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[entelin]

So I am under attack by a necro siege, I thought I was totally boned(lol) because I had not walled anything off yet, food production all outside, and only two (albeit fairly kick ass) soldiers with great training but terrible weapons (copper axe, iron spear) and no armour. VS like 85 undead all together. So I cleared all the labors from everyone, and they all successfully! built a wall protecting the fort and food production. The axe dwarf got aggro and ran off, the spear dwarf was walled off inside.

..... And then the axe dwarf killed ALL OF THEM (like twice so far),  and named her axe.

sooo that was unexpected, but I have a few questions.

1. When the siege started all the mussel shells by the river turned into undead (about 40 of the 85 undead in total are mussels),  I don't see a necromancer with the siege, so how does this work? All remains on the map turn once at the start of the siege?

2. If that's true will corpses in coffins also rise? (I didn't have any dead dwarves yet)

3. The wiki on zombies indicates that there is some kind of infection,  one dwarf besides the axe dwarf was outside and was killed, his severed arm animated, and then his corpse. Is that a result of infection?

4. I assume that without a necromancer or infection, corpses will only turn into undead at the very start of the siege? So for example, if someone dies during the siege for some other reason they would not become zombies?

Thanks for clarifying this

[enizer]

there will not be new zombies on the map after the siege starts, unless there is a necromancer along with them

this mean the necromancer IS still on your map, sneaking around somewhere

your best bet is to catch something reanimate, this means the necromancer is nearby, and in a line of sight to that new zombie.
heavy use of war dogs also helps catch hiding enemies

i dont have that much experience in catching sneaky non-confrontational invasions like this though.

[Matoro]

1. Necromancers are in ambush mode/invisible untils your dwarves encounter them. They can reanimate nearly every remain, body part and corpse.

2. I really don't know, it has never happened to me.

3. No, it's nothing to do with infections. Severed hands will be reanimated because of they can grasp.

4. The necromancers hiding in your map can rise infinitely undead whenever they want to(as you said, your axedwarf killed many zombies twice - they were re-reanimated).

Axedwarves are awesome. However they will make more zombies because they sever many body parts that will turn into new zombies. Againts undead it is recommended to use maces, hammers and crossbows.

[Pie Maker]

I'm afraid you've got it all wrong. You actually do have a necromancer, but he arrived at your fortress sneaking (ie. invisible to you and your dwarfs), in the same manner that thieves arrive. Necromancers usually arrive at your fortress in this way, and can also sneak into your map when you're not under siege. Therefore, the animation of corpses does not have anything to do with the "siege" status, but is dependant on the necromacer animating them.

As for other reasons for animating, the only other way is if you live in an evil biome with reanimating properties, which is evidently not your case. Also, where does the wiki mention infections? As far as I know, the only similar infections are those caused by certain clouds in evil biomes, which turn living creatures into thralls or husks and spread if the contaminant reaches another creature.

Edit:Double Ninja
Edit 2:Also, yes, necromacers can animate corpes inside coffins, if I remember correctly.

[entelin]

Ah ok so if I kill a zombie, it wont get back up unless theres a necro around? And you can have a necro despite it not showing up on the unit list then? I actually did successfully finish off that siege,  dug a pit down to lava, my one axe dwarf was killing everything and I had everyone else trying to throw the remains down the pit.

Though I havn't found the necro yet.

[Matoro]

Sometimes the necros do same that other sieges - if they won't manage to kill your dwarves, they simply go away and come another time with bigger gang.

[Garath]

bodies in coffins can be reanimated if the necro can see them. One way to catch a necromancer is to make a room your garbage place. The necromancer will path there to reanimate the hair, remains and body parts. If you make sure he encounters a cage trap before he can reanimate anything it's done. Make sure there is more than one trap, there may be more than one necromancer. Having necromancers like this is great for military training.

As to the 'infection' zombies:
in evil areas there are sometimes dust storms or other evil weathers that transform anything it touches into a 'zombie', husk or whatever name is chosen. These husks (I'll call them husks to avoid confusion) reanimate and are for example covered in dust. Now one is temporarily killed and a dwarf comes to drag it to be destroyed. If that dwarf doesn't have gloves, gauntlets or mittens, he touches the dust and will become a husk too, or a soldier that is punched in the face, or gets bitten (just making that up, but you get the general rule)... Anything that touches the dust or is touched by something covered by the dust will become a husk.

It was part of "making evil regions really evil"

So, to recap for Q4:
dead stuff only reanimates when there is evil weather that creates husk zombies, when the terrain naturally reanimates everything, or if there is a necromancer somewhere on the map within visible range of the remains (his visible range, it doesn't mean you get to see him)

Next time if there is a tower or other necromantic place near your embark, prepare for it by making a secure refuse pile

[entelin]

Yeah actually there's like 4 towers in range of my embark site XD

I havn't had any issues with my refuse actually, that's deep in my fortress. I've been trying to go out and kill the necromancers,  which worked for a couple sieges. Though this time theres around 4 of them out, so I think I'm going to build a death trap instead.  I'm thinking of redirecting the river to wash them down a 30 level cliff with spikes at the bottom or something.

If my soldiers could just be ordered to dump bodies I'd probably just continue fighting them,  but it's not very practical when you have to rely on civs who just run around when they are anywhere near anything hostile, even when they aren't actually in danger.

[Merendel]

If you build/dig an S shaped path you can still have your military moping them up but be able to get civies close enough to dump the bodies.   The idea is you need to block line of sight.  build your hallway with several S bends in it, station your military on the side closest to your base and open the far end to the outside(seal off other entrances to your fort)  The undead will path in and get redead.  When you want your civies to start cleaning up the bodies move the military around the corner to the next bend in the halway so they stop any new dead there.  Because the necro can not get line of sight to the bodies behind the military those corpses wont reanimate and scare your civies.

At that point you can either repeat the procedure through several bends in the hall or just retreat the military back to the starting point and let the undead come to you.  however if things are reanimating in the hall you might just want ot have the squad sweep the hallway and find the necro as he should be easy to find at that point.   Alternitively try to trap the necro and setup your own little military training room where they get to stomp undead over and over.

[entelin]

ooo yeah the S shape is a good idea, I'm going to do that, Thanks