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[Urist McXenu]

So I finally had my first "proper" fun-laden fort (I have a tendency to restart a new one whenever I get the hang of some major thing like military, steel-making etc.). And boy oh boy... it was FUN.

It started off when a gobbo snatcher got chased.... into a 3-man orc ambush (DD mod installed, if that counts). Long story short, 48-odd dorf count got whittled down to about 4 before they decided it was too easy and left. I had no military at this point as it was still "early stages" I thought and hadn't come across much metal yet. So despite the piles of now-rotting corpses everywhere, I decided to sweat out the miasma fields and hopefully get some make-shift mass graves happening.

And then, to my surprise - Migrants! Never thought I'd be happy to see the buggers. But then shortly afterwards (Like, almost as soon as they got inside).... A vile force of darkness has arrived! And is now milling around a lake on the maps edge. And not moving.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that they are taking a non-violent siege tactic... I've actually got most graves built and ghosts purged. And no more miasma... I might actually be able to salvage this cluster-fun.

But is this normal? Shouldn't a siege you know... do bad things to me without even the courtesy of a reach-around? I've had dorfs pop up above-ground to bury the dead, so surely they must have seen them (It's a fairly flat embark so entry is just a stairway down at the moment). But yet, they are happy fishing or whatever they are doing next to the lake.

[NecroRebel]

Sieges come in squads of typically around 10 enemies, one of whom is the leader. The whole siege tries to stay near the leader as much as possible whenever they're not engaging an enemy. The leader is often differently armed from the others, after the first couple sieges from a particular race is usually much more skilled, and is more likely to be mounted. I suspect that it is this last attribute that is causing your issue.

If the leader happens to have come mounted on an amphibious creature, its pathing will allow it to go into water. Often, though, creatures in water don't path out for whatever reason. So, if the leader is mounted on an amphibious creature, the mounted leader might have charged straight into the lake and is just sitting on the lake bed, trying and failing to figure out where to go from there, while the whole rest of the siege just mills about trying to get closer to their boss. That's the most likely thing I can think of; check the lake to see if anybody's in it.

[Urist McXenu]

Aha, that explains the crocodile that appeared in that lake... which is marked as "Invader" as opposed to the gobbo's who are "Hostile" iirc.

So they will probably hang around until killed then? At least I might have time for a make-shift defence then.

More important question I guess is - Do migrants and caravans still arrive during a siege? I could use some more victims conscripts and booze. Anything to help keep the shattered remnants of this fort happy.

Handy to know, each incident of fun brings more knowledge. Cheers

[i2amroy]

More important question I guess is - Do migrants and caravans still arrive during a siege? I could use some more victims conscripts and booze. Anything to help keep the shattered remnants of this fort happy.

Nope.

[Sphalerite]

If the siege leader was mounted on a crocodile that got stuck in a pond, then the siege leader has most likely drowned.   The rest of the siege will just hang out where he died.  They should leave eventually, so just wait them out.

[NonconsensualSurgery]

A human siege with a leader on a bear once stopped partway to my gate.

No mods. No cage traps. No water or other barriers; the leader was surveying the completely flat and barren ground between him and the main entrance from on top of his bear, holding the reins and waiting for the dwarves to come to him rather than charging blindly into a death trap. That's one smart human. He and his axemen and pikemen were the few, the proud, the brave - the bugged.

Neither special ops goats nor one-dwarf reconnaissance missions could un-stick them. It truly was a siege in the medieval sense where one side waits for the other to die of hunger, the plague or boredom

It's a pity that it had to end poorly for this aspiring bear-riding Julius Caesar. After being mobbed by unskilled and disorganized dwarves in nearly indestructible layered steel armor and slowly beaten to death with the butt of a crossbow because I forgot to make enough ammo, a peace was negotiated and the large-sized armor was returned to sender via trade caravan.

[Ultimuh]

A human siege with a leader on a bear once stopped partway to my gate.

No mods. No cage traps. No water or other barriers; the leader was surveying the completely flat and barren ground between him and the main entrance from on top of his bear, holding the reins and waiting for the dwarves to come to him rather than charging blindly into a death trap. That's one smart human. He and his axemen and pikemen were the few, the proud, the brave - the bugged.

Neither special ops goats nor one-dwarf reconnaissance missions could un-stick them. It truly was a siege in the medieval sense where one side waits for the other to die of hunger, the plague or boredom

It's a pity that it had to end poorly for this aspiring bear-riding Julius Caesar. After being mobbed by unskilled and disorganized dwarves in nearly indestructible layered steel armor and slowly beaten to death with the butt of a crossbow because I forgot to make enough ammo, a peace was negotiated and the large-sized armor was returned to sender via trade caravan.

This is why I play Dwarf Fortress.

[Garath]

For amphibious mounts, they do path out of the water, as long as the rider is alive. If the lake or pool is too big, they leader drowns, everyone stops and stares. Sometimes something similar happens if a flying mount actually flies

[Stormfeather]

I can just imagine the famous last words of these fearless war leaders:

"Oh bugger, I forgot these things swim."

Well, more properly the famous last words would be more like "Oh buggrrlglblbrgl*glug*," but close enough.

[Urist McXenu]

If the siege leader was mounted on a crocodile that got stuck in a pond, then the siege leader has most likely drowned.   The rest of the siege will just hang out where he died.  They should leave eventually, so just wait them out.

This looks like what has happened, yeah. Although I just loaded up that fort to test the "wait and see" out... and the lake has frozen over. So uh, guess there is no croc in thar anymore

[Garath]

you can mine out the place where they were and see if you can unfreeze them