Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

Children

2018-01-20T17:09:17Z

Pontus5: /* Labor */

{{Quality|Superior|22:51, 11 September 2013 (UTC)}}
{{av}}
{{Translation
| dwarven = tilat
| elvish = imi
| goblin = tox
| human = shin
}}
Most [[creature]]s, including [[dwarf|dwarves]], start out as infants, then after a certain number of years become '''children''', and then finally become adults. For dwarves, childhood starts after reaching one year of age, and continues until age twelve.

In fortress mode, some migrant dwarves are [[marriage|married]] and may bring children. Children who immigrate to your [[fortress]] might be any age from two to twelve. You can determine the age of any child by viewing their thoughts screen, which will give you the child's exact age as well as their date of birth. This information is visible regardless of whether or not the child was born in your fortress.

"Resident" heterosexually [[marriage|married]] female dwarves may also give birth to children. This can be stopped or reduced by editing the BABY_CHILD_CAP or the STRICT_POPULATION_CAP setting in [[d_init.txt]]. Dwarves can even have [[miscarriage]]s (if they become dehydrated, starving, or are subjected to certain types of physical trauma), which causes an unhappy thought for the mother but not for the father.

Much of [[goblin]] society is centered around [[thief|stealing the children]] of other races. The appropriate response to a baby-snatcher appearing on the map is the judicious use of [[magma|dwarven diplomacy]].

==Babies==

Babies do not have to be born in [[bed]]s, but are born wherever the mother happens to be. The birth will interrupt most current actions of the mother. The game will pause and [[announcement|announce]] the arrival of the baby. The mother will cancel whatever task she was in the middle of to seek her infant, and then will ''usually'' resume whatever task she was doing before the child was born.

Dwarven mothers can also give birth to twins or triplets, although that is exceedingly rare due to their [MULTIPLE_LITTER_RARE] token. Babies are looked after by their mother, who will continue working while carrying the babies.

[[Unconscious]] mothers will not wake up when they give birth - [[sleep]]ing and resting in a [[hospital]] will not be interrupted. Dwarves in a [[strange mood]] will also not interrupt their mood when giving birth - cancelling a mood forces instant insanity, so that may be a deliberate coding choice to protect mothers (and children). Imprisoned mothers can grab their child if they give birth while on a chain, but cannot retrieve an infant that is out of their reach, which can cause massive problems, since a mother carrying a child is forced to drop it before being brought to prison.

If the mother is sleeping or otherwise prevented from collecting her infant, the baby will be free to roam as it pleases. An emancipated baby acts in a similar manner to a [[insanity|raving mad]] adult, wandering freely over the map without any sense of self-preservation, gravitating to [[Activity_zone#Meeting_area|meeting zone]]s. It may be fed and watered by other dwarves, and in recent versions, such care happens regularly enough to keep orphans alive. As long as a baby is not within reach of a hostile creature, no harm will be done to it. "Job cancellation spam" can be generated as the baby is seen by the game to be "insane" (example: "Urist McBabyname, Dwarven baby, cancels Clean Self: Too Insane"), but once it reaches childhood (at 12 months), that will stop, and they shall go about their business like any other dwarven child.

The sex of a baby is determined upon birth. [[Cheating#Savescumming|Reloading a save]] might get a baby of the other sex.

After giving birth, it is possible for the mother to become pregnant again immediately and give birth to another child nine months later.

Babies will crawl to burrows when assigned to them.

==Labor==

In [[fortress mode]], children <s>are useless vermin</s> cannot be assigned any labor, but they will perform a few simple tasks on their own:

* Socializing in [[location]]s. They might also hold [[performance]]s like singing or reciting poetry.
* Picking out, and wearing, their own [[clothing]].
* Eating, drinking, and sleeping as necessary.
* [[Farming|Harvesting]] [[crops]], if the "All dwarves harvest" [[standing orders|order]] is on. This will also increase their [[grower]] skill. It only happens very sporadically in the current version.
* When they want to, storing their items. Yelling at them to clean their room has no effect.
* Children can play with [[toy]]s such as puzzle boxes or toy axes. They might also play make believe. Both are basically filler jobs without tangible benefits.
* Fighting or running from hostiles, depending on circumstances. Since children are small, can't use armor or weapons and all start without combat skills, don't expect them to be effective fighters. They can't be assigned to squads.
* Children can enter [[strange mood]]s and will go about them the same as an adult dwarf. Since they won't have any skills other than social skills, and possibly growing or combat skills if involved in a fight, they will attempt to make one artifact appropriate for a [[bone carver]], [[wood crafter]] or [[stonecrafter]]. They will also gain experience as normal if they complete it, except for possessed moods.
* Children respect [[burrow]]s restrictions, including civilian alerts.
* Children will attempt to [[swim]] if submerged in [[water]].

Children may not be assigned to the [[noble|nobility]]. However, they ''can'' be assigned bedrooms.

If no tasks are available, they will gladly loiter in meeting areas, like [[dining room]]s for example, for the duration of their youth. Children born in the fort tend to follow their mother by preference, even (especially?) if their mother is a soldier and is currently going into battle.

Children are also known to be invisible to vampires, thus making excellent crime detectors, as they speak truthfully in all cases.

The game will create an [[announcement]] when children reach adulthood and can be assigned labors. This announcement will not pause and/or center the screen by default.

==Dwarven parenthood==

In the eighth [http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/df_talk.html DFTalk], it was mentioned that, due to a programming oversight, children's parents can become so preoccupied with finding their children that they can die of thirst.

