Print

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

[tahujdt]

My most bustling city ever, Gatevised, (Pop: 168), was just besieged. I closed the main gate, opened the fake hallway lined with ballistae, and prepared for battle. But they didn't come. So I looked at the units screen and there are maybe 16 axegobbos, plus a hammergob mounted on a cave swallow. They just stayed there, so I sent out a cheese maker to draw them out. The killed him and then went back to where they were before. Then I sent out my elite, who killed them without getting a scratch. Except for the leader, who just hovered 3 z-levels above the battle, and then ran. So: why didn't they attack? was it because the leader couldn't path to the gate?

[Sphalerite]

Pathing for flying units is bugged.  The leader on the giant cave swallow flew into the air, then didn't approach your fortress because the pathfinding code couldn't figure out a valid path from where he was to your fortress.  The rest of the goblins were just trying to follow him.

[tahujdt]

By the way, check out the cacame thread and join the Order!

[Loud Whispers]

Plus, there was a Benny Hill yakkety sax thread a while back of a siege which composed of goblins and cave swallows, that would charge at Dwarves (goblins wanted to kill them) but then fly away (cave swallows getting scared of the military Dwarves). The chase ensued forever.

[tahujdt]

This leads directly to my next question:

Another siege came, with four or so squads coming from different directions, every single goblin mounted on a GCS(giant cave swallow). I sent my danger-room trained elite out to try and get them. First I went for the spears, who flew off. Then I went for the archer squad, who did strafing runs, but never scored a hit. I chased off the other squads in this fashion. Then I got an idea. What if I used runesmith to kill all the GCS? I tried, but the gobbos still hovered in the air. Then I turned of their rider tags. They fell, but not many died. Some got stuck in trees. Then I sent my military to kill them. They did, but couldn't get the ones in the trees. Then I used DFHack to get rid of the trees, thus putting the gobs in range of my dwarves. Even though all of them are dead, why isn't the siege tag going away?

[Babylon]

This leads directly to my next question:

Another siege came, with four or so squads coming from different directions, every single goblin mounted on a GCS(giant cave swallow). I sent my danger-room trained elite out to try and get them. First I went for the spears, who flew off. Then I went for the archer squad, who did strafing runs, but never scored a hit. I chased off the other squads in this fashion. Then I got an idea. What if I used runesmith to kill all the GCS? I tried, but the gobbos still hovered in the air. Then I turned of their rider tags. They fell, but not many died. Some got stuck in trees. Then I sent my military to kill them. They did, but couldn't get the ones in the trees. Then I used DFHack to get rid of the trees, thus putting the gobs in range of my dwarves. Even though all of them are dead, why isn't the siege tag going away?

cause you cheated.

[Sphalerite]

If you use Runesmith to kill members of a siege, you will sometimes get a siege tag that never goes away.  What you should have done instead, if you wanted to cheat to kill the siege, was mod the raw files to temporarily remove the ability of giant cave swallows to fly or something similar.

[Triaxx2]

I find dropping obsidian blocks from above to be a much better tactic. And ultimately more enjoyable.

[tahujdt]

It's a moot point, because after my various ideas, which included raising the siege from the dead, DF crashed. Luckily, I had saved about a month before.

[NTJedi]

**NEW  STORY**

So this goblin siege arrives with 17 crossbowman with the leader on a toad.  They kill a trader merchant who believed he could be friends with the bears.  She jump with her toad into a pond... they are not moving.  She's still alive.  The trade depot pathing shows access is available inside my fort and traders used it last season no problem.  I'm not using any hacks, cheats, or mods.

How long before they typically just wander away??   I'm thinking of opening another gate just to get them moving.


This is a perfect reason why enemy siege attacks need siege weapons for destroying walls, gates and earth barriers.

[NTJedi]

UPDATE

So winter arrived and it froze the goblin leader and toad in the ice.   Will I be able to recover the stuff/bodies or did they vanish?   Any advice from the previous question?

UPDATE
Opening other gates did nothing...  they're just camping outside.  And because they're goblin crossbowmen there's very little I can do... I guess I can build a siege ballista or two or three, yet this will take some time.

[Garath]

You're really unlucky with the mounts.
Once they path into water they slow down a lot and usually the leader drowns, which will cause the squad to hang around the spot untill they get bored and leave or find something else to kill closeby.When they are gone and the pool freezes again, you can send someone to dig out the ice and you should be able to recover the items.

[GoldenShadow]

Don't close off your fort, just make the entrance passage lead through where your elites are training, and put some traps behind there in case anyone slips past. I had a huge bunch of trolls ignore the elites trying to kill them, only to get caught in the cage traps further in.

[Sus]

This also tends to happen if one of the bossgoblins is crippled, but not killed, by e.g. falling off a tall bridge. (I generally use a 5+ deep spiked pit under my main entrance as the first line of defence.) The rest of the siege just sort of mills around the site where their leader lies, losing all interest in your fort while the crippled leader is still alive. They will attack any dorf wandering off near them though.

This problem is easily solved by carving fortifications in the wall of the pit to shoot at the loitering gobbos, or connecting all of the spikes in the pit to a lever set on repeat-pull (goblin sashliki, yum!).

The flyer problem, on the other hand, requires a more ...creative solution. If you know where the siege is going to come from, building a multi-level archer tower nearby may solve the problem, but obviously can't be done while the siege is still in progress.

[NTJedi]

I haven't closed my fort... only opened other bridges and the sieging goblins are not moving.  Because they're on the edge of the map and because they're crossbowmen they'll be difficult to take down.  My arriving caravans seem to be at random locations so they might be killing some merchants soon.  What make them tough is they're all crossbowmen so I think even a full steel armored soldier would have an unlucky shot in the neck.

NOTES:
 First I don't use the cheating exploit of dangers rooms so super legendary soldiers in 2 seasons is not an option. 
 Second I don't equip my soldiers with six cloaks because it's unnatural and just plain weird... probably also a cheating exploit Toady will eventually fix.
 I have cave-ins turned off because I don't believe in one shot instant deaths for Titans or Dragons or other huge creatures.
 
QUESTION: With the goblins at the edge of the map how can I take them down??   (I'm thinking siege ballistas)