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[Blingo]

My fourth fortress seemed to be running quite well, food, drink, well, gem & metal industry, hospital etc. Then as usual a massive herd of goblins and trolls appeared. Against my five militia, no chance. A few questions from this massacre:

 1) When the enemies appeared all my dwarves seemed to rush outside. I turned off collection of refuse and corpses but this didn't seem to help.
 2) The enemies seemed able to cross my moat, even after raising the bridge.
 3) Perhaps better fortifications would have helped but they took ages to build.
 4) Before lifting the bridge over the moat is there a way to call all of your dwarves across to the right side, so they aren't left trapped?
 5) There must have been about 30 enemies, is there any hope against this number?

Thanks

[StagnantSoul]

Use a burrow, w, to get everyone inside. They were probably jumping or something. Use blocks instead of stone for fortifications. Tall or roofed walls on the inner side of the moat.

[Blingo]

Thanks Stagnant, useful info. Regarding the jumping, will it help if I make my moat wider.

[pisskop]

1) dwarves will collect anything you allow.  trinkets, logs, plants, w.e.  either forbid everything or get a burrow as stated.  preferably both, as military dwarves dont care about burrows.  They happily trounce out to get the wooden shield halfway across the map if they decide they want it.

2)Many creatures can innately swim, or learn to.  They can also jump or climb across, within limitations.  I believe they currently need to active see and pursue a target to use their special movements.

3)Fortifications and walls and such would have helped.  Moats are decent first lines, but irl they were used as deterents more than actual barriers.  Putting traps and wall and other things in their way also helps.

4)burrows.  You can activate them using the (m)ilitary screen and then the (a)lert setting. With minimal practice you will get the hang, although it should be noted that they still have to make their way back inside.  Which gives the gobbos time to get inside too.

5)If in doubt, wall it off.  Until you know what you should and shouldn't be able to do, don't risk yourself for a small reward.  You, as a leader, have to think abut the good of the fort, not just your favorite dwarf.  Caution is paramount, and preparation is key for dwarves (and humanity irl).

[StagnantSoul]

A thicker moat really helps if they come in on giant olms, which swims, so the goblins will die as they cross. Less likely to jump as well. Place random cage traps here and there.

[Codyo]

So mainly, burrows will be your best option to control dwarves.

You need to define a burrow by encasing your entire fort in it.
What I do for stair cases is that I start the (w) burrow defining at the top and move the cursor over to cover it, then move down z levels to the bottom and press enter to finish defining. Then you will have a burrow spread across z-levels very easily.

Then connect that burrow to the rest of your fort by defining it more, cover the hallways, other stairs, to the bedrooms, to your farms. So your dwarves will be safely inside the burrow and access every part of your fort during a siege.

From the (m)ilitary screen for Alerts, you need to create a new Alert called "Siege", "Panic" or whatever you like and have it set on your fortress burrow.
When a siege comes around, you can then go to the military screen then to alerts and easily select it. The "Siege" Alert will have that [CIV] tag set to it and your non-military dwarves will stop what they're doing to get inside the burrow. Once the siege ends, switch the [CIV] back to the Empty alert setting or whatever it's called.


You can easily take out 30 enemies with cage traps, killing chambers, and etc. Or use a squad of legendary spearmen. The wiki goes into detail on how to kill attackers. Fortresses can end up facing hundreds of goblins and 30 is nothing compared to that.

[StagnantSoul]

A single squad of steel clad legendaries can rip through a siege, especially if you send them with stronger war animals than dogs, like tigers and bears.

[slothen]

burrows are the best way.  You will get some cancellation spam from stockpiles if you don't forbid things that are outside and there are unlocked doors allowing dwarves to path to it.  Make liberal use of forbidding items in dangerous areas.