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[Ravendas]

I just abandoned my most recent fort. Due to poor frontal planning, my defenses were lacking to stand up adequately against the combination of goblins every season and elephants year round. So I am restarting with more of a plan.

However, I have never used any siege weapons. I checked the wiki but I have a few questions still.

1.They are built as 3x3 buildings, made out of 3 'siege components', correct? Can I build and dismantle them over and over to level up engineer skill to make better ones eventually?

2. Where does the operator stand to make it work? Can I have it walled in on 3 sides and only the rear exposed (firing out of a fortification of course)?

3. Do they block movement? Can dwarves walk over them?

Need to know these answers before I begin planning on a new fortress. Thanks ahead of time.

[Ravendas]

Er whoops, posted this in the discussion instead of questions forum. I apologize, if this can be moved please do so.

[Chthon]

I'm sure noone minds.
Personally I'd like to know, but figure I'm prolly gonna have to play with them a bit.  Goblins have just sent 3 in so far, but kobolds, those buggers come in every season in packs of 10 (poorly armed men)  Not sure how long it'll be before they seige me (if they siege, never heard of a kobold siege)

[Ravendas]

I've never heard of a kobold siege either, they just mostly sneak in, flip levers and steal stuff. Humans, goblins, and elves can and do siege however, depending on how much you anger them.

[Gakidou]

quote:Originally posted by Ravendas:
<STRONG>I've never heard of a kobold siege either, they just mostly sneak in, flip levers and steal stuff. Humans, goblins, and elves can and do siege however, depending on how much you anger them.</STRONG>

Elves don't seige, they ambush.

[qwip]

Based on my limited experience with catapults, I'll try to answer:

1) Yes, I think you can have a Siege Operator build/destroy the catapult to increase skill. You didn't mention the Siege Workshop a 5x5 structure, but I assume you know that is where the components are manufactured. I hadn't thought of upskilling the engineer through assembly/disassembly, but that would certainly save more wood than my current approach of creating lots of catapult parts. As for which results in faster training, I dunno.

2&3) When loading, the Operator stands in the middle of the device. It appears that the remain there until it fires, but both of my Operators are far enough up in skill level now that the Fire Catapult command seems to happen while the Operator is jumping off to reload. Based on my layout, the Operators are free to walk through/across all 3 tiles aligned along the firing axis.

I also seem to remember other forum postings where people showed off their front gate defenses with ballistae tucked into 3x3 rooms. But the designs were presented in terms of "hey look what I *just* built, it *ought* to crush those gobbers, huh?". (I added the emphasis to point out that the design was untested, although the responders only mentioned that the Operators would likely run away before gettting off a couple shots because they're civilians.)

I hope that helps.

[TomTheHand]

I don't have personal experience with this, but someone's going to mention it eventually and it might as well be me.  Siege operators are civilians, not military, so they get spooked when bad guys are near.  If you put your siege engine right up against the fortification and a goblin runs up to it, the operator will take off running.  You should set the siege engine back a few spaces.

[ColonelTEE3]

1. In theory, yes, you could do that.

2. The operator stands right behind the end of a where a ballista bolt is loaded, temporarily placed "inside" the ballista while he fires it, and then steps out.I highly discourage you try to wall in a ballista as it will take more time to get your engineers to each ballista. What i did was i made a large area at the very front of my base, extending up and down the front wall that went about 8 or 9 spaces deep, giving me room for supports, ballista, ammo stockpiles, and most importantly - mistakes.

3. They DO block movement, dwarves can NOT walk over them, make sure to create ample walking areas around them.

Hope that helps.

[ March 01, 2007: Message edited by: ColonelTEE3 ]

[Ravendas]

Ok, yeah I saw the siege weapons tucked into tiny 3x3 rooms with only a single door allowing access, which is why i wondered if it actually worked, or if it just looked snazzy. I did plan on making 2 walls, both fortified, to give extra space between my civilian operators and the enemy. I'll probably place a moat between the walls just to make sure they don't get spooked.

Thanks a lot for the replies, you've been very helpful. And I know the 'assemble disassemble' is really cheesy, but it's so difficult to get some skills up. Toady needs to make a 'school' or 'engineering college' for your siege engineers to go to to up their skill. Much slower than actually building, but similar to sparring in barracks for your military.

[Kylaer]

Wait, increased-quality catapult parts make your catapults more accurate? I thought that was a factor of Operator skill only...?

[Carlos Gustavos]

quote:Originally posted by ColonelTEE3:
3. They DO block movement, dwarves can NOT walk over them, make sure to create ample walking areas around them.

Catapults do not block movement.