Truthfully though it's not really worth it IMO... masterwork engines seem to miss all the damn time just like garbage ones, there does not seem to be much of a difference at all. Combined with the extreme overpoweredness of legendary military dwarves and traps and the difficulty in setting up siege engines in a good place and it's all just a waste of time.
quote:
Originally posted by Khosan:
<STRONG>There is (or at least was, since I haven't checked this) a way to fire ballista bolts so you don't lose the ammunition once it's fired. Just channel out the area underneath where the bolt will hit, and the bolt falls down to the hole below.</STRONG>
Another way of doing this is just to build the ballistas/catapults above ground level. They'll go some distance, hit an invisible wall and fall intact.
But unless you REALLY want a lot of legendary siege engineers, training on catapults is much faster. Once they're approaching legendary, they'll be firing a shot every few seconds. I really doubt you could keep making ballista arrows that fast -- stone is much more abundant, just create a stone stockpile right by the catapults.
[ March 27, 2008: Message edited by: Footkerchief ]
quote:
Originally posted by Hypcso:
<STRONG>With proper setup it isn't too hard to stop them. My biggest problem is siege operators with children.</STRONG>
Children, pets, spouses; and, afterwards, people going through to clean up ex-children, ex-pets, and ex-spouses; and, afterwards, people going through to clean up ex-cleaners; ...
Catapults you can just set on auto and no one gets hurt.
quote:
Originally posted by Hypcso:
<STRONG>3 engineers can keep two operators fed with arrows provided you have the wood.</STRONG>
1 engineer can keep n operators fed with 1 arrow each that never goes away provided you have n logs, and a channel under the entire length of the training range. Said length can be 1, by the way.