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Author Topic: Are you expected to defeat every siege?  (Read 2250 times)

AzuredreamsXT

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Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« on: November 07, 2011, 04:31:06 pm »

My second game, more successful than the first to be sure, came to a brutal end when just after i managed to drive off the second, massive siege force, a third showed up. I have them locked out, but there's no way i can drive this one off. My army was half decimated in the last massacre. Too much fun to handle!

I Managed my dwarves social conditions well though and no one cares that 30 dwarves just got dismembered and their chunks are littering our halls. I could get back on my feet, but with no more trade, migrants, wood etc from the outside world, i don't see how i can really proceed. I think i've gotta admit defeat.

These two games i played i relied on leather armor, and upgraded weapons and gear from the goblins i defeated. I'm thinking this is where i am going wrong, i never start up a metal industry for iron and steel gear. Also, stone traps blow.

Any suggestions for my third attempt at the game would be great. I've got the mechanics of a self sustaining fortress down, food and booze are never an issue nor are moody dwarves, but i'm really dropping the ball in defense. These goblin sieges just get insane.
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Poindexterity

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2011, 04:34:16 pm »

dig down to a magma pipe first thing.
floor it over and get that metal industry working.

alternately, you could use wood to make cages for traps and abuse the hell out of them.
they're WAY too effective right now.
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Togre

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2011, 04:45:19 pm »

You could dig a special entrance just for these visitors, with as many cage and weapon traps as you can make or with a bridge and a long fall below.  You could make them file through a long serpentine path with fortifications on both sides where your marksdwarfs are sniping them the entire way.  You can figure a way to let in 1 or 2 at a time, kill them, heal and repeat.  Or you can go out in a blaze  of glory. 


Or...you could do some delicate and cheap tunneling and wall off the outside of the map, so migrants and caravans can get safely underground before the siege gets them.  That could be difficult, but it's an idea.
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Eidolon

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2011, 04:50:02 pm »

The siege will eventually leave, so you could try out-waiting them.
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Diamond

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2011, 04:51:33 pm »

Use siege engines, water drowning chambers, spike pits, and, of course, magma.
Or you can turn invaders off in init, and turn back on when you are ready to meet them.
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Tevish Szat

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2011, 04:53:20 pm »

You're expected to *manage* every siege.  Walling off may not be the "honorable" or dorfy way of doing it, but if you can't take what's coming for you just yet, it's perfectly acceptable to hide underground and bide your time until you're ready to unleash some unstoppable hell upon the surface... or they get bored and go away, whichever happens first.
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Meistermoxx

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2011, 05:00:42 pm »

MAGMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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yggiz

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2011, 05:03:22 pm »

And if you DO get bored and tired, just let the invaders in, you will get way more mileage than a straight up abandon!
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AzuredreamsXT

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2011, 05:05:10 pm »

Having never dug more than 8 z levels deep before, i'm not sure i can surpass all the dangers i hear about and find magma. I could try and get the experience for next time though.

What other sorts of hell can i bring upon them? I have no wood for siege engines, and the z level below the invaders is the farming area of my fortress, so i think spike pits are out :p
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Karakzon

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2011, 05:09:59 pm »

my dear dwarven sir,
dig deep, you can wall off bad finds or untill you need them ie fungy wood.
Experiment with tunnel and entrance designs, you dont need to keep your current entrance forever, alot of fortresses start out just a hallway into the mountainside, untill they dig out or build something better.

your use of stone is better for bridge based traps and so forth, muck about and use cage traps to test trap designs.

when you start experimenting, then you are welcome to the dwarven !!SCIENCE!! club were you trade insaine efficient designs for turning seiges into lumps of goo.
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Wannazzaki

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2011, 05:13:56 pm »

Damn right you are. Go butcher the fucks!
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Tevish Szat

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2011, 05:22:31 pm »

Yeah, wall off the caverns you hit on your way to magma: it'll be a hell of a walk to the forges down there, but well worth it in relieving you of your dependence on the surface for fuel.  A good species of hell would be to use whatever room you have at your entrance to build a hall or field of hideous death traps: 10x serrated disks, upright spears/spikes linked to a lever for repeated perforation, cage traps (saving the hideous death for later).  You can also use time to build up a super-soldier military that you can unleash where your previous army failed.  at the very least, you can danger room a squad of badasses.
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AzuredreamsXT

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2011, 05:23:43 pm »

The inspiring words are much appreciated brother. I was thinking, if i made a huge drawbridge, as big as i could, and put it in a tunnel in which it just barely fits, could i smash goblins with it? I'm thinking i'll raise the entrance bridge to let them in, and the huge drawbridge will be raised so they will (ideally run over to it , find they can't proceed further, and mill about as they have been outside, then i'll pull the lever and smash them. After the bridge falls, my hardy dwarven survivors of the previous massacre will charge across the now lowered bridge to engage the rest of the enemy.

Also, as you guys have suggested, i could delve into the depths in search of ore like true dwarves, forge up some steel, and take the fight to the goblins again. I have a feeling my dwarves will end up food for some horrible creature, but hey that's the life of a dwarf as i'm coming to understand it.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2011, 05:26:21 pm by AzuredreamsXT »
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kardwill

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #13 on: November 07, 2011, 05:25:36 pm »

Leather armor militia will get butchered fast. Try getting some metal gear before the sieges strike. Your casualties will plummet with simple copper or bronze armor.
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proxn_punkd

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Re: Are you expected to defeat every siege?
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2011, 05:58:24 pm »

In theory, you could bridgesmash goblins, but you wouldn't get any of their metal goods that way, and you won't be able to bridgesmash the troll buddies they tend to bring with the larger forces.

I like creating choke-points filled with cage traps, backed by a drawbridge if necessary, until I get a danger room running and my dorfs armed and armored. \ :P Yeah I'm a dirty cheater for using danger rooms.
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