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[Derakon]

I got my first siege ever today - 16 pikegoblins showed up and started meandering towards my fortress. I have to admit I wasn't very impressed, since I've faced more than 16 goblins from mass ambushes, and those had ranged attacks; I could've just raised the bridge, stationed some soldiers at my overlook tower, and killed them all quite easily. But I let them come anyway, just to make it interesting.

When they were about halfway to my fort, a hydra showed up. On the other side of the map. Bugger moves quickly, too; he rapidly found my secret entrance (which, really, wasn't all that secret; it's mainly a shortcut to new tree growth) and mowed through my poor guard dog, ignoring the spiked iron ball traps I'd set up (granted, each trap had only one ball, as I wasn't certain when I made them how much iron I had available). Then he met the trap I'd set up because I really, really didn't want to devote the time to guard that entrance 24/7. It had four warhammers and four axes in it, all iron, a product of my lessons in weaponsmithing after I'd learned just how extensive magnetite clusters were.

Let's just say I never really got to find out how burly hydrae are in combat. Though I'm sure there will be other opportunities. Surprisingly enough, the hydra corpse is all in one piece, too. At the very least I'll get some hydrabone bolts to play with, and one hydra skull totem.

As for the goblins, I just massed my 27 military dwarves (some hastily equipped with crossbows, 'cause hey, even untrained crossbowdwarves are better than moderately-trained wrestlers) and set 'em loose on the horde. 9 died, 7 fled, and the only damage I sustained was a temporary setback in my ammo supply (temporary, 'cause all their iron gear will be melted down into new sets of iron bolts). Not a single goblin triggered a trap.

So, yeah, when do I start getting sieges with 30 or 40 goblins? *waggles eyebrows*

Edit: I should note that over 1/4th of my population is military, because I can't find sustainable jobs for more than 40-50 dwarves.

[ March 24, 2008: Message edited by: Derakon ]

[Lyrax]

Job problem: Make all your bored dwarves into masons, then build something like a giant aqueduct.  Or just set a HUGE stone stockpile outside.  That'll keep 'em busy!

Seriously, sieges get bigger and more fearsome as time goes by.  The first siege is usually pretty wussy, I'll admit.

Wanna have some fun with BIG sieges?  Take out the [BABYSNATCHER] tag from gobbos and generate a new fort.  You should get sieged at the end of year one, or thereabouts.  Removing that tag makes them send a wave of enemies whenever they would normally send a babysnatcher, and that... makes 'em frikkin' numerous.

[Derakon]

Given that I've never seen a babysnatcher be even remotely successful, I like that idea!

[SmileyMan]

I was of the same opinion as you regarding sieges, until the other night, when the Trolls turned up......

[Benitosimies]

quote:Originally posted by Derakon:
<STRONG>
At the very least I'll get some hydrabone bolts to play with, and one hydra skull totem.
</STRONG>

Don't you mean about 8 hydra skull totems?

quote:Originally posted by SmileyMan:
<STRONG>I was of the same opinion as you regarding sieges, until the other night, when the Trolls turned up......</STRONG>

Ditches and cage traps pretty much get rid of your troll problems.

[Kuli]

I've just been deleting the Trolls' buildingdestroyer tag since the days of the 2D version since they had a tendency to smash my floodgates and cause a permaflood.  It was just too much of a nuisance to deal with.  I suppose I could put it back in now, though.  It isn't as if I ever have running water in my forts anymore.

I'll have to try the babysnatcher thing some time.  Now if only there was a way to trade kobold thieves for something more worthwhile as well.

[Derakon]

quote:Originally posted by Benitosimies:
<STRONG>
Don't you mean about 8 hydra skull totems?</STRONG>

Seven necks, seven heads, seven mouths, one skull.

[Benitosimies]

I ... see... it looks like only two eyes as well.

Maybe it just has a skull in the center of its torso like that villain from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... or ... something.*

(One of you Quaids got a 'smint?)

*And... head... tentacles?

[Hyperturtle]

I always thought the one skull was the only head worth keeping; presumably the other ones were ugly.

[Stij]

Maybe only one skull actually holds the brain, and the rest are just head-shaped appendages?

[brainfire]

quote:Originally posted by Benitosimies:
<STRONG>I ... see... it looks like only two eyes as well.</STRONG>

My adventurer successfully gouged two eyes out of each of the seven heads on my first hydra, last night.

[Forumsdwarf]

Hammer Trap, the Official Music Video

The second pumpkin probably jammed the mechanism.  Or that third vegetable was really a kobold.

Real hammer traps don't auto-reset.

Congrats on your first siege AND first megabeast.  It only gets better.

If unemployment is a problem, are you making clothes?  That takes a ton of people and produces goods of only moderate value.  It's great make-work, and worth it when you see your Dwarves proudly wearing clothes of their own making.  Two real advantages of clothesmaking: the "Dyer" task trains Dwarves to legendary very quickly and clothes don't decay until worn and can pack a lot of labor into a single item (you can dye them and stud them and sew images on them and they still only take up 1 unit of bin storage).

[Derakon]

Actually, I have a legendary weaver with nothing to do because my farms are churning out food instead. Given that I have over 1000 seeds and 1000 prepared meals (and a similar amount of drink), I suppose I should switch over to making ropeweed and pigtails. The traders keep my legendary clothier busy full-time, though, and yes, I'm dyeing all of the cloth.

I do have lots of clothing sitting in bins, though, not that my dwarves seem to care; most of their clothing is pretty heavily worn.

[numerobis]

The cloth will be higher-quality when your weaver weaves it; the stuff you get through export is machine-made junk.

[Derakon]

I can verify now that removing babysnatching from the goblins does give you more sieges. I created a new fortress using the everything plus zombie macaques seed, and, after a good half-dozen false-starts, managed to get my fortress to the point that it wasn't at the mercy of random antmen. Then sixteen marksgoblins arrived. In winter of the first year, when I still had only seven dwarves.

I almost got my fortress sealed off - there was just one last square that needed a wall built. But my mason ran off to harvest plants. Then get a drink. So I promoted my miner to mason, and he decided to make crafts instead, then eat. And so on. So the goblins slipped in and annihilated everyone.

Now, while losing is fun, it's more fun when it's recoverable, so I restarted from my save at the beginning of winter, and this time dedicated my efforts to blocking off the fortress and making a corridor of doom (full of stonefall traps). And the goblins, spear-wielders this time, arrived, and got tangled up in the traps. So I sent in two trained soldiers and a few war dogs to mop 'em up. We killed them all! But the dwarves had four red wounds apiece, and my dwarves had no interest in rescuing them...most of the winter went by before I decided to restart rather than let dwarven heroes die of exposure.

So the third time around, I killed six goblin macewielders before the rest ran off, and my dwarves are feeling fine. Once the migrants arrive, I hope to be able to get rid of the traps.

Edit: one season after the above siege, 47 goblins of various kinds showed up. Fortunately they got spooked after five died to the traps and left. I'm now busily turning the leftover weapons into new traps.

[ March 31, 2008: Message edited by: Derakon ]