Are walls safe against enemies?

[Lycan]

So I've build a fortress into a mountain but I have several buildings like my trade depo and animal pens outside surrounded by double-length shale walls, are these structures safe? Or can powerful enemies smash these walls? Or will they simply go for the doors to my fort rather than attack the walls?

[Framehacker]

yes

[Lycan]

Originally posted by Framehacker:

yes

so they can't be destroyed then? Ok that's good, hopefully my barn animals will be safe then if I wall them off.

[MeaninglessGamerTag]

Walls are fine. Doors and such can be broken by building destroyer enemies unless they're artefact doors, which are indestructible, so if you get lucky enough to have a dwarf make one, keep it for special uses where you want an indestructible door, because you can't make them normally.

The real issue with walled areas outside is flying creatures and climbing enemies/creatures (most things tbh). They'll either just fly over them or climb over them.

You need to roof it over by building floors over the whole area on the next level above to be safe from flying creatures.

For climbing enemies, they can't climb on the underside of something, so your second (or higher) level should overhang by one tile to stop them from climbing past the top.

It's standard practice to put fortifications around the outer edge of the top floor so that your marksdwarves can shoot from there without the enemy being able to reach them.

Just remember, the top level needs a roof (floors covering the floor above the top).

For the gates to the fortress, it's standard to use a drawbridge (set to RAISE in the correct direction) connected to a lever instead of a door. Building destroyers can't break those down, whereas they'll go straight through non-artefact doors. Just raise the drawbridge when a siege comes and you'll be safe.

Obviously, make sure to get everyone inside the fortress before you close it up against the enemy.

[Lycan]

Originally posted by MeaninglessGamerTag:

Walls are fine. Doors and such can be broken by building destroyer enemies unless they're artefact doors, which are indestructible, so if you get lucky enough to have a dwarf make one, keep it for special uses where you want an indestructible door, because you can't make them normally.

The real issue with walled areas outside is flying creatures and climbing enemies/creatures (most things tbh). They'll either just fly over them or climb over them.

You need to roof it over by building floors over the whole area on the next level above to be safe from flying creatures.

For climbing enemies, they can't climb on the underside of something, so your second (or higher) level should overhang by one tile to stop them from climbing past the top.

It's standard practice to put fortifications around the outer edge of the top floor so that your marksdwarves can shoot from there without the enemy being able to reach them.

Just remember, the top level needs a roof (floors covering the floor above the top).

For the gates to the fortress, it's standard to use a drawbridge (set to RAISE in the right direction) connected to a lever instead of a door. Building destroyers can't break those down, whereas they'll go straight through non-artefact doors. Just raise the drawbridge when a siege comes and you'll be safe.

Obviously, make sure to get everyone inside the fortress before you close it up against the enemy.

Thank you! Very clear explanation.

[MeaninglessGamerTag]

You're welcome.

[GPMedium]

Originally posted by MeaninglessGamerTag:

Walls are fine. Doors and such can be broken by building destroyer enemies unless they're artefact doors, which are indestructible, so if you get lucky enough to have a dwarf make one, keep it for special uses where you want an indestructible door, because you can't make them normally.

The real issue with walled areas outside is flying creatures and climbing enemies/creatures (most things tbh). They'll either just fly over them or climb over them.

You need to roof it over by building floors over the whole area on the next level above to be safe from flying creatures.

For climbing enemies, they can't climb on the underside of something, so your second (or higher) level should overhang by one tile to stop them from climbing past the top.

It's standard practice to put fortifications around the outer edge of the top floor so that your marksdwarves can shoot from there without the enemy being able to reach them.

Just remember, the top level needs a roof (floors covering the floor above the top).

For the gates to the fortress, it's standard to use a drawbridge (set to RAISE in the correct direction) connected to a lever instead of a door. Building destroyers can't break those down, whereas they'll go straight through non-artefact doors. Just raise the drawbridge when a siege comes and you'll be safe.

Obviously, make sure to get everyone inside the fortress before you close it up against the enemy.

I just want to add, do not jut out a wall and then carve fortifications, I just learned the hard way that if you carve fortifications it seems to allow enemies to then scale them if they are one title away from the wall below them. I would guess the justification is there are fortifications carved into the floor as well.

I lost a fort to this.

[Darzan]

You might want try to build fortification normally at edge of last floor but above that next level build roof and floor overhang (+1 tower diameter each side ) which should stop climbers from advancing. If you want to shoot flying creatures, create minitower on top of tower, which lets you to shoot up.

[harlequin_corps]

Creatures can jump, sometimes upwards of 3 z levels. Generally to stop the people jumping you need maybe 5 Z levels height, and then have 1 block out jutting as a gallery over the wall. Fortifications have floors built into them, but they are climbable, same with smooth walls depending on the climbing skill of the creature. Most things are hindered in climbing by smoothed walls but with high enough climbing skill even that doesn't stop them. What you most likely had was a jumping creature that grabbed onto the fortification and then climbed up and over.

[76561188078797539]

Originally posted by harlequin_corps:

Creatures can jump, sometimes upwards of 3 z levels.

Any idea what's the same-z-level width they can cross?

I've never had issues with just two "open air" tiles distance (and generally go for three), but don't mind learning fail-proofing against skilled jumpers.

[Grimbot]

Weirdly, an occasional Ant Man soldier gets into my otherwise sealed fort. Maybe any men can dig through walls occasionally? It's always a loner. Not sure if that's an Ant Man feature or some sort of glitch.

But generally walls are 100% safe.