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[Nisper]

I made a Moat around my fortress, filled it with water,put  a wall inside AND planning to make archer towers on the corners and 1 for each side..How defended am i from the fun stuff from the surface?If not any tips?

[StagnantSoul]

1: How thick is the moat?
2: How deep is the moat?
3: Did you make sure to remove the ramps?
4: How high is the wall?
5: What material did you make it out of?
6: What form of that material was it? (Boulders, logs, bricks, blocks)
7: Are the towers going to be close enough to have intersecting lanes of fire?
8: Do you have any plan to defend against goblins riding on flying mounts?
9: Is there a lip on the wall?
10: If so, how high up is it?
11: Is there anything living in the moat?
12: Is the water all 7/7?
13: Are you using fortifications for your archer tower, or open roof?
14: How many marksdwarves will you have per tower?

[Nisper]

1: How thick is the moat?
2: How deep is the moat?
3: Did you make sure to remove the ramps?
4: How high is the wall?
5: What material did you make it out of?
6: What form of that material was it? (Boulders, logs, bricks, blocks)
7: Are the towers going to be close enough to have intersecting lanes of fire?
8: Do you have any plan to defend against goblins riding on flying mounts?
9: Is there a lip on the wall?
10: If so, how high up is it?
11: Is there anything living in the moat?
12: Is the water all 7/7?
13: Are you using fortifications for your archer tower, or open roof?
14: How many marksdwarves will you have per tower?

The moat is 2 tiles wide and 3 deep full of water and empty.The wall is logs(might have to change it to stone) and 1 tile high i am going to plan like 1 or 2 per tower, and of course fortifications wihtout open roof.I also made a chamber wiht roof and bridge for my dwarven fortress entry(found no hills).Is this good enough?(might have to change walls)(no lip)

[Daris]

A filled moat is less effective than a dry one.  Weird but true.  It's easier for things to swim across than to climb two z-levels.  The water may prevent trees from growing, but flooring/roads are better for that purpose.  Even an empty stockpile, although that is much less attractive IMHO.

Notwithstanding that, an overhanging lip on the wall will prevent climbing.  Make sure the lip is on the same z all the way around and trees are not growing such that they provide a ladder or swing-across point.  I find that at least 5 tiles of completely restricted growth is necessary to prevent trees from compromising my wall.

Think about your traps, and whether they are adequate.  Traps don't necessarily mean only cage/weapon traps, because trapavoid critters won't trigger them.  Assume that a steel spider titan with deadly dust shows up; how will you deal with it?  If you can handle that extreme scenario, you should be set for anything less dangerous.

[Nisper]

A filled moat is less effective than a dry one.  Weird but true.  It's easier for things to swim across than to climb two z-levels.  The water may prevent trees from growing, but flooring/roads are better for that purpose.  Even an empty stockpile, although that is much less attractive IMHO.

Notwithstanding that, an overhanging lip on the wall will prevent climbing.  Make sure the lip is on the same z all the way around and trees are not growing such that they provide a ladder or swing-across point.  I find that at least 5 tiles of completely restricted growth is necessary to prevent trees from compromising my wall.

Think about your traps, and whether they are adequate.  Traps don't necessarily mean only cage/weapon traps, because trapavoid critters won't trigger them.  Assume that a steel spider titan with deadly dust shows up; how will you deal with it?  If you can handle that extreme scenario, you should be set for anything less dangerous.

What if i make a 3 z level tall wall and at the top level make a lip?

[Daris]

What if i make a 3 z level tall wall and at the top level make a lip?

I guess that's an adequate substitute for a dry moat, but more work than just not filling the moat.

Also: I forgot to mention, but flying titans are not uncommon, and rocs are a thing.  What's your plan to deal with flying critters?  Rocs are vulnerable to cage traps, but if your steel spider has gauzy wings, how will you handle it?

[StagnantSoul]

1: How thick is the moat?
2: How deep is the moat?
3: Did you make sure to remove the ramps?
4: How high is the wall?
5: What material did you make it out of?
6: What form of that material was it? (Boulders, logs, bricks, blocks)
7: Are the towers going to be close enough to have intersecting lanes of fire?
8: Do you have any plan to defend against goblins riding on flying mounts?
9: Is there a lip on the wall?
10: If so, how high up is it?
11: Is there anything living in the moat?
12: Is the water all 7/7?
13: Are you using fortifications for your archer tower, or open roof?
14: How many marksdwarves will you have per tower?

