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[Shadowdragon00]

Yep huge goblin siege.And some dwarfs are attacking with them. Whats  that about?Also my fort has a giant underground Tavern.And there are four entryways to my fort.Does that help plan tactics?The goblin siege has like 40-50 enemy's.I lost all my ax lords to a vampire and titan and only have 30 or so troops.What do I do?   

[Fleeting Frames]

Divide and conquer, I guess? Set up ambush points where many of your guys will face few of theirs.

[Shadowdragon00]

Um how? Its mostly open ground.

[Fleeting Frames]

You have entranceways into your fort, and presumably you have doors and bridges?

A single bait building alone may redirect bypassing trolls on its own.

[bloop_bleep]

What is the exact size, in number of pages the siege takes up in the unit screen? 30 dwarves might be enough to take down the siege of you plan carefully.

[PatrikLundell]

It's not a giant siege. If anything, it's a medium one on the small side (240 goblins, 120 trolls/ogres, and 120 beak dogs is the maximum one with what I think is the default parameters).

However, divide and conquer is the key as mentioned. If I were to fight them (which I don't, as I use cages), I'd make an airlock into which I'd let 10 or so enemies. I'd then station my militia inside of that, and once they're gathered in sufficient numbers (1/3 is probably sneaking off sleeping/eating/drinking/replacing rations/replacing gear/praying...), I'd lower the inner drawbridge and order the dorfs to attack. Once the enemy has been dealt with, withdraw the militia and open the outer bridge. Raise the outer bridge once there are 10 or so enemies inside the airlock and order an attack. Repeat (rinsing should be delayed until the siege has been dealt with) until the remainder of the force flees.

[TubaDragoness]

If you've got the food supplies for it, you can ignore sieges entirely - just make sure everyone is inside, lock doors and pull up bridges, and when there are building destroyers (ie mounts or trolls), build a wall behind the doors after they're locked.

A lot of long-term management of defenses comes down to how you can force the enemy into smaller groups that are easy to handle. There's lots of material on it if you look, but a short summary includes trap corridors, airlocks, and lots of levers.

[PatrikLundell]

True, siegers will give up after 1 season or one year (random) [With one odd report of a case of one year and one season, or something like that]. The main problem is if you've got grazers, in which case you may need to make an emergency breach of a cavern to release spores for "grass" (or you need the trade). Also, visitors are extremely stupid: they don't have the sense to stay away just because you're under siege. Goblins usually don't attack civilian visitors, but they make short work of any mercs. Undead sieges don't show any mercy to civilians either (I'd guess they would if those were vampires, but I haven't had any vampires show up while under siege).

[Shadowdragon00]

Ok guys im locked into the fortminis the two Urtist micwhys I locked out side.Good news:No trolls.And I have 700 in my food stores so i'm set going to out last that siege!

[Hyndis]

More dakka solves all problems. Marksdwarves, no matter how dabbling, can wreck havoc on dense formations. Even though every shot will miss its intended target, every shot will still hit a goblin even by accident. The trick is to engage on a flat plane. The shots will keep traveling forward and they will strike other goblins.

60 marksdwarves all with 25 bolts will put a lot of bolts downrange really fast. Its okay if they're bad shots, that doesn't matter. Volume of fire is what you're after.

I tend to have different "castes" of dwarf, with the commoner caste doing all of the farming work and other low skill jobs, including hauling. These dwarves all get crossbows, shields, and lightweight armor. In a pinch I can muster 60+ of these guys to all rally in the same place. That many crossbows all piled up together in the same 5x5 barracks centered on a strategically located armor stand puts out a lot of firepower.

[Vilkku92]

If those 30 troops are fully equipped with metal gear and have at least some training, you could probably just sally out and drive them off without too much harm to your forces. Goblins seem to have a habit of marching in long columns directly towards the nearest fortress entrance, so you could gather your troops in one place - right behind the front gate, for example - wait for the goblins to get close to you and then launch all your melee troops on them at once. The goblins are likely to be too thinly spread at that point to make effective use of their numbers, so your dwarfs should be able to kill enough of them to make the rest flee before the numbers really begin to count.

[Hyndis]

If those 30 troops are fully equipped with metal gear and have at least some training, you could probably just sally out and drive them off without too much harm to your forces. Goblins seem to have a habit of marching in long columns directly towards the nearest fortress entrance, so you could gather your troops in one place - right behind the front gate, for example - wait for the goblins to get close to you and then launch all your melee troops on them at once. The goblins are likely to be too thinly spread at that point to make effective use of their numbers, so your dwarfs should be able to kill enough of them to make the rest flee before the numbers really begin to count.

Training is critical. 30 dabbling dwarves with metal armor will be torn apart. 30 legendary+5 dwarves with metal armor are nearly invincible. Only send well trained troops into melee unless you want to lose them. If your troops aren't well trained, try to stick to ranged or use traps/machines to do your work for you.

[IT 000]

I find dropping the goblins down a few dozen z-levels helps a lot with melee combat.

[bloop_bleep]

I find dropping the goblins down a few dozen z-levels helps a lot with melee combat.

He would have to build it if he doesn't have it already; the siege will probably end before he could finish it.

[StarWars1981]

I make it a habit never to send outmatched melee dwarves into combat. Full steel before you risk them: they are worth more than the results they can give you until they have the MAXIMUM chance of surviving, to continue making use of that time you spent training them. Also by the time they're Legendary in weapons skill, you'll have lots of masterwork armor and weaponry to make them ridiculously effective. Fully armored, High/Grand Master dwarves are absurdly deadly, and goblins run away fast. I'd say even 30 dwarves in iron/bronze armor, with Competent skill averages, could drive off 40-50 goblins. You'll lose a few, but if it's valuable to break the siege do so. Otherwise, let'em leave and keep training your death machines.

By the way, my trap systems are usually basic, but I once came up with a plan for a Colosseum type entrance.
It was going to be set in a three-z-high cavern, with marksdwarves stationed all over the top, lots of paths above a 20z chasm, some drawbridges etc to make pathing interesting, lots of ballistae covering the longer, straighter stretches of Khazad-Dum grade bridges, and also a Doberman bomb for fun. And the melee dwarf release was going to go next to a giant pit for !!FUN!! should anything dodge wrong.
Or you could use cage traps and bridges as stated above to isolate the enemy and pick them off. But cagetrapping 3 goblins and seeing the rest run is lame ... lol.