If you want to make sure that a certain civilization will be capable of laying siege to you, then look at the 'neighbors' view of the embark site finder when selecting your fortress site. You will never get sieges if you embark on an island, or in a valley which is completely surrounded by mountains. Armies need to physically move to the location of your fortress they are normally allowed a 30-tile radius of interaction (towers have 10 tiles), beyond which sieges are impossible. Consider this when deciding how you set up your trade depot and how heavily reliant your economy is on imported goods.Ī civilization will be unable to lay siege if it can't reach your fortress site.

Even if they do arrive before the siege, the attackers may kill them or chase them off if they can reach them. They will arrive, though, if a siege is not broken quickly enough - it is possible to miss out entirely on a civilization's caravan for the year this way. Enemy civilizations will begin to send sieges against your fortress once its population reaches 80 members, with the exception of the undead, who may attack at any time.Ĭaravans will not arrive at a besieged fortress. It is possible to be sieged by all civilized races, with the exception of kobolds (who never go beyond ambushes) and subterranean animal people (who just don't attack at all). A siege's objective is to exterminate every dwarf in your fortress, or die trying. They are announced with a full-screen message that differs depending on the attacking race, and the main screen showing the SIEGE tag at the top for the duration of the siege. Sieges are drawn from moving units advancing towards the fortress, whether from an army, a bandit group, or a necromancer's tower.

Sieges are large-scale assaults on your fortress by other civilizations, and a step beyond ambushes. For catapults and ballistae, see Siege engine.

Dwarf fortress embark on goblin tower