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[TheSummoner]

My current fortress is in the middle of its first goblin attack... two groups, mostly hammergoblins are assaulting my walls.

Having yet to set up a proper metal industry and knowing that goblins would be coming eventually, I decided to prepare some leather armor and crossbows and take shots at invaders from the safety of my walls until they ran away.

Well, they came a bit sooner than expected and I had to fight with untrained recruits... but no matter because like I said, almost all of them are hammerers and theres not a single archer in the lot.

The attack has been going on for almost two seasons now and the only thing to die has been a wave of migrants who showed up and were slaughtered mid battle.

So... any suggestions for what I can do? I don't have the resources to set up a proper trap field or train a melee force of my own at this point and the goblins are just sitting there ignoring the toothpicks being thrown at them.  Do Marksdwarves get any better at high skill levels or has equipping them been a waste of time?  Is there a way I could mod the bolts to be useful without necessarily being overpowered.

[Trekkin]

Do you have enough of a metal industry to make metal bolts? Maybe those would work better.

Of course, if you have a lot of wood to spare, ballista bolts are to goblins what goblins are to crossbow bolts. Even catapults might do something, and they'd save on wood.

[Ricky]

make cage traps, those never hurt anybody (litterally)

but they do catch goblins pretty well

1 mechanism, one cage

[Solace]

You could make a basic trap corridor, which opens to your fortress with a bridge, and just close the bridge whenever the goblins come close, making them turn around and walk back over the traps, then open it again, and so on. Or just hang out down there if you figure you could make metal stuff eventually? Also consider building the traps next to cliffs, so even if the traps are harmless, goblins who dodge will jump off the cliff.

[TheSummoner]

I don't have the resources to set up a proper trap field or train a melee force of my own at this point.

[assimilateur]

I don't have the resources to set up a proper trap field or train a melee force of my own at this point.

Unless you've modded your game in some weird-ass way, you always have the resources for the most basic of traps. I'm talking about stone-fall traps.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, digging deep enough to reach your first cave layer really shouldn't take that long. You'll find wood there, enabling you to construct cages.

[Hyndis]

Stonefall traps don't do enough damage to be reliable. You need a huge number of stonefall traps to make a dent in a siege.

Pun intended. 

Use a retractable bridge to make a pit trap. That always works and with hilarious results. Splatter pits, drowning pits, magma pits, spike trap pits, or arena pits are all possibilities using that basic trap design. Even works on caravans and migrants.

[Solace]

You could fill the traps with wooden swords, they'd still make goblins jump into pits at no risk to you. Obsidian swords would be better, as would green glass serrated disks. You might not have good options without metal, but you do have options.

If you don't think this is cheating (or care), you could try making a really big bridge and set pull the lever to repeat, that'll ruin some goblin's day.

[assimilateur]

wooden swords

If he had wood he'd be way better off using it on cages.

Stonefall traps don't do enough damage to be reliable. You need a huge number of stonefall traps to make a dent in a siege.

Procuring a large number of stones shouldn't be a problem, right? He could go over the top and build like a hundred of them. Last time I used stone fall traps (which was in 40d, so the damage mechanics of stones might be different now), it took no more than two of them to kill a goblin, and they should rout after less than a half of their number gets killed.

Of course, that shit is gonna be way more of a hassle than that bridge-powered solution you proposed or even doing what I mentioned above in spoiler tags.

[Misterstone]

If you don't have a metal industry, presumably you are using bone or wooden bolts?  If so, that's the problem; they can't pierce metal armor due to the current state of material properties.  If you had iron bolts those goblins would be toast.

[shoowop]

traps traps traps traps traps traps trapsssssssssss

that is all

[Double A]

Not enough resources for a trap field!? A stone trap takes two stones. A cage trap takes a stone and one wood. Hell, a freaking weapon trap can be entirely made out of a few wood pieces of wood.

And the most amazing one of them all, the pressure plate/Dwarven Atom Smasher combo, needs about stones to work properly.

Are you telling me you haven't been mining or something?

[eclipsetail]

Not enough resources for a trap field!? A stone trap takes two stones. A cage trap takes a stone and one wood. Hell, a freaking weapon trap can be entirely made out of a few wood pieces of wood.

And the most amazing one of them all, the pressure plate/Dwarven Atom Smasher combo, needs about stones to work properly.

Are you telling me you haven't been mining or something?

Mechanisims...

[assimilateur]

Mechanisims...

1. That's mechanisms.
2. They can be made of stone.

[TheSummoner]

As of yet unbreached aquifer.  I have very little stone and no mechanic (though I could just use an unskilled dwarf if I absolutly had to).

Anyways, the goblins eventually got bored and left.  I got a few lucky kills (throat shots), but most of them got away entirely unharmed.  I get it that wood is weak... that a wood bolt would likely shatter when it hit a metal shield... but looking through the combat logs, most of them were deflected by cloth... robes and cloaks and the like...

Thats a bit ridiculous.