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Author Topic: Surviving a Necromantic Seige  (Read 2646 times)

thelordberg

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Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« on: April 24, 2012, 05:23:24 pm »

I am having some serious issues involving a Siege. The problem is, my dwarves cut down some walking corpse, and then the damn thing AND ALL OF ITS SEVERED LIMBS get right back up to start murdering anew. Anyone survived such a siege, and knows what I should do?
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I'm unspeakably dissspointed. A dwarven fortress has discovered a sentient creature made out of mushrooms, and no one has proposed brewing him?

Solon64

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Re: Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2012, 05:27:32 pm »

Depending how long it takes for them to get back up, the ideal strategies usually involve either a trash pit/moat which you dump all the kibbles-n-bits into, let them reanimate somewhere they won't cause more problems, or dumping them into a magma hole.  Or atomsmashing the bits, for people who actually do that (I've never really wanted to :P)

If they ressurect within 30 seconds like I swear some of them do, you may have issues.

Also, do not apply magma BEFORE being kibble-fied.  Eternally burning zombies don't die, they just ignite your dwarves.  Makes for even more !!FUN!!
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PS: Seriously, you must have, like, super-getting-lost skills. You could go missing in a straight corridor and impale yourself on flat ground if I don't tell you where to go.

davros

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Re: Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2012, 05:29:32 pm »

Don't fight the zombies. Hunt down the necromancer. Once he dies, the rest will be child's play.
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Quote from: Malarauko
I had an above ground garden built in the grounds of my castle and two young dwarves spent time socialising there over the summer and at the end of the summer they were in love. Remember those long summers of your childhood? That first kiss in the gardens while crossbows dwarves shoot goblins above your head? The rain of dead birds as the hunters get to work? Truly Spearhills is a paradise.

thelordberg

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Re: Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2012, 05:31:46 pm »

Its pretty close to 30 seconds, and strangely (due to CTRL ALT DELETE shenanigans) I have determined that the reanimation process gets QUICKER the more corpses die. As in, I was very close to the end of the siege, about to let the mechanics out to reset all the traps, when there's a sudden spiral of activity as a dog reanimates, is put down, ALL THE PIECES GET BACK UP, and I cut them into smaller and smaller bits that keep getting back up. Its frustrating, especially when your marksdwarves run out of bolts, run up to kill them via Crossbow to the head, THEY DIE, and then they get back up...
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I'm unspeakably dissspointed. A dwarven fortress has discovered a sentient creature made out of mushrooms, and no one has proposed brewing him?

thelordberg

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Re: Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« Reply #4 on: April 24, 2012, 05:33:11 pm »

Don't fight the zombies. Hunt down the necromancer. Once he dies, the rest will be child's play.
Problem is, the necromancer IS dead. As in, not showing up on the Unit screen anymore. Does his magic persist or something?
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I'm unspeakably dissspointed. A dwarven fortress has discovered a sentient creature made out of mushrooms, and no one has proposed brewing him?

Hyndis

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Re: Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« Reply #5 on: April 24, 2012, 05:35:53 pm »

If you have legendary soldiers with high quality armor it should be a cakewalk.

I've tried out arena fights of 50+ zombies vs a single legendary soldier in steel armor. The legendary won.

Cleanup was quite horrendous though. So many zombie giblets, so many hauling jobs.  :-[
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thelordberg

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Re: Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« Reply #6 on: April 24, 2012, 05:37:45 pm »

If you have legendary soldiers with high quality armor it should be a cakewalk.

I've tried out arena fights of 50+ zombies vs a single legendary soldier in steel armor. The legendary won.

Cleanup was quite horrendous though. So many zombie giblets, so many hauling jobs.  :-[
Its not quite Legendary soldiers with masterwork weapons. Hell, I barely have all of them ARMED, let alone ARMORED. I KNEW making all those gold crafts was a bad idea...
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I'm unspeakably dissspointed. A dwarven fortress has discovered a sentient creature made out of mushrooms, and no one has proposed brewing him?

Garath

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Re: Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2012, 06:35:47 pm »

atom smash
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Quote from: Urist Imiknorris
Jam a door with its corpse and let all the goblins in. Hey, nobody said it had to be a weapon against your enemies.
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And then everyone melted.

NecroRebel

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Re: Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2012, 06:54:50 pm »

Problem is, the necromancer IS dead. As in, not showing up on the Unit screen anymore. Does his magic persist or something?
You have another necromancer. They can arrive stealthily, like ambushes do, and won't be visible until detected. They can use their reanimation ability without breaking stealth as well. Necromancers can be extremely difficult to detect, as they can be detected only be a creature within ~3 tiles of them and actively flee from any living thing within ~15 tiles that they see. You have to identify where it is by where it raises corpses (which it can do within ~20 tiles), then herd it into a place where you can corner, detect, and kill it.

This is actually usually most easily done by getting rid of all of the corpses permanently by whatever means necessary, then forgetting about the necromancer for a while. They'll sneak into your fort looking for materials and eventually they'll wander into a hallway with dwarves coming from both directions and then they'll be caught.
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Hyndis

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Re: Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2012, 06:57:41 pm »

The easy way is to simply seal off the fortress. Close the drawbridge and seal off the surface.

Its easy to be self sufficient underground. All you need is water or mud, and seeds.

Allow caravans or sieges of goblins to clear out the surface. Or simply hide down underground and allow the surface to be a zombie filled wasteland.
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thelordberg

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Re: Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« Reply #10 on: April 24, 2012, 07:28:50 pm »

Problem is, the necromancer IS dead. As in, not showing up on the Unit screen anymore. Does his magic persist or something?
You have another necromancer. They can arrive stealthily, like ambushes do, and won't be visible until detected. They can use their reanimation ability without breaking stealth as well. Necromancers can be extremely difficult to detect, as they can be detected only be a creature within ~3 tiles of them and actively flee from any living thing within ~15 tiles that they see. You have to identify where it is by where it raises corpses (which it can do within ~20 tiles), then herd it into a place where you can corner, detect, and kill it.

This is actually usually most easily done by getting rid of all of the corpses permanently by whatever means necessary, then forgetting about the necromancer for a while. They'll sneak into your fort looking for materials and eventually they'll wander into a hallway with dwarves coming from both directions and then they'll be caught.
So all I have to do is send my squads in a constantly rotating pattern around the reanimating bits, and MURDER THE MAGIC out of him? ALRIGHT, LETS DO THIS.
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I'm unspeakably dissspointed. A dwarven fortress has discovered a sentient creature made out of mushrooms, and no one has proposed brewing him?

Loud Whispers

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Re: Surviving a Necromantic Seige
« Reply #11 on: April 25, 2012, 11:04:50 am »

Of course large amounts of indiscriminate flooding works. Setting the surface on fire catches ambushers nicely.
Also the excessive placement of doors allows you to track where ambushers are.
...And I also managed to catch a necromancer by luring it with some unconscious human guards. Apparently unconscious things don't scare them.

...And there isn't a spotting distance, the chance of a necromancer being revealed is based off it's ambushing skill relative to the observing skill of whatever has line of sight to it. No one has ever found a legendary ambusher, and if they did, they probably wouldn't notice.