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Author Topic: No more invincible forts  (Read 23980 times)

Foa

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #15 on: November 11, 2008, 04:34:19 pm »

I think I'll ask for enemy siege engineers, and operators, and siege engines ( Construct the Rams!!! ) .

How about the morons build their own outposts...
"The Goblins of [Name] have declared War."
 "The Army has set up an outpost, strike it down!!!"
 "The Goblins have ready their forces, strike before they can!"
 "The Goblin are readying their engines, hurry, they're nearly done!!!"
 "They have initiated a strike, hold your ground!"
 "Your walls have been breached!!!"
 "Your fortress has fallen..."
 Press [Enter] when you're done surveying the carnage.
 Press [Space] to send in a wagon to reclaim your land.
:D
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zagibu

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #16 on: November 11, 2008, 05:15:49 pm »

Siegers should just set up camp somewhere near a fort's entrance, hunt down all wildlife, burn all trees and assault the caravans. This should provide enough provocation for a sortie. Maybe a besieged fortress' reputation could slowly decline, giving bad thoughts to inhabiting dwarves, making migration less probable and limiting caravan wares' total value. Also, nobles could demand the sortie and punish random dwarves if it isn't done in time.
« Last Edit: November 11, 2008, 05:17:24 pm by zagibu »
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penguinofhonor

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #17 on: November 11, 2008, 05:41:37 pm »

Why would your reputation decline? Successfully holding out against a siege should be a great success, and making your enemies give up should be considered almost a victory.

Though I could see what you're talking about happening in other ways. The dwarves would lose happiness because they would be under constant stress because they're under siege. Caravans and migrants wouldn't come at all while you're under siege because they'd get attacked.
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Dwarmin

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #18 on: November 11, 2008, 06:34:53 pm »

Maybe the Gobbos could try propaganda tactics, using spies to convince or bribe a dishonest Dwarf to open the gates lol
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Rysith

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #19 on: November 11, 2008, 06:45:39 pm »

I think that the solution would have to be a reason for your dwarves to need to go outside. Historically, castles almost never fell to assaults, since they were pretty much invulnerable. Mountain forts would be the same way, I imagine. However, there are things that you need inside that might only come from outside. Traditionally, that was food, but Dwarves have their indoor farms. Imagine these possibilities, though:

Goblins lob corpses (maybe even the corpses of the dwarves that they have killed) over your walls/drawbridge into your fortress, spreading miasma and unhappy thoughts ("Oh no! They desecrated Urist's body!"). Effects could potentially be even worse than the unhappy thought for the friend dying in the first place.

Goblins find your fresh water source and poison it, killing anyone without booze (such as your injured soldiers)

Staying fully sealed off from the outside causes the air to get stuffy (unhappy thoughts) and eventually unbreathable, so you'd need at least some vent... Into which the goblins could put corpses, burning logs, and other such nasty things. Or even just seal it off, suffocating your dwarves unless they clear them out.

Goblins could "bribe" unhappy dwarves to pull the drawbridge levers/deactivate the traps/etc., making it important that you kept all of your dwarves happy during the siege. Bribe amount, and thus required happiness to resist, could go up with time. The traitor would then go pull the lever, let them in, and flee with their family, or something. This might only be appropriate for speaking, non-babysnatcher civs.

And overall, make sieges longer. Real-life sieges lasted years. Goblin sieges should come ready to do the same. I think that the way to break a well-defended fortress would be to introduce enough things that make people unhappy that you trigger a tantrum spiral or a traitor, which would take time. I can see a year or two of being isolated from the world and dealing with constant smoke and miasma as the goblins throw the burning corpses of everything that used to live outside your fortress at you wearing down all of those useless cheesemakers until someone snaps.

In the future, maybe they could even construct their own camp with walls, archers, etc. outside your gates to further harass you, attract their own migrants, and so on. Kind of the reverse of the "embark on a goblin site" challenge. I suspect that that would be in the far future, though.
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Areyar

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #20 on: November 11, 2008, 07:23:14 pm »

needed:
  batteringram to destroy (slowly, depending on quality/ material.) constructions such as bridges.

  Siege Catapults with projectiles(rocks) that can damage/destroy walls and fortifications.

  Sappers with picks (or explosives) to manually create an entrance through wall and living rock equally.

  ladders. to scale curtainwalls. But potentially useless as AI might not find weakspots, also easy to defend against ladders by having ceilings. Could be a simple built slope.


