And now heâs bit the dust.
Long story short: Discretion is the better part of valor, and I momentary forgot that when I found a lovely broadsword in a pawn shop. When you forget that, Cataclysm will help you remember.
Short story long:
It began when I noticed I was being trailed by a shrieker on the way out of town. Not wanting to have a mess to clean up, I doubled back to finish her off with my broadsword. About 5 punches in, I discovered my broadsword was being treated as a tool instead of a weapon and so did not automatically equip itself. Equipped it and finished off the shrieker, but now I had to deal with a fair clump of zombies, including a bruiser.
Naturally, I bolted, but I had taken enough damage from the shrieker that the bruiser was catching up enough to damage me. So I turned and gave him a solid whack with my broadsword! If youâve ever used cutting weapons in this version of Cataclysm, you can guess what happened next: the broadsword ended up solidly lodged in the bruiser and out of my hands! I should have paid more attention to that, because once again I wasted a few turns punching a very nasty zombie. I then switched to my wooden spear backup, and it too lodged in the bruiser. I was now largely defenseless and with the main mass of zombies having caught up to the fight. Alright, if thatâs how you want to play it⊠lit up a molotov and lured the mass of zombies through it. This barely finished off the bruiser and the majority of the enemies that had threatened me.
I had not noticed that Zombie Necromancer before, but I certainly did now, as it raised the bruiser and several other zombies. Uh oh. Some blobs showed up, making things even more complicated. Knowing that I would not be able to escape that Bruiser if it just kept getting back up again, I doubled back slightly to toss another molotov at the Necromancer.It barely did the trick of putting the necromancer down, but that resurrected Bruiser was now hot on my heels again. I knew the only chance I would have to get away now would be to finish off the bruiser and the skeletons that showed up, while ditching the rest of the horde in a building or something.
I managed to make it around a nearby house and into an alley between it and another house, a nice chokepoint where I used my third molotov, granted I couldnât use it very well because the horde was largely upon me at this point. Fortunately, I was able to lure a lot of zombies through the fire patch, but two skeletons and several zombies were hot on my heels, and my pain level was sufficient that I would not be able to escape them. By now, I was so badly torn up that I had lost an arm! But my torso was doing rather well, thanks to wearing a flak jacket. However, having come full circle now, I decided to grab the broadsword and try again⊠oh, right, I canât wield a broadsword with only one arm, and the wooden spear had burned up in the fire. RIP.
In retrospect, this whole battle would have gone a lot better if I had kept my nailbat instead grabbing that broadsword. With 5-6 melee and dodge, itâs usually enough to put down the common rabble zombies, and it does not have the same weakness cutting weapons have of getting stuck in zombies. Itâs also classified correctly as a weapon so it automatically equips itself when picked up! Alternately, I might just try going unarmed for my melee needs: my fist never got stuck in a zombie (yet).
