Survival Skillset #2: Self Defense

This is another entry in my continuing series on collapse survival skills, the beginning of which can be found here. This time, we will be discussing self-defense, which is a pretty big topic to cover, so let’s get started.

Self-Defense Defined

What exactly do I mean by “self-defense?” There are standard definitions, of which I am sure you are already aware, but mine goes a bit further. Within this umbrella, I include the basics, such as training to be able to handle yourself in a physical altercation, and also knowledge about the use of firearms and basic tactics, but I also go beyond the usual stuff. Including things such as home defense, camouflage, and certain mental deviations from the standard.

Much of what can be found on traditional prepper websites and such tends to focus primarily on the combat and violent aspects of self-defense. While that is all well and good, that is not all that self-defense is about. Those parts of it I will not be going into crazy detail about, there are plenty of sources for that information, much of it coming from writers more knowledgeable than I am on the subject. I will just provide some good links and leave it at that.

The fighting part tends to be the exciting stuff, but in my opinion and experience, it is not the most important part. For me, being capable of fighting is important, but what trumps that is being able to avoid the fights. You win 100% of the fights you don’t have, especially in a post-collapse world where modern medical care is a thing of the past. And that is why my next heading will piss off a lot of regular prepper types.

Weapons Are A Weakness

Yeah, you read that right. Now, let me clarify. I am not saying that weapons are bad. Far from it, I believe that they are a necessary and integral part of preparing for societal collapse. But having a weapon can create side effects in a person. Always having a gun on your hip can become a dependence and an artificial confidence booster. Confidence is not bad, but it should come from within you, not from a tool. Artificial confidence is a crutch. And coming to rely on it can degrade your abilities when that crutch is not present.

A weapon is a tool, nothing more. It is a tool used for killing or repelling others who are seeking to kill or harm you. The world is going to become a very dark and violent place, and there will no doubt be times when, as a survivor, you are going to be faced with the need to use violence to prevent violence. In preparation for those times, you will choose and equip yourself and your family with the tools that you will need. But keep in mind the weakness of weapons. They are only an extension. You are the real weapon. You are the fighter and defender. You are whole, with or without any weapons at all.

You should not allow your thinking or planning to become reliant on weapons or their use. Confrontation is an option, and at some point it may become the only available one, but it should never be a part of the actual main plan. Violence is a contingency to prepare for, not a plan of action. That applies even more so in a post-collapse wasteland than it does even today. If at any point in your plan there is something along the lines of, “Well, we are heavily armed, so we should get through there okay,” or even, “They won’t try and stop us because we can threaten them with our guns,” then you are doing it wrong and need to go back to fix the plan. Things like that are a recipe for disaster, and certainly not the best planning.

When planning, you have to do your best, and it needs to be better than the other guys’ best because everyone else is going to be doing their best as well. While everyone else is planning, you guys need to come up with a plan to ruin the other guys’ plan. And to do that, you cannot limit yourself to the same thinking that they are mired in. Everyone is out buying up guns and learning how to shoot, watching videos on small unit tactics, and clearing buildings, and that is fine, you should be doing that as well. But you need to do more. Because you do not want to be among “everyone else” when the SHTF. You need to think, and act, outside the box.

The Tools Of Violence

Now that I have hopefully convinced you not to rely on weapons, let me tell you about the weaponry that you still need to have in your toolbox anyway. Yes, they will still be necessary. Because, while you should never be the one to start a fight, you most certainly must ensure that you are the one to end it. To do that, you must have the right tools for the job.

There are many types of weapons available to people. If there is one thing humanity has excelled at, it is finding many ever-evolving ways to kill each other. I will cover some broad and simple categories, and explain some of the pros and cons of each. Other than that, the real meat of the article is not in the weaponry.

Firearms

Let’s get the most controversial out of the way first. Guns. Always preppers and their guns. There is a lot of misinformation and bad opinions to be had on both sides of the issue of whether to have them or not, but that mostly pertains to living in a civilized society. As our concern has to do with the period of time after said society’s demise, we are going to skip past the politics of it all and stick to the practical.

Nothing beats a gun for individual combat. Simple as that. Do I really need to tell you why guns are critically important for surviving in a SHTF situation, or long term afterward? I’m going to assume not. There are still some questions to be asked, and the only difficult one to answer is what kind of guns should you have? Pretty much any firearm will prove useful for your needs in an apocalyptic urban survival situation, and chances are there will be some around to be found relatively easily once things go bad. But there are some important factors to consider if you have the choice.

