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Author Topic: My first Siege  (Read 1898 times)

Haggoroth

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My first Siege
« on: March 13, 2018, 03:16:30 pm »

So I just got attacked by my first Siege, I'm playing on a fairly peaceful world and the first siege was ~15 goblin archers after I had gotten to around 175 dwarves.

My defenses were as follows:
  -I had channelled a moat around my entrance area using the river cutting across the map and left only one bridge to get to the area
  -I had built a road that goes down and below the straight path from bridge to entrance to my fortress
  -I had 3 lines of traps in the straight line from bridge to entrance and then a horseshoe of cages around my entrance area
  -Civilian alert was set to keep the population inside once a siege began
  -I had 2 squads formed (although not great on training or equipment, still working on those nuances)

Upon the siege starting I set my civilian alert and military squads to defend my entrance and waited to see how this would go
  -Goblins proceeded to slaughter everything and everyone outside (I had one dwarf that was unlucky enough to start right next to where they spawned and was shot down almost immediatly)
  -Most of my livestock was just in pastures outside, need to figure out a better method to protect them in the future, the goblins killed almost everything moving
  -Since I had so much livestock outside the goblins didn't path neatly through my traps, but I was lucky enough that they did end up sorta pathing through the area due to chasing livestock, a couple goblins injured from the stonefall traps and 11 trapped goblins.
  -I then started the kill orders for my squads because the siege was broken up by then, only needed to really clean up about 3 goblins, and there is currently a 4th sitting in the moat in a place my dwarves don't want to path to if I give them a kill order

Overall
  -3 dwarves lost
  -~20 livestock lost (although I wasn't really using them for anything yet, no leatherworks or butcher setup)
  -3 goblins killed, 11 captured, 1 drowning

I welcome any and all comments and suggestions.  Having a blast.
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rhavviepoodle

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2018, 04:31:49 pm »

With 175 dwarves, you probably should already have a fairly spartan militia started up. In case you aren't very well versed in running a military, I might suggest checking out the wiki's military quickstart page. Some science was done a while back that showed that dwarves will start sparring once they are competent fighters. Mind, sparring is the fastest way of actually increasing combat skills and their related stats.

Other than that, I can think of a couple other things.
  • at some point, you should dig out underground pastures and allow fungus to grow on them for your grazers
  • consider building archer towers adjacent to your moat's bridge
  • pasture or chain disposable animals around your map in order to distract invaders, buying your military time
  • I like to place cage traps on every 11th tile around the edges of my map (5 tiles from the exact edge, the closest you can build them), primarily for catching animals. It might be useful for handling invaders, though
« Last Edit: March 13, 2018, 08:43:41 pm by rhavviepoodle »
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DoctorDorf

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2018, 08:18:58 pm »

Alternatively, you can build a wall and roof around and over your pastures, and make an entrance tunnel into them from underneath.

I've currently got a fort setup that way but with above ground barracks: soldiers enter the barracks from the tunnel to train and can exit through sally gates (bridges) when needed.
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h27kim

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2018, 10:03:51 pm »

I always build "underground" pastures.  (necessary b/c I usually start in deserts and/or badlands).  The ground that you channel out counts as above ground and will sprout grass (even in cases where there is no natural above ground grass, e.g. badlands/deserts).  You can then cover the pasture with floor, and now, you have protected pasture proof from attacks (except through the designated entrance.
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Haggoroth

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2018, 12:01:04 am »

Of the suggestions, I think I'm going to go with pasture walls just because gaming the system to build it underground seems a bit off.  I'd rather not take advantage of a strange bug that will probably eventually go away.

Thanks though for all the comments so far, they do help.
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bloop_bleep

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2018, 01:17:58 am »

Of the suggestions, I think I'm going to go with pasture walls just because gaming the system to build it underground seems a bit off.  I'd rather not take advantage of a strange bug that will probably eventually go away.

Thanks though for all the comments so far, they do help.

Not really a bug. Once you've pierced the caverns, spores from cave moss and fungi start floating through fortress, and take root in soil layers. You can pasture grazing livestock on such layers with sufficient cave vegetation (or in the caverns themselves); they'll starve if you place them anywhere else.
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anewaname

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2018, 06:50:55 am »

Of the suggestions, I think I'm going to go with pasture walls just because gaming the system to build it underground seems a bit off.  I'd rather not take advantage of a strange bug that will probably eventually go away.

