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[HmH]

How do I raze a site with more goblins inside than the amount of dwarves I send?

I've tried sending a ten-dwarf squad of iron-clad badasses, and they invariably retreated after killing ten, sometimes almost twenty inhabitants. It's not what I expected: these guys can take on a few heavily-armed ambushes with next to no issues, so why are they running away from a bunch of civilians?
They didn't getso much as a single scratch in the process, by the way. And, as some experiments with sending my vampire to raze a small goblin pit showed, exhaustion was also not the reason for such an ignoble retreat.
So now I honestly have no ideas left as to why they just suddenly stop fighting and run away. I send them to raze the site, not raid or sneak into it, so why are they coming back after a job half-done?

Maybe the trick is to send three or four full squads instead of one? Do they all have to be skilled warriors, or do decent equipment and large numbers suffice?
What have been your experiences? Has anyone been succesful at razing three- or four-hundred-strong sites?

[PatrikLundell]

The technical reason is that these battles don't use the usual logic and blow-by-blow simulation used in a fortress, but something in between the active world army attack logic and normal fortress logic (unless the active world logic has been updated to actually match the raid logic).

[HmH]

That doesn't really explain how to raze sites larger than 20 inhabitants. Is it impossible right now?

[PatrikLundell]

No. I didn't comment on the razing part as I've never tried to raze a site. I've conquered sites with more than 20 inhabitants, though (60?, 100?, more?), but that means they yield, while I assume they won't willingly accept being massacred.

You ought to be able to whittle down the population of a site through repeated attacks, though.

[Urist9876]

A good tactician is important but very hard to come by.
With economic growth you might get economically linked hillocks which might have such a tactician.
If you are using DT or similar, you can check visiting scholars and performers for the skill too.

Else train someone as tactician as much as possible with smaller targets.

Then send in a lot of squads to the larger targets. They will do a lot of damage. But you will receive more casualties as you would expect.

I tried with 8 full squads. I had hacked in steel. Smiths kept remelting everything until it was masterful. Took a while. Squads trained. Many Elite. They got ambushed and lost 12. Including 4 elite. Killed 174. Noob tactician.

Subsequent tries gave similar results. Kept filling the ranks with the poets and scholars that just applied for full citizenship. It didn't even seem to matter that much that they were less experienced.

Then I tried with a master tactician I found in a nearby hillock later again. 3 dwarves were killed. Enemy lost 428. The rest of the enemy fled. Site burning.

Site had a few thousand to start with. So yes, it is possible to raze an enemy site with a much larger population. You will lose a lot of soldiers, weapons and armor.

Luck is a big factor. And tacticians. Next numbers. Armor and skill keep the casualties lower a bit. But not absent.

Odds are much better on own ground. Provoke them. Let them come. Then raze their site.

[TheRedwolf]

Tactician is probably the most important part, but craptons of war dogs help.

This is coming from a person who made several forts dedicated entirely to burning everything to the ground in the nearby vicinity. Repeat attacks are the key to actually defeating strong opposition, though attacking with a raze type raid will make things easier if it is successful

[Hans Lemurson]

Would it be worthwhile to keep a small sight nearby alive so that you can use repeated raids to train tacticians?

[FantasticDorf]

Would it be worthwhile to keep a small sight nearby alive so that you can use repeated raids to train tacticians?

Caves make good practice if they're enabled to be visible in advanced generation.