https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=17044I reached this place only a year ago.
Gateheaven...to reach this place I had to walk through fields of corpses in a blasted desert.
Before this I watched as the last sparks of my people were stomped out.
Some were devoured by the cannibalistic elves and others enslaved by the human empire.
I walk these halls which are part tomb and part home. Myself and those others who have come here have nothing and most do not even remember the names of their families. All we have is a lifetime of running.
I stand in front of his tomb: He lived a great life, but died a meaningless death. I have lived a meaningless life and yet still live; So, perhaps we can find something new together?
I place my hand upon his stone coffin "By the gods do I hereby take up your name for my own. Just as I take your name I ask you to be my ancestor that we might both achieve what neither of us could do alone. I throw aside old names, titles and clans. Hereby shall I be known as: Maloy Fernboulder"
My first act as overseer is to draft four more squads and set them to training. This more than doubles the size of our military although the new squads will need time to train.
I also set up a schedule so military dwarves have time to relax as some of our stressed ones seem to be the guys training and killing endlessly.
All this as the humans are camped outside our fort asking for "parley". We agreed to meet, but the mayor isn't going to go out. That's fine because I don't need him to.
We dwarves naturally turtle up inside our fortresses and the enemy whittles away at us one by one. I mean look outside at them!
They drop near 200 soldiers on us every few months like it is nothing. So, counter strategy for me: Time to do some conquering
I lead the Laborious Fists on pillaging missions. First to a human village nearby and then to an elven forest nearby.
We raid the elven forest several times over the course of one month.
Not only do we get the means needed to win this war
But also we capture so many additional animals to butcher that we solve our food crisis instantly.
While we finish our last pillaging I have a squad of 5 sent to conquer and occupy that human village.
Enraged at our "treachery" the human army seeking parley begins its invasion of us just as the last of the Laborious Fists get safely inside.
The meatgrinder begins...
Despite constant ballistae fire and many traps some enemies do actually make it through the grinder! Three goblins! They get through our door before I can have the military posted, but meet an old human miner on their way do to our fortress.
He slays each goblin with his pick! He is injured and unable to move in the doorway of the death maze. Seeing him unable to move the swordmaster Torag daringly charges past him and down the maze to meet the enemy. This is heroic, but also unnecessary as more than likely no one else would have made it.
Also despite being a Swordmaster Torag is in a bad spot as his sword could not pierce armor like that human miner's pick could.
Sad.
The siege breaks either from losing over half of their army or perhaps the fools convince themselves they won, because they killed one dwarf.
We open the gates, hunt the survivors, set everyone to work and so on! I tell the miners to begin work on our plans for retaking the caverns and install more weapon traps in the death maze.
I lead the Laborious Fists to take the human castle of Luteglen nearby. It is one of three castles in the entire human union and so therefore it is a juicy prize! When I return we will continue our plans to conquer and take pressure off of Gateheaven.
The only ones who escaped the battle were...
I, Connerad, militia captain of Gateheaven take temporary overseership while my counterpart is held in twisted human dungeons. I will do my best to follow what writings he left for us.
We are 7 dwarves down with that loss which is huge since they were all military. I send out one of the other new squads: The untamed theaters
They are to pillage the elves and raid their forest as much as they can. They get many in, but are forced back underground as the next siege begins:
Elves...
The woodland monsters begin heading to our death maze just in time for another human army from the union to arrive. It has only been one month since the last one was destroyed. We immediately deny their attempt to parley and the humans advance attacking the rear of the elves as the first of them enter the death maze.
It is a massacre and the humans deal with the elves for us.
While most of the human army advances to our maze others begin hunting across our map killing famous treasure hunters, poets, philosophers, etc. Human barbarians.
This siege lasts way longer as the humans seem to memorize where our traps are and often just jump across them requiring us to expend an insane amount of ballistae bolts.
The whole time we are anxious: Is it too late to save the Laborious Fists?
During this month we suffer hard losses as a fight in the tavern breaks out leading to several deaths. Including our mayor. Also the Ghost of the original Salmeuk rises to haunt us. Rager smashed the poor hero's coffin open before his own death.