Thanks though for all the comments so far, they do help.
1-z walls around the pasture will block line of sight and protect your animals, but be aware that nearby hills may allow invaders line of sight down into the pasture (goblin archers will start shooting at the animals). Blocking line of sight is the most important thing, since aggressive creatures that can see the enemy will climb to reach them, and aggressive creatures that cannot see the enemy will not climb to reach them.

Flying animals like buzzards will fly close to attempt to steal things and this may startle your animals, who will jump away and may end up on top of the wall. For this, include a ramp on the inside of the pasture wall, so they do not become trapped up there.

To access the pasture, you could put a door in the walls to be locked when the enemy arrives or you could have a tunnel below the pasture If you have a tunnel, add a floorhatch over the stairs down, so you can lock access to the tunnel.

There are other risks with open-air pastures, but the ramp and the door/floorhatch will solve most of them.
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Haggoroth

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2018, 03:14:49 pm »

Is there noise alerting added to this game yet?  for example, if I build the open air walled pasture but the enemy paths nearby, will they hear the livestock on the other side of the wall?
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bloop_bleep

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #8 on: March 14, 2018, 03:20:22 pm »

Is there noise alerting added to this game yet?  for example, if I build the open air walled pasture but the enemy paths nearby, will they hear the livestock on the other side of the wall?
I don't think there is, but I'm not completely 100% sure, since you're able to hear sounds on the other sides of walls in adv. mode.
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Werdna

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #9 on: March 15, 2018, 01:53:03 pm »

Is there noise alerting added to this game yet?  for example, if I build the open air walled pasture but the enemy paths nearby, will they hear the livestock on the other side of the wall?

I've tested this with a cat within a 3x3 wooden uncovered palisade on flat ground that is directly in a common invasion path, and the invaders have never bothered to climb into it.  Unless the cat is too stealthy to be heard! :)

1-z walls around the pasture will block line of sight and protect your animals, but be aware that nearby hills may allow invaders line of sight down into the pasture.

Not only that, in my tests, 'sighting' a creature will also cause the melee invaders to charge and activate their climb/jump code.  They will happily climb the wall or jump a small moat and kill whatever creatures they saw.

This is an important point to remember for your own fort - a 1z wall is usually an adequate defense, but if the invaders sight someone on top of that wall (even just a cat!), they will happily climb to get to that target, and they may now have visibility down into the base.  Luckily, in my general experience they don't seem to communicate their sightings to fellow invaders.

By sight, I don't mean Line of Sight, I mean within their sight range.  You'll know when they've entered sight range because they visibly switch from the somewhat aimless "mill about towards the nearest entrance" pathing to the "straight line, charge!" pathing.  It's only the charge pathing that allows them to use climb/jump, I believe.
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Ggobs

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #10 on: March 15, 2018, 04:11:04 pm »

I use a zig-zagging path for the caravan. In the crooks and crannies of the path I place cage traps. Above the path I place archers. At the end of the path three balllistas. After all that a small metal equipped squad can finish off what few invaders remain.
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Haggoroth

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #11 on: March 15, 2018, 09:29:40 pm »

For the ballistas, do they have to be dwarves in a squad that you order to man it, or is it just regular dwarves?  Hmm..maybe the wiki has something on them.
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Insert_Gnome_Here

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #12 on: March 16, 2018, 02:24:47 pm »

Regular civilians. Toady ought to sort that out some time, since it's kind of a pain.
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Ggobs

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #13 on: March 17, 2018, 12:23:21 pm »

For the ballistas, do they have to be dwarves in a squad that you order to man it, or is it just regular dwarves?  Hmm..maybe the wiki has something on them.

Any dwarf with the siege operating enabled can use ballistas. If a dwarf is ac(t)ive in the military they wont operate the siege machines.
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Dunamisdeos

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Re: My first Siege
« Reply #14 on: March 17, 2018, 12:40:55 pm »

Since climbing you need a more-than-1z tall wall around above-ground pastures. If they figure out there are animals over there they'll climb over 1z wall to get at em.

I usually do 3-high with an overhang.
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