To expand on the expert run yesterday night:

We went through No Mercy and Death Toll on expert, and called it after failing twice on the Death Toll rescue part early morning.

Kulmar is the biggest health whore with like 19 pills taken and 14 heath kit heals after the first campaign. On the plus side he had the highest accuracy in our group (36% or so) and most damage output. But of course, he also died the least.

Today the director was not even close to as difficult as yesterday, and we were still on expert. Yesterday, the director spawned a boss basically every 20 seconds, and then combo'd them on us or had them hit us from multiple directions. Also they threw hordes at us at frequent intervals to the point where we had to drop a pipe bomb for every rush because there was too much going on and we would be caught in positions or forced to retreat (thus resetting the next wave).

For the hospital elevator rush, we sat in this crappy closet and melee'd everything to death. Still trying to find a better position than that cramped spot.

This time the director was a little more tame and we were basically cruising through No Mercy until we got to the Rooftop Rescue.

Plan 1 - Sloppy on Gun, Kulmar on support, myself on Sniper, Spar as the grenadier. Our first attempt had a total of 8 spawned candy bars (pipe bombs) and 4 molotovs (your favorite liquor here). The idea was to have Sloppy cover the middle spread, and have Kulmar take out stragglers near Sloppy that approach from the right pipeline. We also had 2 gas cans. The gas cans were placed on the right and left pipeline. Spar would be chucking candy bars like it was holloween to pace the horde before the Tanks. I would be sniping boss zombies and trying to keep Sloppy alive. Also to snipe the gas cans to cover the sides when necessary.

Result: Though the gas cans gave Sloppy lots of cover for 20 seconds, there were too many exposed angles on the mounted gun and sloppy had to break off. Spar threw some nades but then had to rescue Sloppy, and a I got distracted so a Smoker pulled sloppy off the mounted gun roof. I was able to kill the smoker but Sloppy had to reset and took too much damage. Add the tank and basically it became too chaotic for us to choose targets and we all died.

The second attempt had 4 pipes/molotovs of each type. We got to the second tank (no gas cans this time) using the same positioning except with the pipe bombs attracting more horde, and better communications. The problem here was that after we were able to kill the first tank, with Sloppy backing off of the gun to cover Spar, the second tank split our group and hit one of us with a concrete slab. Spar tried to rescue but the tank turned its attention and beat him down. With two people we were unable hurt too much to get to the chopper before the 3rd tank killed off Kulmar and zombies slowed me down on the ramp to the helipad (I tried to book it).

The next plan (wussy mode as we called it) was hiding in the stairwell (not the radio room closet) and 2 manning both doors. Sloppy and myself had the top, Spar and Kulmar had the bottom. We ignored the grenades but we did make use of the propane tanks that spawned both tries. Fairly easy to get to the tank and not take damage using melee/cover fire/and timing reloads. When the tank came, we split into our original plan 1 positions, except Kulmar took the right pipeline side. We would try to lure/shoot the tank until it was within the gun's line of sight, and then sloppy would lay waste to it. I would swap the autoshotty for the sniper rifle and shoot the tank from the top of the radio roof on the vent shaft cover. After that it was rinse and repeat. Third tank + boomer as we were going to the helicopter ended that run though.

Our success try involved the above, except right after we killed the second tank, we brought the group together for a run at the helipad. At this point we were already down to 3 people, but a well placed pipebomb cleared the path. A boomer however stunned one of us (either Kulmar or Sloppy, don't remember) and only two of us were able to jump into the helicopter right as the 3rd tank caught up to us. As we flew away the tank was standing where that helicopter was looking at us.

I think though, if the final wave that you dont have to kill doesnt keep spawning, a few pipebombs should thin them out so you can take the third tank out.

On Death Toll, we ran into a tank twice in the lower sewer shafts and had to kite him inside our safe room. I was like, haha we are safe in this room. Lets just shoot him from the outside. Then the tank bashes the door open and almost kills Sloppy. Sloppy then solo'd the tank as I ran out of the saferoom to rescue Spar. Bolt died twice because he was our Molotov man, and he was low on health so he could not run fast both times. Also, he missed both times, which meant 3 minutes of kiting in the safe room.

Interestingly enough, on the final level of Death Toll, we found one med kit on the ground in two houses (for a total of +2 extra) on the way to the waterfront house. One of the runs I was holding a propane tank which got shot out of my hands! This explosion instantly took me from 88 to knocked down. Everyone else got hit as well but did not take nearly as much damage (40 or so damage). Ive been a little more careful about carrying propane tanks after that .

We had some great moments, where only two of us were left and hurt pretty bad and had to beat down several hordes or smoker/hunter combos where the hunter would pounce as the smoker attacked the other to pull us apart. Some good hunter punter moments.

For the rescue on Death Toll - Much easier than the rooftop rescue in my opinion. But then again the director this round was being a big wussy. We barely had any issues on our first try, it was only that after we had beaten the tank down that a smoker caught me outside when we were trying to get back to the house and a boomer ambushed Kulmar when he tried to pick me up. One of our last attempts since it was so late (we either tried 2-3 times or something) we holed up in closet for a plan b. Unfortunately because it was so late, we molotov'd ourselves in the closet and all burned to death :P