Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Thanshin]

Is there a main Siege ideas thread?

With things like:
- Goblin wall diggers (or goblin ram)
- Goblin stairs carriers
- Goblin river channelers
- Goblin bridge builders
- Gobapult (or Goblin thrower)
- Goblin wall-shield carriers (they carry a large wooden shield to protect those behind from arrows)
- Goblin spies (they come in hidden inside trade carts and then they poison the booze and activate the levers)
- Goblin bat-riders

[Safe-Keeper]

Footkerchief has an uncanny ability to sniff down multiple threads on seemingly any given subject, so he's probably better at posting links than I am.

In the meantime, have a listen to Dev Talk #2, which deals, in part, with sieges : http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/df_talk.html

- Goblin wall-shield carriers (they carry a large wooden shield to protect those behind from arrows)
- Goblin spies (they come in hidden inside trade carts and then they poison the booze and activate the levers)

These two I like, though.

Even though I hear crossbows will be nerfed in the next release, tower shields would be a great way to counter the "post crossbowdwarves out of reach on walls and pelt the enemy with bolts as they run for your locked doors" tactic.

The idea of a "trojan horse" caravan has potential, too, and really deserves its own thread.

[Footkerchief]

Footkerchief has an uncanny ability to sniff down multiple threads on seemingly any given subject, so he's probably better at posting links than I am.

Nothing uncanny about it in this case.  Here are the Suggestions search results for "sieg" (in case somebody titled their thread "sieging" or something).  Many of those are all-in-one threads for various siege ideas.

But yeah, DF Talk #2 is a good place to start.

[Pilsu]

The idea of a "trojan horse" caravan has potential, too, and really deserves its own thread.

Reminded me that the goblins have dwarves and humans in their ranks. They'd probably need special training to be able to meld into enemy societies even temporarily but they'd be very useful for getting in. Of course, we'd need some way to catch them. If they can just waltz in without anyone bothering them no matter where they go, they'll be nigh impossible to fight

Alternatively, their caravan could simply sell contaminated goods and detect traps. I suppose the AI is not smart enough to scope out defenses to any meaningful degree. A lone dwarven merchant shows up hawking a few wares, offers diseased drinks to the gate guards and goes on his merry way

[Euld]

Elf raised as a Goblin: "Excellent, we're in their Trade Depot!  Time to sell them poisoned booze, sabotage the traps, scout out the fortress, and once that's done we'll signal the siege to attack!"

Urist McMayor: "Elves again?  Please tell me they brought tamed Giant Eagles this time."
Urist McTrader: "Sorry sir, it's all cloth, except for some low grade sunshine."
Urist McMayer: "Pull the lever."
*Trade Depot gets doused in magma*

[Safe-Keeper]

When a degree of randomness and unpredictability is added to the game so that we get some random traffic past our fortress rather than just having scripted caravans and attacks arriving on a fixed time schedule, Trojan traders would be awesome.

Come on, imagine not knowing about it and having it happen to you for the first time!

:looking at idling wood furnance:
"Dangit, outta wood, gotta get some trees cut... wait, what's this? :drops axe and runs over to computer: Wandering human traders visiting my DF fort, superb, hope they brought lotsa cheese!" :orders broker to get to depot and selects some surplus goods to be dropped off for trading while making sure the on-duty military and lookouts are armed and ready up on the walls:

"Great, here they come rolling in, safely at the depot. And there the drawbridge is shut behind them. I think that unless they bring some really neat stuff I'll hold off trading the gold stuff, I'll save that for the annual dwarven caravan and their steel--

An ambush! Curse them!

I knew it! Been a while since those brigands made an attack attempt! Now let's see, where are they, at least those slow pokes decided to spring the ambush after the caravan got inside, hehe... :hits 'U' key, goes to "Hostiles" tab, tells game to zooms on first Human brigand on list, and watches the paused image...:

... ... !!! ... oh. Oh. Oh! Holy Armok-****ing #ق€@Җ!, HEEELP!

:Cue panic and frantic scrambling of troops as the poor broker and hauler start running in terror away from the trade depot:

Edit: of course you'd need some kind of preventive measure for this, such as the ability to let your guards search the caravan crew and holding on to their weapons while they're inside.

[xdarkcodex]

It would certainly make sieges alot more interesting and harder.

[blur]

Two other interesting things concerning sieges were:
  -setting the dwarven behaviour when seeing other units, so you can set goats treatened as neutral and the gobbo caravan as enemy.
  -pre-created alerts: A menu like the traffic preferences, so you can set the dwarves behaviour in several cases by yourself, e.g.:
stand down: like the dwarves everyday behaviour.
increased recon: some fortress guards starts patrolling around the fortress. (use: preventing thieves from entering the fortress)
maximal recon: most fortress guards and on-duty military patrols in the landscape. (use: search and destroy remaining ambushers)
combat alert: the whole military becomes activated (use: little sieges)
red alert: every dwarf with combat skills is activated for military and send to a squad, levers with a special peference are pulled. (reaction in case of a siege)