v0.31 Talk:Giant

My visit by a giantess

My fortress recently got visited by a female giant and I would like to write about the experience hoping that it will help to write a good article about this topic and maybe also give a bit insight into the combat system.

It was the 4th year of my fortress. Due to various hijinks my fortress was completely sealed off when she arrived. I said to myself "Well, she is blinking and named and stuff, better I do not dig out too eagerly". So the giantess sat around outside twiddling her thumbs.

Just a few minutes later an immigration wave arrived. Time to construct a few more coffins, I thought. The giantess immediately rushed towards them slaughtering a few pets without problems. Finally she got the first dwarf, a dyer without any combat skills.

I decided that the immigrants should at least die fighting like real dwarfs. So I drafted them in the military creating two squads of 5 and 6 from them. None of the immigrants was armed as far as I saw.

In the meantime she quite took her time with the dyer. A peek at the combat log showed that she was just strangling the dyer's throat in every one of her turns without doing much damage. It also seemed like killing the pets was quite tiring for her because she frequently "fell to the ground from over-exhaustion" during the fight.

When my zerg rush arrived she didn't really stood a chance. They started pummeling her "bruising the muscles" of all kinds of body parts and occasionally also bruising her guts, lungs, stomach and sometimes other organs. She became exhausted, started vomiting frequently and passed out from time to time. After which seemed like a few hundred punches she died. It didn't seem like she was fighting back. The dyer she attacked first also died from bleeding, though.

Giant attack

I too was recently attacked by a Giant. I was immediately worried my poorly-trained band of 10 randomly-equipped dwarves would be slaughtered, but it was not the case. The giant came completely naked, and as soon as he met the first dwarf in combat he was hacked repeatedly in the back and stomach by his iron battle axe. The axedwarf was able to deflect all the blows with his leather armor and skills, and once the other dwarves arrived the giant was handily eviscerated. From the knees up, of course.

Based on our experiences, I'd say that Giants aren't much cause for worry, so long as you have a numerical advantage. Some sharp stuff certainly helps.

Let us watch out for a real challenge, a giant wearing shin guards.--Carlthuringer 18:52, 5 November 2010 (UTC)