==Too many children==

If there are too many children in the fort, [[FPS]] may suffer. [[Unfortunate accident|Removing]] children is difficult, as doing so may quickly lead to [[stress]]. One possibility is to [[burrow]] children outside to aid [[thief|snatchers]].

To prevent a large population of children in the first place, it is preferred to set the BABY_CHILD_CAP and/or the STRICT_POPULATION_CAP in the [[d_init.txt]] file.

In the longer running forts, when a parent has more than 10 children of one gender, the 11th onward will merely be referred to as 'son' or 'daughter'. The exception to this is that the youngest will always be referred to as 'youngest son' or 'youngest daughter'.

==Non-dwarven children==

[[Human]]s, goblins, [[Elf|elves]], [[kobold]]s and [[animal people]] follow the same aging progress of dwarves (born as babies, becoming children at a year old then becomes adults at twelve). The same is true for some races of wild humanoid creatures and [[semi-megabeast]]s, though some possess shorter or longer child states than dwarves do, i.e. [[troll]]s become adults at the age of 10. Regardless of how long their child states are, intelligent non-dwarf children are functionally identical to their dwarven counterparts for gameplay purposes.

Animal children possess limited capabilities compared to their adults. Infant [[milk]]-bearing livestock can't be milked, young [[wool]]-bearing animals can't be [[shear]]ed, and bird and reptile hatchlings are unable to lay [[egg]]s. However, unlike intelligent creatures, almost all animals follow a different aging progress; they skip the baby stage entirely and are born as children, who becomes adults at only 1 year of age (though they don't stop growing in size until the age of 2). Certain exceptions exist, however, such as [[elephant]]s who take 10 years to reach adulthood.

Certain creatures possess no child state to speak of, and are technically adults at birth, having all the capabilities of an adult immediately after starting existing (though most of them are still subject to growing in size as they get older). These creatures include stuff like [[crundle]]s, [[giant cave spider]]s, [[creeping eye]]s, [[magma crab]]s and most [[megabeast]]s. Inorganic creatures such as [[Gabbro man|gabbro men]], [[Fire man|fire men]] and [[Amethyst man|amethyst men]] also only exist as adults and never as children.

{{Category|Dwarves}}
{{Category|Relationships}}

Ambush

2018-01-05T10:50:39Z

Pontus5: /* Elves */

{{Quality|Exceptional|04:38, 17 May 2015 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

[[File:Goblin ambush.jpg|thumb|right|350px|A [[goblin]] ambush (read: prime [[goblinite]]) can result in dangerous amounts of [[fun]] if not spotted early - as here.]]
An '''ambush''' is a type of attack in [[fortress mode]] where a small force of enemy {{Catlink|humanoids}}, typically [[goblin]]s, attempts a sneak attack on your [[fortress]]. While smaller in scope than a full [[siege]], ambushes are not related to the number of [[dwarf|dwarves]] in your fortress, and so can be triggered by relatively small populations.

Ambushes are not announced immediately, and the attacking units are only revealed when your fortress becomes aware of the attackers, either when they set off a [[cage trap]] or come sufficiently close to a dwarf, [[caravan]] member, or [[pet]] (they ignore wildlife). Ambushes can also be discovered manually, but not spotted, if you happen upon on an invader [[corpse]] and some [[goblinite]] in one of your [[trap]]s. Once an ambush [[squad]] is detected, an ambush will generate a [[Announcement#Major announcement|major announcement]], the wording of which depends on the invader.

Ambushes, just like [[siege]]s, nearly always happen at the end of a season, generally in the last 10-15 days of the season. Ambushes tend to arrive with [[caravan]]s but can happen any time. Note that goblins will usually ambush with more than one squad (2 to 4), each of which will trigger a separate message and also has to be detected separately. If ambushers are caught in cage traps, they will be marked as Caged Prisoner in the unit screen. These prisoners can be dragged around between cages (or tossed over tall towers) without risk of a jailbreak, unlike goblin thieves. If you abandon your fortress while an ambush is active, you will receive the message "Your strength has been broken." Finally, when the leader of an ambush is killed (or captured), but not the other units, they will stand around and "wait" for their leader; this is probably a [[bug]].

== Types of ambushes ==
=== Goblins ===
[[File:RT-Third Ambush 01.png|thumb|left|400px|A goblin ambush imparts some [[fun|!!FUN!!]] new lines in a player's [[announcement]]s screen.]]
{{removed feature}}
[[Goblin]] ambushes are usually announced with the message "An ambush! Curse them!", though this is occasionally modified to "A human has sprung from ambush!" if a captured [[human]] leads the [[squad]] (human [[civilization]]s themselves do not send ambushes, only [[siege]]s). Goblin ambushes are attracted by relatively high amounts of wealth; beyond a certain threshold, the higher the wealth, the more attractive your fortress becomes as a goblin ambush target.

Goblins usually enter the map with two to four squads, each of which must be detected separately. On the sliding scale of [[wealth]] attraction goblin ambushes lie squarely between [[thief|thieves]]/[[snatcher]]s and [[siege]]s, but are infinitely more annoying; snatchers are a mere nuisance and sieges can usually be dealt with, but you might not find an ambush until it's too late to prevent them from entering your fortress and slaughtering your populace (or staying outside of it and killing off your [[wood cutter]]s, or your [[plant gathering|plant gatherers]], or your [[meat industry|livestock]], or your [[fisherdwarf|fisherdwarvers]], or your [[ambusher]]s, or...). Dealing with the threat of a hidden ambush is an important element in [[military design]].

