Shoruke's Log. 20th of Moonstone. (early winter, year 20) (fourth try... just read to find out)
We almost had a cavein over the arena, but I spotted it in time and rectified it. The turret-space shall be channeled out, one space at a time. Bleh.
The goblins are coming! The goblins are coming! Shouted whoever was gathering bones at a time. Surely enough, when I poked my head out the gate (not very far out, I'm EXTREMELY cave adapted), a vile force of darkness had arrived: MONK WAS NOT DRINKING FOR ONCE! Well, he wasn't, but the force of darkness was actually goblins.
Feh, I thought to myself. It's another bunch of wrestlers, with three macemen and a spearman. But wait! He was actually a spear MASTER. Oh well, Rick could handle him.
Then I realized that there were two other squads, and neither of the others were wrestling squads. Each squad was led by a militant master of some kind.
A three pronged attack? The goblins had planned strategy.
Notice that I used the words "goblins" and "strategy" in the same sentence, relating the two to each other? Suddenly I realized that this whole situation called for extreme measures.
"Nobody goes outside", I ordered. "The military will guard the glass hallway, where we have a chokepoint and the goblins can only come three at a time." Thankfully the goblins had no ranged combatants. "Everyone else, stay the hell away from the gate." And with that, rushed back to the dining hall.
The goblins came. Of course they did. They're too proud to resist a challenge like breaking through a spartan wall of dwarves, and too stupid to realize they hadn't a prayer. The dwarven military (with no help from The Guard... surprise, surprise...) fended the siege off easily. Soon after getting into the gate and being owned in no time flat, the goblins realized they should run. The siege broke, goblins running every which way, metaphorical tails between their physical legs. Some of them made it out of the fortress boundary... Some did not.
Throughout the entire battle, no dwarves sustained any casualties.
Hey cool, more goblins stuff to melt and/or sell.
However, this event has got me thinking. What if the goblins send, say, seven well-trained squads in the next siege? Squads that won't break at the first sign of ownage? And what if some of the squads are marksmen? We need to hurry up and get some severe fortress defenses going here. It's tower time.
...just as soon as we get some decent quantity of wood. Stupid pearlash, takes so much effort to make. We only need six more windows for the arena, then it's on to blocks for the tower. I know it's stupid to put any effort at all into the arena when our defense needs attention, but it's so close to completion, and I really want it out of the way.
Ooh, really fun side note. I suppose I need to elaborate on the current status of our surface defenses first.
North side: defensive channel on northwest, traps center-north, northeast is open
West side: defensive channel, with a bridge over it; bridge has cage and stonefall traps on either side
East side: WIDE OPEN
South side: same as north
The goblin siege squads came from the north, the northwest, and the southeast. The southeast squad was able to get to the fortress without any trouble. The north squad sacrificed some goblins to the stonefall traps, leaving a wide path for the rest. The northwest squad went for the west side and.. well... suffice to say we now own quite a few goblins. Teach you to try and assault the west side of our fortress, idiots!
I will now take opinions as to what we shall do with these goblins. Default is having Monk shoost them to bits from the arena turret when it's complete, but other mean/entertaining/interesting/exemplary ideas are appreciated.