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[Melting Sky]

My current fortress is unusual in the sheer number and frequency of goblin sieges it has suffered. They started out mounted on cave dragons, jabberer's etc. until I wiped out their leadership and now its just 4 or 5 squads of goblins led by weapon lords plus a couple of squads of trolls each time. I can't even finish collecting all the goblinite or resetting the traps from the last siege before the next is upon me.

All of this has me wondering what determines the frequency and ferocity of goblin attacks? Is it just completely random or is there something that has painted a very large bull's eye over my current fortress. They have shown up with every caravan that has arrived in recent memory. Often they overtake and kill the caravans. I had another fort where it took the goblins forever to show up and then when they finally it was quite underwhelming. I'm wondering why there is such a difference between the two forts. I've killed well over 300 goblin enemy units and it's only year 6 of the fort.

[Skuggen]

Maybe you made a sweet artifact they _really_ want.

After ambushes start showing up I usually ordered everyone inside whenever a caravan arrives, since they almost always arrive together.

[Melting Sky]

Maybe you made a sweet artifact they _really_ want.

After ambushes start showing up I usually ordered everyone inside whenever a caravan arrives, since they almost always arrive together.

This is the lesson this fortress has taught me. Now the moment I see the caravan alert I hit the alarm because I know the goblins can't be far behind. I've been lucky in that I have only lost maybe half a dozen dwarves total to the goblin menace but I think they are now attempting to kill the fort through FPS death by clogging my processor with endless goblinite. Those clever bastards.

[Matoro]

More wealth, more goblins. The formula is quite simple. How much do you have created wealth?

Also, I think your location affects too - for example, if your Fort is very long away from goblin civilization, they will arrive later and not as often. If you have embarked near thriving goblin tower, though, they'll probably attack you very soon and very often.

[Melting Sky]

More wealth, more goblins. The formula is quite simple. How much do you have created wealth?

Also, I think your location affects too - for example, if your Fort is very long away from goblin civilization, they will arrive later and not as often. If you have embarked near thriving goblin tower, though, they'll probably attack you very soon and very often.

Around 2.5 million. I do live right in the middle of serious Goblin territory though. That probably explains things, I didn't realize the sieges were wealth or proximity related which is probably why they seem to show up after artifacts are made. I had suspected proximity might have something to do with it since the last fort was in a remote valley. Do they ever run out of goblins to throw at you? I noticed they ran out of mounts.

[Matoro]

More wealth, more goblins. The formula is quite simple. How much do you have created wealth?

Also, I think your location affects too - for example, if your Fort is very long away from goblin civilization, they will arrive later and not as often. If you have embarked near thriving goblin tower, though, they'll probably attack you very soon and very often.

Around 2.5 million. I do live right in the middle of serious Goblin territory though. That probably explains things, I didn't realize the sieges were wealth or proximity related which is probably why they seem to show up after artifacts are made. I had suspected proximity might have something to do with it since the last fort was in a remote valley. Do they ever run out of goblins to throw at you? I noticed they ran out of mounts.

Goblins attacking your fort are usually generated from thin air - squad leaders and other big guys are exception, though. Also since civ leader (master/general, usually demon) is one who trains the mounts, once he is dead there will be no more mounts. Goblins may run out of historical figures but the game will generate infinite goblin warriors.

[Melting Sky]

It's good to hear the weapon lords are not infinite as they are generally the ones causing me some issues. They are dangerous enough that I can't really have my military engage them out in the open without losses which means I can't properly defend my outdoor workers if they get cut off. This goblin civilization has an impressive number of historic figures considering they have yet to run out of weapon lords to lead their squads.

I think a big part of why I am getting attacked more this time is because I've gotten good enough at the game to generate a bunch of wealth which is what is triggering the attacks every season. So is it relatively normal to be attacked this often? I've had a small assortment of werebeasts and a dragon show up as well but its the goblins that are crazy.

[Beast Tamer]

It's good to hear the weapon lords are not infinite-

Whoa, whoa, whoa... good? I'd love it if I had to fight more weapon lords and have sieges every month, I love testing my military might.

[FrankMcFuzz]

I've been told that goblins just tend to have typically the same siege season as the elves caravan, BUT I JUST KNOW those slippery treehuggers lure them to the fortress with their SONGS and ANIMAL PHILANDERING.

[Melting Sky]

It's good to hear the weapon lords are not infinite-

Whoa, whoa, whoa... good? I'd love it if I had to fight more weapon lords and have sieges every month, I love testing my military might.

Yeah, those pesky goblin attacks that seem to be happening every season are keeping me from getting my mega project started. I plan to build a golden tower suspended over a volcanic crater. Having to clean up piles of shredded goblins every season is distracting me from my real mission. I would much rather they just all came at once than constantly harassing me. Then again taking on 300 goblins at a time with a few dozen weapon lords mixed in might actually prove to be a little more fun than my defenses could handle. Still, it would be such an epic battle it wouldn't matter if i lost at that point.

