Print

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

[Radivnal]

Describe the positions of your fortifications? As for your marksdwarf...she deserves your Baron(ess)'s chambers for essentially pulling an Audie Murphy.

[Dorf3000]

Holy crap! I thought fortifications were supposed to protect your dwarves from ranged attacks! Their elite bowman just fired every single shot straight through the second-story fortifications from a dozen tiles away, killed a dog, killed my second-best marksdwarf, and crippled my best one before he simply ran out of ammo. 

I once had the goblin local leader (an Elite Marksgob) turn up in an ambush and absolutely devastate everything.  He only needed one or two bolts to take out any dorf he could see, and I was only saved because he wandered into a stone trap and then ran away.  Ranged damage is definitely overdone in the current version.  At champion level, marksdwarves don't actually carry crossbows, they have laser scoped chain-loading portable railguns that fire spears.  Fortifications are like painted targets to these guys.

[LoneJedi7]

Holy crap! I thought fortifications were supposed to protect your dwarves from ranged attacks! Their elite bowman just fired every single shot straight through the second-story fortifications from a dozen tiles away, killed a dog, killed my second-best marksdwarf, and crippled my best one before he simply ran out of ammo. 

This is why you station champion marksdwarfs along your fortifications.......

[NW_Kohaku]

Describe the positions of your fortifications? As for your marksdwarf...she deserves your Baron(ess)'s chambers for essentially pulling an Audie Murphy.

It's a bunker similar to the one in the wiki, except that I made mine "rounded" for aesthetic purposes, 7x7 with the corners bevelled off (while still ensuring no corners were open).

I built my defenses so that the only enterance was through a hole in the face of a cliff with a drawbridge.  Given the direction that they were attacking from, they have to run past the bunker, climb the ramp onto the drawbridge, then keep on going past the bunker again... then they have to take on my hallway of traps to get to my wardogs and melee fighters.

(Oh, and looking back at the damage, I misread it, she actually didn't lose any toes, she only lost fingers.  Her right hand is crippled, and she has at least brown damage to 4 fingers, one of them completely gone.  She's basically firing a crossbow with her mouth and one thumb.  My other marksdwarf on duty is... chilling at the well for no reason.  I've reactivated all the rest of my military, but they're not trained in marksdwarfship, so they're going to the end of the hallway of traps.)

Seriously, though, every single shot that elite fired that didn't miss the bunker entirely went straight through the fortifications, like they weren't even there.  And some of those missed shots were going completely over the bunker or not angled up at all, so as far as I can tell, those fortifications are like tissue paper.


Images (sorry if my custom tileset confuses someone):
Bunker, 2F - Enemies have to go to the west on that drawbridge to get in.  There is a second drawbridge that will dump enemies into a moat still under construction:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bunker, 1F (and goblins... the bright green one is the elite archer.  The elite was firing from about where he is right now.  He didn't even try to move up to get a better shot, just started firing from max range.):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Damage page (not shown: red damage to left upper arm, left hand, yellow damage to right lower arm, and grey damage to right hand)  Needless to say, I'll be very surprised if she lives:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[SkyRender]

 Fortifications just make it harder for arrows to hit things on the other side.  They don't block arrows completely, and a good enough combination of skill and weapon quality can entirely nullify any benefits fortifications provide.  This is why I suggest you not rely on them and instead set up your defenses in such a way that arrowslingers can never even get a shot off at your Dwarves.  To this end, Ballistae and Catapults set up in strategic locations at the far end of the long stretches of twisting corridors can be far more devastating than any Marksdwarf, since those have a range that far exceeds any bowman's reach and can kill far more than any single arrow can.

 Or you could just bypass the whole issue with a clever magma fountain or atom smasher deathtrap, but where's the fun in that?

[NW_Kohaku]

Fortifications just make it harder for arrows to hit things on the other side.  They don't block arrows completely, and a good enough combination of skill and weapon quality can entirely nullify any benefits fortifications provide.  This is why I suggest you not rely on them and instead set up your defenses in such a way that arrowslingers can never even get a shot off at your Dwarves.  To this end, Ballistae and Catapults set up in strategic locations at the far end of the long stretches of twisting corridors can be far more devastating than any Marksdwarf, since those have a range that far exceeds any bowman's reach and can kill far more than any single arrow can.

 Or you could just bypass the whole issue with a clever magma fountain or atom smasher deathtrap, but where's the fun in that?

Actually, I already have a hallway of death with an atom smasher as a final solution more than suitable for turning back any seige, and I set up marksdwarves overhead from murderholes... but the gobbos never lasted to get within firing distance before they broke and ran, which was, as you say, not terribly much fun, so I set up this forward bunker to at least get a chance to shoot a couple arrows at them as they come rushing in.

I guess the best solution is to just keep my marksdwarves hiding until they hit the traps, and then spring my marksdwarves up behind them to cut them down as they flee.

[Malibu Stacey]

I guess the best solution is to just keep my marksdwarves hiding until they hit the traps, and then spring my marksdwarves up behind them to cut them down as they flee.

You can block your fortifications by placing floodgates behind them & then opening them when you want your Elite Marksdwarves to rain bolts down upon the goblins. That way you can have them stationed behind the floodgates & ready to unleash hell at the convenient flick of a lever. Actually that gives me an idea....

[NW_Kohaku]

You can block your fortifications by placing floodgates behind them & then opening them when you want your Elite Marksdwarves to rain bolts down upon the goblins. That way you can have them stationed behind the floodgates & ready to unleash hell at the convenient flick of a lever. Actually that gives me an idea....

Oh, that works, too.

I was just going to put a hatch over the stairs to get into the bunker, and just lock it any time I didn't want them up there. 

