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[Asmodeous]

So there I was. Seven little dwarves, digging in a fortress. I'd just added Dig Deeper for the first time (minus some crap in it I think is a little... over the top. One great thing about DF is how easy it is to deal with mods. Dinosaurs? Gone. Angels/Reapers? Gone. Stability? Not affected! HOORAY!) and the first year ends and ZOMG ORCS.

Seven dwarves....

Twenty orcs!?

Suffice it to say... this did not end well for the dwarves.

So the question arises, how on earth does someone handle the Orc Zerg Rush? It's enough issue to get the first seven dwarves to get a Fort ready to go in one year, much less ready to defend three times their numbers in something as beastly as orcs.

So what sort of strategies do people use? I was thinking of walling myself in and ignoring the siege until it goes away, but that leads to other problems, for instance no migrants, so when the siege finally leaves, the next one will end up with me having the same problem.

Suggestions?

[Diamond]

How long does it take to make drowning chamber or Atom Smasher with seven dwarves?

Less then 5 Minutes !

[Fishbulb]

There is no shame in locking your front door and waiting them out. Got underground farms? Got a well? Turtle up and wait. It's a valid tactic.

(If I sound a little insistent, it's because I'm presently freakin' turtled up and waiting for the freakin' forty orcs with their freakin' elite bowman to go away and leave me alone so I can finish building my above-ground magmaduct. Freakin' orcs.)

[Loyal]

How long does it take to make drowning chamber or Atom Smasher with seven dwarves?

Less then 5 Minutes !

That's not a very dwarven solution at all.

I'm experimenting with upright spikes, but dwarves are stupid and unreliable, and decide they want to take a drink JUST when I need them to throttle that lever like no tomorrow.

[Martin]

Use an approach like this one:

http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-17987-moatandviaduct

The tactic here is to keep your dwarves inside and lure the orcs in to just before the trade depot area and then either lock the doors or pull a bridge up to block their passage in. On the floor above (or the ground floor if you don't have elite marksgobbos approaching) station at least one marksdwarf firing down on the approaching orcs. The goal of locking the doors/closing the bridge is to stop their movement so the marksdwarf can finish them off.

If you have the possibility of early sieges, you *must* get a marksdwarf training ASAP. If you have ambushers on your map, station a pair of chained kittens in the approach a little ways out. The siege will give you plenty of warning, but the ambushers will require you get your ranged defenses up in a big hurry, so keep them close and get a number of squads running as soon as you can manage.

[Martin]

How long does it take to make drowning chamber or Atom Smasher with seven dwarves?

Less then 5 Minutes !

That's not a very dwarven solution at all.

I'm experimenting with upright spikes, but dwarves are stupid and unreliable, and decide they want to take a drink JUST when I need them to throttle that lever like no tomorrow.

It's a lot more work, but I find that a repeater + pressure plate trigger works pretty well. Build a repeater slow enough to run the spikes and use a pressure plate to turn it on that requires manually turning it off, or just turn it on when the siege announcement rings.

You'll need to take some care to keep your dwarves from using that area (I'd use a fortress approach that is only used to guide sieges in, with a separate one for dwarves/traders that you lock up during a siege).

[HatfieldCW]

Do invaders respect traffic designations?  I've been toying with the idea of having a looooong way in flagged for high traffic and a short way in that's restricted, so my little guys always path the long way and bad guys come in the shorter (and pointier) way.

[jryan]

Do Orcs evade traps??

[Blargityblarg]

I just build a little keep and have my mason and planter shoot the buggers. You don't need to train 'em, just turn your inevitable turtle bones into two crossbows and as many bolts as possible. I lock myself away, slowly bring them closer by briefly lowering then raising my drawbridge, then I shoot them into little bits.

And Hatfield: I don't think they respect traffic designations, no.

Ryan: Yes, they avoid traps, at least in the original Orc Mod. I'm not sure about DD.

[HungryHobo]

I have to agree with the others here.
There is no shame in turtleing up a little.
Set up your fort with a courtyard with a nice killzone and a table set as a dining room.
When migrants arrive if there's a siege then you let them die.
If they arrive while there's no siege then you can open the outer gates and keep the inner ones closed until all the migrants are inside and around the table.
Then close the outer and open the inner.

In vannila DF this is paranoid.
In Dig Deeper it's the only way to be sure of survival.

Give it a little time and you can build up a team of heavily armed and armored champions to patrol and kill sieges.

[Martin]

Do invaders respect traffic designations?  I've been toying with the idea of having a looooong way in flagged for high traffic and a short way in that's restricted, so my little guys always path the long way and bad guys come in the shorter (and pointier) way.

No, and that kind of approach can work, to a degree. It can certainly keep a small side corredor free of dwarves that you run upright spikes on.

[Kavalion]

7 wooden/bone crossbows, 7 leather quivers, 14 stacks of wooden/bone bolts, and a fortified platform to shoot from should allow you to kill enough orcs to make the first attack retreat.  A little training might be needed to kill enough before they close in, though.

After that, you'll want to invest heavily in a lot of armor and professional soldiers using melee while most of the working class has at least a crossbow, quiver, and ammo with their name on it but preferably with their own armor and bucklers as well to keep from dying so easily to orc bows.

You should also be thinking of aesthetically pleasing graveyards early on.

[Martin]

Orcs don't retreat, not like gobbos. A single squad will pretty much march in until the last one drops.

That said, a single champion marksdwarf behind a fortification can come pretty close to stopping a squad in its tracks. Two certainly can, if you can keep them on station.

[Asmodeous]

Martin, what tileset are you using?

And thanks for the ideas, guys.

[Lord Shonus]

You could simply swap the progress triggers for orcs and goblis, and move [babysnatcher]  from the orc to th goblin entry. You'll also have to remove goblin's [intelligent] tag with [can_learn] and [can_civ] to eliminate their ability to talk. the end result will be goblin zerg rushes, and later orcish sieges.