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[ronnietucker]

A couple of times now (in different games) I've had goblin invaders cause a SIEGE alert but they sit on the other side of a stream/river and don't cross, or they just stay further down the map but, either way, don't come up to my entrance.

What's the best way to tackle this? I don't want to open my bridges or undo my burrow as I'll get royally whooped (last time it was about 4 pages of invaders!) but I can't do anything while I'm under siege.

Any dwarven advice would be much appreciated.

[Salmeuk]

some kind of weapon trap or goblin grinder, at the end of a bait entrance. you can also open / close your front doors to stretch out the horde into smaller groups.

[ronnietucker]

some kind of weapon trap or goblin grinder, at the end of a bait entrance. you can also open / close your front doors to stretch out the horde into smaller groups.

I have a double bridge entrance. My idea was to leave the outer one open and let them into my corridor of traps. Then slam shut the outer one to trap them in there. But even with that outer door open they just won't come up.

[madpathmoth]

But even with that outer door open they just won't come up.

Yeah, invaders have to think they can actually reach the inside of your fortress.  It has to actually be open, or else they psychically know there's no entrances, and if you close it back up they know instantly that it has been closed off.  You gotta open both doors to lead them to the traps, then close one or both doors once the goblins are triggering the traps, but before they enter your fortress fully.

[NordicNooob]

Exceptionally long corridors can have invaders not really want to path in as well, so even with a fully open fortress you may struggle to lure them in if you've made your trap corridor too long. But of course that part doesn't matter since you haven't opened your fortress up.

It's technically possible to do a bait meeting area so that goblins think they're pathing into your fort without actually "endangering" anybody, but I find them too finicky and unreliable, and it's generally pretty easy to make an overkill trap corridor so there's not much point in a fake entryway. Also note that bait animals only really work if the goblins can see the bait animal.

Also noteworthy is that goblin sieges will be greatly slowed by 1x1 corridors just because their squads don't really fit well and get slowed by backtracking and crawling over each other. At least, larger sieges will. Smaller ones don't group into squads as heavily so if it's only two or three dozen they'll do single-file without too much issue.

[muldrake]

Find magma sea, dig all the way down to it, install retracting bridge above, make it the only entrance, dispose of them batch by batch until they're all gone or realize they bit off more than they chew and go away.  I forget the percentage, but there's some level where they chicken out.  Or at least there's a chance they will.

Anyway find a way to keep picking them off.  It usually works.

Or the usual trap hallway full of junk weapons, with your best team on the other side.

[anewaname]

Is it actually a river/stream and not a brook? When a river separates your map into multiple regions, you need to build a bridge over it or invaders (and migrants/traders) cannot cross over.

[muldrake]

Is it actually a river/stream and not a brook? When a river separates your map into multiple regions, you need to build a bridge over it or invaders (and migrants/traders) cannot cross over.

Another possibility is redirecting such a thing and putting an entry in the dry riverbed while building over the redirected part, leaving raising bridges so that it can be flooded nearly instantly.  There is a possibility of !FUN! with this method.

[eerr]

some kind of weapon trap or goblin grinder, at the end of a bait entrance. you can also open / close your front doors to stretch out the horde into smaller groups.

I have a double bridge entrance. My idea was to leave the outer one open and let them into my corridor of traps. Then slam shut the outer one to trap them in there. But even with that outer door open they just won't come up.

bait the side entrance with a turkey. goblins always love killing livestock.

[DrCyano]

I’d dig a tunnel under the river to behind the goblins, control both ends with raising draw bridges, fill the tunnel with traps (I like to use minecarts and rollers to turn my enemies into road-kill), then breach the surface to let the gobbos come in through your tunnel. Just as the survivors are about to enter your fortress, close the draw bridge so they have to go back through the traps to get out again.