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[MenacesWithSpikes]

Noob question here -- How do I give orders to all my non-military dwarves to drop everything and congregate in one place (preferably deep underground) during a siege?  I think it has something to do with burrows, but I'm not sure how to do it.

[Laughing Man]

First, designate an area as a burrow.  Then, in the military screen, go to Alerts, and make a new alert.  Scroll over to the burrows column, select the burrows you want your civilians to hide in, and hit enter.  Once you've done this, all your useless maggots civilians will rush to the burrows the moment you activate that alert.

[MenacesWithSpikes]

It works.  Thanks!

[Fredd]

great thing about alerts, that you can get the civvies to a safe area, hopefully the lever room, to close entrance ways, and have the squads at the same time marshall their forces at strategic positions. Since burrows can overlap, you have the option to enclose all the housing, food supplies and shops in another burrow, that overlaps. So make another alert, that covers these safe areas, while your military goes to their fighting position. Once hostiles are taken care of, deactivate this alert, so the soldiers can go back to training, and you can mine/woodcut anywhere, gather goblinite

[greycat]

First, designate an area as a burrow.  Then, in the military screen, go to Alerts, and make a new alert.

There's no need to make a new alert.  On the (m) (a) screen, you should see something like this:

Code: [Select]

ALERTS           SQUADS                       BURROWS
Inactive [CIV]   The Mountainous Watches      Burrow 1
Active/Training  The Dyes of Wheeling
                 The Geared Splashes        A
                 The Rough Sieges           A

Press Right Arrow twice to highlight your burrow, and Enter.

Code: [Select]

ALERTS           SQUADS                       BURROWS
Inactive [CIV]   The Mountainous Watches      Burrow 1         A
Active/Training  The Dyes of Wheeling
                 The Geared Splashes        A
                 The Rough Sieges           A

The A by Burrow 1 means the civilians are now restricted to this burrow.  Repeat the process (remove the A) to unrestrict them.

[Fredd]

The alert screen shows the status of the squads at all times, plus enables Civ alerts, once a safe burrow is created. The squad Menu assigns the squads to begin with, to either active or inactive status,and the alert menu also. When you create a new Alert, it opens up a new menu on the scheduling screen, as well as on the  squad menu. The alert menu corresponds with the squad menu, visa versa. So when you make a new alert, you can schedule the actions you want your military squads to take during the alert, instead of either active, or inactive schedule. Making a new alert opens up new options for the military to take.
 Soooo, you make a new alert, named bugout. Have a burrow that is safe, which contains the levers for drawbridge closing. Create some spots, using notes, where you want certain units to station. Creating the new alert, you have a new schedule page. So you have your archers station at one spot, your melee station at another. To do this, go to each squads schedule for that alert. Copy, paste pertinent orders, same for each month for that squad. So when the gobbos arrive, activate the civ bugout alert, go to the Squad menu, chose a squad, then scroll till bugout appears. Do this for squads you want. They will go to that position, you ordered them to, in the alert schedule. Adding a new alert helps to give the military better options, than active, or inactive. Also more options on the Squad screen, than move, or kill orders

[tolkafox]

First, designate an area as a burrow.  Then, in the military screen, go to Alerts, and make a new alert.

There's no need to press three additional keys.  On the (m) (a) screen, you should see something like this

Why do people keep saying this? O.o Yes, you do need to create a new alert. Number one, it's three additional key presses. Number two, it opens up more options. Number three (and this is important) it eliminates any unnecessary confusion with burrows. The last thing we need is more confusion about burrows.

Your creating confusion in the name of laziness. Stop that!

[Fredd]

Ty Tolka, I did not want to mention the lazy factor. Actually, Toady has the military, alerts, uniforms set up to save time, and problems. Just gotta set game on pause, and type some.(Shrugs)

[Niseg]

I have a small tip related to activating the alert - I'm a sore loser so I usually attempt to "win" by killing df reloading  on siege/ambush.

In my last ambush my dwarves were busy outside chopping trees and bringing them home  . My fort has 2 main access points a Northern one and a Southern one. The dwarves were chopping trees at the north east while goblin came from north/northwest.

When turning on the alert the dwarves naturally ran toward the closest fortress entry - the northern one.... and then goblins came and chased them away. This caused the dwarves to run away instead of running home through the south gate.

I've found a simple solution to this - before starting the alert (when you do they find their new path) you have to paint traffic zones so the dwarves go where you want them to go . This works great here is how it looks like (picture folded):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

if S is where dwarves start D is their destination and little w's are the goblins ( the only marker I got  in my program) . Drawing the traffic zones caused the dwarves to avoid the northern (closest ) entrance and take the southern one. It works in my simulator if you want to test it but I don't save traffic zones so you have to draw them yourself. If you use regular A* it would go through the north entrance with A* traffic it will go through the south.

It's critical you draw traffic zone before you enable the alert. The alert tell the dwarf "stop whatever you are doing and find a path to this burrow " . Once a dwarf finds a path they will use it until they hit a wall, see danger etc.

[greycat]

I'm not trying to endorse laziness, and I'm definitely not trying to increase confusion -- quite the contrary!

The default alerts are sufficient to restrict civilians to a burrow on demand.  I demonstrated how to do this.  This is the simplest way I know -- in fact, it's the only way I know -- to do this.  When I see a wall of text about creating this and that burrow and assigning that and this schedule and squad and and and and... my eyes just sort of glaze over.  Maybe I'm doing it all wrong.  That certainly wouldn't be a first.  But I'm certainly trying my hardest to explain the interface, and how to work with it, in the best way I know how.

When I want to put my civilians in the burrow, I do it, using the technique I showed in the previous post.  When I want to let them out, I do it.  It's that simple.