I beat a seige, but lost 6 military dwarves. Combat is absurdly rapid, and I have my fps capped at 30 instead of 100! The 10 invading goblins, all with crossbows (who says crossbows aren't dangerous anymore!?) rounded the corner in the tunnel into my fort, and crashed headlong into the 30 military dwarves I had stationed there. It was all over in a couple of seconds, with the full siege beaten, 2 dwarves dead, and the other 4 bleeding to death while carried to the hospital...I thought people carrying them were supposed to try to stop bleeding now?
The strategy is layers! My Axedwarf squad has for a uniform, leather cloak over metal plate over metal mail, leather trousers over metal greaves over metal leggings, etc. Also, layers in that when I stationed them there, I stationed the "Ugh I have too many migrants" squad just ahead of the axe squad. All 6 deaths were from Operation Dwarven Shield. See, crossbows are deadly in that they cause bleeding out fairly well, but bad at killing instantly, so as the goblin archers rounded the corner and pincushioned them, my Legendary Fighter/Axedwarf commander runs in lopping off heads and limbs left right and center!
I have a squad of 10 crossbow dwarves, but they categorically refused to train. I made an archery range and told them to train there, only instead of shooting targets, they sit there and demonstrate their dabbling dodging skill to each other, and even though the squad has 200 bolts assigned to it, their quivers are empty...if, in theory I manage to get them working, I'm building archery towers in front of the entrance, and walls to funnel them into a narrow corridor for better shooting/weapon trapping
I think I built my entrance too close to the edge, though, I may have to wall it off and redesign...I put too much faith in my axe lords chopping anything to ribbons.