Dwarf Fortress > DF Dwarf Mode Discussion
Useless Mercenaries
buuface:
I decided to embark near a tower for the hell of it because my last fort hadn't been exciting enough (noob).
Pretty much the moment I designated a location for my tavern, which was auto-named 'The Tummies of Uniting', a group of 18 dwarven Warriors, including several elite marks and hammerdwarves came trooping over the hills to take up residence there. I thought great at least they can help defend my fortress from were-beasts or whatnot until such time as i can build up my own defenses and a military..
6 months later and they had done sweet f** all except dance around and share stories in the tavern, not even one had applied for citizenship even after i had properly supplied the tavern with rooms, a kitchen and a drink supply (I have no idea if that makes a difference), and discovered the first cavern system (I thought they might be waiting for that to become monster-hunters).
When took a closer look at them, they all had the description
'This visitor has come asking question and to relax. He has come seeking information about 'A Course on The Seasons and The Moon'.
I suspected that might be the name of an artifact scroll or codice and I had a look at the list of known artifacts from the civ screen but there were so many (with no search function or filter) that I couldn't find it.
Anyway before a whole year was up a neighboring necromancer decided to to invade with about 70 UNDEAD elves and humans (i thought that was a little harsh since goblins don't even arrive until you have reached 80+ civs). My fort and military was nowhere near prepared (only about 20 stone-fall traps) and so I had the clever idea of placing my civilian borrow BEHiND the Inn and using the mercs as a kind of shield, since they clearly had no intention of coming out of there to fight the invaders.
So i let the undead into my fort squashing a few of their heads with the traps on the way, and when they broke through the tavern doors the USELESS F-ING mercenaries just starting panicking and running around and even ran into my burrow, mixing up with my civilians. Needless to say utter, murderous carnage ensued and my 50 or so dwarves got torn to pieces. As the massacre was occurring I got a message.
'The Cat has revealed the location of 'A Course on The Seasons and The Moon''.
Umm, what?
jecowa:
--- Quote from: buuface on January 20, 2018, 08:28:52 pm ---'The Cat has revealed the location of 'A Course on The Seasons and The Moon''.
Umm, what?
--- End quote ---
I think this is related to a bug: 0010356: Animals reveal presence of artifacts to outsiders
buuface:
Aha! yes it would seem to be the one. Was kind of spooky and cool.
Any tips on dealing with the undead hordes?
And any idea why my visitor warriors were so pathetic?
Shonai_Dweller:
These aren't mercenaries by the way. They're adventurers. And give as much of a damn about your fortress well-being as your typical DF adventurer...
Hiarhu:
They don't sound like they actually were mercenaries and for any other kind of resident you need to wait until they apply for citizenship before recruiting them into the military or assigning them specific jobs. It takes at least two years for a resident to apply and mercenaries will never actually apply. They'll fight in your military and that's it.
Mercenaries need to be added to a military squad under a citizen squad leader and activated before they can be of use. If you don't tell them to train and fight they'll just drink and make merry. For a creature to stand and fight rather than run depends on it's discipline skill. A not active military creature with low discipline will pretty much always run instead of fighting even if not fighting back gets them killed.
Monster hunters are a specific type of visitor separate from mercenaries, you can't really tell them to do much and I've never seen them apply for citizenship. Though that could be because their tendency to go off and fight in the caverns alone means they don't often last two years. They aren't supposed to show up until you do breach the caverns.
For actually taking on the undead you want to use smashing weapons not cutting ones as the best way to kill the undead is to beat them into pulp which prevents reanimation. Cutting them up can just leave more parts the necromancer can reanimate. Also kill or capture the necromancer quickly if possible. There can be more than one sometimes hiding so beware an attempt to sneak in and reanimate your refuse stockpiles. They can't reanimate corpses from inside a cage.
It's best though not to actually take them on with a military if you can help it, not in such large numbers. Safest way to take on the horde would probably luring them into a proper trap. Use traps that will destroy the corpse entirely or repeatedly smashes it until it can't come back anymore. A common and easy one is a long hallway sealed off from your fortress with bait animals inside. Cover the floor of the hallway with raising bridges attached to a lever. When the horde goes after the bait atom smash them into oblivion.
If you want to get more creative you can also lure them into a place to be flooded with magma. A circular minecart track with a heavy steel or lead minecart and rollers or impulse ramps to keep it going can make a very effective undead blender but beware setting it up requires lots of practice and forethought as dwarves love to walk in front of speeding minecarts and explode. Weapon, Stone and Cage traps will work but require a large number to be an effective defense and don't hold up well against sustained assault. A bonus is that captured undead have a few uses like pit traps and training and a captured necromancer can be used make undead on command.
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