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[Daint]

Hello, i am considering myself a veteran DF player with little skill. I have played this game for about 3 years i think but today is the first time i faced a real siege.... and i had no idea what to do.

Firstly, my story; I received a siege pretty early on, i had about 80 dwarfs where about 30 were children and i had no real weapons yet, i just got 3 ridiculous immigrant waves and was up in building new homes and the message pops up.... zombies.
I had never experienced zombies or necromancers before, like everything in dwarf fortress you have to die to learn, and the zombies were about 80 and 4 necromancers, i immidietly do a panic pause and start making traps, mechanics and wooden crossbows i also did fortifacations to be able to shoot through, once i placed about 4 rows of useless traps and made 5 dwarfs ready for shooting i let the zombies in, i first manage to hold them off and just i think it is over another 60 of them come rushing in, my traps are all done, every dwarf is running to pick corpses and the marksmandwarfs are out of ammo, at this stage i had lost about 5 dwarves and with the loss of 70% of my fortress i manage to defeat the wave of zombies after assigning every dwarf to fight for me, i have 70% dead, 20% injured without hospital and 10% children, babies and farmers left. Now to my questions!

1. When i start my fortress, should i rush defence and traps? Are forges so important?
2. I have not figured out how to make my dwarves not rush in for the lewtz yet, any special command?
3. I had problems with ropes, cloth and quivers, should i bring any special seed at embark? Or buy from caravans?
4. If i now lose this much to a siege, with all the unhappy thoughts, is it worth continuing?
5. Is this the right subforum?

[ignatzami]

Comments inline...

1. When i start my fortress, should i rush defence and traps? Are forges so important?

Yes, and no. Opinions differ. I tend to set up a small military (3 dwarfs) after my second migrant wave. I also tend to rely on walls, and bridges to control access.

2. I have not figured out how to make my dwarves not rush in for the lewtz yet, any special command?

Not sure of the exact key command, but you can forbid items from the dead.
Here's the Wiki page: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Forbid

3. I had problems with ropes, cloth and quivers, should i bring any special seed at embark? Or buy from caravans?

I bring 3 cloth, and rope. If I don't get a breeding pair of pack animals on embark I'll slaughter those animals and get leather that way. If I do get a breeding pair I wait for them to breed.

As for seeds, I take all the underground plants x 15 except Dimple Cup. Check out the Lazy Newb Pack, their default embark profile is rock solid.

4. If i now lose this much to a siege, with all the unhappy thoughts, is it worth continuing?

Totally! Lock the really unhappy dwarfs away, and let them tantrum and die. Then bury everyone. Or, make sure everybody has a nice bedroom, and a really nice comunal dining room to offset the bad thoughts.

5. Is this the right subforum?

Yep, at least as far as I know!

[Babylon]

1. yes but you don't need forges, you need a mason and a mechanic and a carpenter for cages.  Walls and a drawbridge are the best defense

2.  create a burrow, go to (m)ilitary then (a)lerts, move to the burrow you made and hit enter to keep civilian dwarves in the burrow until the battle is over.

3.  pigtails are the plant you need for making cloth.  Buying from caravans is usually easier thoguh, elves bring a lot of cloth.

4.  Sure,  might as well let the fortress dissolve into tantrums, and if you can save it you'll feel that much more accomplished.

5.  The questions one might be better, but this one isn't bad.

[Daint]

Sadly my DF crashed and my last save was just as the siege begun, maybe i can do better this time though? As for the lazy noob pack, i will test it out, always hated making my embark, so many things to chose from!! Thank you for all your answers, it cleared up alot, this has been my favorite game for years and will remain i hope and with this knowledge i can maybe avoid dying for abit longer

[Daint]

Also! one more question, i have yet not found magma, i am pretty sure i am about 155 lvls down. Is there always magma on all lvls?

[ignatzami]

Sadly my DF crashed and my last save was just as the siege begun, maybe i can do better this time though? As for the lazy noob pack, i will test it out, always hated making my embark, so many things to chose from!! Thank you for all your answers, it cleared up alot, this has been my favorite game for years and will remain i hope and with this knowledge i can maybe avoid dying for abit longer

Seasonal saves, and auto-backup are your friends. Look in init.txt, or d_init.txt, should be right at the top.

