It's spring of the second year of my new orc fort. Mid-winter a siege of 30 zombies showed up and my 2-orc military has been slowly (the zombies mostly stay out of shot range) skilling up their bows from a shooting platform on the wall I quickly put up. Composite bows do have nice range. But after a season I am starting to eye food and booze supplies, The latter ran out, but I do have a well and more plants to brew (got distracted by the fighting and forgot to queue up more brew jobs.) Food looks okay, and I have crops in the ground (had that queued up!) Am working on a nice new farm plot in the first layer that I am roofing over with peat (gotta use that peat for something, since I can't compress it.)
This is a cool embark on a naturally defensible position (aside from swimmers and fliers, that is.) I have a stream flowing from NW, a fairly substantial river (7-8 wide) flowing from SW to NE and a waterfall and small lake where they meet. I am on highlands on the west side of the lake. There are sheer cliffs down to the river, three levels down, with some chunks of slope down to one level above the river on the south side. To the north across the stream is ground at my level, so a wall covers that from line of sight from the north. The west is walled (and the zombies are out there) and that's the direction the migrants and caravans have come from so far. I have a starting hall dug out down in the second stone layer below the aquifer (which I didn't have to penetrate this time, managed to slip under on my southern side). I have a beginning industrial zone down 15 levels or so. I did hit the first cave through the ceiling, and quickly closed that up, for now. I have lots of fishing places, ponds, the stream and river when I cut a landing down there for my longboats. I embarked with a farmer and a fisherman, so they can feed the 30 orcs who now live here on what they produce. Have a few steppe aurochs from the wagon team's breeding (killed one bull since I have two male calves growing, and two cows producing milk.)
Anyway, back to the action... I was thinking I would have to wait out this siege since there are still 25 standing zombies. Those are long odds for my two orcs, even if one is a bigun. They are in shell armor and have only basic (very) wrestling skills. I have ironbone production going so some scimitars of decent material are close, but no skill on either yet. Was letting them work on dodge, shield and armor while they waited for weapons.
Then the siege, and now an announcement: The wereelephant Brifeg Fendogref has come! My first thought, "when it rains, it pours." Then I saw he had entered on the west side just south of the stream. That put him almost on top of a zombie. He shortly was on top of that zombie's remains. And then he rampaged south stomping and tusking. His kill count is at 18 and still more to go. He's not gotten into shooting range so far. I am thinking he will finish off the siege and not having a path to my orcs revert to his normal form. Once that happens weres usually wander back off the map. Usually.
I may yet see a caravan this year! And my peaceful, rustic orcs can go back to their calm fishing and farming. (No plans to raid, not us, we're GOOD orcs... really! Besides, we're WAY up here on this cliff and the river is WAY down there, and there's a waterfall where the stream goes into the lake so we can't row downstream that way. You're safe, you nice civilized peoples, really! You have nothing to fear from Azguurzlatak!)
Buurgolg Laghortalata, Clanspeaker, goes back to loading a cage trap with an eye on the four giant cougars to the north he hopes to lure in with a nice new bridge across the stream. Blood for bloodsteel, skins for lamellar...
I finally figured out how to get ranged weapon users to stand where I want instead of 4 steps away. Use z levels. Instead of a big shooting platform, this time it's just three blocks with a ramp up from ground level. if I want to really micromanage, I bet one block is even better. Have to see how it works when they have ranged opponents though. Dodging may become an issue. I roofed it over so maybe they will only dodge off the back edge and come right back up.
Whoa, after killing 23 zombies, with barely a scratch, he up and died. But now I will make some scimitars and open the front gate. I have a sabercat and some cage traps, besides my two-man squad.
On further inspection of combat logs, it appears a gnome zombie berserked and kicked the were in the leg, flinging it into a stump, which stunned the were. Then the zombie kicked it in the head, which bruised the brain. So golden BB. And that leaves Monopol, the killer zombie, and two others.
That's the news from Lake Azguurzlatak, where the all the orclings are above average and everyone hugs trees (right before the lumberorc chops them down.)