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[Forumsdwarf]

My first-ever goblin siege!

I've supplemented my serrated steel disks with numerous spiked wooden balls.  "Spiked wooden ball" just doesn't have the same ring to it as "giant steel axe blade" or "serrated steel disk", but we'll see how they perform.

I have a catapult, too, but I'm doubtful it's going to do much.  I have, however, been training my army from day 1, drafting anyone who hits "Legendary".  We'll see how they hold up.

A player's first siege happens only once in a lifetime ... here goes.  Wish me luck.

[Kagus]

Remember to lock all the doors that lead into places you don't want goblins...  Nothing quite like setting up a perfect gauntlet-style front entrance and having the army use the unlocked back door instead.

Pity giant axe blades aren't more useful...  They're easily one of the coolest trap components.  Might just have to "tweak" them a little bit...

Don't forget to tell us the gory dertails!

[Forumsdwarf]

First Blood and First Kill go to me!

I've spent the first few hours of the siege playing "goalie", grabbing idiot civilians standing at the door, drafting them into the army, and sending them to "Last Ditch Ladder", which they'll all rush up in all their civilian glory should it come to that.

Next time instead of having the goblins show up while I'm still herding the cats I think I'll just draft every last stinking dwarf in the place and assume no civilian will ever just stay in the lower levels and smelt ore instead of walking upstairs to the front door like an idiot.

I'll have the "last ditch squad" already prepped and ready next time, no ad-hoc organizing.  I'll have a plan for everyone.

Anyway I'm grabbing civilians and drafting them as they run to the front gate and I see a huge volley of crossbow bolts rise up from my fortifications.  I hadn't expected that; the right side fortification wall acted as a rampart giving my marksdwarves a clear field of fire to the z-level above.  I didn't mean to build a rampart; I was shooting for "ambush".  Live and learn.  The rampart seems to be working so far, but my intention was for the gobbos to walk over some traps first as they came around the hump then into a barrage of bolts at close range.  I figured, "Hit 'em after the traps, use less ammo."

My entrance is a backward L-shaped alcove with a "hump" at the end of the "L".  I cleared away the ramps so the enemy would have to come down on the left side of the "hump" then come around the "hump" into the "kill zone".  My archers were set so they would (I thought) get a shot at the gobbos as they came around the hump and through the first series of traps, but they had other ideas.  First kill goes to me!

code:

            +
            +Cat
     ^^     +
    v++^ $  +
   v++++^^^^+M
   ++++++++++
          Ent

Anyway that's a really rough sketch, the "$" is my trade depot, the "^" are outdoor traps, "v" are the slopes down from the z-level above, "Ent" is the heavily trapped one-and-only entrance.  "+" is the fort.  "M" is where all the marksdwarves are standing.  "Cat" is the poorly-placed catapult.  The operator has already deserted his post.

The "hump" is hollowed out with fortifications.  I dug it out to handle attacks from the other side of the "L".
All the gobbos are on the z-level above the hump.  They brought a lot of archers, but I think there's only 1 square up there that actually has line-of-sight to the Marksdwarves' firing position.  I'd have rather beat the archers back with serrated metal disks, but if they're lining up for my archers one-at-a-time I can work with that, too.

I wanted to avoid an open exchange of bowfire, even from behind fortifications, but better fortifications than open ground, eh?

[Forumsdwarf]

Well my idiot siege engineer just walked outside and died.  More defective DNA removed from the gene pool I guess.  I suspect, though, that all dwarves if given a chance will act just as stupid.

The siege operator is still alive.  He abandoned his post because I didn't turn off hauling.  As soon as he got back to the catapult he ran in terror, though.  Catapult scores 0 hits for 0 shots fired.

The gobs are coming around the hump now and my archers are drilling them.  Apparently the trade center is neither cover nor concealment; both sides are exchanging fire through it like it's not even there.  I'm going to have to build some walls if I want my "ambush" concept to ever work.

