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[ltprifti]

How, if at all, do you use siege machines in your fort?

[Starver]

Right now, not at all.

But when I did use (anti-)siege-weaponry, I tended to go for an array of giant-arrow trajectories passing through a given entryway (the classic 'staggered' triple behind fortifications that the incoming passageway headed straight for before ducking down/turning off, with strategic bridges for foe-trapping and/or fortification-sealing purposes).  Though it might start as catapulting rocks (initially orientated for continual practice) until I had the arrowheads that made that more worthwhile and decent enough crews to crew them.

I was not averse to using catapults to expedite rock movement (a 'conveyor belt' of one or more firing stations set to fling rocks into an easy-reuse stockpile within range (NPI!) of the next step). Though I think wheelbarrows (rather, even, than minecarts) became the easier way to decrease latency and/or bandwidth.

[ltprifti]

thats how i used to use them, but once i have a trap array and group of marksdwarves it seems not worth the space;i havnt used in sooo long tho

[vekar]

Never. Always found them to be too much of a pain in the rear to make, train and operate. Cheaper to arm a squad and have them train as siege engines make no difference unless you dedicate a truly insane amount of time to making, training and supplying them. Just use arrow slits and deep pits along the underground walkway leading in so your marksdwarves can shoot to their hearts content while not having to worry about anything closing the gap as there is a 10-20 Z level pit protecting them along with the fortifications.

[FantasticDorf]

I use them all the time when i can get the nessecary materials, though mainly catapults are the most efficient form of siege engine if you have any kind of heavy unversitile stone (bauxite and rutile come to mind besides their color/arguable mug smacking misc weapon uses) and they've never actually seen any action for the purpose that my trap hall and soldier squads tend to be good enough, but they always stand ready.

Even so I have a lot of siege engineers hanging around and mingling in guilds especially for the purpose of offduty scholarly pursuits and that its cheaper than running the range to train them, so at a whim i can burrow them there in the enclosed fortification pillbox and have them in their staggered 3 catapult array ready to hail hell on the enemy along a intended path.

I can't remember at a time whether catapults fell out of fashion with DF players if they weren't very good, but since the new body damage changes, they should on paper mash up flimsy & armored opponents with sheer collision force like minecarts can do. Mainly because the undead never dodge through the initial outlay of weapon traps to sidestep so i can launch more heavy stones hopefully physically shifting some of the smaller undead diced up through the traps back.

[Alastar]

For display purposes only.
"Use minecarts instead" is solid advice for most things that don't involve them already.

[Uthimienure]

I'm playing sort of "historically", with a castle that has a bunch of towers.  All the towers have a level of fortifications for archers/crossbows.  I'm outfitting some of the towers with ballistae in locations that have clear & long fields of fire, which are not common in this terrain.  After seeing the dismal accuracy of novice siege operators, a training ballista range is being constructed inside the main castle bailey, with channel against the wall to catch the siege arrows.  For now, I'm using wood siege arrows until my two engineers learn the craft.  At some point they'll replace the ballistae with higher quality ones, and start making metal-tipped siege arrows.  I realize from so many other players' experiences that this will mostly be ineffective when a siege occurs, but it's for role-playing and learning purposes anyway and should be entertaining.

[Bortness]

How, if at all, do you use siege machines in your fort?

The correct answer is the automated Dwarven shotgun using tens of thousands of green glass trap components.  While I understand this is not a "traditional" siege machine, if built correctly it will turn nearly anything in the game (save perhaps for steel Titans or FBeasts) to ribbons.  If you get an... unfortunately materialed procedurally generated critter, you can always load the carts with a spare smattering of adamantine or steel components, and Bob's your uncle.

Sincerely, Uncle Bob.

[Schmaven]

A battery of 3 ballistas (ballistae?) with skilled operators and steel ballista arrows have routed many sieges for me by themselves.  A single steel ballista arrow can kill several armored goblins and trolls in 1 shot, often severing multiple limbs at a time.

The setup and training takes time, yes.  But it's very effective once ready.

[Thisfox]

For display purposes only.

I'm another vote for "I use them decoratively". I use alternate methods to actually defend the fort.

[towerator]

My future entrance is planned to include a crossfire of siege weapons, but mostly for decorative purpose. The actual big killers will be a minecart buckshot cannon, a fire turret and a magma wave machine.

[Uthimienure]

How many metal bars are used to forge one ballista arrow head?

[Stench Guzman]

I use them as decorations.   Siege weapons haven't been updated since the 2D version and are useless for anything practical,.

[Miuramir]

I feel badly that they have gradually gotten less useful, as I'm generally a fan of them in general, and personally think that they are a fairly dwarf-appropriate approach to the problem.  So when I'm doing a more elaborate fort, I try to find excuses to have them as part of the defenses, even if they're not cost-effective. 

One such design I've been thinking about for a while is inspired by an upgrade to the "Bridge of Kazhad-dum" type entrance.  Instead of a single long, narrow span over a chasm, have a square zigzag of such bridges (between tiny pillar islands).  Then place at least one ballista firing down each leg of the bridges, but set back into the chasm walls, such that invaders never get close enough to terrify the operators.  There can be additional, wider, retracting bridges that both short-cut the zigzag, and are not trapped (etc.), to provide for caravan access; the final one being a raising bridge to block the caravan entrance hole entirely, to prevent ranged invaders from getting lucky shots, and to force the invaders to continue pathing through whatever backup death-traps you have in the subsequent hallway.  To me, this seems as if it would be visually impressive, suitably dwarfy, and has a decent chance of seriously cutting down the numbers of any invading force.  Optional upgrades would include smoothing the walls of the chasm as you dig it, to reduce threat from climbers; and a magma-safe high-density chasm floor (for maximum impact damage) with optional and reversable magma pumping action, to dramatically reduce hauling and dwarven dead body exposure, and pre-process goblinite. 

[Starver]

Scaled down (to save me the fiddlier bits), I once or twice tried something like this:

Code: [Select]

####S###S####
#...........#
S.+-+-+-+...#
#.|.....|...###
#.+.+-D?+?+-+++
#.|.|...|.|.###
#.+.+-+-+.+.S
#.|.......|.#
S.+-+-+-+-+.#
#...........#
##S#######S##
# = cavern/structure/quarry wall (may include droppable drawbridges, etc)
. = mostly open space (maybe some retracted tactical bridges not otherwise shown)
+ = straight floor/pillar-top/undug ground-level
|- = bridges (default kept in place, possibly retractable when useful to do so)
? = bridges (default kept retracted, unretracted if needed)
S = siege(-battery?) emplacements, embedded in walls (usual paranoid precautions, including raisable bridge-wall shields in front of fortifications, sometimes offset out beyond a Z-1 collection trough to act as ammo-practice/saver structures, with similar opposite-wall Z-1 'saver landings' for easily catching non-practice ammo)
D = depot (with protective walls, plus raisable-walls/drawbridges in any gaps that can/may be used as access or egress)
...Each shown tile *roughly* 3x3 actual tiles, maybe more (e.g. 7x7 for the full walled-depot tile detail), according to taste and necessity.

I'd perhaps redesign the details of this a little to use it with the potential threats of fliers/climbers, etc, these days, but (for what it is) it'd be basically like that, or even scaled up as big as I felt I could get away with.