Allright, so...
My fortress has been protected for the past 5 years by "Doop" the axedwarf. From the first wave of immigrants, Doop was hand-picked to use the fort's only set of armour and axes. Through the years Doop single-handedly quelled several goblin ambushes and a handful of forgotten beasts. This on top of whichever random creatures would wander in from the caverns, such as ogres, trolls, dralthas and the likes. Doop was the fortress' champion. However, as the years went on I knew I could not rely on a single dwarf to take care of the entire fort's defence. I had already had a few close calls where Doop had been asleep while action was going on.
So I created two more squads of dwarves. One squad of 7 crossbow dwarves and one squad of 4 macedwarves (inspired by an artifact mace my now legendary weaponsmith had created). These two squads were very new, and barely had any skills worth bragging about. With levels barely over proficient, I was still expecting Doop to handle most of the defence business while these rookies practised.
However, the fortress was calm. So I ordered Doop to begin training in my recently developed Hyperbolic Time Chambers. These are 2x2 rooms with a caged animal and a locked door. I send my dwarves in in full combat gear apart from their weapon, which is either stripped or a training weapon, and let them duke it out with relatively harmless monsters and that way I can raise their shield user (very important) and other skills at an accelerated rate.
Doop had a (genuinely) unfortunate accident however. The goblin master thief I send him to spar had not had his equipment stripped after all, and the thief's first swing sent a dagger through Doop's helm, instantly killing him. Man, was I screwed now.
A season later, my military is not much better. My best macedwarf is a talented fighter/proficient macedwarf, and he's missing half of his armour as my armoursmith recently died to an unfortunate cave-in. My marksdwarves are also relatively inexperienced, they have had some practise but they have not gained much from it. Furthermore, they seem very confused about their ammo, so I rarely see any of them carry any around. And then, a vile force of darkness arrives.
15 goblin hammergoblins lead by a pikegoblin mounted on a voracious cave crawler. Between them and my fort, and my military, lies 2 rows of weapon traps and 2 rows of cage traps. I am certain that my traps will work, but I don't reckon I have enough. The cage traps only have one cage each, and it's only a matter of time before the weapon traps clutter. I send all of my dwarves into the relative safety of my fort and prepare for, what I can only guess is a final stand. 16 goblins versus my paltry militia is not even a close call. Had Doop been here, even he would have probably had difficulty dealing with that amount, despite his tendency to dis-limb his enemies. I position my 4 macedwarves behind the weapon traps, and my marksdwarves behind the macedwarves. I quickly check my marksdwarves' inventory, and as expected only 3 of them actually has anything to shoot, and only 2 of them the ammo that I ordered them to use.
The goblins make their way across the map and arrive at the rows of traps. As expected, the leader and his mount is quickly disposed of, as my traps contain masterwork or exceptional mechanisms with masterwork or exceptional steel discs in them. However, 15 hammergoblins...
Suddenly, only of my macedwarves charge forwards, into the line of weapon traps. I curse "Regic" for being a fool. Regic is a proficient macedwarf, talented fighter and novice shield user. He uses an exceptional silver mace with some not-so-exceptional steel armour. He wears a breastplate with a mail shirt underneath, two high boots, his shield and a single gauntlet. He has no helmet or cap, and his left hand has only a leather mitten to keep his fingers attached. He runs into the field of weapon traps that might simply cut him in half if he does a single misstep. I tell the rest of the squad to step further back, as I don't want any of my other dwarves to run kamikaze like Regic, as Regic is surely dead.
However, Regic holds for a surprisingly long time. He is not instantly chopped to pieces like I would have expected. As a matter of fact, when I look at the situation... There is a lot less than 15 hammergoblins now.
I check the battle reports. My weapon traps have claimed the lives of what must be 10 goblins. Instantly shredded where they stood. The ground is littered with body parts, corpses and loot. But surely, even if there are only 5 hammergoblins left, Regic can't take those on solo? He is nearly unskilled, especially the vital shield user skill is only at novice, and he doesn't even wear a complete set of armour. I check his battle report. The first thing Regic did when he arrived at the scene was to instantly kill a hammergoblin by bashing his skull into a pulp. From then, the blocked every single attack swung at him, and then proceded to dish out in kind. He brutally disposed of another goblin by breaking every bone in its body, before piercing its chest with his mace, entirely ravaging its lungs.
As I realize this battle might actually be won, I order the rest of my macedwarves forwards. Simultaneously, my marksdwarf military captain (a competent marksdwarf/archer with a masterwork steel crossbow and exceptional steel bolts) opens fire on the goblins. His first shot flies up 2 z levels from the hole he is in, through a temporarily open door and headshots a goblin coming up from behind Regic. The goblin is instantly killed.
To the rescue comes Thornbush and Jup, two other macedwarves, similarly skilled and clad as Regic. However, Thornbush yields a secret. Somehow, Thornbush took the artifact mace that I never ordered him to use, and proceeds to tear havoc as dire as Regic. Every swing breaks bones and fractures arteries despite his lack of skills. Any attempt to strike back at him is easily thwarted by his shield, despite wearing a shield is a wholly new experience to him.
As the battle ends, I marvel at the results. Here I was sure that I was going to lose my fort, this architectural wonder that I have been babysitting for weeks, and instead what do I get? An entire goblin siege demolished at my front gates. Not a single dwarf dead: Not even a single wound or scratch received to any member of my militia.
As I turn off the alert that makes my entire civilian population run to the bunkers, I muse over this quick and decisive victory. If this fort cannot be broken even with this squabble defending it, then it never will be. And I haven't even begun constructing my actual entrance yet.
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 6099776 times)