One of the goblin archers is using my own fortification against me, firing through the fortification at my civilian stragglers inside.  No hits yet, I don't think.

Definitely gonna be some "lessons learned" from this siege ... if we survive it.

[Forumsdwarf]

Got a good firing position on the crossbowman from behind another fortification and she decided to move.  The dead idiot dwarf had a pet dog who rushed the crossbowman, which caused her to stop firing.  The dog's dead for sure, but ... good dog.

Lesson learned: entrenched fortifications.  Maybe even a moat.  But you can't just let the bad guys walk up to your fortifications.  Gotta have at least a channel in front of 'em.

Did that spearman get his heart punctured by a spiked wooden ball or crossbow bolt?  Heh, he's dead in a few seconds either way.  More are coming though.
They bought it, too.  Axemen, spearmen, macemen, now they're just stacks of equipment and rotting flesh.  The gobbo crossbowman decided to run around the trade depot and charge the east wall.  She went down in a hail of bolts.

The score:
Dwarves 5
Gobbos 1 + 1 dog
Traps triggered: 1.  How embarassing.

One of my Marksdwarves inexplicably ran outside -- another Darwin Award contender by the looks of it.  I'm not blameless either; I'm the one who decided if the entrance is defended well enough it doesn't need a door.  On to the next lesson ...

[Kagus]

I may not be an expert fort engineer, but when I build a fort I tend to not build anything open to the outside.

There's one little entrance that leads into an underground corridor, which then leads to home-sweet-home.  This way, I control the environment, and I get to build a lovely little corridor with raised drawbridges on the sides that hide walls of fortifications with marksdwarves back behind.  That's an ambush.

Plus, it's all just so stylish.  One big, imposing door on the outside, fortress on the inside.

[Forumsdwarf]

They're running!  They messed up the guy who ran outside pretty good, injured his upper spine, but I was really wondering why they didn't finish him off.
They decided to flee in terror instead.
Bad move.  I may not have cavalry, but dogs run pretty fast, too.  Quarantine ended, civilians returned to their jobs, and new orders given to the army: cut off the fleeing goblins.

The gobbos on the upper level are the only ones with even a chance at escape.
They're retreating east, which means my guys can take the right-hand slope up to their level and get within firing range of at least some of them.
A crossbowman escaped.  An axeman just took a bolt to the leg and started trailing blood.  He won't be escaping.
Another crossbowman escaped, but there's a steady rain of bolts coming down on the last few stragglers.  There's a good chance they won't make it.  Bah, both hit in the arm then my boys ran out of ammo, those are 2 lucky goblins.
Well, that's 4 that got away, the rest left a respectable pile of 12 bodies.  I took 2 casualties, one dead and one spinal injury (minor from the looks of it), plus one dead and 2 injured dogs.
How'd I do?  Not well.  My defenses were designed to do 4 things: force engagement at close range, soften the enemy up with traps, disperse the enemy's forces, and concentrate fire.
Of these goals only half were met: my defenses did cause the enemy to split up and come at me piecemeal into concentrated fire.  Still, it could've been a lot worse.  This was a relatively inexpensive learning experience.

[Quift]

I have done the contrary. All my defences are on the outside, classic set with high walls, fortifications on top, a deep moat and a drawbridge. so once I set the dwarfes stay inside command everyone runs inside (well behind the fortifications),and then they can pull the levers to drop down the grates and or pull the drawbridge.

Then I can let all the soldiers outside to shoot down the invaders.

my main problem right now is that the goblins lose morale too soon, which means that about 50 % of them flees after having come into range of the marksdwarfes.
So my next big project is to create a large moat around the map with drawbridges sothat I can trap them all before letting out the infantry to slaughter them all.

Eventually after that I may create a fake exit, forcing them to run through an immense number of cage traps for my arena fights.

[Forumsdwarf]

Kagus:
First on the to-do list: front door.  Check.
Now for some much-deserved sleep.

