survival group reality check

Although I do believe it is absolutely necessary to plan, I think the bigger element of any survival regime is to plan for the unexpected.

When sit-x does occur:
1) Is there a plan to recon at a certain spot or structure
2) Timeline to evac that spot (captured or killed members will not show up)
3) Redundency of duties (great posts from several people)

Planning on a 10 member group - what happens if only 3 show up? Would you also be willing to take along a mother and her 3 kids who didnt plan for an evac?

Hate to sound cold - but when does the need for self preservation exceed the moral obligation of helping others (refer to mother and 3 kids scenerio)

Just thinking out loud

Well I think the time for being a charity is long gone by the time SitX comes along. Resources will be tight.

This sort of thing could split the group into factions, and this is dangerous as if you separate with a common fortress you've spent months even years stockpiling.
One group could reach the shelter first and fortify it against the other group with the stragglers. A fight would break out and before you know it you've turned on each other like animals. Not a good outcome is it?

Best bet against this is to make sure you're all in unanamous agreement about you'll do. Either help survivors you think are deserving to join the group or don't. There can be no middle ground, I think survival is survival and charity is for when a civilisation is up and running. Destroy one and you have to keep to the other or lose that as well.

Things to consider

I for one would help a complete stranger if they were able to barter goods / offer information. It also depends on how my own supplies were, the speed we'd need to travel at and her fitness.

A woman with three kids is an extreme example but a good one.

She might come in useful for aiding with camp chores and learn quickly the ways of the survivalist.
Her kids could be taught things and one day become a good little survivalists too
There's nothing like teaching another something new which will benefit.
If things looked really bleak then you've got a chance of being able to small family and start looking at expanding (in the long run).
It wouldn't take long in the wild for someone to be able to adjust and forget more and more the civilised trappings they'd grown used to.

On the other end of the scale she might be some lazy, useless scowling trash who does nothing but whine and complain the whole time.
Would you want such a person in the group?
The risk of an unknown entity coming into the group who could sleep her way into a power position has been known throughout history.
I've seen it happen in the flesh and can totally understand why a woman would do it. It's just the way it goes.
An unprepared and unskilled woman on her own with kids would not last long in the wilderness otherwise.

I'd advise anyone here to err on the side of caution.
Tell anyone not part of the group to make there way back to a village or town, city. Leave an small offering you can spare as a parting gift.

However, if a member of the group is rich enough and philantropic to the extent of stocking a shelter with a mass surplus of supplies beforehand then extra survivors can be accounted for

[edit on 20-5-2008 by WatchRider]

okay, so some members can walk into a jungle with a knife and be okay, great skill set but not a whole lot of use if there isn't a jungle handy. britan has basically zero wilderness to speak of, certainly none you could hide out in, so forget shelter building and think more along the lines of disused farm-house.

it has year round argiculture, there's always some crop ripe close-by, but the heck with all that hard work, you'll only be a few miles from some massive tescos with about 20 years supply of canned goods, as well as lighters botlled water and just about anything else you need (including car insurance and mobile phones )

the main survival skill required in brittan in sitX is going to be defence from other people, either learn to run away and hide a lot or join a group. thats all there is to it.

you'ld think such dyed in the wool survivalists would understand the concept of a local man knowing best how to survive in his local environment. if brits were in america, they'ld use the bushman method but in britan, realistically, the easiest and most likely skill set is urban by nature.

[edit on 20-5-2008 by pieman]

reply to post by pieman


While you're somewhat correct about the lack of wilderness,UK still has places you can disappear..
My target area,whilst being less than an hour away,has 155000 acres of dense woodland to blend into.

Pieman, once you get past Manchester in the North and the West Country the city's are smaller and tends to be ruralised.
I know that my stomping grounds in SitX will be away from the Fylde coast and in some national park / woodland somewhere with a decent group of us.

Piemans right for those Brits in the densely populated heartlands of England.
I think you'll find 20 years of food at tescos is pushing it a bit mate!
Assuming the powers still running (which in all likelyhood it won't) you and every other survivor, criminal and survivalist will be running in the same direction to strip the place bare/fortify them.
I agree though that there will be enough canned food etc to live off comfortably for a few years.

Whoever controls them will have a major base of ops.
If the army and police disband and disperce. I will be giving any urban area a wide berth unless my catche supplies need replenishing or I was bored.
To be honest I think only renegade soldiers, police, gangs, criminals and those who join them will florish in the urban areas.
Don't forget that the gangs are the largest groups in britain outside the police and army to carry firearms.



[edit on 20-5-2008 by WatchRider]

Between manchester and endinburgh looks like a good place to go, plenty of hills and woods to hide in, its fairly isloated (for britain) and theres a number of lakes for fresh water,

let the gangs fight it out over tesco's own brand baked beans I know where I'm going!

yup, slightly tounge in cheek on the whole tescos bit guys. to be honest, i think the "uk wilderness" might get a little overcrowded in sitx, unless most of the population are wiped out, in which case it's better to be in an abandoned farmhouse in the middle of no-where than in a leaky shelter in the wood. just my opinion.