[slink]

Also! one more question, i have yet not found magma, i am pretty sure i am about 155 lvls down. Is there always magma on all lvls?

There is always magma at the bottom, under the three caverns and just above the semi-molton rock layer.  That is not always so far down as yours but it can easily be.  There are also sometimes magma tubes which extend into higher caverns.  This saves digging so far but has its own risks.

[eataTREE]

You have to rush some sort of defense, especially if you're starting next to a necromancer tower (check for Tower on the neighbors sub-page of the embark screen) which is where your zombies are most likely coming from. It doesn't have to be traps, but traps are easy and powerful. You do not necessarily need a forge right away: you can train war dogs and equip marksdwarves without one, but if you want melee troops you need a forge (not to mention a smelter and a source of fuel).

Making cloth is kind of complicated. Step-by-step:

1) Get a dwarf with Farming (Fields) labor enabled to grow pig tails from seeds on a farming plot
2) Get a dwarf with Threshing enabled to process the pig tails into thread at a farmer's workshop ('p' in workshop menu)
3) Build a loom, and a dwarf with Weaving enabled will automatically weave the thread into cloth.
4, optional) Have a dwarf with Dying labor dye the cloth at a Dyer's Shop. Obviously, you will need some dye for this, which you can get from traders or make yourself by milling dimple cups.
5) A dwarf with Clothesmaking enabled can now make the cloth into ropes or bags.

You can import cloth quivers but not make them yourself, so for making quivers you need a leather industry:

1) Have a handy animal around, preferably something larger than a cavy, and not somebody's pet.
2) Get a dwarf with Butchery enabled to slaughter the animal at a Butcher's Shop. (You can do this in z -> animals screen)
3) Once the butcherdwarf has disassembled the animal, a dwarf with Tanning enabled will automatically tan the hide into leather at a tanner's workshop. Hides go bad quickly, so make sure the tanner's workshop and the dwarf with tanning are already set up.
4) A Leatherworker can now make the leather into quivers, also armor, clothing, and shields.

PS. I have found magma at any level from +130 to -4. It's down there somewhere, promise.

[Garath]

I usually make sure I have some defences by the end of year 2, year 1 if close to a necromancer. The early snatchers are easily scared off by guard animals or caught with a few cages, but by the time ambushes arrive, some metal weapon traps are a big help

in (o)rders, you can forbid clothing from deaths, used ammo etc

rope reeds are an above ground crop that grow year round, unlike pig tails, and can be gotten from human or elven caravans

If you brought a breeding pair of dogs, maybe even 2 females, before long you'll be swimming in leather before long. Dogs breed like rabbits

[Daint]

this fortress is cursed, just as i finished the siege and was cleaning up all the kills i got i get ambushed, not only once, but twice, now i remember this game has no mercy AT ALL

[ignatzami]

this fortress is cursed, just as i finished the siege and was cleaning up all the kills i got i get ambushed, not only once, but twice, now i remember this game has no mercy AT ALL

Ambushes are the goblin way of saying I love you.

Look up Girlinhat's animal watchtower, best way to deal with ambushes ever.

[rtg593]

Good a place as any to wonder this.

You can get multiple seiges, yes? So then, the world I genned a few versions ago with 9 towers listed on 1 embark location... If I get *very* lucky, could I get seiged by all 9 at once? Can a computer manage a thousand zombies? Lol

New version came out shortly after genning, so I never embarked.

[ignatzami]

Good a place as any to wonder this.

You can get multiple seiges, yes? So then, the world I genned a few versions ago with 9 towers listed on 1 embark location... If I get *very* lucky, could I get seiged by all 9 at once? Can a computer manage a thousand zombies? Lol

New version came out shortly after genning, so I never embarked.

Yes, you can get multiple concurrent sieges. I've gotten three at a time, with thirty+ goblins on the map.

[Morpha]

That would be one hell of a zombie siege.