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[GreatWyrmGold]

Seeing as the re-integration proposal has failed, Goldenherbs will mandate that any captured prisoners that did not attack a dwarf, domestic animal, or other friendly will be put into special rooms where they can be released to do battle with the enemy, ideally either being fired out of some kind of cannon and/or being able to be released into an arena to battle each other. Actually, that would be cooler. Monthly gladiator fights, beak wolves versus stranglers or goblins versus that undefeated poison-blooded forgotten beast...arena floodable with water and maybe magma by pulling a lever in special viewing boxes reserved for nobles...sometimes the militia or dwarven prisoners or even nobles show up to fight...repeating spikes/pressure plates/other traps that can trigger on friendly and hostile to liven things up, but only lethal ones, no stupid cage traps except to recapture gladiators...import lions from the elves, hell, feed elves to the lions...top-notch medical care for the winners, no one seems to come to me for check-ups and I need to hone the edge on my skills...maybe bimonthly, if we have enough prisoners...we're going to need a lot of cage traps, better tell the mechanics...free bread at the arena...
(By this point, Goldenherbs has grabbed some paper and is writing up ideas as fast as he can think of them, sketching an arena with spiked pits, bridges around the middle over a magma pool, and a tank that can be filled with water from the brook, with a spot for a pump stack and a tunnel leading off the side reading "To Some Outdoor Water Project," etc. He continues muttering until interrupted, at which point he asks for another minute to finish writing stuff down, does so, then hands the plans off.)

[Sir Broccoli]

Entry 7

Today was a good day; We almost finished Gcd's third elaborate stairway, we were making good progress on the arena, we just finished setting up some ballista's and Xer was busy training a brand new squad of marksdwarves.
We also set up a bunch of new industries: We built a quern to create dyes and powders, a dyer's shop in the brand new crafting wing of the fortress, a room dedicated to soap making and some rooms for butchering and tanning.

There was a small attack of white tigermen, but we just put some crossbowdwarves on the wall and took pot shots at them until they either left or bled to death. It was a cheap tactic, I realize that. But it's so much easier than to send out the melee units. Not that the melee units are weak, no sir. They are led by Anders II, an axedwarf wielding an artifact axe that one of the weaponsmiths made for him.

Everything was good, I was reading through the list of mandates to see what we could do next when IT happened...

I was dragged upstairs by one of the dwarves, he tried to talk but he was lost for words. When we arrived upstairs I noticed Gar had already closed the gates, appearantly the news had reached him first. We climbed up the wall and that's when I saw them...

Dark stranglers, as far as the eye could see. But that wasn't all, there were also white tigermen, goblins and even a squad of ferric elves. I stood there, paralyzed with fear and awe when I was brutally tackled by the dwarf who brought me up here.

"What did you do that for you-" zipTWONK! A bolt flew overhead and hit the half-finished parapett behind us.

"They got archers."

"Alright, we'll send out our own archers then! Get Xer to-"

"Dead"

It was at this point that I noticed the bloodstains covering the floor I was standing on.

"Did they all?.."

"Some of them survived, but they're hospitalized for at least a couple of days."

Damn! We couldn't beat this! No-one could! Opening the gates now would be suicide! Of all the-

"Sir?" It was Anders and his squad, equipped in full plate and wielding the most spectacular weaponry ever designed by any mortal being. But all that faded when you saw the look in his eyes, A look of fierce determination.

"Open the gates."

I nodded, there was no alternative but to comply. I gave the command and the gates started to open. On this side we had ten dwarves on their side they had about a million of the most fearsome creatures on the planet. This would be the greatest challenge that we -no, anybody- would ever face in history.

The gates were completely open now.

There was silence. A silence that seemed to last forever, a silence that could pierce through any noise, a silence that could only mean that in a short while things were going to get messy.

Someone roared, I don't know whether it was one of ours or theirs, but it was the most fearsome thing I ever heard.

Everyone charged at once.

It took them about twelve seconds to murder us all.

[Sir Broccoli]

So yeah, that was Fun.

The Fortress Defense Mod is fun and all, but I don't think I'll be using it for any future community forts. I was spending too much time with training military, digging graves and building up defenses and not enough time with fullfilling mandates, breaching caverns and aquiring magma.

If anyone has any tips or criticism (or praise, for that matter) please do tell me.

[Romeofalling]

As far as tips go for interacting with the forums, more screenshots and nitty-gritty details would help. I really have no idea what the gameplay of your fort ended up looking like, since I rarely saw what state the fortress was in, what you were planning to do, or how your executions ended up. In fact, I don't even know how long your fort lasted for.

As far as that is said, you've got a decent enough grasp of the game. Doesn't sound like there's much left to suggest for you other than surfing the wiki and forums for the little tips and tricks that teach us how to do specific things.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Sieges aren't that bad. Like pimples, they'll go away on their own. All they do is keep away merchants (annoying at worst), migrants (often a useful effect), and stopping you from using most of the surface's resources.  (meaningless if you have cavern access and/or a large courtyard). I suppose it's your choice, but i'd just reclaim and start back on mandates where you left off.

[JacenHanLovesLegos]

SOAP! I DIE HAPPY!

I agree with reclaiming.

[Karakzon]

i find the best way to deal with defence mod seiges is to have a design that includes walls, fortifications and an in your controll/inside courtyard that you can flood or is otherwise sealable. Never charge out of the gates, and dont use cage traps unless you have a seperate entrance for them. -cage traps will draw out your dwarves during a bad time to do so-
Seperate out the courtyard fortification levels from the outdoor ones, so you can put marksdorfs in to clear the courtyard without getting pot shotted at.

Trainning: 3 man team style will get you a millatery worthy of fighting most defence seige units in 3 to 5 years. Youll want iron and above as armour at the very least before you even look most things in the face for melle, beak wolves should be avoided for melle, their bite attacks will cripple fully armoured dwarves easily.

As for caravans, you may want to look into building underground roads that can be sealed or flooded for all 4 directions, since this will help protect them wile traveling to your fortress entrance. I suggest capturing as many stranglers as possible, their use as live trainning practice is next to none in value for speeding up trainning, also: make sure to cross train your marks dorfs in melle skills like dodge. Elite archers etc should only be engaged on your terms, preferably in a near fully controlled and sealable environment if you dont manage to cage them all.

[Sir Broccoli]

The problem is that the fortress defense mod make things too difficult. Yeah, I could shut the gates and suck my thumb until the bad guys leave but that hardly provides for interesting reading.
I think I might do another one of these forts, but in vanilla DF (and maybe I'll make it a succession fort.) I still think the idea of citizen mandates is a fun one, but only if I can actually fullfill the mandates (which is damn near impossible when you're getting triple sieges+a handful of ambushes.)

[peregarrett]

Too bad it's over... we should have mandated massive defences before starting that madness.

But since you're going to have another attempt with vanilla... Can we have just a single mod? Add [MISCHIEVIOUS] tag to monkeys, that'll make them pull levers. And if you release one of them at control room... that's FUN.

[ansontan2000]

Ah great. I vote for reclaiming WITHOUT fortress defense. Somehow i think i'm cursed whenever i use that mod. My best fortress in  vanilla survived 10 years. My best fortress in fort defense lasted 6 months.