Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Cypress]

I'm curious, since I'm in the middle of building my fortress's defenses, and this is the first fort of mine where I've gotten to a point where I could seriously consider defenses.
How do my fellow forum goers defend their fortresses? Do you just train your military until they're a death machine, or do you fill the place with so many traps that you regularly lose dwarfs to a careless nap?

Personally, I usually keep my population low, so traps and overly elaborate lever systems are my answer. In fact, in most recent fort (here), there aren't even any real traps, just lots and lots of levers, to lock down my fort, although I do keep a few crossbows around the place, just in case.

Post your forts, describe your defenses, and if you have any stories about them, put them here!

[Mook]

I usually don't even bother with a military until the second or third year, as my miners/woodcutters are generally capable of killing all normal local wildlife.  In the event I embark on a map with decidedly dangerous wildlife, I generally start by digging a one-tile channel/moat to keep out wandering thieves and monsters.   The depot is eventually moved to an underground passage at the end of a trapped corridor so that I can funnel enemies down a single dangerous path.

In the event that a moat won't do for whatever reason, I build a curtain wall.  Due to OCD I usually do this even if I have a moat, though.

Depending on your designs and/or luck, most ambushes within the first few years can be locked out or taken care of by caravan guards.

[Yami]

Normally I use a system of walls and Drawbridges to divide my fortress and allow it to be locked from outside.  then, in the event of an ambush or seige, I can properly prepare my army to meet the threat.

as for my army, I try to train my dwarves until they are skilled, and then send them back into the bowels of the fortress to train up stats by engraving or mining.  Champions don't work, so I try to aviod those.

And yes, I do have great stories to tell.

[Foa]

O╔═╗O     Open
║║+║║
║╚═╝║
║╔═╗║
║╚═╝║
║╔═╗║
║║+║║
O╚═╝O


O···O     Closed
║···║
║╞═╡║
║···║
║···║
║╞═╡║
║···║
O···O


But you can shorten it or use it for turns.

[Cypress]

as for my army, I try to train my dwarves until they are skilled, and then send them back into the bowels of the fortress to train up stats by engraving or mining.  Champions don't work, so I try to aviod those.

How do you prevent them from becoming champions? I mean, it only takes my workers a year or two to become legendary when I play, and I'd think soldiers would go just as quick.

[Yami]

When they start getting above proficient, I undraft them.  No more sparring, no more skill gain.  Granted, you can still get a champion or two due to carelessness or combat, but one or two is an acceptable loss to my workforce.  And besides, this means that my legendaries are also stated out due to high other skills.

You really don't need more than two legendary warriors on the field anyways, not if you can control the terrain and where the forces meet.

[Quift]

I generally rely on built castles, keeps fortifications manned with marksdwarves, and about 6-8 champions set on patrol to kill of eventual wildlife, ambushes, sieges, and thives. When I feel ambitious I also set up a network of fortified towers, manned with marksdwarves around the entire map to keep full control of the entire territory.

I general I rely on built castles, and lots of manpower. And a few cage traps to catch a few goblins and megabeasts for the arena. I mostly play for RPG reasons adn try to make everythng amke sense from an RPG perspective. The traps seem a bit too exploitish in that regard. They need not be nerfed but their cost increased. A weapontrap is an instant death, and should cost more than the cost of a few rusty goblin weapons, and a single stone mechanism.

[Morberis]

I have an entrance tower, ground level is closed off, floor 1 is arrived at by a ramp and houses my trader depo, floor 2 has no entrances to floor 1, is ringed by fortified walls, and has a separate walkway to my main base. The 1st floor has a narrow corridor to my main castle, with a ballistic at the castles end. The walkways leading back also have fortified walls, as does my main castle.

[Samyotix]

I just trap the approaches to the fort, modifying the landscape to make critters path near the trapped tiles. The entrance can't be sealed - I'd just need one more bridge to make the fort sealable but decided not to bother for now.

About Champions ... I've resorted to naming each military dwarf after his weapon specialty, e.g. X1 thru X15 are Xbowdwarves, my axedwarves are named Axer, Axe, Ax, Axl and Axy; most of the melee guys are mace-wielding McSomethings. Only occasionally do I attempt to be humorous in this, or honor a dwarf's achievements. Sledge, for example, is a hammerdwarf. No, was.

