40d:Fortification

Fortifications are like arrow slits, and used in the defense of your fortress. They are most commonly used along the outside wall of your fortress, so that marksdwarves and siege engines can fire at enemies from within the mountain. However, some players also create fortifications inside the fortress, facing the chasm or the river where monsters sometimes leap out of ambush.

Damaged rock cannot be used for fortifications, meaning that the westernmost tiles of mountain rock may need to be mined away to expose the solid rock behind it.

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, designate it for stone detailing ([d]-[s]) along its length. After it has been smoothed (do not double-detail it, or you risk tantrums), then re-designate the same wall for fortifications ([d]-[a]). From this point forward, marksdwarves, ballistas, and even catapults will be able to fire through the fortifications (don't ask me to explain the physics of the catapults!). However, enemy ranged attackers can attack you from either side of the fortification, no matter which side was fortified.

A couple of final observations:

• A fortified tile cannot contain gems or ore, meaning that some chasm fortifications will be incomplete if they intersect a metal vein.
• If you have no fortifications at all, the Captain of the Guard might have an unhappy thought about the security of the fortress.

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