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[xmrsmoothx]

So my fort's up and running with 80 dwarves or so, but before I have more than one novice squad in my military, four squads of goblin ambushers arrive.
Now luckily I made a bridge for this occasion and locked them out and my dwarves in, suffering minimal casualties - mostly hunters and fishers, and really who cares about them.
But now I'm unable to get wood or gather plants outside my minimal fortress area, and I'm also unable to attract migrants, because the goblins slaughter them all. Is this a good thing? Can I sustain my fort with cavern plants?
But chiefly I just want to know if ambush forces get bored and leave after too long being locked out. Does anybody know?

[Sirbug]

You are supposed to farm, not gather plants, you know?

[Button]

Each squad is led by a commander, who is often particularly skilled or uses a different weapon.

If the commander is still alive and uncaged, each squad will leave in about a season. If the commander is killed or trapped, the squad will often bug out and refuse to move except for combat.

[xmrsmoothx]

You are supposed to farm, not gather plants, you know?

Yep, I've got my farms all locked away within my walls.

Each squad is led by a commander, who is often particularly skilled or uses a different weapon.

If the commander is still alive and uncaged, each squad will leave in about a season. If the commander is killed or trapped, the squad will often bug out and refuse to move except for combat.

Neato. Thanks for the info!

[Philotes]

You can build farm plots above ground, if you do so, you can plant above plants.

So, if you gathered a shrub, let's say rat weed, you can build a farm plot on grass (above ground) to cultivate it. You can then build a wall and a roof around and above your farm, creating a greenhouse.

For wood, well, i don't want to spoiler too much (i guess you are pretty new to DF), so just so much: there are 'trees' that grow underground and you usually find them if you dig a bit deeper... (sometimes there aren't any, but for maps created with the default values, that is very rare).

And a third possiblity, you can dig a bigger moat and a wall to protect an area above ground, a secure place to chop wood and gather plants, above ground farming... Not absotly safe (flying enemies) but pretty safe (depending on the biome you started). If you want to force your dwarfs to keep inside the walls / a specific area, check out burrows on the wiki. (understanding how burrows and civilian alerts work will make your life a lot easier!)

Beside that, trading with elves (or killing elf merchants) is another way to get wood.

Hunter can become good marksdwarfs, hunting is a good training for archery that also provides food, bones to craft arrows and leather... so you may don't want to sacrifice your hunters (burrows can help to mark a specific area for hunting). If you create a squad out of your hunters, you can force them to equip better armor (if you have any) and free them from training, as they train while hunting.

And yes, ambushes and sieges will leave after some time.

[TheDarkStar]

Tiles that start above ground will always be that way. If you make a tile outside, it stays outside. Building roofs over them does not change this, so you can just roof off a large area and let trees and plants grow there, as far as I know. You can also set up farm plots for aboveground plants there, if you've traded for seeds.

[Melzer]

The thing that's cool about ambushes and sieges is that the goblins will slaughter the ambush/siege that was there first.

[NotaPirate]

If you want to get rid of them nasties, and none of the goblins are using ranged weapons, you can conscript a few peasants to form an archer squad to take pot shots at them from the fort walls. If they are too far away, you can taunt them by raising the bridge so that they'll get closer, then shutting it in front of their faces when they get close enough to taste bolt death. If they don't end up leaving from the losses, they will turn into pincushions in no time.

[pushy]

You are supposed to farm, not gather plants, you know?

There's no need to be condescending, especially when what you've said isn't absolute fact. There are several situations where farming may not be possible temporarily or where it'd be better to gather plants - accidentally allowing seeds to be cooked might mean you've nothing to plant (or if you've very little available then you may prioritise them being used for booze over food, thus gathering plants provides an additional stream of incoming food), you might want aboveground crops but are at war with the humans and elves or their civs aren't accessible thus trade for them isn't possible (or you're at peace but they're not bringing you seeds you want - I've lost track of how often I've wanted rope reed seeds for my clothing industry and all the elves brought was fisher berry seeds or something), you might have simply run out of food supplies and need something available quickly (gathering plants provides food immediately, growing crops takes time that starving dwarves may not have the luxury of), you might have embarked on a mountain with no aboveground land suitable for farming (within your walls, at least - there might be a little patch of greenery off in a corner of the map) and you haven't yet sorted out irrigation for safe underground farms...the list could go on. Once it's set up, then yes, farming is usually the most certain method to ensure long-term availability of food, but other methods (including plant-gathering) are equally viable short-term solutions in a pinch.

[TheCoolSideofthePIllow]

In my experience, Ambushers don't leave; they just hide, waiting for someone stupid enough to get close so they can molest them.

[Sutremaine]

They leave after a season, perhaps to be replaced by a new crop of ambush squads.