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[Nexaduro]

So here's the situation:

Four Goblin Sadomasochists Whippers and a Bowgob are ambushing my fortress. Through woefully inadequate feats of multitasking, a prior raid, and numerous ill-concieved attempts at recreating 'Them!' with Giant Grasshoppers, I have left said fortress almost completely defenseless. I have two passable Marksdwarves, a peasant in iron jammies with a crossbow, two spare sets of armor, and a fair crowd of miners and assorted immigrants, along with three War Dogs and a 17x17 meeting hall paved in their adult offspring.

The main thing I want to know is thus: can I somehow manipulate the movement of untrained animals to act as meat shields while I sound the alarms and secure my fortress? If not, is it worth the risk of sending out 'expendables' from among the populace to fulfill the same role?

[edgefigaro]

Assign a zone as a meeting area and your animals, as well as any bored dwarves, will gravitate to it.

Don't worry too much. You have ~20 dwarves, and some military, yes? You will be fine as long as the lashers don't murder your crossbow dwarf instantly.

[Nexaduro]

Assign a zone as a meeting area and your animals, as well as any bored dwarves, will gravitate to it.

Don't worry too much. You have ~20 dwarves, and some military, yes? You will be fine as long as the lashers don't murder your crossbow dwarf instantly.

I actually have ~120 dwarves, I'm just really new.

The FUN thing hasn't quite sunk in yet, so I'm just fretting over losing more of my dwarves. It may be possible that I worry too much about them; I was a bit stunned when I saw real combat for the first time and the Marksdwarf squad's prodigal daughter was immediately shot through the heart.

[edgefigaro]

Assign a zone as a meeting area and your animals, as well as any bored dwarves, will gravitate to it.

Don't worry too much. You have ~20 dwarves, and some military, yes? You will be fine as long as the lashers don't murder your crossbow dwarf instantly.

I actually have ~120 dwarves, I'm just really new.

The FUN thing hasn't quite sunk in yet, so I'm just fretting over losing more of my dwarves. It may be possible that I worry too much about them; I was a bit stunned when I saw real combat for the first time and the Marksdwarf squad's prodigal daughter was immediately shot through the heart.

Embrace the fun. Dwarves will be lost. That is what coffins are for.

The fortress will soldier on. The fortress MUST soldier on.

I didn't really catch on to the FUN thing until this moment, which was ~2 years into playing.  I never looked back.

[dresdor]

Yeah, I hate loosing dorfs as well, but its a necessary evil.  How necessary? 

I've had several forts where I've trained the entire dorf population in combat skills (everyone had decent wrestling skills, followed by shield armor and a single weapon skill).  Each one of those dorfs could easily take a single squad of goblins, and the only time they were in real danger is when bow goblins showed up.

Even then, I had several instances of these dorfs being so tough that they only died after having 6 or 7 arrows in them, and pumelled the enemy to death.  I had one who killed two siege groups, only to die because nobody would come and get him (arrows in both legs and both arms, but no life-threatening injuries).  Sad?  yes....amazing how powerful each individual trained dorf is?  Absolutely.

[laularukyrumo]

Goblins also tend to be rather weak, especially individually. I send groups of 3-5 untrained, unarmed, unarmored migrants in to go kill the dudes, and they either get caught and die, or end up with skull-in-the-brain syndromes.

[Bigheaded]

Goblins also tend to be rather weak, especially individually. I send groups of 3-5 untrained, unarmed, unarmored migrants in to go kill the dudes, and they either get caught and die, or end up with skull-in-the-brain syndromes.

I would disagree about untrained ones. A group of 10 bow goblins will seriously make a mess of untrained unarmored (and most likely armored ones also) dwarves.
Personally i just train 2 ultra godly ones and kill massive sieges with it

A simple way to ensure you're good to go early on. Is of your starting 7, put 2 of them as military of the same type (hammer/sword i generally find the best). so proficient in weapon skill, (i also add +5 dodger to one and +5 striker to the other, as they level slowly without some points thrown in). At embark add copper weapons, if you can afford it, iron short swords/silver war hammers (silver is good for war hammer but bad for swords, iron is good for both but silver is better for hammers)

In a year you have 2 legendary dwarves whom will generally slaughter everything. Adding some metal armor helps also. To give you an idea, just these 2 will take out a 40 strong goblin siege without much trouble (also fun to watch!) if given the time to train (spar)

Do NOT add more dwarves to their squad. You're best off with 7x 2 man squads than 7x 10 man squads. Once they hit legendary no reason why not to chuck em all together.
There is something about setting training for 5 sets of 2x dwarves in one military squad, but i've tried to and it is no where near as effective as putting a new squad for each pair of dwarves.

use therapist to find the ones best for military a 60% dwarf for a weapon skill will hit legendary with a similar training partner in roughly 2 years.

[Mushroo]

Yup, choke-point entrance with 2 legendary uber-soldiers is a sound strategy. Squad of 2, training 24/7, will keep you protected up until you breach the caverns.

[Nexaduro]

THAT DID NOT GO AS PLANNED

I ended up having to draft my entire fortress into pummeling those guys, after they killed the first two waves of slightly-trained ex-miners, and my military. Then the second ambush arrived. I lost 32 dwarves, all my grazing livestock, and a few dogs. Now everything's a horrible mess, and I'm trying to pick up the pieces...

Edit: And my head Miner's gone berserk. He killed twelve dwarves before my new Commander performed a drop-kick-cum-curbstomp to his face.

My mayor's also claimed the Butcher Shop, this should be good.

[edgefigaro]

THAT DID NOT GO AS PLANNED

I ended up having to draft my entire fortress into pummeling those guys, after they killed the first two waves of slightly-trained ex-miners, and my military. Then the second ambush arrived. I lost 32 dwarves, all my grazing livestock, and a few dogs. Now everything's a horrible mess, and I'm trying to pick up the pieces...

Edit: And my head Miner's gone berserk. He killed twelve dwarves before my new Commander performed a drop-kick-cum-curbstomp to his face.

My mayor's also claimed the Butcher Shop, this should be good.

See? You are rapidly approaching fun! Also, ambushes often, perhaps usually, occur with more than one squad, with subesquent squads appearing when you send troopers out to deal with the first goblins.

If you know what you are doing with the equip screen, you can have your miners use their picks as weapons.

[Loud Whispers]

Goblins also tend to be rather weak, especially individually. I send groups of 3-5 untrained, unarmed, unarmored migrants in to go kill the dudes, and they either get caught and die, or end up with skull-in-the-brain syndromes.

Disregarding any elite soldiers on either sides, goblins are more than a match for any proficient Dwarf soldier. These aren't generic mook goblins, these guys are soldiers.

[enolate]

Goblins also tend to be rather weak, especially individually. I send groups of 3-5 untrained, unarmed, unarmored migrants in to go kill the dudes, and they either get caught and die, or end up with skull-in-the-brain syndromes.

Disregarding any elite soldiers on either sides, goblins are more than a match for any proficient Dwarf soldier. These aren't generic mook goblins, these guys are soldiers.

That is a jest, I hope. A proficient Dwarf could take one down in his sleep, provided he has armor. At worst, it would  be an even fight.

[Mrhappyface]

Well if they don't have any combat skills then they will most likely get wounded, even with weapons and armor. It's good sense to train your dwarves, even a little.

[Loud Whispers]

That is a jest, I hope. A proficient Dwarf could take one down in his sleep, provided he has armor. At worst, it would  be an even fight.

"Provided he has armour."

And Dwarves are odd sometimes in that they can occasionally fare better by facing more enemies alone, what with trances and all.