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[Inquisitor Saturn]

What's the best way to defend yourself against a goblin bowman ambush? Why, stand in one place and get butchered, of course! Better yet, run TOWARDS THEM!
Gah. I hope that Dwarven danger sense gets improved soon.

[numerobis]

I had my legendary woodcutter run from the archers upon getting sprung on.  He dodged the half-dozen arrows flying at him and was inches away from freedom when ... he turned around.

He gripped his axe, and went for the bowgoblins.  Across a narrow passage, he charged straight at the enemy.  I've never seen so many arrows get stuck in a single dwarf body.

Of course, as the goblin army celebrated, they came into the range of my own archers and were slaughtered wholesale.

[Kagus]

"My beardy-sense is tingling...  There are goblins nearby."

[Slappy Moose]

Nonsense, silly pants!

Dwarves are such manly men that they are intrigued by danger. Why, they are downright in love with punching a goblin maceman to death instead of living!

[Inquisitor Saturn]

quote:Originally posted by Slappy Moose:
<STRONG>Nonsense, silly pants!

Dwarves are such manly men that they are intrigued by danger. Why, they are downright in love with punching a goblin maceman to death instead of living!</STRONG>

No wonder they're being superseded by the humans

[Lalandrathon]

I dunno, my mayor (also a woodcutter0 did a similar thing except they weren't all archers. He killed two and mortally wounded their leader, causing the rest to flee when it bled to death, before finally succumbing to the arrows and swords.

I still would rather have had said mayor run the right way.

[brainfire]

I had a couple dwarves run back into my fortress once, escaping goblins.

However, they ran into a kobold thief while trying to get in, and ran back out, over the drawbridge I was about to raise, directly into a squad of bowgoblins and goblin pikemen.

Apparently kobold thieves are SCARY.

[Tayrin]

quote:Originally posted by brainfire:
<STRONG>I had a couple dwarves run back into my fortress once, escaping goblins.

However, they ran into a kobold thief while trying to get in, and ran back out, over the drawbridge I was about to raise, directly into a squad of bowgoblins and goblin pikemen.

Apparently kobold thieves are SCARY.</STRONG>

The dwarves were probably so drunk they mistook it for a bowgoblin.

[Torak]

A Kobold is sneaking into a fort when two dwarves run towards him, he thinks "Snargle dead now" when they turn and run from him. He is shocked, but then horrified as he notices the group of goblins descending on him after slaughtering the Dwarves.

Note Rum =/= Run

[ March 25, 2008: Message edited by: Torak ]

[Trollvottel]

My previous forts all had either a) goblins deactivated or b) huge losses.

Now when I started the current fortress, I swore to let the gobbos have it this time ... it seemed a good omen when I had to cancel my initially planned fortress layout (the place where I wanted the depot was magnetite mixed with platinum). OK, let's put the entrance over there? Found lignite. The entrance is now off to the side  

So from the 1st immigrant wave onward, I've constantly had some soldiers and, at times, a fortress guard. (The latter seems fairly pointless - dwarves in the guard will spar and soldier, but it seems to be impossible to un-fortressguard the best fighters?)

So now I have around 100 dwarves, 5 in Fortress guard and some 25 military dwarves sparring. Biggest difficulty is making enough wood and bone bolts  

So this is my first fortress that has a not-just-dabbling military ... and my first fortress where trap defense has been a roaring success.

I lost one Hunter/Marksdwarf guy from the first immigration wave in the first siege (he ran forward valiantly ... into some flying bolts.) The only hand to hand combat I've seen since were of the "They're fleeing! After them!" kind which happens if you're greedy for narrow clothing  

Trap defense:

Whenever Goblins or wild animals show up, I note:
a) the place where I spotted them
b) the beeline between my fortress entrance and their position. Can you tell where they came from?
c) Check trample marks to verify. That should allow some fairly good guesses as to where they entered the map.
Once you know roughly which route they took: "Weapon traps field" at strategic places. Optionally add stone-fall traps between the weapons traps field and the closest map edge: If the weapons trap decimate them too much, the goblins flee ... hopefully into some more traps.

