Bay 12 Games Forum

So I was under siege and tell my markdwarfs to fall back from the fortifications since a few of the goblins are elitebowmen. Well one of the stupid shits run all the way down into the cavern level at the same time a forgotten beast was approaching. I was too busy with the siege to notice at the time.  I have 6 cave in traps in a row. Its super redundant. I can take out 6 things in a row before I have to reset. Of course the FB is still in the first room trying to break open the door, waiting for me to drop the roof on his head. The idiot markdwarf goes in and duel this thing. Surprisingly he does well. The beast is heavily wounded, but it is breathing a dust attack. but it doesn't seem to do any damage. He has no apparent injuries because being unconscious.

So I finish mopping up the siege with my 6 military without any losses. and I remember about that FB. I expected him to have broken through several doors by now. But I saw the markdwarf laying on the ground next to him still in the first cave-in chamber.
 Instead of sacrificing him for his stupidity and killing both with the pull of a lever, I send a single sword master to go finish it, since it didn't seem to be too dangerous. It went down without much effort, but my swordmaster and a few civilians going in to clean up are exposed to the dust attacks. They all go unconscious, but not before the FB is killed. I think I made out pretty well. then while checking some injuries in the hospital. I go to the health screen to see why they are unconscious and discover all of them have lost their vision. I knew it was too good to be true.
They all recover quickly, but the vision loss is permanent I think.  Later on I see a report of the swordmaster sparring a rookie sworddwarf. The sword master is missing everysingle attack and isn't blocking any of the rookie's attack. He is going to be useless now.
It would have been better to kill the markdwarf with the cave-in trap. Now I have a half dozen blind morons.

Plant rock nuts with fertilizer to grow your seed stockpile. You can max it out in about a year. I use the job manager to make soap.
Mill seed/nut to paste x30
Press oil from paste x30
make ash x30
make lye from ash x30
make soap from oil x30

you can dump things when its in item form.
Press k to look. move the cursor over the cage item. press enter to select it, then press enter again to select the item inside and press d to mark the item inside for dumping.

I have a walkway for my sniper crossbow guys to patrol 1 Z-level above the main entrance. It works very well. The war dogs delay and detect goblins that try to get in and the crossbows shoot them before they get too close. I don't even have to close the main gate. The markdwarfs patrol 4 at a time in a squad of 6. Ambushes are dealt with automatically. All I have to do is reassign a new war dogs to the chains. The biggest pain is the body parts that get severed will go everywhere. They get stuck inside the fortifications and sometimes land on the roof. I floored over the top of the walkway to protect against flyers, since the pathway is connected to the heart of the fort.

the only way to clean these tiles out if to deconstruct the fortification and rebuild it. Someone will come and haul the body parts to the refuse pile. I like to have a clean outside. I claim every single thing and collect refuse from outside. The whole map is walled in except for the entry for wagon traders to get in, which is where my defense is concentrated. I've only lost 6 dwarfs in about 10 years. One of them was a swordmaster. Died of old age, what a shitty way to die for a soldier. Including the sword master, 3 died from only old age. 1 died from a failed mood, 1 got shot through the fortifications by a elite goblin bowman, and one was killed by an ambush because the melee didn't respond quickly enough. I could have set alerts to make the civilian retreat, but I was certain the melee would intercept the goblin first... No, they were sleeping or some crap.

I setup a goblin cage on the surface which turns out to be a ton of fun. It took me 2 sieges to perfect it. I have a 10x10 area of Fortifications. I built a gantry that is 1 Z-level higher for prisoners to get pitted into it.The walkway is fully walled in and hatched so the dwarfs aren't frightened by enemies that are already pitted. I make mark dwarfs patrol around it in a circle with an ammo pile close by. Its super effective archery training. After the first time. No civilians could get near it without being scared. So I built an outer wall layer around it, about 5 spaces offset from the fortifications.  As long as I am careful not to pit any ranged or flying enemies it is perfectly safe. I deconstruct the walls to clear out the bodies and get the goblinite. Since it is outside, it never gets stinky with miasma.

With the new animal training changes with the patch, dwarfs can lead prisoners to pit without any chance of the prisoners escaping.I mass pitted about 30 goblins into the cage arena. The dwarfs are walking prisoners halfway across the map with no escapes. I can't say what happens if the dwarf gets scared. So I made sure theres no way the arena is visible from the drop off gantry. It is kinda funny how a weak untrained dwarf can lead a goblin swordmaster to a death pit now. I don't even strip them of weapons or armor. I collect that crap after they have been pin cushioned.
I still need to figure out what to do with the ones that can shoot back. Pitting them off a very tall tower might be a better idea since they wouldn't be safe to use as target dummies.

I have survived a lot of sieges and I clean up the battle field everytime. I bin all the items and throw all of the corpses into the refuse pile. I have to keep expanding it because it keeps filling up and the bodies aren't disapearing. the regular stuff like bones and such will go away after a while, but the goblin and troll bodies don't seem to be.

Can you find some in the caverns with herbalist gathering?

Dear Urist McIExpectYouToClean,

When I turn off all your labors except Cleaning and stick you in a burrow named "Contamination," that means I expect you to clean.  See all that blood all over the main corridor on Z-level -1?  That's from our brave soldiers who recently defeated the flying Forgotten Beast with the poisonous vapors.  If anyone steps in that, their feet will start to rot off and bleed everywhere, which of course spreads the infection even more.  You may have also noted the dogs and cats who have recently exploded.  Our surgeons are overwhelmed.  Now get to work.

Dear Overseer,

I'm not touching that yucky stuff. Just flood it with magma. Don't forget to unburrow me though!

I never appoint him. All he does is damage and jail your own dwarfs for not meeting mandates and such. Makes the baron happy though.