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[Niyazov]

My standard defense paradigm- one entrance with a trap hallway followed by a fortification-bordered crossbow killzone and a sealable drawbridge, making the trade depot very difficult to assail- is no longer effective now that traps block wagon movement. Minecarts add another level of complexity since it's critical to keep dwarves and traders away from moving carts but a separate cart entrance for wood, etc. represents another avenue of ingress. Has anyone come up with anything slick?

[Urist Da Vinci]

1. 3-tile-wide winding path, with traps on the sides.

2. Pressure plates on tracks to open bridges just prior to minecart arrival, reducing exposure time.

[Garath]

slick? no. Practical? yes. As posted in some other places, attackers will take the shortest route. Have this toute trapped and make a paralel winding route (2 times as long should be fine) for caravans. Making it 4x4 makes it even possible to trap one of the edges of that route, or 5x5 to trap both edges without having to think.

easy

edit: realized a great defence, not going to share, have fun

[SAFry]

In the short term I've built a couple rows of cage traps coming out either side of my entrance. That way you would have to come directly towards the fort which most things don't do. It's not foolproof but it's already caught a few.

Maybe if you made a long winding track for the caravan then a short cut route filled with traps, most mobs would pathfind down the short cut trap route. 

[Garath]

Maybe if you made a long winding track for the caravan then a short cut route filled with traps, most mobs would pathfind down the short cut trap route.

yes

again

[SAFry]

lol, reading skills fail

[DS]

My current fort consists of two entrances. One is a long corridor filled with cage traps, with an outer drawbridge so that the tunnel can be sealed and the traps reloaded in the middle of a siege. The other entrance contains the trade depot, with separately linked drawbridges. The inner bridge is always up, except when merchants arrive - as they unload their goods, the outer bridge is raised, followed by the inner bridge. At no point is there a contiguous path into the fort via the second route.

Normally I have something more elaborate, but my goal with this fort is to get the hang of the new hauling system, so it's just about basic efficiency at this point.

[Martin]

I'll be putting two trade depots near the entrance one off to each side in buildings that can be sealed from the entrance and from the fort via drawbridges. When nobody is trading, they're sealed from the fort and open to the outside. When someone is trading they're sealed from the outside and open to the inside. With two, it will prevent the problem of arriving and departing wagons stale mating when they can't path until one deconstructs.


The buildings will be connected with a dedicated trader and probably assistant, when I can afford it, manning the building. Burrows will keep them nearby. I'll build a rail system below the main entrance to move all of the goods the fortress wants to trade to be stockpiled out there. The traders job is to unload the carts, pull the levers, conduct the trading, and reload the carts with the trade goods.


The main approach to the fortress, which will always be open can be trapped like crazy. Fliers always need special consideration, but if the trade building is sealed off from the outside then it should be straightforward to deal with them as well.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Controlling the entrance? Put up dat drawbridge AND PRAY!!!

In MW you get guns so I just turtle till I can take on a siege. You can do the same things with crossbows, and quicker, if you don't have MW.

Towers of course, Im not a fan of ze winding doom path.

[slink]

I've never seen two caravans collide and cause a wagon of one to deconstruct.   

[Exponent]

It would take quite a bit of space and traps depending on how you do it, but you could simply make a winding path for the wagon that goes through/around the traps:

Minimal:

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Extravagant:

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|^^^^^^^^^   ^|
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[MehMuffin]

edit: realized a great defence, not going to share, have fun

Thanks so much for letting us know... 

[SuicideJunkie]

For the minecart entrance, have a pair of ramps to fling them ballistically over the wall and through a window.  Put a weapon trap in that window to keep the birds out.

[Burmalay]

You can make this -

_____ ========== _______
         \__^^^^__/

___ - ground
^^^ - traps
=== - retractable bridge

[MrLobster]

My usual entrance is conceptually like this:

FORTRESS <=> BARRACKS <=> trap corridor <=> OUTER ROOM <=> drawbridge <=> OUTSIDE

Attackers come in and blunt themselves on the traps, then reach the barracks where the fight starts. Then I push all the troops up to station them in the OUTER ROOM to absorb the rest of the attack and guard against further attacks as the haulers and mechanics swoop in behind them to clear things up.  When they're done the troops go back to the barracks.

The bonus is that the haulers and mechanics are never out in front of the military. Maybe burrows could create something better, I don't know how to use them well. 

My current fort consists of two entrances. One is a long corridor filled with cage traps, with an outer drawbridge so that the tunnel can be sealed and the traps reloaded in the middle of a siege. The other entrance contains the trade depot, with separately linked drawbridges.

I may switch to this separate entrance thing; I'm tired of caravans getting ambushed.  So the caravans go to a depot inside an airlock, like you say, such that there's never an open path that way into the fortress.

I guess the other entrance would be an always-open one for foot traffic that connects to the surface by tunnels that branch and break the surface at points near the edges of the map. The idea is that ambushers will route down into these tunnels to get the open entrance and hopefully stay out of the way of the caravans. Migrants might be in some trouble... maybe I throw open the airlock or a third shortcut entrance, so that they can make a run for it.