Such siege equipment could become available to a sieging army after time (as they are built/delivered)
Season one: army arrives.  close the doors, raise the bridges!
Season two: army gaines ability to scale 1Z level walls as ladders are built.
Season three: army now has #soldiers/10 siege engines.
Season four: more trolls(or sappers) arive

I like the idea of a small siege camp, with workshops and (minor) economy to build siege engines and provide proviander/shelter.
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Steely Glint

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #21 on: November 11, 2008, 07:32:08 pm »

I'd love to see sieges in the dry seasons build a camp, strip the ground around the camp of vegetation and trees, then set fire to the grass and watch your land burn. Of course, it would help if trees actually burned and fire could move up and down ramps.
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Idiom

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #22 on: November 11, 2008, 07:36:12 pm »

Maybe the Goblins will offer a giant wooden beer-keg on wheels as an offering to our mighty forces. Then they jump out at night and murder Troy DwarvenBanners in it's sleep.
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Foa

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #23 on: November 11, 2008, 07:57:03 pm »

To help with the dwarven side against the foes.

Since "Foe" can launch corpses over zs, then we can launch the corpses back, or launch rocks/ammos at them.

Clogging vents, oh hello fortifications with elite marksdwarves behind it, I'll just try to seal you up.

Bribery, lets see if the sealed off switch ( via, another switch ) has to say about that!

Sappers, battery units, blah, say hi to my war animals, siege weapons, archers.

Constructors, ladders vs ceilings, constructor vs moat and war animals, siege weapons, archers.

Mechanics, say hello to HIDDEN TRAPS!!!!
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Dwarmin

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #24 on: November 11, 2008, 08:04:59 pm »

lol Foa is a buzzkill.

I assume that switch sealed doors could still be gotten through by a smart Dwarf-they could just just dismantle it with enough time, being on the inside and all, but if any of Dwarf saw them they would be flagged as hostile of course, so it would still be kinda useful.
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Foa

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #25 on: November 11, 2008, 08:10:13 pm »

lol Foa is a buzzkill.

I assume that switch sealed doors could still be gotten through by a smart Dwarf-they could just just dismantle it with enough time, being on the inside and all, but if any of Dwarf saw them they would be flagged as hostile of course, so it would still be kinda useful.
Say that when your fisherdwarves got mauled by carp, who know carps spawn in indoor dwarf-made pools.
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Areyar

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #26 on: November 11, 2008, 08:18:22 pm »

Why buzzkill?

Foa just mentioned the possible ways to effectively deal with some proposed siege-tactics, which would be fun.
Right now, closing the door is enough for the siege to be held off for as long as it takes for them to get bored.
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Foa

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #27 on: November 11, 2008, 08:29:04 pm »

Why buzzkill?

Foa just mentioned the possible ways to effectively deal with some proposed siege-tactics, which would be fun.
Right now, closing the door is enough for the siege to be held off for as long as it takes for them to get bored.

I believe ALL[/u][/color][/u][/color] monsters should be able to destroy walls/etc, but not be considered as demolition junkies, and should take some time, and building destroyers should be able to destroy buildings faster than the others, I want 3d destruction, basic 3d enemies ( bronze collosus, trolls, dragons, hydras, whales... ) .

Example:

CCC   0z
CCC
 C

...   1z
.C.
 .

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Pilsu

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #28 on: November 11, 2008, 10:56:47 pm »

Derp
« Last Edit: November 11, 2008, 11:30:34 pm by Pilsu »
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Pilsu

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Re: No more invincible forts
« Reply #29 on: November 11, 2008, 11:26:06 pm »

To defeat traps, sieges should bring along mechanics who can detect and disable traps. Better quality traps would be more difficult to defeat.

To defeat moats, sieges should bring carpenters who build temporary wooden bridges over them. This would make wide moats more important.

First, I second the comment that our soldiers should be more obedient/smarter before making the opposition harder.

Perhaps it would make sense for elves and humans to have trap-sniffing mechanics, but that seems downright un-goblin-ish. I picture goblins as having large hordes of poorly armed/armored trap fodder which they drive before them. Slaves, perhaps, who don't want to fight you, but are forced into your traps.

In general, I think methods to assault fortresses should have more to do with traditional seige-breaking techniques. Seige towers, battering rams, building seige engines of their own....that sort of thing.


It'd be neat if slaves and animals were driven into the traps to jam them. And should you rig up a system that kills the lashers walking behind them, the sentient ones are tagged friendly, crab any weapon lying around and try to fight

Goblins find your fresh water source and poison it, killing anyone without booze (such as your injured soldiers)

Brewing will eventually require water too

taying fully sealed off from the outside causes the air to get stuffy (unhappy thoughts) and eventually unbreathable, so you'd need at least some vent... Into which the goblins could put corpses, burning logs, and other such nasty things. Or even just seal it off, suffocating your dwarves unless they clear them out.

Think it's pretty much been established that dwarves aren't really bothered by noxious gases

Goblins could "bribe" unhappy dwarves to pull the drawbridge levers/deactivate the traps/etc., making it important that you kept all of your dwarves happy during the siege. Bribe amount, and thus required happiness to resist, could go up with time. The traitor would then go pull the lever, let them in, and flee with their family, or something. This might only be appropriate for speaking, non-babysnatcher civs.

I don't want to see goblins do this since it'd make little sense but it seems very characteristic of humans
« Last Edit: November 11, 2008, 11:30:16 pm by Pilsu »
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