My fortress had quite the night: (if you have watched Starship Troopers and remember "Whiskey Outpost" with the theme song playing with fits nicely)
Battle of the Wall
City of Lertethushrir (Tanglequake) 275
The battle of the wall started out as any other goblin siege, not enough heavy infantry to join the fray but tall walls to keep them out. Lertethushrir had enjoyed strong walls and a dedicated marksdwarves squad (MARKS 1A) to patrol said walls. Past goblin sieges had been beaten off as they passed the walls, a few casualties being enough to scare them off. However in 274 the goblins brought an abnormally large swarm of goblin riders (beak dogs) with them and after a show of force headed off taking few casualties. It was during all this that an outdoor farming pit was built and walled in. This new fortification to the southeast of the main structure (not joined) would be the place of quite a struggle.
Woodcutters were routinely sent out to clear trees from around the walls, however for one year (275) the woodcutters went on mass sabbatical and refused to cut a single tree come hell or high water. The result was two trees grew up against “The Tower” (farming pit) forming a ladder. Alarms were sounded as the goblin swarm crested the far ridge and poured down rapidly mounted high on their beak dogs. With them, came a mass swarm of trolls. The burrow alarm was sounded, gates slammed shut and the marks dwarves sent to their post. The goblins were heading towards “The Tower.”
The ten marksdwarves climbed the steps and waited and as the goblin swarm passed they dismounted several goblins, wounding others but not doing much otherwise. As the goblin swarm and trolls passed away though and moved east of the tower, things changed. The troll swarm suddenly turned and threw itself against the wall, the dismounted goblin packs following. All hell broke loose. The trolls began to climb the trees slowly as MARKS 1A shot them back out of the tree’s and held the northeast corner of the wall. The heavy infantry was summoned but they too were on sabbatical and could not make it for quite some time. It was up to these ten dwarves, only three of whom were elite to hold off the entire troll hoard plus goblins on their own. The ratio was more than 5:1 and the marksdwarves had no armor.
Slowly the trolls made their way atop of the wall and began jumping off the trees and into the fortifications with the dwarves, still firing rapidly and picking off a troll here and there. Slowly the trolls pushed the dwarves back, the dwarves split into three groups, the north wall, south wall and pit group. One Elite went with each group. The pit group formed as the trolls swarmed over the wall and dwarves fell back dodging, sometimes a dwarf would dodge off the wall into the pit then regroup in the dead center forming a little circle of dwarves. North group was slowly pushed back, sometimes firing sometimes bludgeoning trolls to death as they were pushed back or jumped off the walls. It was not long till only South Group was still on the wall holding their own along with one lone dwarf trapped in a tree inside the pit holding off a troll. About this time the goblins began climbing the trees and making their way inside.
In the pit the little circle was blazing away at anything that moved and troll bodies littered the pit but occasionally one or two would rush the circle and be beaten to death and or shot. The heavy infantry was now on the way but the marksdwarves were still on their own. Ammo was running low as a lone farming came whistling up the tunnel, opened the door, beheld the scene “Starship Troopers Whiskey Outpost,” dropped his seeds, slammed the door shut and walked away whistling Dixie. The southern group was still holding as the goblins jumped onto the wall and made a mad dash for them, the three acting like a Vickers machinegun crew. Dead goblins lined the walls from the combined fire of the pit group and south group.
A lone goblin archer made it to the top of the wall and from the tree began to snipe at the elite marksdwarf on the southwall, a well placed bolt shot the goblin sniper back out of the tree. As the battle raged the first of the heavy infantry opened the door and rushed out three elites (axe and hammerlords) rushed into the fray and began slaughtering the remaining trolls and goblins, an overzealous swordlord threw himself off the wall into a pond and drowned. The tree dwarf was saved as a hammerlord jumped into the tree with him and brained the troll and goblin that were about to kill him. Not to be outdone however the swarm of goblin riders turned back around and headed towards the tower while the marksdwarves readied their firing line. Holding fire till the goblins within range of all of them they fired one volley that fell one goblin and wounded several others including beak dogs, this broke the goblin army and they fled. The Battle of the Wall was over, Lertethushrir would live on into 276.
Three dwarves were wounded but refused to leave the fight till it was over and walked themselves to the hospital for treatment, the swordlord who drowned himself was the only casualty. The squad MARKS 1A is still at 100%, all wounds were minor. Members of MARKS 1A now have some rather impressive kill lists.
This story is abnormal to the extreme for me because I never use marksdwarves because they had always, ALWAYS (500%) failed no matter the situation and been unable to kill even a fly in all my past forts. This is the first time I have ever had marksdwarves that not only fought and killed, but killed and killed and killed without dying in a melee battle, while unarmored and without support.
Also a dwarf slave requested to live in the fortress, she has one kill, a human, from the same human empire that claims to own her, the kill being the same year she showed up to my fortress, she is now a marksdwarf. Also my duchess got munched by a clown about twenty minutes after accepting the immigrant slave, but Lertethushrir lives on.
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 6222434 times)