All out war is coming but can the survivors win?

All out war is coming in The Walking Dead Season 7B. But can Rick and the other survivors overcome their weaknesses to triumph over Negan and the Saviors?

The second half of Season 7 of The Walking Dead is shaping up to be really exciting. The communities are going to band together and rise up to fight Negan and the Saviors.

Now that Rick has his fighting spirit back and the group is reunited it will be hard to stop them. But they have some weaknesses that might cause them to lose to the Saviors.

Rick is a great strategist. But his ego has caused problems for the group before. When he gets overconfident he makes a critical mistake. He underestimates the enemy. He did it with the Governor and Hershel got killed. He underestimated Negan last season. Glenn and Abe died as a result.

Rick will have to keep his confidence in check in order to beat Negan and the Saviors. Negan has a lot more people fighting for him. And the Saviors have more weapons.

The only way that Rick is going to be able to come up with the kind of battle plans that will give him victory is to not assume that they are going to win. If they win, it’s going to be a tough fight.

The most obvious weakness that Rick’s group faces is their lack of weapons. Negan and the Saviors took all the guns from Alexandria. Now they’ve taken Eugene, who can make bullets.

The other communities have some weapons but they aren’t well armed. The Saviors are. But Rick’s group has other weaknesses to overcome too.

Not Enough Fighters

In The Walking Dead world having lots of people is the key to surviving. There’s no way around the Rick’s numbers problem. Even with Hilltop and the Kingdom joining Rick’s group they won’t have enough fighters to match the Saviors. Rick’s going to need to come up with clever ways to fight a force substantially larger than the one he’s got.

The fact is that Negan can afford to lose a substantial amount of the Saviors and still enough fighters to defend Sanctuary. Attacking Sanctuary head on may not be the best way to win the war. Rick can’t afford to lose any of the fighters that he has. He’s going to need to plan his attacks very carefully.

Surveillance

Another weakness that Rick will have to deal with is the constant surveillance by the Saviors. And pretty frequent visits from Negan. If Rick’s group spends a lot of time traveling between the other communities it’s going to be noticed.

And it will be noticed if they start scavenging for items that could be used to make homemade weapons. Alexandria is on Negan’s radar now. He is going to be watching Alexandria very closely.

Hiding weapons and keeping their plans secret will be difficult with the Saviors coming inside the gates with no notice. Rick will have to come up with a plan to hide what they’re doing until they are ready to attack.

Keeping Secrets

Keeping secrets is not easy when you’re under surveillance. The secrets that Rick has, like Maggie being alive, are great weapons. But only if they remain secret. In order to keep Negan from knowing that Maggie is alive and that Daryl is back with the group Gregory will need to keep Rick’s secrets.

Gregory isn’t the most trustworthy to have keeping secrets. If he turns them in to the Saviors or causes other problems it could take away their chance to win. Keeping control of Gregory is going to be a challenge. But it has to be done, and killing him isn’t an option.

If Gregory turns up dead or missing the Saviors will know that something is up at Hilltop. And Maggie, Sasha or Jesus would be the likely choice to take over leadership. That would blow the secret about Maggie and force Rick’s group to attack. Unfortunately Rick needs to keep Gregory alive. For now.

Maintaining The Status Quo

Rick’s group is going to have to surprise the Saviors with their attacks to have a chance. But keeping their preparations secret is going to be hard. They will need to keep scavenging for items to give Negan and the Saviors. That way Negan won’t notice that they are prepping for battle behind the scenes.

Even while they are trying to create attack plans and make some weapons and coordinate plans with the other groups they need to produce for Negan. If they don’t he will kill more people. He will also figure out pretty quickly what’s going on. Negan is not stupid. He’s going to be watching for any signs of resistance.

Rick and the group are definitely the underdogs in the battle that is coming on The Walking Dead. But the secret weapon that Rick has is the love and loyalty that the group has for each other. The Saviors fight for Negan out of fear, not love. It may turn out that loyalty and family are enough to free the group from Negan’s rule.