Survival often depends on the most minute of details, so you cannot leave anything to chance. There are many things to consider when choosing firearms for the post-collapse wasteland of tomorrow. Key factors are the types of firearms, the caliber and range, size and weight, ease of use, and the general durability of the weapon and maintenance concerns.

For the type of guns, you can basically break it down into rifles, shotguns, and pistols. This is one of the most important choices, and ideally each person will have one of each as they fulfill very different needs regarding defense and survival. Each of these three types of guns has a distinct scenario in which they are the preferred tool for the job. You can of course use one or more of them outside of their primary range of use, and you probably will at times. However, for the times when planning ahead, it is good to be able to cover the right bases.

Pistols are generally used for close-quarters self-defense, and their small size and light weight mean they can be carried all the time to always be on hand in case of an emergency. Shotguns are the ideal weapon for heavy close-in offense and defense, and also for hunting fowl and even larger prey. Rifles, often divided into subtypes of standard or assault versions, are more suited for long shots and engaging opponents at a distance in open terrain, and also for the hunting of big game.

Here is a good article that breaks down some of the best firearms for survival and SHTF situations, and there are plenty more out there like it.

Caliber and range are very important factors, and I am including a handy chart that you can use for range considerations. You want to have a weapon chambered for rounds that have several characteristics, but in my opinion, one of the most important of those will be availability. Having something in .224 Weatherby Magnum might sound cool, and be very good for its purpose, but just how much of that stuff is out there in use? More importantly, how easy is something like that going to be to find later in the abandoned stashes across the wasteland?

Very important to consider your caliber along these lines. Here is a good breakdown of ammo for survival, but keep in mind that this is a US-centric list. You should always match your availability to the region of the world you live in. For places where civilians do not have firearms, look to what your country’s armed forces use, as well as police.

Size and weight are kind of no-brainer considerations. Always make sure the weapons you are going to be using and carrying are comfortable for you to bear. Just because you may be able to handle some huge Rick Grimes-type revolver doesn’t mean you will enjoy having the thing dragging at your hip all day. Ease of use also goes along with this. Don’t just practice shooting guns, practice shooting your guns. Become intimately familiar with them, their operation, recoil, etc.

Durability and maintenance are another very important consideration. You want a weapon that is simple in design and with a reputation for reliability. There are bad things about the AK-47, but one thing is for sure, it can take a serious amount of wear and dirt and still function. You will also want something that is easy to break down and clean, as well as for the weapon itself to be rather common versus fancy designs. That is for the same reasons as ammo availability, just think about spare parts and attachments that will fit. You want that stuff to be common.

So, when it comes to firearms, do your research. Here is another good article that goes in-depth about firearms for the day the SHTF. Keep in mind that there are very different factors to consider when choosing a firearm for a post-collapse world. You are not necessarily looking for the best combat rifle, the most accurate hunting weapon, or even the most stopping power in a pistol. Those are all very flashy and cool things, but the flashy and the cool are not going to last long in the wasteland. Very common, very durable, popularly produced calibers, and multipurpose use will be far more important.

Ranged Weaponry

By “ranged” I am simply referring to non-melee weapons which are not firearms. So, things like bows, spears, crossbows, slings, even an atlatl if you learn how to make one. For a great many purposes, I prefer some of these to firearms. They are lighter, quieter, and can mostly even be built later by hand, as can the ammunition.

I won’t be getting into all of them here, we are not going to discuss the atlatl or the trebuchet. We can stick primarily to bows, crossbows, and spears.

Bow and crossbows are fantastic tools for use in a post-collapse scenario. The last thing you will ever want to do when hunting is create a huge amount of noise to draw attention to yourself or scare away game, and you certainly will not have extra ammo to waste. Both bows and crossbows have their pros and cons, and these are explained pretty well here.

In addition, I highly recommend taking some time to learn how to craft at least a serviceable bow, and certainly arrows, as part of your skills training prior to collapse. Here is a good sample of the basics for making a survival bow, and such could come in quite handy.

