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[Shiv]

For the last couple years, every time the elves show up, a goblin siege comes shortly after. And by shortly, I mean within a day or so.  The elves haven't even reached the butchering depot by the time the siege starts.  So I just say fuck it.  Why waste my precious magma when their damn goblin friends can kill them just as well?  But then *I* have to clean up the body parts!

Also, why don't elves have weapons any more?  They used to shoot arrows at enemies, now they just run from them.  They're not even useful for the occasional free kill any more!

[ISGC]

with such bad relations with the elves, they probably come with only two or three pack animals and without guard
the elves attacking the goblins are just merchants, is my guess.

[Paul]

The truly terrifying thing is the amount of absolute crap the elves leave behind if killed by the goblins.

The amount of wooden junk they bring to try and pawn off on you is just ridiculous. I wish the caravans learned to just say "Gee, the dwarves didn't buy this wooden armor the last five hundred thousand times we visited them, maybe we should stop bringing it?"

[nenjin]

I think the ambush/siege mechanics go something like this. It looks at your dwarves and their positions relative to each other. If there is one dwarf isolated by a certain distance, and you're eligible for an attack already, because of time or wealth or whatever, then the game starts an ambush/siege.

So when caravans come in, it seems a bunch of guys spread out over the map, outside your fortress and goes "this would be the perfect time to attack."

DF has never failed to hit me with sieges and ambushes at exactly the most inopportune moment. Like, no attackers for 2 years (in the older versions) and the minute I break a hole in my perimeter wall, for whatever reason, the game sends ambushers or sieges. Or always going after the exact dwarf I knew they would, when later on in game I send hunters or wood cutters outside my fortress to work.

There is some fairly devious and opportunistic code running behind all that. The fact the game attacks right when *I* would have attacked as the goblins always amazes me.

[Shiv]

That's a good point.  I don't know if the ambushes/sieges just are triggered way the fuck out in no where or what, but ambushes and sieges ALWAYS seem to slay stray dwarves/kittens before even looking at my fortress.  They're wiley sonsabitches.

[o_O[WTFace]]

Well I read somewhere that goblins *do* follow caravans around.  Since there are typically all kinds of civilians running around the depot and killing a few merchants can make them leave it makes defense harder and more important. 

And ambushes definitely target any lone civilians or kitties they see and so naturally encouter them first.  You might be right, that they try and appear when you have stray civies outside.  Suspiciously few ambushes seem to run into my real fortress defense even though I keep everyone inside as much as possible.