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Author Topic: Keeping military behind defenses? HOW?!?  (Read 855 times)

Labant

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Keeping military behind defenses? HOW?!?
« on: October 21, 2010, 09:39:23 pm »

I am playing the mod that adds like 12 other civilizations.  I get sieged by Tigermen and as they are approaching Frogmen come from the other way.  I stationed my military behind the defenses (lines of traps and what have you) and for the first wave it worked great, I slaughtered the first 15 Tigermen but one or two got away and 5 out of my 12 are running after them no matter what I did, they just kept going.  Of course Frogmen with War Grizzlies tear those 5 to bits and the other 7 are pretty much useless after finally killing or chasing away the rest of them.

How, other than m-Move to station them, can you get them to stay where they need to be?  I might have got out of it not losing anyone if the frogmen had to come through my tunnels of traps and cages but instead half my soldiers rush right into certain death.  Is that just dwarves being dwarfs or is there a way to prevent that in the future?
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FuzzyZergling

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Re: Keeping military behind defenses? HOW?!?
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2010, 10:24:06 pm »

Keep your military from seeing the creatures, building and locking doors will also work well.
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rephikul

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Re: Keeping military behind defenses? HOW?!?
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2010, 11:05:55 pm »

remove those troops from military or set that's squad status to civ. That's make them behave.
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Intensifying Mod v0.23 for 0.31.25. Paper tigers are white.
Prepacked Dwarf Fortress with Intensifying mod v.0.23, Phoebus graphics set, DFhack, Dwarf Therapist, Runesmith and a specialized custom worldgen param.

darkflagrance

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Re: Keeping military behind defenses? HOW?!?
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2010, 11:25:53 pm »

To deal with suicidal tendencies, I construct my forts to minimize the disadvantage of cut-off dwarves. However, I feel no remorse about letting stray dwarves die, especially if they were too inexperienced to defend themselves.

In Fortress Defense, I assign my military to a burrow defined just inside the entrance and use an alert that tells them to go there when enemies come. I construct my fortress entrance behind a narrow path defined by walls, so that all enemies require a long time to get to the entrance to my fortress. If I use traps, they are positioned at the entrance to the path and built toward the fort (I generally never use more than 2 or 3 serrated discs to kill random elephants, along with cage traps that are not loaded unless I want prisoners for my arena).

Now, when the enemies come, I might temporarily seal the entrance behind them and wait until either I'm satisfied with the outcome. This also prevents enemies from escaping or killing my haulers while loot is gathered.

Alternately, I let my military decimate the first squad and then, if any (valuable) soldiers start pursuing, I order part of my military to escort them. The narrow path prevents new enemy squads from ganging up on my isolated men easily while giving my soldiers time to catch up to each other. In addition, the order of traps-> path -> fortress means that my soldiers are only fighting far behind my trap lines, meaning that even if they pursue, the enemy will generally encounter my traps before my army.

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...as if nothing really matters...
   
The Legend of Tholtig Cryptbrain: 8000 dead elves and a cyclops

Tired of going decades without goblin sieges? Try The Fortress Defense Mod

ioi101

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Re: Keeping military behind defenses? HOW?!?
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2010, 09:20:55 am »

The problem I have with long winding paths to a fortress is that your wood haulers waste alot more time then usual, and I tend to use alot of wood. Do you have two entrances, one quick and easy one for wood haulers that can be cut-off with a bridge and a secondary corridor for fighting?
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Nameless Archon

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Re: Keeping military behind defenses? HOW?!?
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2010, 11:48:16 am »

The problem I have with long winding paths to a fortress is that your wood haulers waste alot more time then usual, and I tend to use alot of wood. Do you have two entrances, one quick and easy one for wood haulers that can be cut-off with a bridge and a secondary corridor for fighting?
I typically have at least two, and preferably 3, with one short "citizen's path" and two long, winding, trap-laden, fortification covered "besieger paths" that open in different places far apart from one another.

All three can be independently closed remotely, allowing me to use open/close mechanics to funnel attackers to the path I want them to take. This helps with reloading traps (close all paths, reset traps, open one) or cleaning out pieces of the last attack (close one or two paths, funneling attackers into a ready and armed path).
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Funk

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Re: Keeping military behind defenses? HOW?!?
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2010, 11:58:24 am »

try building fortifications and useing cross bows to cover them,axe dwarfs can preped is small LOCKED rooms to keep them in till the charge.
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Agree, plus that's about the LAST thing *I* want to see from this kind of game - author spending valuable development time on useless graphics.

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