When it comes to spears, there really isn’t a whole lot to say, so for the most part, I will leave it to you to check out some of the information out there about both self-made survival spears, and purchased ready-made spears. Also, remember, you don’t need to have something like this right away, learning how to use it is enough. It is a simple thing to include spearheads in your kit, and at a later date actually make a spear when you might need it. You will want to find a walking stick anyway…

Melee Weapons

This is a hugely broad category, everything from knives and clubs to swords and axes. I am only going to touch upon a few which I see as the most valuable. But one thing is certain about them all, whatever you choose to carry, make sure you have learned how to use it properly.

Knives. These will be some of the most used tools and most common weapons. I highly recommend always carrying a small tactical folding knife at all times. Also, for other jobs, both a full tang combat knife, like a Ka-Bar, and a heavy-duty work knife for survival and hunting are also required items for anyone to have. Knives will be used for a lot of things, and for very close-quarters combat, they are hard to beat.

Expandable batons. One of my absolute favorite weapons for use in melee combat is a collapsible baton. These things give you a baseball bat you can fit in your back pocket, and they pack quite a punch when used. Similar to the racking sound of a shotgun, nothing says “don’t try it” like the sound of a baton cracking out. Go for the friction ones rather than spring-loaded, just for durability.

Axes. Something you will want to have as part of your kit anyway, but it would be a good idea to get a feel for using different ones, and also some training as to their actual use in fighting.

Hand-to-Hand Combat

There is already a ton of more informative information out there about hand-to-hand fighting than I could possibly provide. Rather than go into detail about style and techniques, I want to talk about why hand-to-hand combat should be an absolute last resort in a post-collapse world.

Whenever you engage in hand-to-hand combat, you are automatically opening yourself up to getting hurt. Even a single punch that ends a fight with you as the winner can potentially leave you with a wounded or broken hand. Sprains, broken bones, torn ligaments, and even pulled muscles can become deadly handicaps in the wasteland. You must always be looking forward to more than just the outcome of an individual fight but to the overall struggle to survive as well.

Putting yourself directly into harms way if there is another option available is an easy mistake to make. Moral considerations may even be the Achilles heel that leads you to prefer to subdue a hostile attacker rather than wound with a knife or a firearm, or even kill. Emotions could also be the culprit, letting anger and rage get the better of you so that you charge into a fray that could have been avoided or dealt with some other way.

At the end of the day, hand-to-hand combat is to be left to absolute last resort. But, if I had to suggest a fighting style, it would be simple old dirty street fighting tactics. Here is a decent article to get you started on your street fighter journey. And while I do believe avoidance is best, it is also imperative that you train for the times when avoidance is not even possible.

Tactics of Defense

This is where the real defense is. There are a few things that I believe are critical to understand when it comes to defending yourself, your family, and your location. The most important of which is my number one rule: You win all the fights you don’t have. Beyond that overriding law, I adhere to five fundamentals of self-defense. Those are:

1. Situational Awareness
2. Defense-in-Depth
3. Concealment
4. Decisiveness
5. Conservation

These fundamentals, which I address below, are a large part of what you need to learn to give yourself the best chances of survival. They do not so much pertain to the actual tactics of combat, either ranged or hand-to-hand. These are part of the bigger strategy, the overall goal of keeping your defense up in a violent and unrestrained world.

Let’s think about the world as it could be post-collapse. Modern medicine is a thing of the past. And frontier medicine, with what little benefit it provides, is not something you want to have to rely on for treating bullet wounds and machete slashes. For a time, you may have access to relatively modern medical devices and medicines, if you prepared well or can find them in the ruins, but that is far from a sure thing and will not last forever in any case. Not to mention the fact that just being wounded can slow you down or leave you incapacitated and a burden on others in your group, which could get the entire lot of you killed in a bad situation.

People are going to be out to survive themselves and to make sure that their needs are met, and those of their families and groups. Humanity will revert back to being much more tribal than the civilized world has become around us today. Everyone will be viewing everyone else as “outsiders” to their own particular group, and therefore as a potential trap. The trusting, open, and empathetic are, unfortunately, going to be some of the first to go as they are taken advantage of by others.

This is not to say it is going to be all Mad Max and spray painting your mouth chrome, but a little more like The Walking Dead, at least when it comes to human interaction. Even among good people who meet, there will be an instant tension and a period of “feeling out” one another before any real trust can exist. Better to avoid the contact altogether, at least in the early days, so that you are not seen as a “resource” by some enterprising Negan out there. The collapsed world will be a world where defense is sadly much more relevant to daily life than it is today.

