I couldn't have said it any better. Most often, the best way to sneak around is to wear completely bland clothes and act like you belong. Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (I think he's the one) was quoted in a book that he often stole things, large things, from department stores for the thrill of it. One time he walked into a store, picked up a potted tree in the front display window, and walked out with it. No one so much as asked what he was doing. When sneaking around at night, clothing should reflect the expected terrain. Dark greys or blues do well for night in the city in most places, but if you're going to have to operate inside of a building, a uniform like that worn by building security would be a good idea to bring along. That is, unless the building employs a small group of security guards that don't change often, in which case it wouldn't help.
Reminds me of a radio segment I once heard about some guys in New York who (illegally) explore all the abandoned underground places, subway tunnels, etc. Even though it's not their usual attire, when they are "exploring" they always dress in three-piece suits. (A random bypasser who sees someone walking into someplace not open to the public might call the police on someone in blue-jeans and a T-shirt, but assume that the guy in a suit has a legit reason to be there). They also said that they respect any area where they find someone (illegally) living the same way as you would any other private residence, i.e. you don't tromp through someone's livingroom uninvited just because it's the most direct way to get where you want to go; you find another way around. @Porcupine -- heh, I've never seen a boar (never lived in an area where they were ever around). Moose, skunks, racoons, deer, had a black bear run out in front of my car once (no, I didn't hit it, fortunately for both of us) but never a boar.
Not sure about the period of unconciousness nor the actual side effects But hitting someone in the head and stunning them without breaking their skull isn't exactly impossible. What causes someone to blackout after being hit is the brain hitting your skull. The brain is sorta just floating in your head and when your hit, the brain moves around and if there is enough force it hits the skull and... well lights out. Depending on where you hit the person in the head could either mean more force or less force. That is if I understood the explination properly. *shrugs*
My father is ex-commando and he always said it was different to knock someone out, especially with a pistol butt, without causing trauma which could be severe--not always a fracture, but much more than a headache.
Chocking someone out with a dubbel artery choke takes 5 seconds, and is somewhat safer. Both from a health perspective and from the perspective that you might not end up with someone screaming at some idiot hitting their scull. But then the person might wake up in a few minutes.
In other words, a concussion. Below is an excerpt from a medical site: So in all probability, the guard you just tried to knock out would rather grab his head, dangle around like a drunk person and have no clue where he was -- perhaps even shout a curse or two that alarms nearby guards. I doubt a professional infiltrator would resort to such an unpredictable technique. Perhaps why special forces learn how to stab someone in the throat silently (stab, then tear outwards). Why use such a vicious means if you could simply press an unconsciousness-for-two-hours button at the back of peoples heads?
I forgot to mention it, but yes, we were trained to do just these when I was in the service. We called them the blood choke, because it blocks the flow of blood to the head and starves the brain of oxygen. The air choke, which starves the lungs, will kill someone. I had a blood choke appropriately applied to me (we were horsing around) and I woke up a few minutes later, and I was extremely disoriented, like I fell asleep, i.e. unable to chase a ninja.:redface:
Damn, you reminded me I've had the same happen to me, once. I was a kid and an older kid was just going to casually demonstrate how you hold someone's neck to strangle them...and then I woke up in the bush behind me, looking up at his pale, terrified face. Yes, this trick works.
The blood choke can kill you too if the choker continues to hold it after you pass out. This is true. If someone were to hit you in the wrong place on the head, the blow might not fracture anything, but the extra pressure put on your brain from the blow could be lethal.
Another tactic is just poison. Seriously, put something slow-acting yet lethal in a common food or water source (it's fantasy, correct?), and watch as all the guards die in a couple days. Suddenly you don't need to sneak. Of course, you might need to sneak to the food or water... Unless you could just poison a common well? Although that would kill EVERYONE, not just guards, and to infuse an entire well you'd need quite a bit of poison...
Both will kill someone, or permanently brain damage someone is applied for to long, and the blood choke will just do it faster. The difference with the air choke is just that you will use up all the oxygen you got stored in the lung first, and the blood choke won't offer you that extra minute of struggle. Both carry the same risk tough, the time scale on the air choke is just a bit longer. All times you choke someone unconscious there is a slight risk that the breathing wont start on it own after the pressure has been realized, and that you have to be ready to get it started. But just passing out isn't dangerous in itself. It just a safety mechanism to save oxygen and protect the brain from brain damage a bit longer. Another thing to note about chokes is that there is a stress/panic reaction when the airways a blocked for some reason. We have all probably felt it some time when we choked on food, had a bad cough, been choked etc. A panicking NEED to get the airways free NOW. You need to been chokes a lot to be able to override this instinct, and for example in an MMA fight just keep on fighting rationally even if the other guy got an air choke on you. As long as it just an air choke, you got about a minute of hard physical struggle before you start to black out. I been choked a lot (got a blackbelt in one style of jijustu and a first kyu in another style), and taught newbies choke holds and to handle being choked for years, as well as being taught how to deal with the risks.
Oh my, I'd hate to fight you!:redface: I remember that right before somebody passes out you can tell when they're about to. It's weird, the eyes glaze over, they start to go limp, and their eyes begin to flutter very quickly, like the brain knows.
Of course it knows. The brain shuts everything else down in order to preserve itself for as long as possible.