It may be preferable to avoid goblin ambushes as much as possible by holding wealth down early on, and then creating a large number of high-value objects as possible in a short period of time on the way to "siege level" fortress wealth attraction. This reduces your exposure to ambushes, but means you have to deal with sieges off the bat instead.

As of v0.42.04, goblin ambushes no longer happen due to their entity raws having its <code>[[Entity token#AMBUSHER|[AMBUSHER]]]</code> tag removed. Sieges still do occur after your fortress exceeds the population of 80, though.

=== Necromancers ===
[[Necromancer]]s will also occasionally ambush your fortress, if you are in range of their [[Tower (necromancy)|tower]] and they opt out of a full-on [[siege]]. Necromancer ambushes consist of several necromancers, each one being detected individually; an early warning sign for a necromancer ambush is the presence of [[undead]] in non-evil [[biome|biomes]]. These ambushes are announced with "An ambush! Drive them out!". The necromancers themselves are harmless, being regular old unarmed humanoids; however, very bad things will happen if they manage to find their way within sight of any left-over goblin sieges, [[corpse]] or [[refuse]] [[stockpile]]s, or (Armok forbid) last month's [[dragon]] invader. For this reason it is highly recommended that fortresses within sounding range of a tower internalize or [[atom smasher|atom smash]] all of their meat byproducts, and set [[standing orders]] to "gather refuse from outside" and clean up any meaty outdoor bits.

=== Kobolds ===
[[Kobold]] ambushes are triggered by a long enough string of successful kobold thieveries, and are announced with the message "An ambush! Skulking Vermin!". This usually only happens when kobold thieves manage to steal from an outdoor cache of some sort that your dwarves cannot access for some reason, possibly fallen [[goblinite]] from or during an ongoing siege. Kobold ambushes are mostly notable for being much more annoying than kobold thieves, and should not be allowed to occur.
It should be noted that the first ambushes from kobolds are full of recruits who have never seen a dwarf in their life, and will almost always scatter and run away instead of fighting.

=== Elves ===
[[Elven]] ambushes may occur (as of version 0.44.03) if your [[civilization]] is at war with a neighboring elven civilization. These ambushes have the same structure as the elven sieges, where their numbers and the nature of an ambush may very well catch an unprepared fortress off-guard. They might also bring exotic beasts as they may do during sieges, as well as animal people that can fight alongside the elves. As soon as an ambush is detected, a group of a dozen elves will appear at the map. Be aware that an ambush does not only have one wave of enemies, but detection of several scores of elves is highly possible. But as with elven sieges, the elves themselves are very poorly equipped and carry only wooden armor and weaponry. [[Clothing]] is also known to be dropped by slain <s>hippies</s> elves.

== Adventure Mode ==

Ambushes also occur from Fast Travel in [[Adventurer mode]]. When traveling, other traveling figures are identified as asterisks, and if hostile, then approaching the region tile they occupy will trigger an ambush. Depending on the savagery of the land, you may also be randomly ambushed by the dominant predator(s) of the biome. Traveling alone at night adds the probability of [[bogeyman]] ambush.

When ambushed, the fast travel map will close and you will appear on the local map with your ambusher(s). If they're in view, they will be identified in a major announcement, but if obscured by terrain, distance, or lighting, then the announcement will inform you "You feel uneasy." As long as your ambushers can detect you or a party member, you will be unable to fast travel, as "You don't feel safe enough to travel."

Typical ambushes come from roving large predators (including giants, giant zombies, night trolls,) and patrols from a hostile settlement nearby (such as from enemy civs or raider camps.) Muggers harassing towns also trigger ambushes; though they don't appear hostile at first, they intend to commit crimes against persons and property, including yours. And angered settlements or raider groups may take revenge by sending assassins who will strike even in the safe confines of a city.

If you're unprepared for the ambush, you can evade it successfully by escaping your pursuer's view, using terrain, speed, and stealth, until you're able to fast travel safely. This is easiest against random predators who can't detect you at the time of ambush. When evading historical figures, fast traveling to another region tile adjacent to it will trigger another ambush, so you must get sufficient distance from them in order to successfully elude them.

== See also ==
* [[Siege]]
* [[Wealth]]
* [[Security design]]

{{Military}}

Ambush

2018-01-02T19:14:16Z

Pontus5: /* Elves */

{{Quality|Exceptional|04:38, 17 May 2015 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

[[File:Goblin ambush.jpg|thumb|right|350px|A [[goblin]] ambush (read: prime [[goblinite]]) can result in dangerous amounts of [[fun]] if not spotted early - as here.]]
An '''ambush''' is a type of attack in [[fortress mode]] where a small force of enemy {{Catlink|humanoids}}, typically [[goblin]]s, attempts a sneak attack on your [[fortress]]. While smaller in scope than a full [[siege]], ambushes are not related to the number of [[dwarf|dwarves]] in your fortress, and so can be triggered by relatively small populations.

Ambushes are not announced immediately, and the attacking units are only revealed when your fortress becomes aware of the attackers, either when they set off a [[cage trap]] or come sufficiently close to a dwarf, [[caravan]] member, or [[pet]] (they ignore wildlife). Ambushes can also be discovered manually, but not spotted, if you happen upon on an invader [[corpse]] and some [[goblinite]] in one of your [[trap]]s. Once an ambush [[squad]] is detected, an ambush will generate a [[Announcement#Major announcement|major announcement]], the wording of which depends on the invader.