[Frostea]

You can actually make captured goblins weapon lords by dropping them on a shaft of enlightenment.  Or you can do it by attrition; shoot wood bolts at them while they have their armor on. Eventually some of them will get really good at blocking and dodging. The rest probably won't survive.

[Matoro]

It's good to hear the weapon lords are not infinite as they are generally the ones causing me some issues.

Actually now when I think it - I'm not really sure about weapon lords. They aren't necessily historical figures. When I told about historical figure squad leaders, I mainly thought things like elf, human or dwarf leading an ambush party (since they have been snatched during worldgen and then became warriors) - of course probably most of the squad leaders are goblin historical figures, but I'm not actually sure of that, in every case. When I'm looking goblins in legends mode, I don't usually find much weapon lords (Legends Viewer shows skills for historical figures). I'm going to assume that if there is no historical figure weapon lords, the game will generate ones from thin air. I'm not completely sure - if you want to be sure, copy your save and open legends mode - next time a weapon lord enters map, search him with legends mode (it's important to have legends mode save before the goblin appears on your map). If you find that particular goblin as a historical figure, then they will probably run out. If you don't find it with legends, guy is randomly generated and weapon lords are infinite.

Yeah, those pesky goblin attacks that seem to be happening every season are keeping me from getting my mega project started. I plan to build a golden tower suspended over a volcanic crater. Having to clean up piles of shredded goblins every season is distracting me from my real mission. I would much rather they just all came at once than constantly harassing me. Then again taking on 300 goblins at a time with a few dozen weapon lords mixed in might actually prove to be a little more fun than my defenses could handle. Still, it would be such an epic battle it wouldn't matter if i lost at that point.

Why clean up goblin things? Build walls/moats while you can. Try to wall off as big area as you need for your megaproject (actually you could wall off nearly whole map) , forget goblin stuff. And if I was you and had a volcanic crater, I'd pump all that magma to burn everything in surface.

[Melting Sky]

It's good to hear the weapon lords are not infinite as they are generally the ones causing me some issues.

Actually now when I think it - I'm not really sure about weapon lords. They aren't necessily historical figures. When I told about historical figure squad leaders, I mainly thought things like elf, human or dwarf leading an ambush party (since they have been snatched during worldgen and then became warriors) - of course probably most of the squad leaders are goblin historical figures, but I'm not actually sure of that, in every case. When I'm looking goblins in legends mode, I don't usually find much weapon lords (Legends Viewer shows skills for historical figures). I'm going to assume that if there is no historical figure weapon lords, the game will generate ones from thin air. I'm not completely sure - if you want to be sure, copy your save and open legends mode - next time a weapon lord enters map, search him with legends mode (it's important to have legends mode save before the goblin appears on your map). If you find that particular goblin as a historical figure, then they will probably run out. If you don't find it with legends, guy is randomly generated and weapon lords are infinite.

Yeah, those pesky goblin attacks that seem to be happening every season are keeping me from getting my mega project started. I plan to build a golden tower suspended over a volcanic crater. Having to clean up piles of shredded goblins every season is distracting me from my real mission. I would much rather they just all came at once than constantly harassing me. Then again taking on 300 goblins at a time with a few dozen weapon lords mixed in might actually prove to be a little more fun than my defenses could handle. Still, it would be such an epic battle it wouldn't matter if i lost at that point.

Why clean up goblin things? Build walls/moats while you can. Try to wall off as big area as you need for your megaproject (actually you could wall off nearly whole map) , forget goblin stuff. And if I was you and had a volcanic crater, I'd pump all that magma to burn everything in surface.

I suppose I could just leave the goblinite lying where it falls, but that just seems so wasteful and messy. Then again at this point its not like I really need any of it other than the iron stuff for melting. (I live in an iron poor area.) I've thought about turning the surface into a burning wasteland but I am rather fond of my trees and the view. It would be a lot of fun though. I already have a large magma cistern that I created for fueling those sorts of projects. Plus there is that dragon I have been meaning to weaponize for a while now. Maybe this is just  Arnok's way of telling me I should be building horrible goblin incinerating devices rather than silly gilded towers.

The goblins are more of an annoyance than anything. I was just wondering why there are so many this time. The only issue I have with walling off the volcano is it's at the opposite corner of the map where the goblins love to spawn so I would likely lose quite a few workers while setting up the perimeter. Of the half dozen or so dwarves I've lost, most have been workers on the slopes of the volcano. I guess I'll just have to suck it up and risking losing a few miners and masons. After all it's not a true mega project unless it sacrifices at least a few dwarves to the Blood God in the process. 

Thanks for the info. I never actually knew wealth and proximity directly affected goblin siege activity.