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[Rude]

000
0N0
0F0
0  000000000000000
0  F                   
0ZF
0  F
0z F                   
0  F
00000000000000000

0- walls
F- fortifications
- trigger happy shorties (use Defend burrows)
N- necromancer Your friendly neighborhood Not-so-friendly-anymore friend re-animator
Zz- Zombies re-animating Friends targets (dump them from above.)

For everyone that has trouble making archery ranges work, for one reason or another.

[khearn]

That won't work with the dwarves so far from the fortifications. They need to be next to them to fire through them.

Code: [Select]

OOO
ONO
OFO
O OOOOOOOOOOOO
O _        D
OZ_         
O _   D     
Oz_        D
O _         
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Same as the first picture, but _ is a channel (with ramps removed, of course) and D is a dwarf
This way they'll actually fire.

BTW, when posting a design you haven't actually tried (and it's obvious you haven't tried this), it's a good idea put a note to that effect, so people will be aware that it's untested.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

With the redux, won't the zombies dodge into the channel?

Although I'm using a similar setup in my fort-- I just guarantee that the bolts never reach the target (via precisely timed furniture), so the baddies never dodge.

[Mitchewawa]

That won't work with the dwarves so far from the fortifications. They need to be next to them to fire through them.

There doesn't appear to be anything stopping them from doing that, so the OP's design will work with some extra wall placement (dwarfs can and will stand back from the fortification unless forced right up to it with walls). Fortifications work better then channels, in fact, because channels require an extra z-level dedication, and point-blank fortifications mean the dwarfs will miss (and therefore waste bolts) far less. Also, the zombies will dodge into the hole.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

There doesn't appear to be anything stopping them from doing that, so the OP's design will work with some extra wall placement (dwarfs can and will stand back from the fortification unless forced right up to it with walls).

Khearn, I believe, was referring to the fact that poorly skilled dwarves won't shoot unless adjacent to fortifications.  That doesn't really matter for Rude's design, except that he (?) put the dwarves fairly far back.  The proper way to do this is with a burrow smushed right up against the fortifications, so that poorly skilled dwarves can still train.

Fortifications work better then channels, in fact, because channels require an extra z-level dedication, and point-blank fortifications mean the dwarfs will miss (and therefore waste bolts) far less.

In this design, it's better that the dwarves miss than that they hit.  They get the same XP either way.  In either case, the bolts are wasted (lost, stuck into a critter in an inaccessible space, fallen in an inaccessible place).  But if the dwarves hit, they have to wait for respawn before getting to fire again, whereas if they miss, they get to keep shooting.

[Rude]

Re-spawn isn't a terrible issue, since you can stuff as many as you want into any size space (and they cast really fast).

Putting the dwarfs adjacent to the fortification does work better in my experience, but in this situation I was unsure of the Necromancer's range and killing him would lead to having to deconstruct the whole thing to reinstall a new necromancer or building a back door. (not to mention catching another, but I happen to have spares.) Putting him further back would have similar results if I put him too far back, but you can move burrows as much as you want whenever you need to.

[khearn]

You could also just have a husk in there and it will be a permanent target without the necromancer. I don't think they can be killed by bolts, no matter how many times you hit them.

That does require you are in an area with appropriate husk-making weather. But the original idea assumes that you have a necromancer on hand, which is also a hefty limitation. Either can be planned for before embark, but both are pretty much unobtainable if you haven't embarks in an appropriate location.

[Rude]

yup.
I don't have husks or access to husks. But I haven't started a fortress yet in 34.xx That hasn't had necromancers. Even ones that did not show a neighboring tower at embark.

Also, husks won't rack up your dwarves kill count...

[Urist Da Vinci]

I heard Necromancers can cast through windows. I haven't verified that, but it sounds reasonable since they can do their thing through fortifications.

[masquerine]

I had thralls on one map that I used plenty of crossbows on. A single thrall dog absorbed at least 10,000 bolts and was still "alive". Thralls can really only be killed in combat by slicing every little piece of them off (which basically requires you to have a thrall fighter of your own with a weapon).

I watched other isolated thralls (cleaned of ash that would otherwise generate new thralls) fight entire sieges against copper, iron and steel armed enemies. The thralls won each time by outlasting the 50+ strong invader parties. They simply refuse to die. Atom smashing or collapsing can obliterate a thrall. Combat is not effective, especially ranged. Great for practicing on though, if you can control them.

[Nunzillor]

Just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly:

A single thrall (of any type of creature?) can take down 50+ steel-equipped invaders?

[kaijyuu]

Unless they get a lucky hit with a slashing weapon, yeah.

Have to cut the body in half to kill em, iirc.

[Nunzillor]

 

...
Oh.

[Uristocrat]

Add a raising bridge in front of those fortifications (and possibly a channel just to keep anyone from getting atom smashed by the bridge) to make sure you can turn the range off when you need to.

[SharkForce]

unless your zombies are building destroyers, you could just put bars or grates or whatever in front of the zombies (won't block bolts) and that way they won't have a ditch to dodge into. if you're feeling *really* paranoid and given this is dwarf fortress, and FUN!!! happens, you probably should be), you could even still use fortifications for your dwarfs to sit behind, comfortably out of sight of the necromancer as well (out of curiosity, can necromancers raise people that die from old age? i'm just getting a bit of a chuckle out of the thought of your dwarf dying of old age, getting zombified, and now you have to deal with a dwarf zombie in your fort...)