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[Crossroads Inc.]

Fopr the third season in a row, the local Dwarfish Carvan was assaulted by a goblin ambush, I even sent trops too it the instant it appeard on the map, but the wagons still fled off screen as soon as they were attacked.. My stocks of wood are totally gone, i have to melt iron to make barrels for beer proiduction, and theres no flux o nthe map at all, Is there ANYthing I can do to better protect caravans?

[dood_]

Do the carfavans always spawn from the same place? If so, you could set up underground roads, with levered floodgate/bridge access for them.

OR dig tunnels that link to watchtowers (loads, pepper the map, all within about 25/50 tiles of each other) that are linked to your fortress, but with no outside access. Keep these well stocked with bolts, food, and booze, and have a rotating squad of marks dwarves in there.

[shadowclasper]

How would you dig an underground road? My game refuses to let me mine out the row of stone right on the edge, or set up walls too close to the edge either.

[alway]

Bridges.
You can use drawbridges (not retracting ones though) then attach mechanisms, pull the level, and you get yourself a nice wall without the normal edge restrictions.

[shadowclasper]

and digging through the last part of the wall to get an underground road? Because that would be incredibly useful if I could build it.

[SquirrelWizard]

also setting up ambush defenses would help alot. there are many different types.

one I've found that works well is basically setting  up goblin catching posts. Which would be a puppy chained down in the middle of a winding corridor of cage traps. It doesn't take much, 5-6 typically handles most ambushes.

spread those about your map, and the number of ambushes on your caravans should go down.

[dood_]

You can't mine out the map edge, but you can (I think I think...) carve it into ramps...


But always suggestion is class, do that.

[shadowclasper]

Can you then deconstruct said ramps? >_>

[Rozenbuddy]

Yea... Goblins are ridiculous. I've had so far about 8 sieges this decade of df play, each siege with about 30 goblins, with a uncalled for after attack to a completly different area with 10 goblins. The after attacks are more deadly, even with less people, because I usually forget about them or the soldiers are too lazy to get out of bed or they're too "unconscious" to go to their stations. Each siege I get attacked by kills about 3 civilians than are wondering around doing random shit outside right after the main siege and about 2 soldiers unconscious. The first siege i got however was not so mercy full. I had not gotten up a proper army and only had a few wrestlers I used to fend of the camels. It was a massacre. I'm doing better now, tons of soldiers and about 6 bunkers built around the landscape near high-traffic zones (fishing areas, farms, windmills, everything else.) If you don't take goblins seriously, they will trash you. Thus I recommend anyone who's ever seen the face of a goblin at their fort, build an army, now. Though, don't abandon your fort thinking the goblins are too much a burden. Taken seriously, they can be your largest asset. Remember I said about 40 goblins attack? That means 40 corpses to loot. Though their armor and some of their weapons are "narrow" and/or unusable to your plump dwarfs. You can melt the many iron trinkets and they drop Giant Cave Spider trinkets that are worth a lot.That is, if the caravans can make it.
Wow I didn't think this would turn out so long... I must be destined to be a novelist.

[SquirrelWizard]

yeah goblin ambushes were a pain in the ass for me, but since I put up my ambush post I havent lost a dwarf to goblins yet.

the really cool part is.... lets say you are training up some marks dwarves (I've got two groups of with the ambush post, you can set up a killing pit which often times is better exp gain than archery targets for marks dwarves.

also the traps work well in sieges. Not only will the traps capture some of the goblins in the siege thinning out their numbers, (I've actually routed sieges through these traps alone) but it also buys your outdoor dwarves, or caravans, time to get to the safety of the fortress.

a note about traps, make sure you forbid them after making them, and check them regularly to see if they need refilling. Typically cage traps will flush out ambushes and draw your attention to them (making it relatively easy to know what needs changing out) but occasionally a wild animal will wander into the traps. Thats just a side bonus.

[fleacircus]

Are you bottling your fortress up too much?

If you don't give goblins a path into your fortress, it seems their ambushes sit outside and build up until the caravans stumble onto them. If that's your situation, you can try opening up your fortress or making periodic sweeps with your troops, or some other method.

[shadowclasper]

Or take advantage of incredible gobbie stupidity, and do the whole "DANGEROUS TRAP FILLED HALLS OF DOOOOOM WITH A COW ON ONE END! Any tamed animal will do actually, but damn, they'll go after it. Best you can do is take the pet from a dwarf who's died, still named, but when it dies no unhappy thoughts =D win!

Anyway, they'll go for it even while marching through weapon trap after weapon trap after weapon trap (or stone fall traps, if you build your fort right you can prevent the mechanics from going to fix them), as well as ballista fire. It's quite funny actually. Especially since if ya build it right, even a 90 goblin invasion can't get through. They just keep getting owned by the ballistae shots and other awesome stuff. If your map is wood heavy don't bother to carve trenches near the walls. between corridors, if your map has no real wood and you're totally dependant on traders, seriously, take the extra time, dig the channels. It'll save enormously on costs and you can also make it impossible for your dwarves to go after it in an emergency. Make sure to put fortifications in for the ballistae bolts to pass through, otherwise you'll have trouble.

This is almost surefire method of totally destroying the enemy, or at least killing enough of them that if they DO have survivors, they'll run away. Best part? it works on all races and attacks.

[Vester]

I gave my gobbos trapavoid, to make them a more credible threat.

(With orcs in the game, they just aren't very impressive.)

[Jude]

Station your axedwarfs or whatever you've got next to the spot where the caravans generally spawn. Keep moving their "stationed" spot to keep up with the caravan. Whereever the goblins are, your squad should fight them off (with the help of the caravan defenses, which are generally quite substantial) before they get to the wagons.

[Grendus]

I gave my gobbos trapavoid, to make them a more credible threat.

(With orcs in the game, they just aren't very impressive.)

Gobbo ambushes have killed more dwarves than orcs (then again, wild rhesus macaques have killed more dwarves than orcs). Stealth is a powerful weapon, even moreso than being size 9 with steel armor, crucible steel weaponry, and the stupidity to walk into the middle of a marksdwarf ambush trap charging the legendary hammerdwarves with steel armor made from the last orc siege. Once you survive the first few sieges, even the mighty orcs are not a credible threat any more.

Dwarf caravans always spawn in an area with wagon access to your depot. If you build a path to the edge of the map with a wall, boulder, channel, or other impassable tile every two spaces, the wagons can only spawn on the single path to your depot. Makes guarding the caravan a breeze.