The miners did their work, but all 3 were quickly killed by the surge they uncorked.
One of the elite guards got out beyond the fortifications and killed 2 before his hand was exploded into gore and he passed out from exhaustion.
It turns out these foes not only bypass weapon traps completely unaffected, but they also fail to trigger pressure plates, so the caged giant war bobcats have to sit this one out. Too late to link that cage to a lever, but the cage just past the trap hall with all the bears
is linked to a lever.
Unfortunate as it is, it is quite the thing of beauty to see a unit list where 75% of it is on fire. Those poor stray war giant grizzly bears...
Another lone guard charged out toward the final wave of buzzard monsters, killing 5, while the artifact wielding squad, and dozen or so bears that were not on fire were busy with the fire breathers in the relatively small bear battle chamber.
Well, the smoke
was clearing... A couple more breaths of flame torched the archers who were assisting behind the fortifications, and all of the giant war grizzly bears are now burning corpses. Not a single one survived. Fire seems to be their weakness. In hindsight, releasing all of them at once in a small room, already full of dozens of fire breathing demons was probably not the most effective strategy.
All in all, only 26 dwarves were lost, 11 of whom were not even supposed to be involved in the fight at all. Heaviest losses were the archers from that last blast of fire through the fortifications. The commander also gave his life in defense of the fort, but records were lost and buried under the 92 entries describing giant bears being burnt to a crisp. Some 22 bears were spared due to their assignments to guard duty, chained up in various places around the fort. The commander's long sword was found, and only has a few kills credited to it from last year, so it appears he was cut down early in the fight.
Out of curiosity to see how the giant war animals could perform, given half a chance, I re-loaded a backup from just before the fun and pastured all the giant war beasts just outside the fortifications.
A couple dwarves with very sharp weapons happened to be out in the field with the beasts, 1 of whom racked up 14 kills. Being composed of cinders and steam, the archers too were delivering lethal shots. Not the most durable of clowns, but still, 4 of the elite guards were lost.
Most of the bobcats were killed, but they managed to hold off the attack wave before the full force of bears could get involved. The few bears that did join the fight, didn't do so well. Most attacks simply whiffed, and without armor, or skill in dodging, they were quickly taken out.
In the spirit of testing, I reset the breach again and this time drafted all the unskilled dwarves, giving them helms, steel axes, and shields.
About 55 dwarves were lost using this approach.
Everyone is welcome to experiment with it if you wish. I made a backup just as the last of the giant war grizzlies were caged, and before the miners were sent to mine deep into the spire.
https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16142About a month to go before Premium DF comes out! I'm especially looking forward to the tile set. This particular one makes a lot of odd choices, the default unknown sprite looking like a wooden cage, and a good number of other sprites that seem to indicate something other than what they are. Still more workable than the ASCII for me, but Premium DF looks like it will be quite clear