GAH!!!
4 years into a fortress, designed specifically to be able to resist ANY assault, about 1 more season away from completion, and then I get my 1st ambush (There really wasn't much worth anything in my fort the first 2 years, mostly mining and producing floodgates/hatches, wasn't till early in year 4 that I got my stonecrafting/clothing/food industry running at full tilt)
And then I get an ambush, right before the key pieces are installed. I suppose I should have focused on one project, instead of all 5 at once...
Without any of them completed, I have little chance of resisting them, at least, not without drafting a bunch of unarmed dwarves. And this is a goblin ambush with crossbows... how lovely.
Since there hasn't been much hauling yet, as most of the labor involves mechanics/masons working around the fortress, I have about 40 dwarves not doing anything at the moment. A lot of them I'm saving for later, so I set up the 12 least important dwarves, have them wait in an area where the crossbowmen have a very tiny advantage, and charge.
Now... there is 1 side effect to having a bunch of dwarves sit around and not do anything while your skilled dwarves do work. One I hadn't really thought of.
The goblins come around the corner, and just MASSACRE my dwarves. The wrestlers that came with the goblins die quite eaisly, but the crossbow fire just obliterates my unarmored/untrained melee fighters.
So they're still comming. I do have ONE thing I can do to defend, but it will flood most of my fort uncontrollably, so I'd rather not pull that particular lever. My dwarves are all now up on the surface, going after that *Pig Tail Sock* So I say "Frig it!!!" And draft them all. about 4 more die before the threat is qualmed.
I un-draft everyone, thankful that things are fine, and am immediatly met with about 10 "Urist McUnhappy Cancels drink: Throwing Tangtrum"
Apparently, When you stand around doing nothing for 3 years, you make good friends with everyone in the fortress., And I'd just had 15 some dwarves die.....
And then the 2nd ambush arrives.
I say "Screw it" And pull a lever. I had intended on having a moat, but I hadn't dug the moat yet. I HAD connected the screw pump to the river I had planned on using to fill the moat. It wasn't running (Gear assembly+lever) Because I didn't want to flood the whole world before I dug out the area I needed. So I pulled it, and water began pumping into the courtyard.
I lost about 10 more dwarves to goblins, 6 dwarves to in-fighting, and the rest drowend (I pulled the lever to flood the innermost parts of my fortress at the same time. I was suppsoed to be able to flood selective parts of the fortress, but I hadn't finished linking up all the floor hatches for the Drainage, or the Floodgates to isolate the flooding...)
1 more seaosn... and I wouldn't have lost a single dwarf. Instead, I lost the entire fortress.
What do I have to say about it?
"That was fun!"
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Topic: The perfect Defense Fortress... not so perfect. (Read 1993 times)