The human merchants who arrived at the fortress this year narrowly missed an elven ambush. And what an ambush it was. First, a group of war grizzlies emerged from the forest. One of the beasts gave Commander Sphalerite quite a fight! The bear's ferocious offense kept the commander off-balance far longer than any previous opponent, despite the inevitable end.
While the last of the grizzlies were struck down, the rest of the elven forces revealed themselves. No longer an ambush, it was a full-scale siege! With spear-wielding moose and camel riders, war leopards and lions, over a hundred enemies entered the fray! The battle was intense, but the dwarves remembered their training and stood their ground. Despite numerical superiority, the odds were still solidly in the dwarves' favor.
(Legends mode doesn't track mounts apparently, since the moose and camels aren't listed. The true enemy count was probably over 150. Also, the elves arrived in Late Spring, but waited out of sight until the Summer. Dastardly!)
Edem II's combat performance has remained an enigma. The weapon prowess, shield technique, and dodging ability are all there, as he proved again during this elven assault, and yet he always shies away from the killing blow. Still, he's able to engage multiple opponents and keep them occupied, so thus far, his particular quirk has mostly raised eyebrows. Stronger objections have also been stymied due to his older sister Goden II, wielder of the legendary axe known as Drencheddragons. To slander Edem II is to slander the entire Claspletter family, and among the dwarves of Relicshield, Goden II holds the singular distinction of slaying a forgotten beast.
In the meantime, the most pressing problem for Relicshield is what to do with all of the beast carcasses left after the battle. The fortress has had a food surplus for decades, so collection isn't a necessity, though the Mountainhome might appreciate a gift of exotic edibles if they can be preserved in time.
Is Edem II's combat performance the seed for your discovery (I think you posted about it) of the "growth bug" ? Seems likely at this stage.
ReplyDeleteI see the excellent links youve inserted support this notion.
ReplyDeleteYup! People were very skeptical at first (I don't blame them) until I shared my save file so people could see his combat logs for themselves compared to his squadmates. One player was convinced something was very, very wrong when he saw Edem II hitting a fallen elf in the head for pages of combat.
ReplyDeleteThe last 3 fortresses ive run have all benefitted from utilising a df hack version that fixes this problem. Since I prefer fortress born dwarves over migrants the work youve done there is pretty dam critical.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much good sir!
You're welcome! It was quite a team effort. I never would've guessed that the problem was so much bigger than just Edem II's fighting ability. Once someone created a script to check actual body size in-game, there were some hilarious results, like a mother who was smaller than her baby and grizzly bears the size of goblins.
ReplyDeleteI did read through the thread, the community for this game is awesome.
ReplyDelete