Actually, I think I'll still go with that, my control room is already flooded with levers from my magma system, my multiple drawbridges, and I'm still installing my waterworks.

[NW_Kohaku]

By the way, the final result of that battle?

29 goblins caught in cagetraps, mostly the traps that I had set out near ditches to catch wildlife, and mostly once the goblins had started to flee (probably because all their elites had walked into traps - two of them before they even approached my fortress, hitting those wildlife cage traps, and the elite archer charging my fortress alone just to hit the first cage trap).  Only 7 of those trapped were trapped before the goblins started fleeing.  (Also, I have only 4 remaining readied cage traps outside my fortress, were they AIMING for these things?)

1 goblin actually followed the elite... and hit a stonefall trap.

9 goblins were shot to death by bolts.

The other couple dozen goblins managed to escape.

"Silverclouds", my superdwarvenly tough marksdwarf, succumbed to the pain, fainted, and eventually bled out.  She had 10 official kills, 4 from this attack.  One additional goblin she had shot in the lung managed to run out of crossbowing range and fell unconscious numerous times while trying to escape before eventually bleeding to death, making it 11 actual kills.

Fortunately, as one hero dies, another is made.  "Highboots" (named for her love of steel highboots), a woman I had put on royal guard duty due to constant pregnancy, but put back on active duty for this fight, gained 6 kills with her crossbow... while carrying two babies, and constnatly being interrupted (and forced to move away from the fortifications) by her slightly-more-grown child (who went running for her mother even though outside was forbidden, and she could see goblins).  "Not now, sweetie, mommie has to pwn the noobs."

[Wang Commander]

I would love to get mass goblins, all I ever get is a few ambushes, even in big forts.  I may not often run them long enough to get lots of sieges, but I've run quite a few wealth-gimmick forts where I start exporting syrup roasts ASAP so I demand better ambushes from those lazy goblins.

[NW_Kohaku]

I would love to get mass goblins, all I ever get is a few ambushes, even in big forts.  I may not often run them long enough to get lots of sieges, but I've run quite a few wealth-gimmick forts where I start exporting syrup roasts ASAP so I demand better ambushes from those lazy goblins.

Well, even if I lost a dog and two dwarves and one of my soldiers is near the breaking point after losing his dog and watching two friends die, I still had fun with it...

NEXT TIME, however, I'm not popping my marksdwarves out until they're already well within range, going down that bridge.  None of this "an army of 50 goblins runs away because two goblins died and a couple got caught in a cage" BS.

Actually, now that I think of it, the bridges I'm currently setting up will actually be a very useful trap for the purposes of preventing fleeing goblins - since my side path should be closed off, anyway, and my main path has a drawbridge that shuts off access to my halls as well as a pair of bridges that fling attackers into the (soon to be 'gator infested) pits, anyone I let get into the middle area will then be trapped (barring dodges off the bridge), so they make for helpless target practice for my marksdwarves.  I'm even eviller than I thought!

[Malibu Stacey]

I would love to get mass goblins, all I ever get is a few ambushes, even in big forts.  I may not often run them long enough to get lots of sieges, but I've run quite a few wealth-gimmick forts where I start exporting syrup roasts ASAP so I demand better ambushes from those lazy goblins.

You need 80+ population for goblin sieges to start & the more you slaughter the more they escalate. Sieges are always announced when they enter the map by the "A vile force of darkness has arrived" message & zoom where as Ambushes aren't announced when they enter the map & you can't see them until someone walks into one of the enemies & "discovers" them as they enter the map hidden/sneaking.
Higher created wealth increases the numbers of enemies in ambush squads but I'm not sure how consumables like prepared meals & exported goods affect created wealth. I know if you get your legendary stone, wood, glass & clothing workers to pump out tons of goods & don't export them to any of the caravans the ambush squads get larger, more frequent & send more squads simultaneously.
I think the evil of the surroundings may affect it too as my current fort is seeing much larger goblin sieges & goblin ambushes earlier than I would expect (they're escalating a lot faster too) & it has "Sinister" surroundings where as my previous forts have been in neutral surroundings.

[Jacob/Lee]

Ranged damage is definitely overdone in the current version.  At champion level, marksdwarves don't actually carry crossbows, they have laser scoped chain-loading portable railguns that fire spears.  Fortifications are like painted targets to these guys.

Sig'd

[NW_Kohaku]

As an epilogue...

Only about a month later, the last surviving fire imps on my map picked a fight with a pack of unicorns.  Unicorns put up a good showing for themselves (one last fire imp remains, but is missing an arm, and laying in a field, going in and out of consciousness), but the wild fire claimed all their lives.

Incidentally, this means that all those goblins who were caught in cages that were basically left ignored because I have so much clutter in my fortress (including THOUSANDS of stones from my waterworks channeling operation that my 4 working miners are producing that my 130 other dwarves can't keep up with dumping) were left to burn to death.  (Actually, I had to repeatedly forbid all the crap they dropped, so that my dwarves wouldn't go running into the fire... I almost had a legendary bonecarver run into a fire to snag those unicorn bones, even though his workshop is literally two squares from the bone stockpile.)

This only took out the half of the goblins that were caught on the lower half of my map, past my well ditch and accidental firebreak, but my eventual arena will be less populous now.  On the plus side, screaming goblins burning to death should be a new one for my engravers!

[HungryHobo]

If you think those sieges are fun try getting the Dig Deeper mod.
I eventually got bored with the goblins.
Seeing a child get ambushed and then proceed to disembowel an entire squad of goblins kind of left me bored with goblins so now I have orcs.
Orcs are much more fun.