Among the many things I learned from a day-long Julius Caesar Workshop with Captain Antonio Salinas was a superb analogy for armies “living off the land.” Although battlefields tend to dominate popular memory when it comes to warfare, logistics direct and often determine entire campaigns.
For example, the Gauls eventually adopted a scorched earth approach to combating Caesar’s army. Napoleon’s invasion of Russia suffered dramatically due to its overextended supply lines. Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania coincided with the harvest season for horse fodder in the state.
In each of these scenarios, there are descriptions of soldiers trying to “live off the land.” Salinas stresses this does not mean soldiers go pick fruit from orchards or harvest crops. Instead, they are looting Walking Dead style, meaning they go where people live(d)—houses and cities—and gather ready-to-eat food.
The analogy is superb, because aside for a slow spell where Rick decides to become a farmer, almost all looting in The Walking Dead involves them cautiously going through houses and cities for food and supplies. When they’re not in a city, they’re mapping out the next one. When they have a safe base, they still send out parties on “runs” to pick up supplies from abandoned cities and houses.
With that in mind, consider Vercingetorix’s drastic shift in strategy against Caesar during the Gallic Wars. He told his supporters
they must now concentrate their efforts on cutting the Romans off from food supplies, by every means possible . . . The Romans could not cut forage for themselves, and would inevitably have to separate and go in search of food from buildings—and every day the Gallic cavalry could pick them off. Moreover . . . they must burn down their buildings and settlements which seemed likely to be within reach of the foraging-parties on either side of their route . . . In addition, they must burn any towns which were not protected from all danger by their fortifications and position (Gallic War, 7.14).
Now consider if Rick and his band of survivors in The Walking Dead came across nothing but burnt houses and sacked towns. They would have starved by the end of the first season.
As for the Gallic War, Caesar did not give up his fight, but he admitted later that strongly he considered it (7.17).