[Happened to me yesterday in my 3nd siege: Axe Goblins walk into the traps system guarding the area above my main entrance (since I don't want goblins shooting down from there). Some of them got dismembered, my novice xbowdwarves opened fire ... so the Goblins fled. Their route took them across another field of weapons traps protecting my rams for wagons ... one guy still escaped. Won't happen next time ...
The goblin bow troop that arrived from the other edge of the map just walked into one set of traps and decided to leave ... ]

(I think goblins and wild animals share the same spawn points, which makes it easy to guess at their path to your fort. If you're not sure, dig channels to make them walk closer to those traps  

(Spent more than 30 minutes micromanaging soldiers when I had my first-ever megabeast, a Hydra. I think about 35 out of 85 dwarves were awaiting the collossal beast, armed to the teeth ... what happens? Hydra sticks a head into one of my Silver Serrated Disk weapon traps, gets decapitated, dies.)

[ March 25, 2008: Message edited by: Trollvottel ]

[Cthulhu]

quote:Originally posted by Kagus:
<STRONG>"My beardy-sense is tingling...  There are goblins nearby."</STRONG>

Their beards glow blue when goblins are nearby.

[Khosan]

quote:Originally posted by Trollvottel:
<STRONG>Trap defense:

Whenever Goblins or wild animals show up, I note:
a) the place where I spotted them
b) the beeline between my fortress entrance and their position. Can you tell where they came from?
c) Check trample marks to verify. That should allow some fairly good guesses as to where they entered the map.
Once you know roughly which route they took: "Weapon traps field" at strategic places. Optionally add stone-fall traps between the weapons traps field and the closest map edge: If the weapons trap decimate them too much, the goblins flee ... hopefully into some more traps.

[Happened to me yesterday in my 3nd siege: Axe Goblins walk into the traps system guarding the area above my main entrance (since I don't want goblins shooting down from there). Some of them got dismembered, my novice xbowdwarves opened fire ... so the Goblins fled. Their route took them across another field of weapons traps protecting my rams for wagons ... one guy still escaped. Won't happen next time ...
The goblin bow troop that arrived from the other edge of the map just walked into one set of traps and decided to leave ... ]

(I think goblins and wild animals share the same spawn points, which makes it easy to guess at their path to your fort. If you're not sure, dig channels to make them walk closer to those traps  

(Spent more than 30 minutes micromanaging soldiers when I had my first-ever megabeast, a Hydra. I think about 35 out of 85 dwarves were awaiting the collossal beast, armed to the teeth ... what happens? Hydra sticks a head into one of my Silver Serrated Disk weapon traps, gets decapitated, dies.)

[ March 25, 2008: Message edited by: Trollvottel ]</STRONG>

I just trap the hell out of my entrance.  It hasn't failed me so far, or at least that's what the forty some caged goblins sitting in a stockpile are telling me.

After that, it's really a matter of figuring out what to do with the goblins.

[Captain Goatse]

quote:Originally posted by Trollvottel:
My previous forts all had either a) goblins deactivated or b) huge losses.

You wuss! Dwarves live for fighting! However, trapping the entrance helps. I've also built a nice contraption on ground level, fortress entrance.

    1111111
    2<<<<X3
    2<<<<<3
    2<<<<<3
    2<<<<<3
    4444444
1 Bridge, raises down
2 Bridge, raises right
3 Bridge, raises left
4 Bridge, raises up
< Stairs down
X Stairs up and down

Link a lever to all four bridges, pull when goblins are coming, et voilą the fortress is safe from invaders. Meanwhile, the second floor has a different layout

    FFFFFFF
    F++++<F
    F+++++F
    F+++++F
    F+++++F
    FFFFFFF
F Fortification
< Stairs down
+ Stone floor
(not shown) Elite crossbowman raining death upon goblin horde with relative impunity!!!

[Inquisitor Saturn]

I too trap the entrance. The problem is when a bunch of them head out for some hauling job and are ambushed by the gobbos.

[Cthulhu]

I never trap, because my fortresses never last long enough to need them.

Also, Captain, did you hear?  Tricking someone into looking at Goatse is a felony now, punishable by up to ten years in prison.