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[Crossroads Inc.]

So about a week ago I made a copy of DF to try out a bunch of mods, Among them I tossed in "Orc Mod" kjust to see what all the fuss was about.

Well, In my first new fortress I picked a nice spot, right on a sheer mountain face, built some good walls, forts and my standard Drawbridge before a tight corridor of Death lined with Weapon traps. A set up that has stopped legions of goblin sieges in the past.

In my first two years I had some small ambushes and one half hearted goblin siege. In year Three my first Orc Attack came. 10 orcs in all, 7 wrestlers and 3 'slicers' basically Orc Swords men.
Well this is it then! all hands to stations!

By my third year I had 12 moderately trained arches and 10-soldiers who were a mix of axe dwarfs, sword drwarfs and hammer dwarfs. Keeping a close eye on the orcs, I watched them approach my vast field of traps, which I figured would take care of most of them.. They came closer, closer, closer...

And marched right over the traps...

Oh, yes, hmm, this may be a problem, Well not to panic, send forth the marksdwarfs! As the Orc horde entered my Corrider of Death, 12 Marksdwarfs unleashed fire! And fire... And fired more, Two Orcs seemd to stop moving... And they My Marksdwarfs ran out of Bolts, firing my whole supply of about 300...

Ah, hmm, well, Surely they have been wounded! Theres still hope! Two down, only eight left! Go forward my Soldiers! Swords Axes hammers!

"SwordsDwarf is Slain!
"SwordsDwarf is Slain!
"HammerDwarf is Slain!
"Axe Lord is Slain!
"SwordsDwarf is Slain!

Um...

"Hammer Dwarf is Slain!
"AxeDwarf is Slain!"

Oh dear..

"SwordsDwarf is Slain!! Your army is defeated!"

As the orcs now rampaged my fortress, I took a final count, 321 bolts fired, 22 Soldiers dead to a total of 5 Wrestler Orcs. And oh yes, Traps dont harm them.. Yes, seems this IS as Hard core as everyone says...

SO, anyone else have similar first encounter stories?

[taf_esra]

My first encounter with orcs happened the first winter as I was unloading the wagon into my freshly dug out fortress. I had no chance. Now I dig out a line of spikes below some bridges and hook them up to levers before anything else.

[AtomicPaperclip]

They stood harmlessly outside my city walls

Urist McDwarf cancels eat: Interrupted by Orc x1037

Damn orcs and their mind tricks.

[Martin]

Orcs have trapavoid, so any non-actuated trap (lever or pressure plate) is pointless. 300 bolts is, well, really nowhere near enough. Make wood bolts if you need, but for a full orc siege make sure you have at least 2,000-3,000 on hand.  A single stack of orc bone bolts is 45, so 8 marksdwarves would need at least 360 just for them to all be armed.

The good news on orcs is that they are pretty predictable when they siege. That means you can control their approach to your fortress so that you are properly equipped to handle them. I've successfully broken 5 squad orc sieges with a fortress of 7 (no immigration fortress) and only one champion marksdwarf. Requires a good bit of planning and organization, so watch how they act carefully and come up with a good defensive plan.

I really need to find a location that gets war elephant orcs. I've not yet faced them.

[milaga]

My very first encounter, I had expected such trickery. By their first siege I had six marksdwarves and eight hammer and axe dwarves on strict training regimes. I had a few Axe Lords. I was a little dismayed at how undaunted they were by the hail of bolts. But the footsoldiers took them out. I did lose several dwarves though, which might have been why I did so well. Despite the [NOFEAR] tag the last three out of ten broke and ran. Huzzah.

The second year, 15 showed up. This time I had champions. This time they had five snipers. One was an elite.

It was a massacre. 20 squares away my dwarves, behind fortifications, opened up on them. They responded. Three dwarves died were they fell. The remaining three limped to their beds with arrows in their spleens and such. My troops rushed in and were shredded. All but the champion broke and ran to the well. It took a while to take the champion down, but they did. He took three of them with him. Those were their only casualties.

They refused to kill the last remaining dwarf, instead letting him die of thirst in his bed like a coward.

[AlienChickenPie]

Can orcs survive ballista bolts?

[Phantom]

Since my worlds Elves started building towns and using iron and the humans using stainless steel there was all out war,many ruins all over the landscape,orcs usually get slaughtered by the elves,humans,or size 2000 dragons and their children during worldgen.I only encountered them once, and that was with an adamantine clad adventurer.

[Shrike]

I modded the orcs to show up a bit later, but an adamantite king screwed things up.

The first time was not so bad. One squad of wrestlers and a swordsorc that my champion, leather-armor and shield wrestlers took down without losing a dwarf.

Then they kept sieging. Two seasons later, they'd brought three squads, and the season after that, five.
I'm still in that siege, and there's a full squad of bow orcs and an elite bow orc idling around outside. Thank goodness I finished my walls and cut it all off.

I believe I will make the only entrance to the fortress pass over the magma pipe and then go up a long ramped path where I will be able to have marksdwarves shooting them the whole time.
Also adamantine spike traps.

[Martin]

Can orcs survive ballista bolts?

Sortof. The ones I've had survive weren't in fighting shape. Those were modded steel armor, though. I haven't tried it on the size 9, damblock 7 ones. I should give them a whirl - they might be able to walk one off.

In fact, I should stick Morul in front of the ballista and see how that works out. Hadn't considered it before...

[milaga]

I believe I will make the only entrance to the fortress pass over the magma pipe and then go up a long ramped path where I will be able to have marksdwarves shooting them the whole time.

No lieutenant, your marksdwarves are already dead.

[Phantom]

Damn the dwarves failed, SEND IN THE ELVES ARMED WITH IRON AND THE HUMANS ARMED WITH STEEL!
OH AND BRING CHUCK NORRIS JUST IN CASE.

[Danarca]

I believe I will make the only entrance to the fortress pass over the magma pipe and then go up a long ramped path where I will be able to have marksdwarves shooting them the whole time.

No lieutenant, your marksdwarves are already dead.

I saw what you did there

[Phantom]

And you see..?