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[MuonDecay]

This is getting frustrating.

Every time the dwarven caravan arrives, 3 or 4 ambushes show up the very same instant... and proceed to immediately charge into position to where the dwarven caravan has a 0% chance of arriving without losses.

And, of course, once they take losses, even if it's just one pack animal... the 6 wagons that arrived beforehand refuse to trade. I could offer them a solid platinum wagon encrusted in diamonds and they'd still throw a fit over that lost straggler and refuse to trade.

How can I drive off these damned ambushers before they rape the caravan? I need rock crystal from the caravan to satiate my bloody mayor and none of the other caravans will import that for me. My fortress is perfectly secure guarded by marksdwarves and two small squads of champions (maces and spears), but I can't possibly attempt to defend every possible caravan entry point and every possible route from there to my fortress.

[Plank of Wood]

Build guard towers that cover every square inch of the map, have them all connected underground and cannot be accessed from the surface. Each tower has barracks and shooting range, with a bed assigned to the guy on duty there. Whenever there is an ambush, move a combat squad to the tower to "blot out the sun" so to speak.

[Viprince]

Traps around the place can do the job is you have a dedicated team of mechanics. I use cage traps so the gobbos still et kicked around by my dwarves eventually.

You can also build a wall near the perimeter of your map although that's magor masonry work so I go for asimple 1 wide trench with selective entry points where I trap the place or leave patrols. The caravan will go there and so will the gobbos and you can deal with them there. The wagons should spawn there if your close enough to the hedge with your trench as they need a big 3X3 space to come in.

[Pilsu]

I don't think you can buy those crystals. Make some socially likable peasant with agreeable likes do nothing all day in the future so he'll make the most friends. Bonus points if it's a woman with an equally idle spouse to spore with

As for the caravan, I just have a squad or two patrolling the border in trading seasons. Fodder keeps pouring in so might as well. Give them waterskins too so they don't waste booze

[Tormy]

As for the caravan, I just have a squad or two patrolling the border in trading seasons.

Yep this is a good method, that's what I tend to do also, and it works. 

[Warlord255]

An underground tunnel with heavily guarded entrances is always a sure bet.

[Marlowe]

This is weird to me, as I've never seen a goblin ambush that did very well against a typical pile of caravan guards. In 40d they just die, because they're half wrestlers with no real armour or weapons. In 38c they'd kill off a caravan every so often, at the cost of their own lives, but you'd still get the payoff.

[kurisukun]

You could always flood the trade depot and just gank all of their stuff, since they're so fussy about not letting you take it normally.

[MC Dirty]

You could always flood the trade depot and just gank all of their stuff, since they're so fussy about not letting you take it normally.

And the good thing about this is, that the dwarven caravan will keep coming, as far as I know.
Free stuff for everyone! Drawbridges around your trade depot are your friends! Add the magma water and harvest their goods.

[Dhargk]

Or just deconstruct the trade depot when they get there, it'll spill everything onto the floor and it'll treat it like you seized the goods, except you can't seize goods from dwarves so they'll be perfectly fine with it.

That is, if they're unloading their goods at all.

[MuonDecay]

When I stopped playing for the day and saved, the caravan had lost a pack animal or two and the wagons which had begun to arrive all kind of, um... froze in place. They basically all kind of piled up into a condensed row of wagons and then ceased moving.

At this point I'm sort of worried they'll just get stuck outright. I'll have to see if deconstructing the depot will at least send them home.

Thankfully the liaison has managed to avoid being ambushed and is operating as normal.

(and yes, the caravan guards have thus far been good about thwarting the goblins but the problem is the guards seem to follow the wagons and leave the pack animals behind, undefended, who then get jumped by the ambushers)

I think if I can get the wagons to at least turn-tail and head home, I'll tell my champions to patrol the borders from now on. Thankfully it's only a 3x3 map so I suppose patrolling it is more possible than I give myself credit for.

[Grumman]

When I stopped playing for the day and saved, the caravan had lost a pack animal or two and the wagons which had begun to arrive all kind of, um... froze in place. They basically all kind of piled up into a condensed row of wagons and then ceased moving.

Do you have only a single trade depot? I experienced the same issues when the pack animals went to a different depot to the wagons.

[MuonDecay]

When I stopped playing for the day and saved, the caravan had lost a pack animal or two and the wagons which had begun to arrive all kind of, um... froze in place. They basically all kind of piled up into a condensed row of wagons and then ceased moving.

Do you have only a single trade depot? I experienced the same issues when the pack animals went to a different depot to the wagons.

Only one, yeah. I've heard of that issue so I avoid building more than one depot. That depot is the first and only one I have built for this fort.

[Foa]

An underground tunnel with heavily guarded entrances is always a sure bet.

Bonus if it is isolated from the cave interior, dwarvenly if it is filled with lava.

[Jisaan]

I can't possibly attempt to defend every possible caravan entry point and every possible route from there to my fortress.

Actually...



In case you aren't familiar with the tile set, those are drawbridges on either side of the road. Though this does require walling off a fair portion of the map. The nice thing though is that you can even block off the tiles at the very edge of the map, meaning there's only one place enemies can spawn and actually be a threat. Stationing a dwarf there, or modifying the design to include a chained animal, will alert you to their existence as soon as they spawn.

And in case you're wondering, the dwarf isn't trapped outside. That particular screenshot just has the middle bridge on the left side of the road lowered, though of course you can't tell the difference.