And so really, the best steps you can take for self-defense is to remove as much possibility of any fight happening at all as you can. Thus, the aim of my five fundamentals.

#1 Situational Awareness

Most of this I have already discussed in my article about situational awareness, Is It Time To GTFO, and the bulk of the insights from this fundamental can be found there. Go read it, as it is sufficiently important enough to require its own section.

In short, this is about being aware of who and what is around you at all times, and how to spot potential trouble long before it starts. You have to come to view your situation as “at risk” at virtually all times. Because you are at risk. The peaceful world in which we have all been sheltered and coddled by various government protections is gone. In its place is a world in which the only rules are jungle rules, and that means no rules at all. You need to see everything around you, really see it, and become immersed in your environment as if your surroundings were an extension of your own self.

Such awareness is the capability to observe your surroundings and clearly identify potential threats. Some people often lack awareness because they are the types who actively deny that threats exist. You can find them in many forms. They think they live in such a safe neighborhood, or have such faith in their government’s ability (and desire) to protect them, or perhaps they just think that bad things simply won’t happen to them. They think they are living free of fear, but in reality, they are living in delusion. I don’t want to offend anyone, but that is literally idiotic, even without societal collapse.

For someone who truly embraces their situation and circumstances, there is no true fear. Maintaining a healthy level of vigilance means being grounded and aware without overburdening yourself with a sense of constant fear. It means being capable of identifying threats, and then taking steps to avoid them or, if necessary, confront them.

There is also a healthy fear. Nature ingrained that in us for a reason, and that is because, in a wild and uncivilized world, there is very little real safety. But healthy fear is more accurately termed as intuition. Those gut instincts of yours. And they are a power to be harnessed. This intuition is vital. It is the sense of unease that comes over you and allows you to physically feel that a situation is not safe or when a person has intentions that are hostile to you. Listening to that intuition allows you to be more aware of your surroundings and to take precautionary steps.

Much of it has been conditioned out of us by society. Living civilized lives where threats are often artificially constrained by laws and defended against by police has made us far less the wild animals we used to be. As children, we are conditioned to mute our intuition to make social cohesion more effective. We have also become sensitized to violence, even “triggered” into fear and panic by mere mentions of the bad things in the world. Perhaps in a utopian world that would be a good thing, but in a wild wasteland not so much.

Get in touch with your inner animal and nurture your sense of intuition. You don’t have to let it control you, but it is a fine animal to be able to pull out of your pocket at a moment’s notice when the SHTF.

#2 Defense-In-Depth

“Social distancing for the Apocalypse” you can call it, and it is a big one. This is the idea of placing as much distance as possible between yourself and any potential threat. Always. The tactic applies to everything from walking through town, to driving on a road, and even to where you camp at night and especially where you choose to locate your bugout spot.

What you are looking for with this is to keep others far enough away that they either become less of a threat, or better yet no threat at all. When walking around, try not to bunch up with others that you don’t know. There is a reason that crowded airports, busy subway terminals, and the Black Friday crowds are perfect environments for pickpockets and “brush-by” data thieves. Because everyone is bunched together and bumping into one another, it provides cover for their activities. Crowds, like herds, draw predators looking for a large number of targets from which to blend in themselves and look for the weak ones. You do not even want to be in that selection process to begin with.

The same can apply when driving. Keeping your distance from other vehicles, or from possible obstructions to your view on the sides of the road or trail. Move slowly and with caution, and keep as much distance as you can. This allows you not only time to react when something happens but also gives you a clearer view of your environment so that you can stay aware of what is happening. Even when alone as the sole vehicle on a road, do not charge along at top speed. Go slow. Moving too fast robs you of the ability to watch for signs of trouble, opportunities that may be found, and also requires that you devote more of your attention to the business of driving rather than observing.

With a choice of camps and/or bugout locations, defense-in-depth is critical. I don’t care what sort of wasteland we end up getting thrust upon us, nuclear war, climate crisis apocalypse, or whatever. No matter what, other humans are going to be the greatest danger out there.

A quick note about that statement. This should not be misinterpreted as some direction for the “lone wolf” or other rugged individualist survivor attitude. Going it alone in the wasteland is a decidedly bad idea, you are going to need a group or community in order to survive long term. That is a subject for another article, but suffice it to say while you need a community, you have to make sure it is your community. The initial birthing pains of the wasteland and the fall of civilization are going to be violent, tumultuous times for a little while, and during that period, most other people are going to be scared, predatory, or straight-up batshit insane. This is not the time to be finding your group of merry friends, that is something best done long before or long after the actual collapse.

