Trying to build defenses next to a river...does the river offer any protection?

[imwithdummy]

I'm pretty much out in the wide open here, with a river directly to my left and nothing above, below or to my right.
Not sure how to link a picture, so pardon whatever mess this ends up being:
http://s179.photobucket.com/user/Jehosaphet/media/Valium%203_zpslqc1dapf.jpg.html

But if this was your colony, how would you go about trying to setup a defense? Build walls around it, right? Probably?
The river though...I'm too close to it for there to be room for any kind of killbox...could I use the river itself somehow? Maybe take out the bridges?

What about mud moats, does anyone have any experience with them? Can say how much they might help?

My only other colony was in a mountain, which was pretty easy to defend...this is a mess lol

[Proteus]

Well, the river slows pawns down ... and usually even the enemies will prefer to use bridges to cross it, if you have built any ... something you can use to your advantage ;)

[Swagmaster Love 🇪🇺]

It slows them down and provides an area free of any hinderance for gunfire.
Block higher up paths and enjoy shooting some sitting ducks from the safe position of a firing line?

[𝔜𝔲𝔢]

Build a bridge, put lots of traps on it and enjoy the enemies killing themselves trying to cross it.

[imwithdummy]

Ah okay, was torn between firing on a single-fire line of raiders or picking them off while slowly wading across the river. A trap-filled bridge cinches it...good thinking!

[grapplehoeker]

A large or huge river can make an extremely effective part of your defensive layout. A firing line of two or three uranium slug turrets (UST's) on one side will have the range to cover the whole of the opposite bank. You can protect these turrets with smaller turrets and traps.
The river isn't a barrier as such, but it does force the pathing of hostiles, who will seek the easiest route across the river such as shallows and of course a bridge. So, take these locations into account. Relocate any bridges to steer hostiles along the opposite bank and through your area of turret cover.
When under fire, the hostiles will usually seek cover and attempt to return fire on the turrets, but that will fail most of the time due to the deadly accuracy and hitting power of the UST's ;)
Bear in mind that a set up like this will only be possible in mid to late game, but it is certainly effective. For this reason I now almost always select a starter tile with a large/huge river and road.

[imwithdummy]

Nice Grapple...very helpful! When you say "relocate any bridges to steer hostiles along the opposite bank"...you're saying just to put the bridge where they're drawn into the line of fire, right? Not anything about winding the bridge in a way that'd have the raiders traversing the river bank for a bit before actually heading across, are you?
I ask because I can't think if that's even possible or not...have a bridge that runs perpendicular to the river before crossing it...is that what you're saying?

Oh, I think you're just saying that bridge placement is key to steering raiders through an area you have covered by turrets...yeah?

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by imwithdummy:

Nice Grapple...very helpful! When you say "relocate any bridges to steer hostiles along the opposite bank"...you're saying just to put the bridge where they're drawn into the line of fire, right? Not anything about winding the bridge in a way that'd have the raiders traversing the river bank for a bit before actually heading across, are you?
I ask because I can't think if that's even possible or not...have a bridge that runs perpendicular to the river before crossing it...is that what you're saying?

Oh, I think you're just saying that bridge placement is key to steering raiders through an area you have covered by turrets...yeah?

Yup, it makes no sense to have a bridge which allows them to cross the river before your firing zone aimed at the opposite bank. So demolish any of those and rebuild a bridge that will force them to travel along the opposite bank to reach your chosen crossing location.
I have stopped many raids literally in their tracks (pun intended) by hostile factions and mechanoids purely using this river defence method.
Over time, you will observe the spawn source and direction that most hostiles will originate from. Use that experience to plan your river setup.

[imwithdummy]

Hot dog, okay. Good to realize its actually a positive in terms of how I set up close to the river like that. And so far, they're mostly coming from the other side, from down south.

I got raided about an hour ago and it worked pretty well. There were six of them starting across the bridge, I was pegging them from shore when a few branched off, deciding F-that, we'll cross further down, and it took them long enough that I was able to finish off the bridge-crossers, re-position my pawns and then take them out too. Didn't suffer a single scratch....it was pretty surprising, really!

Good advice, I'm liking this river =]
Thank you!