dwarf fortress bridge defence retracting vs raised

#Dwarf fortress bridge defence retracting vs raised how to

Combat is random, and any animal can kill any dwarf - and vice versa. A lone animal, even a clear predator, will usually flee from a stronger force, but some undead and evil creatures can be blindly aggressive. Some few are able to destroy doors and hatches, statues and other buildings, and some are thieves (see below), or will eat your food (such as bears). Some animals are quite dangerous, but most are easily excluded by the humble door or hatch, even if it's not forbidden. Understanding the diverse threats is the first step to keeping your dwarves alive.Ĭreatures vary in threat and habits. Hopefully, you will never have to face that kind of threat, but being ready for anything is the best bet, and, more realistically, when things go wrong (and with dwarves, they will, just believe it) you will have a buffer of defense to fall back on.ĭanger comes in a variety of forms in Dwarf Fortress.

Assume the worst: Build up your defenses before the enemy shows up - like right now! Plan on being sieged by scores of goblin archers, door-breaking trolls, invisible kobold master thieves, dive-bombing giant eagles, flame-breathing fire imps, angry elephants, and a bronze colossus - all at once.

The choke points between the circles are where you build traps and lockable doors, and station troops. Sometimes captives will escape their cages inside your fortress. With the existence of door-destroying and bow-wielding attackers, double or multiple hard barriers between the inside and the outside are essential to fend off the worst assaults, and if they get inside one barrier it's nice to have another behind that.

Concentric circles: Think redundancy - one wall may not be enough.

(Some creatures can destroy doors if they can reach them, but drawbridges are safe.) If there is a useless or redundant opening, seal it off, one way or another. Don't make more entrances than really necessary. But each point of entry should be hardened against attack. This usually corresponds to underground and surface, but not always - you can have a complete medieval-style castle complex on the surface.

Minimize fortress entrances: Have a strong and clear distinction between inside and outside.

While admitting that 'Rules are made to be broken', there are some general recommendations that have a proven value in defending a fortress: Note - There is not room in this article to expand adequately on every sub-topic - please see specific articles for a complete discussion as desired.

#Dwarf fortress bridge defence retracting vs raised how to

While this article cannot tell you how to have fun, it will comment on this when appropriate, and you should keep it in mind as well. Lastly, there is game style - you want the game to be 'fun' for you, and with some strategies it's quite possible to defend yourself into complete boredom, or just go down a road that is not attractive style-wise. These two goals can often be rather divergent, as your dwarves may need to wander the open countryside to collect herbs, cut trees, hunt, fish, and while outside the bounds of your fortress they can find themselves quite vulnerable. But second, protecting the dwarves outside and topside as they go about their work is also important. First, you must protect the fortress itself - the buildings, the hallways, the dwarves within it. There are three important things to consider when planning the defenses for your fortress. This guide will pull from many other articles, but will prefer to refer to those rather than re-post information that is already found (and better placed) there. Fortress layout, military organization and training, traps and more, all contribute to the overall 'defense' and survivability of your fortress and the dwarves that live and work both within there and in the world around it, and likewise no one article can include every last detail. A wide variety of creatures can threaten your dwarves, and there is no one approach or philosophy that perfectly addresses every possibility. Protecting your fortress from intruders is a challenging task and a broad, complex topic. In Dwarf Fortress, you will often find yourself beset by hostile creatures looking to murder your dwarves or take their treasures. For specific advice on how to get your soldiers prepared for any threat, see military design. For complex traps that are not a minor/optional part of a larger defensive plan (but might be adapted or plugged into one), see trap design.

For tips on laying out your architecture to protect your military, see security design. The defense guide is a general overview of the threats that will challenge your fortress and things to consider when preparing a standard defense. This page is one of several inter-related articles on the broader topic of defending your fortress and your dwarves.