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v0.34:Archery tower
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
The archery tower is a quite common and quite useful piece of defense design. It is basically a pillbox in the form of a tower, useful for spotting ambushes before they get close enough to do serious damage and for allowing your marksdwarves to fire on enemy goblins "in the field" without exposing themselves. The premise is simple: dig out an internal walkway to the surface and wall it off so that enemies cannot use it to enter your base. Curtain wall it with fortifications and you have a ready piece of defense engineering; to keep flyers out, roof the structure (or put a bridge over it if you want to be able to selectively allow them in for whatever reason).
This design can be further elaborated upon by expanding it, adding further floors, room, and so on. It is possible to build a whole barracks and above-ground military complex, or go even more extreme and turn your fortress into one enormous tower. For more ideas on how to put these together into a functional defensive grid, see the defense guide.
Side Below Ground Archer Roof
view: ground: Level: Level: Level:
╔═╗ ╔═══╗ ╬╬╬╬╬ ·····
___ ║<║ ║X..║ ╬>++╬ ·+++·
╬>__╬ ║.║ ║...║ ╬+++╬ ·+++·
___║X__║___ ║.║ ║...║ ╬+++╬ ·+++·
<...... ║.║ ╚═══╝ ╬╬╬╬╬ ·····
(Fortress->)