19th Galena
Vile force, 40 War Elephants (at least to start). Civ alert. All troops to station, raising bridges – except the one with that mech dragon on it, too heavy. Holding Archers in reserve, those ladies don’t have much in the way of armor. Time to see if Squad A with their war animals does the trick and also if all ten show up or just the scheduled five training. The battle begins on the west side with copper bullet turrets on the battlements and bloodsteel arrows coming from the Archers standing inside – long range on those foreign bows. First enemy casualty is from a construct, must be that Mech Dragon. Sending Squad A out to engage, 2nd enemy down is a War Elephant Champion, taken out by Athel, one of our steel-clad elephants who’s just earned his name. The invaders now are splitting into two groups, one coming in from the south and courtyard Archer ladies adjusting aim; Squad B is there waiting as are the white widow spiders just at the bridge gate so, cancelling raise order for that one. All invaders on S and W sides. Many red tiles now on the West Side surface, maneuvering Squad C there for cleanup and Squad A to the main force now at the South gate. ? – One tuskox bull is there out west, guess the excitement was too much to pass up. Well, good for him. Slade turret on the S battlement does damage, chipping elephant bone with each shot, surely that will slow ‘em down somewhat. None seem to be within range of the web turrets. Squad A now has an open slot but 17 invaders are down; a good ratio.
20th Galena
And it’s over. 38 invading elephants down, two fled the field, zero reinforcements (last invasion from elephants was 70, in three waves). Four are in cages awaiting judgement, probably will be target practice for the Archers to give more individual bodkin arrows for melting. Our casualties: one KIA, lasher Nomal Adil, he’ll be memorialized. What happens to his assigned grizzly? Four others in the hospital recovering from nasty pachyderm kicks but should recover excepting Axer Kib Ang; gored and smashed, those injuries look critical. Armok only knows how many animals are busted up but War Kennels are kicking in for vet care. Lifting civ alert. Only a couple of idlers after trading so adjusting tasks to free those with Animal Care for the Kennels’ vet duties. V screens show a half dozen animals with serious injuries, those War Elephants came at us with lvl 4 skills from the GUI. The nursing staff is seeming to take it on their own to report to the hospital, that’s good to know. Edit: Gemsetter Bashnom Adril is missing, assumed KIA, along with several white widow spiders. Us: 38, Elephants: 2
Clearly, armor makes a big difference for war animals.
After Action Report: nearly half the invaders were taken out by two Mechanical Dragons. In two days. Those things are just too tough, will be traded away or perhaps penned somewhere out of sight until higher levels on invaders. They’re both pretty busted up, how are they healed? War Kennels? Will have to watch tasks to see, there isn’t a listing on any of the workbenches specific to those.
After-After Action Report: Gakut Taz, axedwarf now has 14 notable kills including 4 of those elephants, dozens more from the visiting wildlife in these Untamed Wilds. And he’s our one-armed military commander, refused early retirement (high dodge skills, that one). Oh, shoot – 34 elephant corpses just at the walls and they’re being dragged inside for butchering like we need that. Dump to a smashing bridge or just Forbid carcasses and let ‘em rot? Seems like dead elephants could be sheared for ivory, guess that require a butcher. Well, we can always just dump or trade the meat. 30+ elephants will also be a lot of leather and rendered tallow along with bones and all those hauling jobs. Huh, there are elephant bodies on the east side, downslope, didn’t even see them in the fray. Rozed Aban and his hammer took out three, he’s ecstatic at the recent slaughter. He’s now lvl 6 with his ☼steel hammer☼ and lvl 5 on dodge. 40 invaders in one day is too many C reports to keep up with; his are an interesting read, will give him the next available war critter. Raptor, maybe, they aren’t as effective as the others but give more interesting reports with those spinning back kicks. 3A-Action report: looking over the many C report pages, halberds and pikes are the most effective against elephants as might be expected but axes and hammers can still get the job done, if closer in and requiring more blows. Lashers with blood-steel whips are wicked bad-ass against everything, Bashnom just had the bad luck to be first to engage a Champion. Clean up crew reports 17 individual silver javelins and 27 bodkin arrows for collection; I’d forgotten the Chuckers were equipped for werebeasts. Most shots fired were misses even with high-quality weapons but, long range. No single bullets, not even the copper ones? Bullets from visiting automaton snipers show up, seems ours don’t.