Now, back to the matter at hand. When choosing your locations for camps and such, it is imperative to avoid possible accidental contact with others, as you do not know who they are or what intentions they might have. I can assure you, while not everyone is going to become a criminal, there are enough who will, and remember rule number one. You win every fight that you don’t have.

Stay well back from roads when camping. Try and find locations that offer protection not just from the weather, but also from view as well. Don’t take the easy way. Choose a place that is a little hard to get to and that offers plenty of cover and concealment. Use the terrain to your advantage, for both defensive plans, but also to allow you to hear and see potential intruders or wanderers as they approach.

If you are bugging out from a large urban area with a high population, try to get as far away as possible in the time that you have, and also try and go in a different direction from whatever is popular. Many others may think to head to other nearby towns and cities, national forests, lakes, campgrounds, etc. don’t be in that majority.

When it comes to choosing a planned “bugout” location, defense-in-depth is also an important consideration. I will be going into further detail about permanent bugout locations at a later date, but whether you choose to buy a piece of property or plan for an improvised location, distance must be priority #1. Urban locations, and even rural ones close by, don’t make good bugout locations. Proximity to other people means potential competition for resources and the increased threat that comes with it. The best defense is always avoiding the fight before it takes place, and when it comes to your permanent location that is something you have complete control over, so use it.

Defense-in-depth can be used in many situations and should be the primary tactic for survival in a post-collapse wasteland. Whenever you are looking at any planning or strategy, always come back to this. Think about your plan, and look for areas where you can provide more distance between yourself and possible threats.

#3 Concealment

Another primary tactic for defense and threat avoidance basically comes down to hiding. Hide the things on your person that could be attractive to others. Hide your intentions, your direction of travel, and your potential destination. Hide the contents of your vehicle, hide your camp, and hide your bugout location. If you can see it, whatever “it” is, hide it.

Much of this I have already discussed in my article on so-called “gray man” tactics, Ghost in the Machine, and if you have not read it I would encourage you to do so. There is much already said there about making yourself as invisible and undesirable a target as possible. That article defines much of what this fundamental really embodies, and the bulk is written there. Here, I will delve into some of the physical aspects a bit more.

The principles of actual, physical camouflage and concealment are not just for the military, but also important for everyone to know. Especially post-collapse, when everything in the world belongs only to who has control of it and who can keep it, making sure no one can even find it is key.

Mastering camouflage and concealment doesn’t just mean putting on some army woodland camo clothing and you’re good to go. There is a lot more to it than that. It is a combination of many techniques, which different animals have been using to their advantage for millions of years, both as predator and prey, to avoid being detected. The question of whose technique is best is often the deciding factor in who gets full and who becomes lunch.

There are two very good articles I recommend that you read about camouflage. The first is Hiding in Plain Sight: the science behind military camouflage, and it is a very good primer on basic fundamentals. It goes into detail that can be a little heavy on the military aspects, but just in case you become an Army of One someday, I suggest giving it some study.

Another article that at first glance seems very basic is The Seven S’s of Camouflage. And it is basic, but these are the core principles of all camouflage tactics, and should be known well. Everything related to such concealment comes back to one of these core factors, and this list in various forms is part of basic military training all over the world.

Finally, for some deep reading and reference, here is a link to the original US Army Field Manuals on camouflage and concealment, as well as the updated one. Do not pass over the old one just because it is old. It is still the applicable standard, especially in the low-tech environment that a post-collapse world will be.

In practice, I am not saying to run around looking like a deer hunter or a Navy SEAL all the time, that is not the point. The point is to always look at ways in which you can make yourself and your location less visible and detectable to others, in every way. If they can see it, they can get to it, and if they can get to it, they can hit it. But before anything, they must see it. Make that hard.

#4 Decisiveness

Do something. That is what this one comes down to. You have to be able to make quick decisions and then act on them fully and immediately, with no hesitation, no second-guessing, and no extraneous worries. Doing something is always better than freezing in indecision or doing nothing at all. So, when the SHTF, do something.

Easy to say. But in practice, it is a bit trickier.

