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[EddyP]

Goblins are destroying my fort - not by breaking in and slaughtering everyone, you understand, but by standing menacingly on the cliff overlooking the fort and causing everyone to huddle in terror against the far wall away from the inside of the fort, the food stockpile, and the lever which would open the gate and let me attack them.

[MagmaMcFry]

Do something about it.

[Baron Baconeer]

Just dig a staircase under them.

[qoonpooka]

Do something about it.

More helpfully:

1) Any bones around? Make crossbows, equip them, and shoot them down.

2) Any picks in hand? Time for an emergency tunneling operation!

3) Is the level at least out of sight of the goblins?  Activate a 1-dwarf squad, make sure it stays near its rally and give it a rally on the level.  When it gets there, queue the job and decomission the dwarf, that should fix the lever part of this.

4) Is the rest of the fort out of sight?  Activate your whole population and order them to go past the goblins.  If there's no path to attack they won't go a 'zerky on you.  Once they're safe, de-com and it's back to business as usual.

5) Wait.  The gobbos will get bored and leave eventually. (Is this an ambush or a siege?  If the latter, probably best to not use this option.)

6) There is no six.

etc, etc.

[EddyP]

It was a siege. I drafted a couple of crossbowdorfs, but they got spooked when they tried to pick up equipment. I could have recruited everyone to get them inside, but then they would just starve. Everything was still outside (this was only spring of second year) so whenever a dwarf went to get food or pull the bridge lever they got spooked and fled to the far wall instead. Eventually I got bored, managed to get the bridge down, and made everyone charge the gobbos, which ended about as well as you'd expect with 40 unarmed dwarfs vs 15 armed goblins.

[EvilFuzzy9]

Hmm, maybe you could tunnel down from where your dorfs are, over and up to outside the gate. You may have to start the tunnel a ways away, though, if the goblins are causing job cancellations. But yeah, if all your food and booze is between your dwarves and the goblins, then the dorfs won't eat or drink for fear of the goblins. The goblins who, from what I understand of what you said, can't actually get into your fort. -Sighs-

But if all else fails, the goblins, if they can't get in, will eventually leave. Either due to boredom or running into caravan guards.

-Edit- ^ Or that.

[FrisianDude]

How long until a caravan arrives and will it pass near the gobbos?

[EddyP]

How long until a caravan arrives and will it pass near the gobbos?

The caravan started unpacking in the depot just as the siege arrived. TBH I think that the fort is pretty screwed. Either I can wait and starve, or attack and get slaughtered. My only real weapon is a singles line of cagetraps at the gate, but even when the gate was down the goblins didn't attack. They're smarter than they look.

[Fishbulb]

Attack and get slaughtered! Attack and get slaughtered!

Cause you never know. You might get lucky. At least it'll be more fun than waiting for death.

[CaptRory]

Maybe sort your dwarves out into:

Cannon Fodder: Those with no valuable combat skills and no skills that can be done without, especially if you lose 95% of your dwarves.

Combat Dwarves: Whether ranged or Close Combat. These include miners with picks.

Non-Combatants: The handful of dwarves that must survive to pick up the pieces. One medical dwarf, your grower, your leader. Its a short list.

Send the cannon fodder out first to soak hits for your real combatants while the VIPs sit in the bleachers. If the battle goes too badly south send them in too. Might as well die together.

[AngleWyrm]

Cannon Fodder: Those with no valuable combat skills and no skills that can be done without, especially if you lose 95% of your dwarves.

hahaha, that's a recipe for losing 95% of your dwarves. How to LOSE: Send your inexperienced, poorly trained, and poorly equipped guys to do your battle. They will lose. Loser. How to WIN: Send your battle-ready, heavily armored, well-trained troops to do your battle. They will win. Winner.

Your choice. As for me, I pick winning. Steel clad axe lords are nearly invincible. My fort is six years old, and I haven't lost a soldier yet. And they go outside and patrol, hunting for trouble. You see, I want the OTHER guys to die, not my guys. My guys have feasts in the great hall, and drink and screw until the sun comes up.

[CaptRory]

Well, if you read the thread he had little in the way of a standing military. My rough plan at least gets the guys with some abilities and equipment into striking distance, ableit by sacrificing the absolutely non-essential.