link on that wiki page and zoom into the bay on the south side of the island. The bottom half stays warm and green even when the rest of the island freezes over!

Seriously though that’s peachy if you want to make your own log cabin and live "off the land" but I don't want to rough it that much so I would go for the Gavins Point hydroelectric dam. (satellite-map) There is a huge lake (some 31k surface acres) above the dam for fresh water and fish, a small lower lake and river also plentiful with fish. There is also a fish hatchery just across the lower lake as well as a small housing development just down river on the South Dakota side (and very fertile farm land) as well as a 18 hole golf course and visitor's "look out center" up on the bluffs on the Nebraska side. And all only about 5.5 miles (driving or on the river) from Yankton SD (my home town of about 14,000).

US Army CE info page Supplies energy (132MW) to about 65,000 homes. I'd jury rig up an electric fence that would fry zombies to further protect the dam and then send the rest out into the grid.

Then I'd go about establishing survivor colonies at the 5 up stream dams too. They are easily fortified and as they are almost bunker like to begin with and any character with electrical engineering and jury rig would be able to slap together a high volt, high amp, brain melting, electric fence.


Build some scaffolding to grow food hydroponically by those upper windows and toss a couple greenhouses on the roof along with chicken coops (for eggs) and rabbit hutches (for meat). You'd have produce and protein grown right inside/on top (and fished from either side). Add gardens on the slopes of the earthen parts of the dam. It could easily have furrows dug into it to retain water so long as a good strip of grass was left in between the rows of plants. Don't want to erode the dam and wash it away.

Tons of farm land close by on both the SD and NE sides and irrigation would not be an issue since the electric pumps would still run. Planting and harvest could still be done with tractors assuming enough diesel could be scavenged and transported each season. Eventually like all good things that will end too when the fuel runs out. So grow as much as you can in the first 3-4 years before the fuel runs out and store as much of your harvest as you can.

I'd probably also let the pigs in all the confinement's loose (there are many in the surrounding area) so as to have pork on the hoof (pigs are smart and resourceful enough that some are sure to survive and reproduce) for additional meat source to be hunted. Deer are nice for steaks, chislic, sausage, and jerky, but somehow deer bacon doesn't seam like a good idea...

[J. Lionheart]

The big Titan missile bases, which are available for sale by the way, can be entirely self-sustaining. They were designed to be able to support a staff of 30 for something like 6 months without outside assistance, and could easily support smaller numbers for far longer. At least one of the ones I looked at for sale has multiple internal deep wells straight in to the aquifer, and one of the more frequently discussed commercial uses of old silos is for hydroponics - growing edible plants without soil - in the old silo tubes (which with floors inserted, are like 13 stories, a hell of a garden). These things also tend to have power generation systems, waste filtration systems, and are completely impenetable to anything but a focused military assault. While escape routes are still "inside the wire" so to speak, they can still be a quarter mile or more from one to the other.

Here's a link to one of the sites selling these sorts of things http://www.missilebases.com/properties

[azazel1024]

Lastest book talks about how some zombies can climb up anchor chains and floaters will do the same while paddling along the surface. Non-anchored ships should be pretty safe with the exception of any ropes, ladders or a swim platforms on them.

Solar power and wind turbines can do for electricity needs. I'd frankly just look at a big sail boat that was as large as possible, but still manageable for a single person (like a 47' or 52' schooner or something similar). A motor bike or ATV on it would give you land mobility to look for supplies and scavaging and fishing combined with some limited gardening on the boat would supplement food along with a rain water coolection system and solar/wind power.
-Matt

PS Yes you can garden on a boat. Sure you might only be growing a dozen tomato plants, some peas, etc, in a few planter boxes but it'll help supplement a tiny bit for 1-2 people their food needs. Fishing might do better than that if you are lucky/good.

[Thinyser]

Lastest book talks about how some zombies can climb up anchor chains and floaters will do the same while paddling along the surface. Non-anchored ships should be pretty safe with the exception of any ropes, ladders or a swim platforms on them.

Solar power and wind turbines can do for electricity needs. I'd frankly just look at a big sail boat that was as large as possible, but still manageable for a single person (like a 47' or 52' schooner or something similar). A motor bike or ATV on it would give you land mobility to look for supplies and scavaging and fishing combined with some limited gardening on the boat would supplement food along with a rain water coolection system and solar/wind power.
-Matt

PS Yes you can garden on a boat. Sure you might only be growing a dozen tomato plants, some peas, etc, in a few planter boxes but it'll help supplement a tiny bit for 1-2 people their food needs. Fishing might do better than that if you are lucky/good.

I like my Hydroelectric dam idea best but a good sailboat would be a good second choice and probably even my first choice if I was nearer to a large body of water, simply for the mobility it offers if nothing else.

Of course if you were one of the survivors on a nuke powered aircraft carrier and there were a few others and together there was enough knowledge to run the boat and keep the nuke from overloading AND could exterminate ALL the zed aboard... then you would have a mighty fine floating island!

Well stocked with food and desalination for water with a couple of acres of garden area up top (if you can find enough dirt!) and more than enough electricity for normal opperations. Plus tons of jet fuel and high powered munitions to trade for other goods if you ever find the opportunity.