Decisiveness is an essential aspect of both survival and defense, and a key success trait for a post-collapse world. You don’t want to be the one who stands flat-footed in the midst of a SHTF crisis, and doing so in a defense situation will end your experience pretty quick. When it comes to being the leader of a group, one of your primary objectives is to instill confidence in your ability to lead and keep the group safe, and being capable of making decisions on the fly is a key part of that. Being the person who went north and then spent the rest of the day talking about how he should have gone south does not inspire confidence. You went north. North is the new reality. Deal with it and move on to the next decision.

Behavioral science shows us that most people are naturally reluctant to make fast decisions because of the fear that the downside of their action will outweigh the upside. They will worry over whether the action is the right one to take, or if there is something better they could do, and in the process end up doing nothing or being too late. There are deep evolutionary forces in play with that, and those preparing for defense situations must devote a concerted effort to overcoming them – and doing so consistently.

Doing so gives you what I call “defense agility.” This is the capacity to detect, evaluate, and respond to threats or changes in your environment in purposeful ways. After you’ve detected something out of place or amiss, which could be either a danger or an opportunity, then you quickly and rigorously assess what it means. With the information in mind, you must have the ability to shape a course of action and then decisively respond with that action. Sometimes these will be very hard decisions that require sacrifice and bravery, and they will almost always be based on incomplete information. And it will require the commitment to follow through once the decision is made.

In survival and defensive situations, you are going to have to make decisions on the fly. There is no longer the luxury of having the time to carefully consider all possible outcomes and actions. It is quite a bit harder to always make the right choice when you’re under pressure, but you will have to take action and there are a couple of things you can do to increase your effectiveness.

Being prepared is one of them. You need to prep your thinking as well as your stockpiles. Doing a lot of mental roleplaying or wargaming of possible scenarios is a great exercise. You can come up with all sorts of possibilities and options, even think through situations presented in movies and whatnot. Think about what you would do if that were a real situation. Come up with solutions, and then wargame those. Think through what is good and what is bad about it, and ways you could do things differently. Create a few plans that could be run in those imagined situations, and then practice or run through them until you have them down cold. Then, when and if the time comes, you could shut out the noise and the stress and simply follow through with the plan. You obviously can’t know exactly what choices you’ll be faced with in your life post-collapse, but you can prepare as best as possible for what to do in a variety of different situations. There are a lot of situations that will be similar to many others, and forming plans for a large number of different things will not only give you confidence in your preparedness but also a base to work from when reacting on the fly to some new situation.

We have already talked about listening to your intuition to help with staying aware of things, but you also need to do more than just listen. Trusting your gut instincts, and acting upon that trust is a very important factor in being decisive. Many scientific studies have shown that a correct animal gut feeling can hit us long before our civilized minds can even fully process what the hell just happened. This is why soldiers are often saved by their hunches.

So trust your instincts. But make sure they are informed instincts. When there is precious little time to analyze a situation, the old-fashioned lizard brain often knows what the rational mind does not.

#5 Conservation

The concept of conservation as it applies to self-defense is multi-faceted. But it all comes down to the goal of making sure that you are conserving everything you can at all times. When you are actively in the middle of a violent altercation, you want to conserve and manage your energy and stamina, leaving your opponents to tire out sooner. The same applies for defense on the move, conserve when running, or even when driving you can look to conserve the fuel and condition of your vehicle by going only as fast as you need to in order to triumph in the engagement. In a firefight, conserve ammunition. Careful, well-placed shots as opposed to the “spray-and-pray” approach to targeting.

The single biggest risk, other than death, in any type of self-defense scenario, is losing more than you gain from the process. Whether that is losing health by getting hurt, losing weapons and ammo to reckless firing, or breaking an axle on your vehicle due to overly aggressive driving. Remember that this is not the modern world anymore. Much of what you have cannot be repaired or replaced easily. That goes for everything from blood supply to gasoline and even to things like knives and food. Everything will have become limited in ways that are foreign to our way of life right now.

Your defense of self does not just apply to your body, but to your gear and knowledge as well, and the goal must always be conservation. Such restraint may not seem to help too much in whatever current situation you may be in, but it plays a big role in how ready and capable you will be in the next one, and there will always be a next one.

Conservation can be summed up with this: always try and use the best and most efficient tactics to get the fight over with as quickly and as easily as possible, with the least expenditure of both energy and resources.

Conclusion

That about takes care of the basic fundamentals for wasteland self-defense. Almost everything else can be based upon these, but always, always remember the one overriding rule of them all:

You win every fight that you don’t have.