[Kagus]

Just wait for a little bit.  There's still time for siege aftershock, and that's often the most destructive aspect of sieges.

If you can survive the mood swings after a siege, you're set.  Considering this was your first siege, I'd say you did rather well.

Of course, I've never had a siege, so I wouldn't rightly know, now would I?

[BurnedToast]

If you really want to kill the goblins, just lock the main door and make a long twisty trap free side corridor. once they get in, make a drawbridge that shuts off that and opens a new exit lined with traps - once they retreat they will have to go through the traps and get chopped up. Few if any will escape that.

FWIW there is no real advantage to killing lots of gobbos unless you really want to melt the iron/steel stuff. they bring just as many next time if you kill the min amount or if you kill them all. It's actually quite annoying to haul all the extra cave spider chitin thongs and whatnot back.

Edit: duh, Quift already beat me to that suggestion. Note to self: read ALL the posts before replying.

[ January 29, 2008: Message edited by: BurnedToast ]

[ShunterAlhena]

Forumsdwarf: watch out, sieges are a tricky thing. I disposed of my first siege with relative ease (and I felt this surge of adrenaline you did   but the with the help of the Dwarven Merchants Guild guards, they were slaughtered like the animals they are!), my second siege with heavy losses but the main fortress and civilian population remained mostly intact - then the third came and it absolutely vanquished us, eighty dwarves were slain and our halls ran red with blood. They spared a baby who hid under the corpse of its mother. Hope they killed the kid and didn't make him a slave...

This next fortress has moat, drawbridge, cage traps, stonefall traps, marksdwarves and everything.
Question: can animals or gobbos break through (stone) wall grates? I use these as secondary gate, raised and lowered by lever. I also have an emergency drop grate to seal off my chasming corridor, in case angered creatures emerge from the deeps. But are they effective? I read in a fortress story that skeletal elk broke through doors.

[ January 29, 2008: Message edited by: ShunterAlhena ]

[ColonelTEE3]

The one major flaw to my base, which is now unfixable, is that a large portion of it is outside. Or atleast, a large portion of our traffic is outside. My city is seperated into two districts, with outlying buildings around it. To the west, above ground and built into the mountain side is my housing quarter and dining room, and to the east, below ground, is my workshops, Well, farms, and barracks, and to the north in the canyon side that overlooks us are various noble homes and a large magma facility, so everyone scurries from one place to another above ground. So when the goblins attack, i can't order anyone to go in doors, because that pretty much cuts off everyone, from everyone else  

[Untelligent]

I'm working on a diabolical defensive device to protect my own fortress. I won't give away any details yet, other than the phrase "Automated Goblin Smasher."

Sadly, I won't be able to finish it until the damn trees grow back so I can slay them and use their carcasses for axles. I'm kinda worried, as I haven't had any seiges, snatchers, or thieves invade my fortress yet, so I figure I'm due for one soon. Hell, I haven't even had a random wild animal attack, unless you count the time a Mud Man followed one of my haulers away from the cave river while all my Marksdwarves were asleep. That particular section of the fortress is now locked off, not to be reopened in the near future. Damn those frogmen, there's a pair of platinum nuggets next to the river bank that I can probably never get now. Maybe I'll fill the river with magma or something. [/ramble]

[Hypcso]

I had planned to readily dispatch any siegers with my extra long bridge of doom, which conveniently, when collapsed, opens up a gaping chasm that goes down 7 floors ( They usually survive, so I set my military on the other side of the door to rush in and finish them off ). Unfortunately, I only got about 7 goblins on the first usage, after which the remaining goblins actually refused to go anywhere near the bridge even when it was set back to normal. I had dumb, dumb citizens attempting to race out and " Store owned Item " during the siege ( Which I normally wouldn't even allow, because of the massive amount of undead elk and musk-ox in the area ) I ended up having to wait them out, as my guard tower was not finished on that side and I had only a few marksdwarves compared to their 10 machinegunner bowmen.