Ambushes, just like [[siege]]s, nearly always happen at the end of a season, generally in the last 10-15 days of the season. Ambushes tend to arrive with [[caravan]]s but can happen any time. Note that goblins will usually ambush with more than one squad (2 to 4), each of which will trigger a separate message and also has to be detected separately. If ambushers are caught in cage traps, they will be marked as Caged Prisoner in the unit screen. These prisoners can be dragged around between cages (or tossed over tall towers) without risk of a jailbreak, unlike goblin thieves. If you abandon your fortress while an ambush is active, you will receive the message "Your strength has been broken." Finally, when the leader of an ambush is killed (or captured), but not the other units, they will stand around and "wait" for their leader; this is probably a [[bug]].

== Types of ambushes ==
=== Goblins ===
[[File:RT-Third Ambush 01.png|thumb|left|400px|A goblin ambush imparts some [[fun|!!FUN!!]] new lines in a player's [[announcement]]s screen.]]
{{removed feature}}
[[Goblin]] ambushes are usually announced with the message "An ambush! Curse them!", though this is occasionally modified to "A human has sprung from ambush!" if a captured [[human]] leads the [[squad]] (human [[civilization]]s themselves do not send ambushes, only [[siege]]s). Goblin ambushes are attracted by relatively high amounts of wealth; beyond a certain threshold, the higher the wealth, the more attractive your fortress becomes as a goblin ambush target.

Goblins usually enter the map with two to four squads, each of which must be detected separately. On the sliding scale of [[wealth]] attraction goblin ambushes lie squarely between [[thief|thieves]]/[[snatcher]]s and [[siege]]s, but are infinitely more annoying; snatchers are a mere nuisance and sieges can usually be dealt with, but you might not find an ambush until it's too late to prevent them from entering your fortress and slaughtering your populace (or staying outside of it and killing off your [[wood cutter]]s, or your [[plant gathering|plant gatherers]], or your [[meat industry|livestock]], or your [[fisherdwarf|fisherdwarvers]], or your [[ambusher]]s, or...). Dealing with the threat of a hidden ambush is an important element in [[military design]].

It may be preferable to avoid goblin ambushes as much as possible by holding wealth down early on, and then creating a large number of high-value objects as possible in a short period of time on the way to "siege level" fortress wealth attraction. This reduces your exposure to ambushes, but means you have to deal with sieges off the bat instead.

As of v0.42.04, goblin ambushes no longer happen due to their entity raws having its <code>[[Entity token#AMBUSHER|[AMBUSHER]]]</code> tag removed. Sieges still do occur after your fortress exceeds the population of 80 though.

=== Necromancers ===
[[Necromancer]]s will also occasionally ambush your fortress, if you are in range of their [[Tower (necromancy)|tower]] and they opt out of a full-on [[siege]]. Necromancer ambushes consist of several necromancers, each one being detected individually; an early warning sign for a necromancer ambush is the presence of [[undead]] in non-evil [[biome|biomes]]. These ambushes are announced with "An ambush! Drive them out!". The necromancers themselves are harmless, being regular old unarmed humanoids; however, very bad things will happen if they manage to find their way within sight of any left-over goblin sieges, [[corpse]] or [[refuse]] [[stockpile]]s, or (Armok forbid) last month's [[dragon]] invader. For this reason it is highly recommended that fortresses within sounding range of a tower internalize or [[atom smasher|atom smash]] all of their meat byproducts, and set [[standing orders]] to "gather refuse from outside" and clean up any meaty outdoor bits.

=== Kobolds ===
[[Kobold]] ambushes are triggered by a long enough string of successful kobold thieveries, and are announced with the message "An ambush! Skulking Vermin!". This usually only happens when kobold thieves manage to steal from an outdoor cache of some sort that your dwarves cannot access for some reason, possibly fallen [[goblinite]] from or during an ongoing siege. Kobold ambushes are mostly notable for being much more annoying than kobold thieves, and should not be allowed to occur.
It should be noted that the first ambushes from kobold are full of recruits who have never seen a dwarf in their life, and will almost always scatter and run away instead of fighting.

=== Elves ===
[[Elven]] ambushes may occur (As of version 0.44.03) if your [[civilization]] is at war with a neighbouring elf civilization. These ambushes works as the elven seiges, where their numbers and the nature of an ambush may very well catch an unprepared fortress off-guard. The might also bring exotic beasts as they might do during seiges, as well as animal people can fight alongside elven ambushes. But as with elven seiges, the elves themselves are very poorly equipped and carry only wooden armor and weaponry. [[Clothing]] is also known to be dropped by slain <s>hippies</s> elves.

== Adventure Mode ==

Ambushes also occur from Fast Travel in [[Adventurer_mode]]. When traveling, other traveling figures are identified as asterisks, and if hostile, then approaching the region tile they occupy will trigger an ambush. Depending on the savagery of the land, you may also be randomly ambushed by the dominant predator(s) of the biome. Traveling alone at night adds the probability of [[bogeyman]] ambush.

When ambushed, the fast travel map will close and you will appear on the local map with your ambusher(s). If they're in view, they will be identified in a major announcement, but if obscured by terrain, distance, lighting, then the announcement will inform you "You feel uneasy." As long as your ambushers can detect you or a party member you will be unable to fast travel, as "You don't feel safe enough to travel."

Typical ambushes come from roving large predators (including giants, giant zombies, night trolls,) and patrols from a hostile settlement nearby (such as from enemy civs or raider camps.) Muggers harassing towns also trigger ambushes; though they don't appear hostile at first they intend to commit crimes against persons and property, including yours. And angered settlements or raider groups may take revenge by sending assassins who will strike even in the safe confines of a city.