The moat is 2 tiles wide and 3 deep full of water and empty.The wall is logs(might have to change it to stone) and 1 tile high i am going to plan like 1 or 2 per tower, and of course fortifications wihtout open roof.I also made a chamber wiht roof and bridge for my dwarven fortress entry(found no hills).Is this good enough?(might have to change walls)(no lip)

Change the walls, make them taller, surround the moat with a floor, and add a lip. You should be good.

[Nisper]

What if i make a 3 z level tall wall and at the top level make a lip?

I guess that's an adequate substitute for a dry moat, but more work than just not filling the moat.

Also: I forgot to mention, but flying titans are not uncommon, and rocs are a thing.  What's your plan to deal with flying critters?  Rocs are vulnerable to cage traps, but if your steel spider has gauzy wings, how will you handle it?

I'll sadly have to lock the whole entry and pray to armok another siege comes and kills it....

[Daris]

I'll sadly have to lock the whole entry and pray to armok another siege comes and kills it....

I have to say that any subsequent critter that shows up and can kill the Hypothetical Worst Case will probably not be something you can mop up later.

Turtling for the rest of the history of your fort is a valid way to handle threats, but if that's your plan all you need is a single raising bridge at the entryway.

eta: What I'm trying to get at here is that there is no single defense that will handle all threats.  Your best defense for the Hypothetical Worst Case is going to be different than your best defense from a small goblin siege, which is different from your best defense vs. a dragon, or vs. a roc.  Nevertheless, there are some commonalities, like forcing enemies that make it past your wall into a passage that is 1-z high, or having a backup plan for when it's too dangerous to send in melee fighters and your marksdwarves are useless.  A wall alone is never going to be enough to handle everything the surface can throw at you, no matter how impenetrable it is.

[PatrikLundell]

The design is rather inadequate for the most common threat: flying pests, such as keas. In the past these could generate enough vengeful thoughts to bring a whole fortress down in a tantrum spiral, although the stress nerfing has made that less of an issue.
X-bow dorfs could keep the pest population down a bit, though, provided you can keep them from committing suicide.

I cover my courtyard with a roof to allow grazers and above ground farming to work in (relative) peace.

Also, the lip bit to block climbers is counter intuitive: If you jut a wall out from the top to create a lip, climbers can climb diagonally upwards, but if you instead place a floor there they can't! Since a floor looks silly (and would result in a suicide jumping risk for any militia up there), I'd jut it out two tiles: first a floor and then a wall.

[angelious]

not enough magma....

[fucduck]

.

[vekar]

If I get serious about defending I add landmines. Deadly serious. Traps are outstanding, just make a huge pile of giant axe blades, serrated and spikes then just put out a hundred traps in little clusters, two or three deep like this: (x=trap/mine)
x-x-x-x
-x-x-x-
x-x-x-x

This especially works if you know which way the goblins/invading humans or elves come from. In my case after two sieges I know which way they will approach from every time and just lay out a nice field of mines. If you want to do more add bait for them to chase after on the far side of the mines. Goblins or whoever enter the map and go racing after the bait and have to walk the mine field first. Once I completely surrounded one of my forts with mines just for fun and it was very, very, bloody, gory fun. Watching a cyclops drag itself along with one arm and slowly bleed out after stepping on several mines is entertaining.


The point of defenses is to not just put up a wall and moat, but to add LAYERS of defenses. Along with mines if I ever get around to it I add bunkers around the map at key points of interest. Basically invaders walk in, find mine fields, walls then these little sealed up pillboxes that suddenly open up like a vickers machinegun then disappear just as fast.

Never had any caravans die on the traps either, game lists the area around them (3x3) as non-accessible so caravans go around.

If you want a safe fort, add layers of defense, the more hell the invaders have to go through in order to attack the fortress proper the safer you are. Do not limit the surface as your only line, dig a hallway as your are first building your fort and use it as a trap corridor as well with arrow slits in the walls. If someone wants in the fort... Make them pay for it, one bloody inch at a time.

[scourge728]

perhaps a hallway with artifact furniture would be good to lure away building destroyers

[Bumber]

Does your biome freeze in winter?