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[Firehawk45]

So, now i have a nice little fortress, but i encountered a massive problem: The only material at my disposal that is suitable for weapons is tetrahedrite, which only results in copper and silver.... not the best start i think. I retinkered my defense to rely on marksdwarfes and weapon traps.

Now my questions: How effective are copper bolts? And which weapons should my mindless minions proud dwarfes forge for the traps? Serrated disks, balls or blades?

[Garath]

any metal bolt is deadly


copper is decent for both spiked balls and serrated discs, silver is the best ordinairy metal for spiked balls

copper serrated discs are fine against goblins. They won't penetrate the helmets or armor, but usually slice off or cut open any limbs

[WCG]

No expert, here, but I think copper bolts should be fine, certainly against most enemies. For the traps, I'd use silver balls, because silver is heavy.

Do you have sand? Glass serrated disks are supposed to be very good in traps. And once you kill a few goblins, you'll get metal you can melt down for your own use. Or purchase it from traders, of course.

So this is mostly a problem at the start, I'd think. Copper bolts and weapon traps with silver spiked balls should be very effective then.

[weenog]

Silver makes for powerful hammers, too, again due to weight.  You can still have melee units in your militia if you want them.

[Firehawk45]

considering the fact that the gobbos are showing up with jabberers and lashers, i think i will stick to my marksdwarfes.... man, that fortification over the entrance is really paying of now. Can i butcher killed riding animals?

[dexxy]

copper war hammers should be good too, and copper giant spiked balls for traps

[Thorik]

Copper is the cutest of all metals.  So adorable    You can always purchase some goblinite, and buy metal bars from caravans works nicely. 

[Mushroo]

Request steel bars and anvils from the traders. You can melt down the anvils to make steel bars. This will allow you to fully arm & armor at least 1 melee dwarf per year (2 or more if you mix in some iron/bronze/copper items), which is plenty assuming you also have a good training schedule to make them legendary fighters.

If you prefer traps/archers then copper should be just fine. Remember that goblins are not a static challenge, but increase in number with your fortress wealth. So as you create more & better weapons/armor/traps, you'll get more goblins & other nasties to test them.

[Firehawk45]

Request steel bars and anvils from the traders. You can melt down the anvils to make steel bars. This will allow you to fully arm & armor at least 1 melee dwarf per year (2 or more if you mix in some iron/bronze/copper items), which is plenty assuming you also have a good training schedule to make them legendary fighters.

If you prefer traps/archers then copper should be just fine. Remember that goblins are not a static challenge, but increase in number with your fortress wealth. So as you create more & better weapons/armor/traps, you'll get more goblins & other nasties to test them.

Exactly this is kind of the problem im in now... A siege were fight back (mostly by goblin squadleaders being drowned by their riding animals). Happy to collect the goblinite, i opened my drawbridge

A VILE FORCE OF DARKNESS ARRIVED!

Thanks for the fun, game..... my marksdwarfes are doing a good job in shooting down gobbos, although some cave crawler thingys made it into my Fort before the bridge rised. They killed 3 Marksdwarfs and wounded 2, so my commander lost his whole squad, poor boy. Scratch this part, my medics werent fast enough, 5 dead Marksdwarfs now, so my military really decreased in size

[greycat]

Can i butcher killed riding animals?

Yes.  And most of them give quite a lot of meat.

[Matoro]

Silver bolts are quite deadly because of their weight. Or so I have heard, and also saw.

If only useable ore is tetrahidrite, I would make full copper armor and blunt weapons from silver. And lots of marksdwarves. And try get much iron and steel from caravans.

[greycat]

If only useable ore is tetrahidrite, I would make full copper armor and blunt weapons from silver. And lots of marksdwarves. And try get much iron and steel from caravans.

Agreed.  Shoot invaders with bolts to cripple them, then send hammerdwarves out to finish them off.  This works beautifully, even against heavily armored opponents.

[DTF]

I pretty much was in the same situation you are in - only copper & silver and flux. You can slowly equip your soldiers with steel armour if you keep trading and melting every piece of iron/steel item you can find. Traded bronze armor works well as a substitute in the meantime and is quite cheap.
For starters, just train your armorer with copper, slowly building up towards iron or steel. Eventually, you will probably make some adamantine armor as well.
And bolts: yes, copper/silver is good. Even bone bolts can penetrate gobbos copper armor - but you'll drown in tetrahedrite and galena anyway, I bet.

The only real danger in gobbos are their ranged fighters. An elite gobo crossbowman ignoring the fortifications will usually kill at least one of your marksdwarves, or more if you cannot focus your fire on them (which is highly unlikely).  Drawbridges built infront of your fortifications can serve as lever activated cover if your crossbowmen get under too much fire. Like so:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If you're really concerned about keeping wounded marksdwarves alive, you can even raise the bridges, recover the wounded and resume fighting afterwards. It also has the advantage of not letting your dwarves see the enemy which can be useful if you want to reposition them, etc.

To the left of the picture you can see 2 ramps. While their ranged fighters are busy fighting my ranged fighters, melee gobbos will keep moving on towards the ramps. Beneath the ramp I station my axe / spear (yes, spears - I had an artifact weapon ) dwarves well out of line of sight of the ramps themselves (to keep them from heading towards the enemy too early. This way I do not have to worry about my close combat fighters being pelted by arrows.

Of course, you could also just build a google of traps... but you are playing DF for Fun, right?

[Chaos Armor]

What about silver crossbows? Marksdwarves tend to use their crossbows as blunt weapons and if I remember correctly they use hammer skill when using the crossbow as a blunt weapon. So shouldn't a silver crossbow work well?

[Tirion]

What about silver crossbows? Marksdwarves tend to use their crossbows as blunt weapons and if I remember correctly they use hammer skill when using the crossbow as a blunt weapon. So shouldn't a silver crossbow work well?

They are still crappy. Especially in the hands of lightly armored Not Hammerdwarf individuals.