If you're unprepared for the ambush, you can evade it successfully by escaping your pursuer's view, using terrain, speed, stealth, until you're able to fast travel safely. This is easiest against random predators who can't detect you at the time of ambush. When evading historical figures, fast traveling to another region tile adjacent to it will trigger another ambush, so you must get sufficient distance from them in order to successfully elude them.

== See also ==
* [[Siege]]
* [[Wealth]]
* [[Security design]]

{{Military}}

Ambush

2018-01-02T19:13:21Z

Pontus5: /* Elves */

{{Quality|Exceptional|04:38, 17 May 2015 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

[[File:Goblin ambush.jpg|thumb|right|350px|A [[goblin]] ambush (read: prime [[goblinite]]) can result in dangerous amounts of [[fun]] if not spotted early - as here.]]
An '''ambush''' is a type of attack in [[fortress mode]] where a small force of enemy {{Catlink|humanoids}}, typically [[goblin]]s, attempts a sneak attack on your [[fortress]]. While smaller in scope than a full [[siege]], ambushes are not related to the number of [[dwarf|dwarves]] in your fortress, and so can be triggered by relatively small populations.

Ambushes are not announced immediately, and the attacking units are only revealed when your fortress becomes aware of the attackers, either when they set off a [[cage trap]] or come sufficiently close to a dwarf, [[caravan]] member, or [[pet]] (they ignore wildlife). Ambushes can also be discovered manually, but not spotted, if you happen upon on an invader [[corpse]] and some [[goblinite]] in one of your [[trap]]s. Once an ambush [[squad]] is detected, an ambush will generate a [[Announcement#Major announcement|major announcement]], the wording of which depends on the invader.

Ambushes, just like [[siege]]s, nearly always happen at the end of a season, generally in the last 10-15 days of the season. Ambushes tend to arrive with [[caravan]]s but can happen any time. Note that goblins will usually ambush with more than one squad (2 to 4), each of which will trigger a separate message and also has to be detected separately. If ambushers are caught in cage traps, they will be marked as Caged Prisoner in the unit screen. These prisoners can be dragged around between cages (or tossed over tall towers) without risk of a jailbreak, unlike goblin thieves. If you abandon your fortress while an ambush is active, you will receive the message "Your strength has been broken." Finally, when the leader of an ambush is killed (or captured), but not the other units, they will stand around and "wait" for their leader; this is probably a [[bug]].

== Types of ambushes ==
=== Goblins ===
[[File:RT-Third Ambush 01.png|thumb|left|400px|A goblin ambush imparts some [[fun|!!FUN!!]] new lines in a player's [[announcement]]s screen.]]
{{removed feature}}
[[Goblin]] ambushes are usually announced with the message "An ambush! Curse them!", though this is occasionally modified to "A human has sprung from ambush!" if a captured [[human]] leads the [[squad]] (human [[civilization]]s themselves do not send ambushes, only [[siege]]s). Goblin ambushes are attracted by relatively high amounts of wealth; beyond a certain threshold, the higher the wealth, the more attractive your fortress becomes as a goblin ambush target.

Goblins usually enter the map with two to four squads, each of which must be detected separately. On the sliding scale of [[wealth]] attraction goblin ambushes lie squarely between [[thief|thieves]]/[[snatcher]]s and [[siege]]s, but are infinitely more annoying; snatchers are a mere nuisance and sieges can usually be dealt with, but you might not find an ambush until it's too late to prevent them from entering your fortress and slaughtering your populace (or staying outside of it and killing off your [[wood cutter]]s, or your [[plant gathering|plant gatherers]], or your [[meat industry|livestock]], or your [[fisherdwarf|fisherdwarvers]], or your [[ambusher]]s, or...). Dealing with the threat of a hidden ambush is an important element in [[military design]].

It may be preferable to avoid goblin ambushes as much as possible by holding wealth down early on, and then creating a large number of high-value objects as possible in a short period of time on the way to "siege level" fortress wealth attraction. This reduces your exposure to ambushes, but means you have to deal with sieges off the bat instead.

As of v0.42.04, goblin ambushes no longer happen due to their entity raws having its <code>[[Entity token#AMBUSHER|[AMBUSHER]]]</code> tag removed. Sieges still do occur after your fortress exceeds the population of 80 though.

=== Necromancers ===
[[Necromancer]]s will also occasionally ambush your fortress, if you are in range of their [[Tower (necromancy)|tower]] and they opt out of a full-on [[siege]]. Necromancer ambushes consist of several necromancers, each one being detected individually; an early warning sign for a necromancer ambush is the presence of [[undead]] in non-evil [[biome|biomes]]. These ambushes are announced with "An ambush! Drive them out!". The necromancers themselves are harmless, being regular old unarmed humanoids; however, very bad things will happen if they manage to find their way within sight of any left-over goblin sieges, [[corpse]] or [[refuse]] [[stockpile]]s, or (Armok forbid) last month's [[dragon]] invader. For this reason it is highly recommended that fortresses within sounding range of a tower internalize or [[atom smasher|atom smash]] all of their meat byproducts, and set [[standing orders]] to "gather refuse from outside" and clean up any meaty outdoor bits.

=== Kobolds ===
[[Kobold]] ambushes are triggered by a long enough string of successful kobold thieveries, and are announced with the message "An ambush! Skulking Vermin!". This usually only happens when kobold thieves manage to steal from an outdoor cache of some sort that your dwarves cannot access for some reason, possibly fallen [[goblinite]] from or during an ongoing siege. Kobold ambushes are mostly notable for being much more annoying than kobold thieves, and should not be allowed to occur.
It should be noted that the first ambushes from kobold are full of recruits who have never seen a dwarf in their life, and will almost always scatter and run away instead of fighting.

