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[ITHEURIST]

My 3rd or 4th Fortress was my best. I (finally) got a mayor and I had some well armed and well-trained dwarfs in my militia. The commander was packing a =Silver Battleax= and a Steel Shield was a professional axman and also a Talented Shield User. There were some others most of Competent and such nothing special. I had resisted a few goblin ambushes and my military of about 15 melee troops and 5 marks dwarfs were the defenders of The Purple Nets! Then it came...a siege about 10 spear goblins. I had read stories about the first siege not being hard so I figured my traps would be enough but to be safe I closed my Main entry way and had citizens go to there burrows and my militia went to the narrow passage filled with traps. Some citizens were killed as they didn't make it in side fast enough. I figured okay no prob, Bob. Than they got past my traps...no problem. So the commander at front the militia rushed into battle...and were slaughtered. I browsed the battle reports and the man to man battles started out good...but the goblins always prevailed in the end . Then the goblins entered the fortress. All 150 dwarfs were in there. IT became a blood bath...corpses and blood flew everywhere. My long awaited mayor was stabbed in the head with a spear. So now 4 brave dwarfs cower in the deepest mines... (there gonna flee to the underground caves FUN)     


So is there a way to improve defenses? My foolish dwarfs canceled the construction of my ballista so I couldn't gun em down with it   

[ORCACommander]

silver is a horrible weapon material btw. and you did not mention what armor your dwarves were wearing

[ITHEURIST]

silver is a horrible weapon material btw. and you did not mention what armor your dwarves were wearing

A mix of copper and steel armor . Oh I thought silver was good

[wierd]

Depends on the weapon.  For blunt, it does reasonably well. Edged? Not worth it.

Since crossbow dwarves have this silly imperitive to bash with their crossbows when they run out of bolts, rather than retreat to get more, silver crossbows are a reasonable investment. That way when they bash with them they stand a reasonable chance of smashing something rather than just bouncing off enemy armor.

I tend to rely on traps more often than military though, as I prefer not to endanger my dwarves unnecessarily.  This means I tend to mass produce crappy weapons for weapon traps, and enormous glass discs and the like.

The few times I have decided to train military, I train lashers with human whips, preferably made of dense metals like silver or platinum. Lightsabers for the win.

*edit

If you have steel, copper, and silver, then try this:

Steel axes, steel swords, copper breastplate, legs, boots and hand armor. (Steel is technically better, but steel tends to be expensive to produce in large quantities. Copper is only slightly worse for armor, IIRC)  Silver shields, silver hammers, silver mauls, silver crossbows.

Fill the weapons traps with copper weapons.

[TripJack]

Oh I thought silver was good

it is an excellent material for hammers and maces (and also xbows as wierd says), but it is abysmal for edged weapons

[Sutremaine]

silver crossbows are a reasonable investment.

Copper is the heaviest metal you can use for crossbows, barring moods.

[wierd]

That's just silly. Certain silver alloys have a perfectly useful young modulous.

*note to self, fix the alloy reactions, and weapon reactions before next worldgen to conform to reality.

[TripJack]

silver crossbows are a reasonable investment.

Copper is the heaviest metal you can use for crossbows, barring moods.

ah yes that's right...

how odd

[krenshala]

You only had 15 melee and 5 marksdwarves?  For 150 dwarves you should probably have had about 30 to 50 in your militia. Roughly 20 to 30% of the overall population is what most people field from what I've seen.  More if you have all your non-woodcuter, non-miner dwarves kitted out with sheilds and cheap wooden crossbows and bolts (uniform consists of crossbow and shield, over clothing, partial match).

Personally, I'd have had 20 or 25 melee and the rest as marksdwarves in elevated firing positions so when they run out of ammo they have to break line of sight at an ammo stockpile so they return to their places.

[BoredVirulence]

Make shields out of wood. Its cheap, and light. It won't break either. It won't bash as much, but thats not the point of shields. And lighter dwarves are faster dwarves.

[Watcher]

silver is a horrible weapon material btw. and you did not mention what armor your dwarves were wearing

Isn't silver on the same level as steel when it comes to warhammers? It's what the wiki says...

[BoredVirulence]

silver is a horrible weapon material btw. and you did not mention what armor your dwarves were wearing

Isn't silver on the same level as steel when it comes to warhammers? It's what the wiki says...

=Silver Battleax=

Not so good with battle axes. I assume he meant specifically for edged weapons.

[itg]

If you're looking for a truly effective siege defense, place a huge mass of cage traps in front of the fortress entrance. With a properly designed entrance, it's one cage, one goblin out of action, 100% of the time. It's such an effective strategy that many players consider it overpowered. Then again, many other trap schemes are equally overpowered and not much harder to build.

[wierd]

The problem with cage traps, is that dwarves are epically retarded, and will attempt to reload cage traps *while the siegers are in the freaking hallway*.

You have to make damned sure that all spare cages in the fortress are set to forbidden, and that the cages in the traps are also set to forbidden, --OR, micromanage your burrows very aggressively, or else urist mcdumbass will trundle on out with a shiny new green glass terrarium, and get a mace stuck in his brain. (Not that he is likely to notice, of course.)

Weapon traps reset themselves, so they require less maintenance. Drawbridges that drop invaders onto nasty spikes likewise don't need much maintenance either.

[Loud Whispers]

The problem with cage traps, is that dwarves are epically retarded, and will attempt to reload cage traps *while the siegers are in the freaking hallway*.

Balancing - DF does it itself.