Another new fortress, trying out something a little different (for me at least)...
Having gotten a little tired of the situations where you get "Urist McHauler cancels Store Item: Interrupted by <thief/snatcher/ambusher/low-flying budgie> x200", I've militarised my hauling operations.
Each new migrant is carefully assessed to determine the best use of their skills, and then either a) has all hauling labours disabled (in the rare case they have a skill I want), b) is given a membership to the fortress' Pump Gym (if they are promising melee dwarves or female, to keep them from dual-wielding babies into battle), or c) given a crossbow and told which end to point at the enemy (all haulers).
This has had some interesting results so far - most thieves that bump into my conga line of wood haulers don't make it more than a few paces before being riddled with bolts, and when sieges strike, everyone is summoned into the fortress walls, and the resulting firepower gives even Elite melee-goblins cause for concern.
One small problem with this is that ambush squads tend to be able to kill any hauler that's become isolated - in groups, the weight of fire usually makes the goblins pause (due to massive hemorrhaging) long enough for help to arrive, or the haulers to run away... if they can be persuaded that they aren't Urist McRambo.
I'm thinking with future work along these lines it may be more useful to have fully-armoured melee dwarves to take on this role - less use of consumables (I have a fairly steady deforestation operation going to supply my squads), and better survivability in melee. Only question is how to train them effectively; I'm considering doing a little testing using my Masonry team as part-time Hammerdwarves to find out how larger squads impact on melee training.
Oh, and I've previously voiced my suspicion that the elves are collaborating with the goblins - in the first battles at this fort, I was proved right beyond doubt, as the goblin squads forming the first ambushers were led by elves! Needless to say they were cordially invited to leave, and when they didn't they were shot repeatedly.
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 5861726 times)