Finally, the siege does break as a full month ends as humans get tired of being eviscerated.
The Puce Wheels led by, myself, Tonnot and other dwarves sneak off to Luteglen to try and find our friends. We successfully infiltrate, but find no one in its dungeons and no mass grave. I fear the worst.
We return having stolen the humans prized scholarly works for ourselves and I send the Untamed Theaters to take the castle back.
As it turns out one of the Laborious Fists own squad members: Muthkat turned traitor and sold them out. He said he does not know where they have been taken. We execute him alongside the commander of the castle.
The Laborious Fists spent a month leaderless hoping for the return of their comrades and we cannot afford to allow morale to lessen. I appoint a new leader. Replace the lost members including a human warrior who has taken the name "Kesperan" as well as a dwarf who took the name Salmeuk! Bring honor to your namesakes, friends!
These men are installed into our new cavern barracks
We aren't ready to open yet, but when we do this barracks will stop any horrors from the depths that wander into our tunnels. The squad trains and lives in the barracks for half a year before ascending the long staircase back to the fortress. I shall decide who the second squad to fill the space the other half of the year later.
I exile the vampire progenitor after branding the mark of the vampire upon her flesh. She is sent to Luteglen to be under guard. She kills two people before finally leaving the map: Monster.
Fall comes and we kill another human and elven army after installing new weapon traps. We have too many green recruits and so I only send out the military to clean it up once their numbers have dwindled. Many bears have been born here and within a few years we should have a large enough force of them to take almost any enemy fortress!
Winter comes and we are just trying to rest. Elves again.
The goblins arrive and are led by a one-handed warrior. He is a "veteran" of Gateheaven! Survived the previous siege and now has been appointed commander of the new one.
They attempt to ford the river rather than walk over the bridge we made. Many goblins have trouble with the current and the army is separated.
Regardless, even half of the goblin army is easily able to butcher the elven one.
Elves who had gone into the death maze and didn't die stumbled out attempting to flee our death trap only to meet hooting goblins at the top.
I'd note that despite being the far more evil force the goblins don't kill a single traveler they encounter on the road to our fort. Unlike the humans who killed almost every single one! Strange.
Atu, the veteran of our fort, is one of the first to die. Stonefall trap.
The rest of the goblins fare even worse than the humans did previously with only two getting through the maze at all. Perhaps they shouldn't send their commanders in first?
The maze is an exquisite work of my predecessor. The goblins make it through one section of traps and stand paralyzed. Go forward and maybe run into more? Retreat and definitely hit traps again? The shock on their faces when their comrades move only to have their chests explode asunder by the sheer force of a trap!
Winter ends soon and I am eager to retire. I do not know where they took our comrades, but I pray for their safe return.
All in all within a single year we saw over 1400 deaths. Close to 20 were ours.
Short List of things I learned
1. New armies show up seasonally. I ended one human siege end of spring and a new one showed up a few weeks later beginning of summer.
2. New armies will show up every season. 2-3 armies each having 160 invaders according to our current settings
3. The goblins only have 5 or 6 sites. If we conquer them all we'd very quickly eliminate an enemy from attacking us and that'd give us relief. Important to conquer and not raze otherwise they'll just reoccupy sites
4. My squad is affected by a known glitch with prisoners. Theirs a chance that they'll rejoin our fort in a random migrant wave. Theirs also a chance they'll be part of the next invading human force too! Buggy.
5. I tried to pass multiple years, but with the constant armies the fort requires constant micromanagement. I'm constantly pausing to check on things.
6. Could probably fit 6 more squads into the fort, but I was focused on getting our current ones trained. Once we have 80 legendary fighters this will get A LOT easier
7. I wanna fill the death maze up with weapon traps. If we can automate killing sieges it'll make missions easier and we can focus on the caverns more.
8. Need the caverns reclaimed SOON. No wood for ballistae boltsAlso I didn't get to play for three days this week due to real life circumstances. This always happens to me on these kinds of games
https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=17044good luck!
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Topic: The Forests of Burning: Building the largest world conquest fort series (Read 18606 times)