[Flaede]

multiple (start with one, and keep building 'em until I have at least 3) sealable underground "roads" all routing to the depot. deep, deep underground. THe entrances to the depot have guard dogs.

The catch is that I always leave one open. they're all multiple Z levels deep, and have arrow-slit fortifications for death to rain down on anything inside, from a nice safe vantage point. so whichever one is open gets the patrols along the walls. Mua - ha - ha -ha.

the "closed" ones have anything saleable dumped down a "garbage" chute directly onto the depot. very orderly.

I eventually intend to completely isolate a skeleton crew "depot staff", who will in turn drop the bought goods (minus some drink and food) down another chute into the fortress proper. Their only other tasks will be to manage the guard dog population, and pull levers.

[Cypress]

multiple (start with one, and keep building 'em until I have at least 3) sealable underground "roads" all routing to the depot. deep, deep underground. THe entrances to the depot have guard dogs.

The catch is that I always leave one open. they're all multiple Z levels deep, and have arrow-slit fortifications for death to rain down on anything inside, from a nice safe vantage point. so whichever one is open gets the patrols along the walls. Mua - ha - ha -ha.

the "closed" ones have anything saleable dumped down a "garbage" chute directly onto the depot. very orderly.

I eventually intend to completely isolate a skeleton crew "depot staff", who will in turn drop the bought goods (minus some drink and food) down another chute into the fortress proper. Their only other tasks will be to manage the guard dog population, and pull levers.

Do you have that on the map archive? That sounds really interesting, if a little involved.

[Tormy]

Well Siege AI is very primitive right now so...
It's not complicated to defend your fortress. Just dig a moat, fill it with water. Construct drawbridgers. Voila, siegers won't be able to do anything.
If you don't want to use this method, just use 1 main fortress entrance, lay [lot of] traps all around the entrance, and make fortifications also - station marksdwarves there. Enjoy the massacre! 

[MagicJuggler]

The Drowning Chamber is another popular one. You need screw pumps, water flow, and hatches linked to levers. Lock down the chamber with bridges, then use a ceiling hatch to cause water to flow from above, drowning your foes. When that is done, close the ceiling hatch and open a floor hatch so the water drains. Send troops to collect the loot.

[Marlowe]

I've been playing with Orcs and/or hostile locals for a while now.

First thing to do is build a ditch (you know, a "channel") around your starting area. This can get a bit complicated if you started on a slope, but mostly it gets done fairly quickly. Two thing to consider here: first; your dwarves will like to do jobs from the west or the north, so if you want to ensure that nobody will get trapped outside; leave a gap on the east or south sides and channel it out later. Second, to avoid your animals getting stuck, assign a meeting area.

It'll be a season or so before you need to break out of this, but once you do, chose your access point carefully. build a retractable bridge (3 wide is enough) over the ditch on that point and flank it with fortifications. DON'T FILL THE DITCH WITH WATER. I don't care what somebody said above. Water is a safety hazard. It can freeze in some biomes, and some things can swim through it. You're better off with a simple ditch. [seriously some people today....grumble....grumble...why do they say these things?]

You should wind up with a 3-wide entrance to your fort. Put cage traps across the entrance. Put channels for about 8-10 tiles straight out from your gate so that anyone coming towards you has to come by a single 3-wide corridor. Make sure that all trees are felled, all boulders smoothed within this corridor. Fill it with weapon traps. Wooden spiked balls (3 per trap), Green glass serrated disks, iron giant axe blades all seem to work well. After a few sieges you'll be able to make your own contributions from captured material.

[ElChad]

I used to do the classic fort designs. (Building a moat and walls around a 3x3 staircase down to a hive or building into a mountain side walling/gating off the way in) But right now, I am sort of doing a spiral out. I build my staircase, build a small wall around it gated, then when I get my soldiers up to Par, I begin an outer layer, then another, then another. Pretty much they are trapped (figuratively and literally) in a maze. I intend to make a short cut for trading somehow...

I manage to sustain homeostasis dwarfeostasis, normally, so I am challenging myself to make things less boring and simple.