Just had a huge seige. This was my first one with a civ leader in the fray, and he was the special kind. Flying mounts had been pissing me off royally in previous seiges, so I cast caution to the wind and sent my Alpha Squad out on a sortie to deal with him immediately. Of course when they get there, the one axedwarf in the whole team decides to solo Mr. Badass while the guys with swords and maces and spears all poke and bludgeon his escort to death as slowly as superdwarvenly possible. The combat report had about a hundred entries like "Urist McAxedwarf slashes Mr. Badass, but is deflected by his masterwork Olm leather robe." Urist eventually figures out that biting is more effective, and mostly went with that, bruising approximately a dwarven ton of evil muscle. Fortunately, Urist, like all of Alpha Squadron, is a graduate of Danger University. Mr. Badass didn't land a single hit while all the gobbos were being stabbed.
Meanwhile, the other four squads converge on my front gate, trip a bunch of traps, then start milling around in my antecourtyard. Which happens to be paved with drawbridges. I burrow everyone deep inside the fort, and start a wall in case they get ambitious. Alpha squad returns in time, but is strung out a bit with one guy way out in front. I flip the "bridge flippy" switch with plenty of time --I think-- to disrupt just the goblins and cover his approach, but Urist McLeverpuller only gets around to yanking on it just barely in time. About three game-steps before Urist McSpeedy steps on the bridge, it raises, sending stunned goblins flying everywhere. McSpeedy stops to butcher, giving the rest of the team time to join the battle while the goblins are recovering.*
I check to see after the battle who got the kill on Mr. Badass. Turns out, it was the newbie on Alpha Squad. Urist McProtagonist's very first kill was a civ leader. I have high hopes for the lad.
The seige came in mid-winter. The treehugger caravan just arrived, and I'm still cleaning up the corpsy mess.
(I'm figuring out why some people think danger rooms are exploitive.)
* Didn't want to atom smash them because I don't have iron ore, and need the precious goblinite.