I decided to try to reclaim a ruin for the first time today. I also decided that this time I wouldn't build a bridge to seal myself in, nor use any traps. I started with a skilled spearman with a bronze spear, helm and mail shirt, plus ore to make more bronze to finish his outfit.
Embark went smoothly, everything was unloaded, bronze armor quickly made for my speardwarf. This was right at the beginning of summer, on the 1st or 2nd of Hematite. He had just headed down the passage to explore the old fort when a kobold ambush appeared outside the fort's entry. The 5 dogs waiting just inside rushed out while the speardwarf ran up the ramps as fast as he could go. Two dogs managed to kill a kobold recruit, but at the same time, a kobold swordsman killed two others, and the final dog was getting turned into a pincushion by the kobold archers. By the time the speardwarf got back up, all but one dog was dead, and the live one wasn't looking too good, plus the fort's cat was also badly injured by arrows. I turned off woodcutting on the woodcutter to free up his axe and drafted the mason, hoping he'd grab the axe on his way up to the surface. The speardwarf quickly engaged the swordsman, killing him. He then started making shish-kebabs of the other kobolds. By the time the mason showed up, only one kobold spearman was left, and he was truly horrified. The mason charged at him, barehanded (so much for grabbing the axe), punched once or twice, then got a spear in the gut. The kobold tried to run away, but my spearman chased him down.
At the end, my spearman had 8 kills and I'd lost 4 dogs, had one mason puking his guts out, and half-dead dog and cat dragging themselves back into the fort. No one was interested in bringing the mason back inside, even though I had a hospital and a Chief Medical DroidDwarf.
But that didn't really turn out to matter, because on the 7th of Hematite (the 7th day of summer), a vile force of darkness arrived. Ten well-armed goblins arrived, within bow range of my front entrance. They couldn't have arrived on the far side of the map, could they? I burrowed the civilians underground, and planned on getting the speardwarf down there too, so he could engage at close range in the tunnels. But the goblins chased the cat into the courtyard of the fort before he got down, so he charged at them to fight in the open, at 1 to ten odds, including a number of goblin archers.
The valiant spearman traded misses for a bit with a goblin maceman, then got hit in the neck, bruising the nervous tissue. But he fought on, until getting hit in the right shoulder, breaking it and causing him to drop his spear. Then the other arm got hit and his shield was gone. At this point I threw in the towel and put every dwarf in a squad and told them to kill the macegoblin. The fight was mercifully quick.
WTF? 8 kobolds and 10 goblins by the 7th day of summer? Oh yeah, that was survivable with only a military defense.
Keith
Author
Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 6221506 times)