=== Elves ===
[[Elven]] ambushes may occur (As of version 0.44.03) if your [[civilization]] is at war with a neighbouring elf civilization. These ambushes works as the elven seiges, where their numbers and the nature of an ambush may very well catch an unprepared fortress of guard. The might also bring exotic beasts as they might do during seiges, as well as animal people can fight alongside elven ambushes. But as with elven seiges, the elves themselves are very poorly equipped and carry only wooden armor and weaponry. [[Clothing]] is also known to be dropped by slain <s>hippies</s> elves.

== Adventure Mode ==

Ambushes also occur from Fast Travel in [[Adventurer_mode]]. When traveling, other traveling figures are identified as asterisks, and if hostile, then approaching the region tile they occupy will trigger an ambush. Depending on the savagery of the land, you may also be randomly ambushed by the dominant predator(s) of the biome. Traveling alone at night adds the probability of [[bogeyman]] ambush.

When ambushed, the fast travel map will close and you will appear on the local map with your ambusher(s). If they're in view, they will be identified in a major announcement, but if obscured by terrain, distance, lighting, then the announcement will inform you "You feel uneasy." As long as your ambushers can detect you or a party member you will be unable to fast travel, as "You don't feel safe enough to travel."

Typical ambushes come from roving large predators (including giants, giant zombies, night trolls,) and patrols from a hostile settlement nearby (such as from enemy civs or raider camps.) Muggers harassing towns also trigger ambushes; though they don't appear hostile at first they intend to commit crimes against persons and property, including yours. And angered settlements or raider groups may take revenge by sending assassins who will strike even in the safe confines of a city.

If you're unprepared for the ambush, you can evade it successfully by escaping your pursuer's view, using terrain, speed, stealth, until you're able to fast travel safely. This is easiest against random predators who can't detect you at the time of ambush. When evading historical figures, fast traveling to another region tile adjacent to it will trigger another ambush, so you must get sufficient distance from them in order to successfully elude them.

== See also ==
* [[Siege]]
* [[Wealth]]
* [[Security design]]

{{Military}}

Ambush

2018-01-02T19:10:36Z

Pontus5: /* Types of ambushes */

{{Quality|Exceptional|04:38, 17 May 2015 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

[[File:Goblin ambush.jpg|thumb|right|350px|A [[goblin]] ambush (read: prime [[goblinite]]) can result in dangerous amounts of [[fun]] if not spotted early - as here.]]
An '''ambush''' is a type of attack in [[fortress mode]] where a small force of enemy {{Catlink|humanoids}}, typically [[goblin]]s, attempts a sneak attack on your [[fortress]]. While smaller in scope than a full [[siege]], ambushes are not related to the number of [[dwarf|dwarves]] in your fortress, and so can be triggered by relatively small populations.

Ambushes are not announced immediately, and the attacking units are only revealed when your fortress becomes aware of the attackers, either when they set off a [[cage trap]] or come sufficiently close to a dwarf, [[caravan]] member, or [[pet]] (they ignore wildlife). Ambushes can also be discovered manually, but not spotted, if you happen upon on an invader [[corpse]] and some [[goblinite]] in one of your [[trap]]s. Once an ambush [[squad]] is detected, an ambush will generate a [[Announcement#Major announcement|major announcement]], the wording of which depends on the invader.

Ambushes, just like [[siege]]s, nearly always happen at the end of a season, generally in the last 10-15 days of the season. Ambushes tend to arrive with [[caravan]]s but can happen any time. Note that goblins will usually ambush with more than one squad (2 to 4), each of which will trigger a separate message and also has to be detected separately. If ambushers are caught in cage traps, they will be marked as Caged Prisoner in the unit screen. These prisoners can be dragged around between cages (or tossed over tall towers) without risk of a jailbreak, unlike goblin thieves. If you abandon your fortress while an ambush is active, you will receive the message "Your strength has been broken." Finally, when the leader of an ambush is killed (or captured), but not the other units, they will stand around and "wait" for their leader; this is probably a [[bug]].

== Types of ambushes ==
=== Goblins ===
[[File:RT-Third Ambush 01.png|thumb|left|400px|A goblin ambush imparts some [[fun|!!FUN!!]] new lines in a player's [[announcement]]s screen.]]
{{removed feature}}
[[Goblin]] ambushes are usually announced with the message "An ambush! Curse them!", though this is occasionally modified to "A human has sprung from ambush!" if a captured [[human]] leads the [[squad]] (human [[civilization]]s themselves do not send ambushes, only [[siege]]s). Goblin ambushes are attracted by relatively high amounts of wealth; beyond a certain threshold, the higher the wealth, the more attractive your fortress becomes as a goblin ambush target.

Goblins usually enter the map with two to four squads, each of which must be detected separately. On the sliding scale of [[wealth]] attraction goblin ambushes lie squarely between [[thief|thieves]]/[[snatcher]]s and [[siege]]s, but are infinitely more annoying; snatchers are a mere nuisance and sieges can usually be dealt with, but you might not find an ambush until it's too late to prevent them from entering your fortress and slaughtering your populace (or staying outside of it and killing off your [[wood cutter]]s, or your [[plant gathering|plant gatherers]], or your [[meat industry|livestock]], or your [[fisherdwarf|fisherdwarvers]], or your [[ambusher]]s, or...). Dealing with the threat of a hidden ambush is an important element in [[military design]].

It may be preferable to avoid goblin ambushes as much as possible by holding wealth down early on, and then creating a large number of high-value objects as possible in a short period of time on the way to "siege level" fortress wealth attraction. This reduces your exposure to ambushes, but means you have to deal with sieges off the bat instead.

