40d:Fortification

Fortifications are arrow slits used in the defense of your fortress. They are most commonly used along the outside walls of your fortress, so that marksdwarves and siege engines can fire at enemies from within the mountain. They can be carved from cave walls or built like any other construction.

Carving

Damaged rock cannot be used for fortifications.

A fortified wall can only be one tile wide. What this means is that you need to hollow out a room directly behind the wall you want to fortify. It is smartest to set this room up as a barracks, or to put an archery target in there. That way, off-duty soldiers will be milling about at all times, and they will be ready to fire upon anyone who gets too close to the fortress.

Once you have chosen the wall you want to carve, smooth the stone along its length using d -> s. After it has been smoothed, re-designate the same wall for fortifications using d -> a. Stone smoothing and fortification require a dwarf with the Engraver labor.

Built walls do not require smoothing before carving fortifications, regardless if they are smooth block walls (built from stone blocks) or rough block walls (build from raw stone).

After completion, marksdwarves, ballistas, and even catapults will be able to fire through the fortifications. However, enemy ranged attackers can attack you from either side of the fortification, no matter which side was fortified. Units that attack without being adjacent to the fortification must make a skill check, or else the projectile will be blocked^[Verify].

Construction

Fortifications can also be constructed from blocks, wood or stone using b -> C -> F. They must be built tile by tile as there is no way to build more than one at a time. Construction of wooden fortifications require the Carpentry skill, while fortifications made of block or stone require the Masonry skill.

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