Will a siege end if I don't fight?

[mjbess]

I am in my fort with the bridge up, but they will not attack and just sit there. Have been there for almost 3 months. Will they eventually go away?

[McFuzz]

I had a siege where I did this and they left eventually, but I can't say for sure if they do consistently or if they're actually supposed to lol.

[kheftel]

Eventually. Maybe. Probably.

[Sneep Snorp]

Sieges can eventually break, but this can take a very very long time depending on who or whats sieging you, remember goblins dont need to eat or drink, undead really dont need much of anything but eventually theyll possibly leave. This can also take YEARS in some cases if theyre that persistent and depending on where you settle it could be better or worse, a super calm forest might hold the location longer cuz the attackers wont be harassed as often by local wildlife then say an evil savage tundra where monstrosities rip them apart daily and then corpses get back up and also attack, while it rains blood.

[Other]

Sieges will eventually leave on their own. In the previous version it was either 1 season (3 months) or 1 year (12 months); I'm not sure how it decided between those, and it may even have been random.

Even turtled up, you can do a lot of work on a defensive trap setup without exposing your dwarves to the enemy by digging from the inside out, and leaving the very last tile before the outside until either everything is set up (traps built & loaded, bridges built, linked & raised) or the siege leaves. Even if it takes you longer than the current siege lasts, you will probably want such a setup eventually so you can break sieges in less time, or harvest goblinite, so the effort isn't wasted.

A good setup will have a bridge at or near the entrance, so if you have a gap when you are not under siege, you can make sure that is set up and closed, and dig out the last entrance tiles during the gap, and then whenever you finish the inside, you are ready to let the goblins in for their !FUN!.

[Sneep Snorp]

Originally posted by Other:

Sieges will eventually leave on their own. In the previous version it was either 1 season (3 months) or 1 year (12 months); I'm not sure how it decided between those, and it may even have been random.

Even turtled up, you can do a lot of work on a defensive trap setup without exposing your dwarves to the enemy by digging from the inside out, and leaving the very last tile before the outside until either everything is set up (traps built & loaded, bridges built, linked & raised) or the siege leaves. Even if it takes you longer than the current siege lasts, you will probably want such a setup eventually so you can break sieges in less time, or harvest goblinite, so the effort isn't wasted.

A good setup will have a bridge at or near the entrance, so if you have a gap when you are not under siege, you can make sure that is set up and closed, and dig out the last entrance tiles during the gap, and then whenever you finish the inside, you are ready to let the goblins in for their !FUN!.

It can take MUCH longer than a year

[Gedsaro]

Yeah I had one Necromancer force(small, like 4 experiments, and a couple undead kobolds)
Stay like, a month, milled around near the edge of the map abit, then rushed the fort entrance, killed a few of my pack animals hanging out out front, then proceeded to continue running off the map without taking any loses.

Then next time around a year or so later, a similar group came back,
I locked the doors and left them alone, and they hung around the entrance of the fort for... around a year? By this time i figured they wouldn't leave, so I set up a bunch of traps in the inner hall, then unlocked the doors and lured a couple of them in, a few got caught in cages, another couple killed by rockfall traps, then rushed the remainder with a small militia, about 2 then ran off.

So yeah, could be there a month, could stay until you deal with them(or they with you)