Print

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

[DinnerAdventure]

I created my first fortress following those tutorials on the internet. Things went smooth, but since I was learning, things took time, and eventually, the first goblin siege happened. I sent 6 military dwarfs I just began to train, and of course, they were all dead in 5 seconds.

My second fortress went better, as I did things faster, so I could spend more time on the military. I defeated 2 goblin ambushes, with 2-3 dwarven casualties everytime. Things were looking bright, until...
A ful blown goblin siege. With cave crocodiles, trolls, goblin captains and everything. I quickly sent the civiliand to the bunker and sent all 28 dwarves that I trained (bunches of 5 specialized in different weapons, 10 archers). And I basically got a whole lot of fun, as all of them died a horrible way, with my dwarves just scratching some goblins, failing at trolls, always missing beasts, etc. After the military got killed, the siege went in and killed most of my men, and then they went away and the siege ended, and I was left with ~30 dwarves. As soon as I thought I could rebuild, 4 trolls I captured in wooden cages broke out. Lots of fun happened.

Also, my fortress was carved sideways into a mountain, first floor was farming, second was storage, third was meeting hall and beds, fourth was barracks, fifth was workshops, and then there were 4 floors I just mined away for minerals. Also there was a "ceiling" floor that ended up in a cliff, thats where I trained my archers.



So, my question is, what did I do wrong? What should I focus on my next fortress to get greater doses of fun?

Any help is appreciated.

[JAFANZ]

Wealth. and Population.

Wealth brings thieves & sieges.

Population brings (AIUI) Titans.

[utuki]

Either do not fight in open or learn how to train your dwarves. Build some cheating traps (1 tile wide weapon trap line with channels at sides, everything dodges traps and drops down) if you just want to  kill sieges. Try using dangers rooms for easy&fast training.
For harder way bring some decent fighters on embark and have them training everyone.
And you need at least bronze/iron weapons and armor, unarmored dwarves get killed much more often ...
For getting more 'fun' keep caverns open (with a door, maybe some traps).

[JmzLost]

Here's the wiki article on military.  If at all possible, try to have your military training outside, so they don't get cave-adapted. 

The 1-tile Dodge This! style trapline works really well.  Longer falls = worse injuries, or line the area enemies will fall with cage traps, or upright spear/spike traps linked to a lever. 

The danger room is a bunch of upright spear/spike traps with 1-10 wooden training spears.  Equip your military with hoods and robes, weapon/shield/other armor optional, and station them on top of the traps.  Set the lever to be pulled repeatedly, and their skills will go up quickly.  More weapons per trap = faster training.

Having a good military, with good armor and weapons, is better than having a lot of military.  You might want to start with a couple of dwarves with military skills, some cassiterite and copper ore to make bronze, and get them training early.  You can send them after wild animals for some quick experience.

Have a raising drawbridge that lifts towards your fort, and seals the entrance.  If your military fails everyone else will be safe (until the inevitable tantrum spiral).

Most important:  Did you have fun?  Are you going to play again?  Then you didn't do anything wrong.

JMZ

[SpiralDimentia]

Wealth. and Population.

Wealth brings thieves & sieges.

Population brings (AIUI) Titans.

You know, I have a fort somewhere in my save that has a wealth of like 1.5 million, and a population of like 150something dwarves, and I have been neither seiged nor ambushed, and I haven't even seen a semimegabeast, let alone anything bigger.

Bad luck is bad.

[RTiger]

Your problem is your relying on only your military, when in truth, your military should be your last line of defense. Your  first line of defense should be traps. The less work your dwarves need to do, the better.

[DinnerAdventure]

Most important:  Did you have fun?  Are you going to play again?  Then you didn't do anything wrong.

JMZ

Well of course! As soon as I saw that army, I turned on some metal music and enjoyed the war and the spiral of tantrums and trolls breaking stuff. I'm asking because I want to do better on my next fortress.

[SpiralDimentia]

spiral of tantrums

That's my name! Don't wear it out.

[GC1CEO]

It gets worse, I fought off a 30 goblin raid with like 7-8 trolls only to 2 seasons later to be annihilated by a 40 goblin raid with 20 trolls and a general. I think the game just ramps up the attacks if you survive to a point where its impossible to, I.E it has to get to a point where there is a siege every single day of the game or an army of forbidden beasts who can naturally mine or something.