As of v0.42.04, goblin ambushes no longer happen due to their entity raws having its <code>[[Entity token#AMBUSHER|[AMBUSHER]]]</code> tag removed. Sieges still do occur after your fortress exceeds the population of 80 though.

=== Necromancers ===
[[Necromancer]]s will also occasionally ambush your fortress, if you are in range of their [[Tower (necromancy)|tower]] and they opt out of a full-on [[siege]]. Necromancer ambushes consist of several necromancers, each one being detected individually; an early warning sign for a necromancer ambush is the presence of [[undead]] in non-evil [[biome|biomes]]. These ambushes are announced with "An ambush! Drive them out!". The necromancers themselves are harmless, being regular old unarmed humanoids; however, very bad things will happen if they manage to find their way within sight of any left-over goblin sieges, [[corpse]] or [[refuse]] [[stockpile]]s, or (Armok forbid) last month's [[dragon]] invader. For this reason it is highly recommended that fortresses within sounding range of a tower internalize or [[atom smasher|atom smash]] all of their meat byproducts, and set [[standing orders]] to "gather refuse from outside" and clean up any meaty outdoor bits.

=== Kobolds ===
[[Kobold]] ambushes are triggered by a long enough string of successful kobold thieveries, and are announced with the message "An ambush! Skulking Vermin!". This usually only happens when kobold thieves manage to steal from an outdoor cache of some sort that your dwarves cannot access for some reason, possibly fallen [[goblinite]] from or during an ongoing siege. Kobold ambushes are mostly notable for being much more annoying than kobold thieves, and should not be allowed to occur.
It should be noted that the first ambushes from kobold are full of recruits who have never seen a dwarf in their life, and will almost always scatter and run away instead of fighting.

=== Elves ===
[[Elven]] ambushes may occur (As of version 0.44.03) if your [[civilization]] is at war with a neighbouring elf civilization. These ambushes works as the elven seiges, where their numbers and the nature of an ambush may very well catch an unprepared fortress of guard. The might also bring exotic beasts as they might do during [[seige]]s, as well as animal people can fight alongside elven ambushes. But as with elven seiges, the elves themselves are very poorly equipped and carry only wooden armor and weaponry. [[Clothing]] is also known to be dropped by slain <s>hippies</s> elves.

== Adventure Mode ==

Ambushes also occur from Fast Travel in [[Adventurer_mode]]. When traveling, other traveling figures are identified as asterisks, and if hostile, then approaching the region tile they occupy will trigger an ambush. Depending on the savagery of the land, you may also be randomly ambushed by the dominant predator(s) of the biome. Traveling alone at night adds the probability of [[bogeyman]] ambush.

When ambushed, the fast travel map will close and you will appear on the local map with your ambusher(s). If they're in view, they will be identified in a major announcement, but if obscured by terrain, distance, lighting, then the announcement will inform you "You feel uneasy." As long as your ambushers can detect you or a party member you will be unable to fast travel, as "You don't feel safe enough to travel."

Typical ambushes come from roving large predators (including giants, giant zombies, night trolls,) and patrols from a hostile settlement nearby (such as from enemy civs or raider camps.) Muggers harassing towns also trigger ambushes; though they don't appear hostile at first they intend to commit crimes against persons and property, including yours. And angered settlements or raider groups may take revenge by sending assassins who will strike even in the safe confines of a city.

If you're unprepared for the ambush, you can evade it successfully by escaping your pursuer's view, using terrain, speed, stealth, until you're able to fast travel safely. This is easiest against random predators who can't detect you at the time of ambush. When evading historical figures, fast traveling to another region tile adjacent to it will trigger another ambush, so you must get sufficient distance from them in order to successfully elude them.

== See also ==
* [[Siege]]
* [[Wealth]]
* [[Security design]]

{{Military}}

Ambush

2018-01-02T19:08:08Z

Pontus5: /* Types of ambushes */

{{Quality|Exceptional|04:38, 17 May 2015 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

[[File:Goblin ambush.jpg|thumb|right|350px|A [[goblin]] ambush (read: prime [[goblinite]]) can result in dangerous amounts of [[fun]] if not spotted early - as here.]]
An '''ambush''' is a type of attack in [[fortress mode]] where a small force of enemy {{Catlink|humanoids}}, typically [[goblin]]s, attempts a sneak attack on your [[fortress]]. While smaller in scope than a full [[siege]], ambushes are not related to the number of [[dwarf|dwarves]] in your fortress, and so can be triggered by relatively small populations.

Ambushes are not announced immediately, and the attacking units are only revealed when your fortress becomes aware of the attackers, either when they set off a [[cage trap]] or come sufficiently close to a dwarf, [[caravan]] member, or [[pet]] (they ignore wildlife). Ambushes can also be discovered manually, but not spotted, if you happen upon on an invader [[corpse]] and some [[goblinite]] in one of your [[trap]]s. Once an ambush [[squad]] is detected, an ambush will generate a [[Announcement#Major announcement|major announcement]], the wording of which depends on the invader.

Ambushes, just like [[siege]]s, nearly always happen at the end of a season, generally in the last 10-15 days of the season. Ambushes tend to arrive with [[caravan]]s but can happen any time. Note that goblins will usually ambush with more than one squad (2 to 4), each of which will trigger a separate message and also has to be detected separately. If ambushers are caught in cage traps, they will be marked as Caged Prisoner in the unit screen. These prisoners can be dragged around between cages (or tossed over tall towers) without risk of a jailbreak, unlike goblin thieves. If you abandon your fortress while an ambush is active, you will receive the message "Your strength has been broken." Finally, when the leader of an ambush is killed (or captured), but not the other units, they will stand around and "wait" for their leader; this is probably a [[bug]].

