Print

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

[KitsuneStudios]

I'm about to give up with the military.

It was a good fort too. When the ambush came, I had a 5-man squad of hammerdwarfs decked out in Masterwork steel breastplates and exceptional silver warhammers. I had another squad of five marksdwarves, who had been practicing diligently at the archery ranges. I also had Cletus the county sherrif and his deputies with leather jackets and nerf bats.

The plan was simple: let the outside traps soften up the invasion force. They then have to pass through "the boot", an L-shaped bend with two archery stations at the base of the "heel": a 1-row channel, then a fortification, so the archers could get a clear line of fire down both paths. After the bootcame a last line of cage traps, and finally the hammer-dwarfs. behind them was the city guard's burrow, then the civilian zones.

At first everything went perfectly. The alret sent soldiers running for their burrows, and ivilians boting for the entrance. Not one single casualty out in the field. The gobbos advanced slowly towards the entrance.

Suddenly, Cletus snaps. For no good reason at all, he charges past the hammer-dwarves, past the marksdwarves, out of the trapline, to face a dozen goblins in the open field. He stopped charging after the first dozen crossbow bolts hit him. He stopped breathing after about five dozen more iron bolts were pumped into his body.

That's when everyone caught the stupids. The deputies about a minute after the massacre decided either "We gotta help him!" or possibly "dibs on his boots", and promptly charge out into iron rain. The gobbos proceed to walk in, geting brused and bouced a bit by the traps finally, and then proceed to walk into the boot. The marksdwarves decided that this was a good time to save their ammo, and simply watched as the crossbowmen proceeded to massacre the wardogs. The goblins decided that coming inside would be too much of a hassle, so just milled aimlessly around the front hall for a bit. That eventually pissed off the marksdwarves, who, instead of simply shooting the bastards, decided to run out and club them to death insteads. Once the Marksmen were safely disposed of, the hammerdwarves finally decided "This time will work for sure", and proceeded to run out into the fray themselves, where theytoo were mowed down by the blistering hail of bolts.

At least the civilians were smart enough to stay put.

What the hell guys?

[Number4]

Sounds like you weren't dwarfy enough. Simply send more, better armed dwarfs. Or magma. 

[CapnUrist]

Sometimes dwarves are really quite silly.

That said, your dwarves would have fared better against the iron boltstorm with shields, and decent skill in them. The material doesn't matter; copper is suggested for its weight to improve damage with bashes. Marksdwarves do better with a perch one z-level above their targets, behind fortifications; it keeps them from wanting to run out and club goblins instead of shooting them.

[ChairmanPoo]

Yeah, goose stepping morons like my dwarves should try activating antigoblin traps instead of stepping into them!

[Doctor Steel]

Cant be worse than the time my Dwarves decided to meet the goblins near a river when i wasnt looking and got dragged under by carp.

[Mechatronic]

Cletus was probably running outside to pick up equipment dropped by a goblin killed by one of your traps. Since he's the captain he gets first choice on equipment dropped. Go to (o)rders and (F)orbid death items and ammo to stop them doing that. Once Cletus died the deputies went to pick up the equipment.

Marksdwarves can be little finnicky. I normally make sure there's not more than a tile of space behind the fortification, since sometimes they don't fire if they are further back. Check that they are carrying quivers and bolts, by going around to them individually and checking their inventory. If they aren't carrying bolts then check how ammo is assigned in the military screen. Sometimes they get assigned forbidden ammo. Sometimes hunters are assigned all the bolts you have.

[zephyr_hound]

I don't trust any dwarves, ever, to know the safe way to do something. On the rare occasions I use marksdwarves I make sure I can lock 'em in at their position so they can't go off and club things. I lock my military up too until the moment I'm ready to deploy them. I'm having a lot of success right now with a system where I have lever-linked hatches at my entrance above small subterranean rooms. I station my soldiers in the underground chambers, lock them in, THEN let the attackers in. I open the hatches only when the attackers are right there, so the soldiers absolutely can't spoil the surprise attack or charge into a line of bows.

And yeah, definitely forbid items on death if you haven't already got that setting on.

[Girlinhat]

Never give military free roam.  Lock your marksmen inside their tower, and lock your soldiers to their post.  Unlock the door (like let down a bridge) to suddenly expose them to the enemy and allow fighting.  Otherwise, leave them locked in something solid.  Similarly, locking the door to the firing range will ensure your marksmen stay at their damn post and disallow them from bludgeoning anyone.  Creative use of pressure plates may be applied to perfectly and automatically time the deployement and locking-in of your soldiers and archers.

[darkflagrance]

I used to rely on burrows, but lately I've found that move orders are more effective.

[Chessrook44]

This is why the last line of defense is a door and my dwarves are BEHIND it.

If they don't see the gobs, they don't charge the gobs.

Also I have no archers.

[Psieye]

I've had some luck having free marksmen shoot instead of charge at enemies without having to lock them up using a move command. Problem is, you really have to pay attention to them and immediately throw them off duty when they're about to run out of ammo. Heck, might be best to move them there in soldier form and then deactivate them so they're shooting in civilian form.

[MarcAFK]

Your last line of defence should be magma, and if you want a panic room with a guy, a barrel of booze and a pick, but magma is better.

[chewie]

Put your pen/pastures in front of the entrance so that the enemy marksmen empty their quivers on some worthless animals.

[KitsuneStudios]

Cletus was probably running outside to pick up equipment dropped by a goblin killed by one of your traps...

That would have at least made sense. He charged them before they were anywhere near the traps though. Perhaps one of the gobbos stubbed a toe, and Cletus thought. "He's wounded, I'll finish him off!"

Marksdwarves can be little finnicky. I normally make sure there's not more than a tile of space behind the fortification, since sometimes they don't fire if they are further back. Check that they are carrying quivers and bolts, by going around to them individually and checking their inventory. If they aren't carrying bolts then check how ammo is assigned in the military screen. Sometimes they get assigned forbidden ammo. Sometimes hunters are assigned all the bolts you have.

That's happened before. In this case though, the marksdwarves were armed and loaded (And in fact, standing on a full ammo pile) and huddled right up against the fortifications. I'm wondering if there's something about the channeled ditch on the opposite side of the Fortifications. They seem to be able to shoot up or down z-levels (at least the gobbos were) but shooting at targets the same z-level across a gap seems to confuse them.

[Psieye]

Marksdwarves refuse to reload when they can see danger. They're happy to shoot across a pit on the same z-level - that's how I built my execution chamber afterall.