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[Marlowe]

First game in a wholly 40d generated world and I just fought off my first ever multi-squad siege. Fun. However, I'm a little concerned for the local goblins.

They only have five leaders listed, a ruler, a elite of some description, a priest and two recruits, although we had two swordmasters and an axe lord turn up to the siege.

A little more than half their troops are leather-armoured wrestlers. My steel-plate-clad champions go through them like mango juice through a grandmother.

Are they on their last legs? Are they about to run out? They're making a good effort but I've never seen such a povety-stricken bunch of gobbos in my life. Should I start treating them nicely? Not call out the military when caravans come calling and let them take their chances wih the traps?

EDIT: Out of interest, is there someway of getting the movies to play at a watchable speed? I took a movie of of siege (starting from the time I realised I had an entire squad at my front door facing 2 dwarves) but it plays much too quickly.

[shadow_archmagi]

I suggest you capture an entire siege, and then tie a band to all of them before releasing them again, so when the next siege comes you can count how many have bands to determine the full population.

[Narmio]

A little more than half their troops are leather-armoured wrestlers. My steel-plate-clad champions go through them like mango juice through a grandmother.

I've been noticing the half-wrestlers thing too, it's pretty strange.  I've modded a few small things and I thought I had created the goblin wrestling platoon as an unintended side effect.  Are you running a completely vanilla setup? 

Has anyone else noticed squads of half wrestlers?

[sneakey pete]

Yep, all the time.

[Marlowe]

Totally vanilla.

The first ambush, The "Third Attempted Abduction", was 1 crossbow, 3 bowmen and 4 wrestlers. My champions were awful shots at the time and half of them had turned up with -turtle bone bolts(5)-. So we beat them to death with +steel crossbows+.

The second, the "Abduction of Celor(?) McBaby", saw a small squad of axegoblins and wrestlers getting shot to death in the open to the east (bonus points to the miner who revealed them. Took some goblins' leg off with his pick and then ran for it.), while a slightly larger squad of bowgoblins and wrestlers infiltrated close enough to get ripped apart by traps, crossbow fire, and caravan guards.

The first siege, The "Ferocious Assault", was about 12 mixed wrestlers and spear, pike goblins. We had plenty of time to get ready. It was a massacre.

the second; the "Fell siege", was a dozen wrestlers and lashers led by a hammer lord from the south, the same number of wrestlers and swordsmen led by a swordmaster from the east, and a spearmen/wrestler squad led by a swordmaster (or maybe just swordgoblin?) from the west. I didn't know about the last two groups, and the second group got right to my door before traps took out the swordmaster (well, actually, my axedwarf took out the swordmaster. But I'm pretty sure 4 stone-fall traps didn't hurt) and  an axedwarf and sword-wielding hammerdwarf (it simplifies sparring) harried the rest off the field. The lasher/wrestler group got annihilated by crossbow fire, although the hammer lord escaped. The spear/wrestler group turned up late, and broke as soon as we started shooting. The axedwarf and hammerdwarf chased them away and caught about four of them.

[(name here)]

Yeah, i think that half of each platoon, approximately, is wrestlers. i see the same thing.

[Marlowe]

So, it's pretty standard in 40d and doesn't mean the goblins are on the brink of extinction? Good.     

How about the recruits-as-local leaders thing? In 38c I got used to seeing about a dozen local leaders, all elites, listed for goblin civs.

[(name here)]

I don't know, actually. every race seems to have recruits as local leaders. my bet would be that they're legendary other thingies, but listed as recruits despite being able to kill chaos lords with backpacks. (i'm not kidding, that actually happened.) alternately they may be elite non-goblins.

[Marlowe]

Yikes.  Boy have I learned humility. They turned up again with at least 4 squads heavy on crossbows while I was nursemaiding some Elf merchants. Like a fool I let the boys out to clean up the first platoon and they got caught in the open by the second squad, which didn't seem as large as the other three, but made up for it by being entirely crossbows. Then the third and fourth squads turned up;  my civilians didn't seem to understand the "soldiers can go outside" standing order, and a local fire imp set alight most of the battleground (finishing off a lot of my wounded, and destroying a lot of the steel equipment).

So now we're down 4 champions and 3 swordsdwarves plus a number of varied civilians, including a legendary stoneworker (although, we do have another). Numerous other civilians are in an injured state, and a Baroness plus entourage turned up right when I was wondering how things could get worse.

On the plus side "The Amusing Curses" are now down to 2 local leaders, the priest and the ruler. Three of the dead goblins are flashing "legendary" status, so I guess we've seen the elephant. Hopefully they'll stay away until we can rebuild the military.

[Axe27]

guess we've seen the elephant.

Oh no...Oh no you have not seen the elephant.

Pre-40d anyway.

[Wolfking6116]

You might want to cross-reference their names.

I had a fort where I killed off 2 Legendary Goblin Thieves, who were leaders. Only to have them come back in a couple of months. The only way I've seen to get rid of their leaders is to capture them.

Yeah, i think that half of each platoon, approximately, is wrestlers. i see the same thing.

It might just be a .40 thing, when I played in .38c all my sieging groups were something like; 1 Hammergoblin 15 Swordsgoblins. 1 Spearmaster 15 Crossbowgoblins. Etc etc

[Marlowe]

Well, I'm hoping not too soon. One siege in summer, one in winter, one in spring. It's looking a bit Boatmurdered out there. Charred bones half-way to the edge of the map, most of them goblins, but more dwarves than I'm comfortable with (I've never lost 5 legendaries in a day before). The fortress wealth actually seems to have taken a hit from the steel plate and exceptional obsidian short swords that got destroyed.

Seeing the elves make their getaway through the smoke and carrion was fun though. "NOW do you see why we need wood? Come again!".

[(name here)]

No, you have not seen the elephant until the ruler has come. you might notice that only the goblins have a ruler without a ruler/whatever profession. there's a reason for that...

[Marlowe]

Because he's a demon?

He's not the one that my engravers have been immortalising ALL THE GODDAMN TIME, so he can't be too bad.

Seriously, how many engravings of  the same demon burning/killing/laughing at assorted humans in battles 150 years ago does a dwarf fortress need?

[Rockphed]

Because he's a demon?

He's not the one that my engravers have been immortalising ALL THE GODDAMN TIME, so he can't be too bad.

Seriously, how many engravings of  the same demon burning/killing/laughing at assorted humans in battles 150 years ago does a dwarf fortress need?

All of them.  They are a warning for your people.