== Types of ambushes ==
=== Goblins ===
[[File:RT-Third Ambush 01.png|thumb|left|400px|A goblin ambush imparts some [[fun|!!FUN!!]] new lines in a player's [[announcement]]s screen.]]
{{removed feature}}
[[Goblin]] ambushes are usually announced with the message "An ambush! Curse them!", though this is occasionally modified to "A human has sprung from ambush!" if a captured [[human]] leads the [[squad]] (human [[civilization]]s themselves do not send ambushes, only [[siege]]s). Goblin ambushes are attracted by relatively high amounts of wealth; beyond a certain threshold, the higher the wealth, the more attractive your fortress becomes as a goblin ambush target.

Goblins usually enter the map with two to four squads, each of which must be detected separately. On the sliding scale of [[wealth]] attraction goblin ambushes lie squarely between [[thief|thieves]]/[[snatcher]]s and [[siege]]s, but are infinitely more annoying; snatchers are a mere nuisance and sieges can usually be dealt with, but you might not find an ambush until it's too late to prevent them from entering your fortress and slaughtering your populace (or staying outside of it and killing off your [[wood cutter]]s, or your [[plant gathering|plant gatherers]], or your [[meat industry|livestock]], or your [[fisherdwarf|fisherdwarvers]], or your [[ambusher]]s, or...). Dealing with the threat of a hidden ambush is an important element in [[military design]].

It may be preferable to avoid goblin ambushes as much as possible by holding wealth down early on, and then creating a large number of high-value objects as possible in a short period of time on the way to "siege level" fortress wealth attraction. This reduces your exposure to ambushes, but means you have to deal with sieges off the bat instead.

As of v0.42.04, goblin ambushes no longer happen due to their entity raws having its <code>[[Entity token#AMBUSHER|[AMBUSHER]]]</code> tag removed. Sieges still do occur after your fortress exceeds the population of 80 though.

=== Necromancers ===
[[Necromancer]]s will also occasionally ambush your fortress, if you are in range of their [[Tower (necromancy)|tower]] and they opt out of a full-on [[siege]]. Necromancer ambushes consist of several necromancers, each one being detected individually; an early warning sign for a necromancer ambush is the presence of [[undead]] in non-evil [[biome|biomes]]. These ambushes are announced with "An ambush! Drive them out!". The necromancers themselves are harmless, being regular old unarmed humanoids; however, very bad things will happen if they manage to find their way within sight of any left-over goblin sieges, [[corpse]] or [[refuse]] [[stockpile]]s, or (Armok forbid) last month's [[dragon]] invader. For this reason it is highly recommended that fortresses within sounding range of a tower internalize or [[atom smasher|atom smash]] all of their meat byproducts, and set [[standing orders]] to "gather refuse from outside" and clean up any meaty outdoor bits.

=== Kobolds ===
[[Kobold]] ambushes are triggered by a long enough string of successful kobold thieveries, and are announced with the message "An ambush! Skulking Vermin!". This usually only happens when kobold thieves manage to steal from an outdoor cache of some sort that your dwarves cannot access for some reason, possibly fallen [[goblinite]] from or during an ongoing siege. Kobold ambushes are mostly notable for being much more annoying than kobold thieves, and should not be allowed to occur.
It should be noted that the first ambushes from kobold are full of recruits who have never seen a dwarf in their life, and will almost always scatter and run away instead of fighting.

=== Elves ===
[[Elven]] ambushes may occur if your [[civilization]] is at war with a neighbouring elf civilization. These ambushes works as the elven seiges, where their numbers and the nature of an ambush may very well catch an unprepared fortress of guard. The might also bring exotic beasts as they might do during [[seige]]s, as well as animal people can fight alongside elven ambushes. But as with elven seiges, the elves themselves are very poorly equipped and carry only wooden armor and weaponry. [[Clothing]] is also known to be dropped by slain <s>hippies</s> elves.

== Adventure Mode ==

Ambushes also occur from Fast Travel in [[Adventurer_mode]]. When traveling, other traveling figures are identified as asterisks, and if hostile, then approaching the region tile they occupy will trigger an ambush. Depending on the savagery of the land, you may also be randomly ambushed by the dominant predator(s) of the biome. Traveling alone at night adds the probability of [[bogeyman]] ambush.

When ambushed, the fast travel map will close and you will appear on the local map with your ambusher(s). If they're in view, they will be identified in a major announcement, but if obscured by terrain, distance, lighting, then the announcement will inform you "You feel uneasy." As long as your ambushers can detect you or a party member you will be unable to fast travel, as "You don't feel safe enough to travel."

Typical ambushes come from roving large predators (including giants, giant zombies, night trolls,) and patrols from a hostile settlement nearby (such as from enemy civs or raider camps.) Muggers harassing towns also trigger ambushes; though they don't appear hostile at first they intend to commit crimes against persons and property, including yours. And angered settlements or raider groups may take revenge by sending assassins who will strike even in the safe confines of a city.

If you're unprepared for the ambush, you can evade it successfully by escaping your pursuer's view, using terrain, speed, stealth, until you're able to fast travel safely. This is easiest against random predators who can't detect you at the time of ambush. When evading historical figures, fast traveling to another region tile adjacent to it will trigger another ambush, so you must get sufficient distance from them in order to successfully elude them.

== See also ==
* [[Siege]]
* [[Wealth]]
* [[Security design]]

{{Military}}