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[Shelegelah]

My current fort is built into the face of a very steep volcano, like those ancient native buildings built into cliff faces, making the entire mountain look like a giant volcano fortress. It is named Thestarsakrith Zikelstodir, and it is awesome.

However, I'm bored to tears of the standard marksdwarves. I want something bigger for Thestarsakrith Zikelstodir, something more ferocious.

I want siege weapons.

Thus, my question to you is this: Do they fire down multiple Z-levels, and will the operators actually aim, or simply fire in a straight lines?

Thanks.

[Ibid Straydrink]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Siege_engine

According to the wiki, they actually don't fire along the z-axis at all. basically, you will need to build them on the same z level as ground zero, ideally behind fortifications, and at least ten squares away from where the enemy will be engaged.

[Shelegelah]

...Well damn. Thanks for the help.

This kind of makes siege weapons useless, doesn't it?

[MrWiggles]

Yea, right now siege weapons totally blow.

However, they wont always.

[Frogwarrior]

It depends on how flat the terrain is that you're using them on. If the approach to your fort is totally flat (or if you make it flat!) then you won't have any problems in that regard; just build all your ballistae on that one z-level.

[Shelegelah]

Hmmm, the terrain certainly is flat, but I'm worried about my operators getting spooked and running off. If I do use them, I would put them behind a row of fortifications, of course, but would they still run away if the invaders got close?

[Aner-Dyfan]

Yes they do so dig a large channel in front of them as well 10-15 squares should be enough. Operators do aim but unless they are very well trained and the siege engine is of high quality they are going to have difficulty firing more than 1 wild shot into the distance.

Still they are great fun, much more so than marksdwarves I think.

[CapnUrist]

I always have ballistae behind the entrances to my fortress, but they don't always work as well as I'd like. Even my legendary+5 siege operator can't keep an arrow from flying into the walls. Mostly I rely on traps and marksdwarves to defend my main gates.

[Quietust]

In my experience, the "safe distance" for siege operators not getting scared off is at least 20 tiles.

[Aspgren]

ballistas are roundabout, ineffective and great fun

[Pilsu]

You could always blind the guy. I wonder if smoke obstructs vision, you could place burning lignite in the room.

Remember to tip the bolts, the new material system makes the wooden bolt worthless otherwise. It's of dubious use in general even with the tip though.

[vadia]

build down a bunch o z's and have a long tunnel with fortification zig zaging down the tunnel  put the siege weapons at the end of the tunnel and see if that works -- if so let me know.

Here is a picture -- the I's are fortification and the space is space
[ascii]
I     I     I
I  I  I  I  I
   I     I 

[Ibid Straydrink]

At least they make your fortress look cooler. Your dwarven equivalent of an Anasazi village in the side of a caldera just isn't complete without ballistae and catapults sitting atop castle six z-levels above the gatehouse.

[Shelegelah]

At least they make your fortress look cooler. Your dwarven equivalent of an Anasazi village in the side of a caldera just isn't complete without ballistae and catapults sitting atop castle six z-levels above the gatehouse.

You know me so well, it's like we're the same person...

[iyaerP]

My experiance with siege engines to date has been less than awesometacular. Had a legendary siege operator who had trained on a crappy catapult since my first migrant wave and who was legendary +5 manning a siege engine with two masterpiece parts and one exceptional part. Shooting down a 30-40 tile hallway 1 tile wide, he got off three shots before fleeing in terror from the enemies who couldn't get him. Two shots hit walls within 3 spaces of launch, the third was a wooden head and bounced off the goblin's leather vest. Didn't know about wooden ones not doing anything anymore.

Which is funny when you think about it, cuz Mythbusters had an episode a while back where they tested the penetration of a wooden arrow vs a stone-tipped arrow and found no difference whatsoever in penetration depth, only the width of the arrow's entry wound.