Dwarf Fortress’ Siege Update is out now, renewing Bay 12 Games’ quest to create a simulation more complex than life itself

Dwarf Fortress’ Siege Update has finally arrived, representing the first major evolution of Bay 12 Games’ inimitable management sim since its triumphant arrival on Steam. Up until February this year, the focus of brothers Tarn and Zach Adams was on catching up with the ASCII version features-wise, culminating with the launch of Adventure Mode. Now that’s done, the duo are wholly focussed on doing what they do best—embellishing their already preposterously detailed simulation to make it more involved than life itself.

The Siege Update represents the first step into the Steam version’s new frontier, designed to make invader attacks on your fortress more dynamic and strategically nuanced. Prior to the update, goblin hordes could only exploit existing gaps in your defences, making it relatively easy to funnel enemy incursions into deathtrap-filled gauntlets. From now on, though, invaders will effectively lay siege to your Fortress, actively seeking to destroy your defences using more sophisticated tactics.

“Protecting your Fortress will be more challenging than ever before,” says Tarn Adams in the Siege Update’s launch trailer. Goblin hordes now bring an array of siege equipment to batter down your defences, like battering rams and trolls that carry giant pickaxes for mining and blocks for building.

These armies are also better organised and more thoughtful in their approach. “Invading squads are organised into several roles. They can charge in, hang back, ambush, and they can path around areas that have become too dangerous,” Adams explains. Most dangerous of all are the goblin siege engineers, which can build floors, stairs, bridges, and even mine underground to facilitate assaults from below.

Fortunately, Bay 12 doesn’t leave you defenceless against these cunning gobbos. You can outfit your fortress with new defensive tools like a rapid-fire bolt thrower, alongside more powerful versions of the existing catapult and ballista. Adams also points out that older tactics like building traps and using water and magma to drown/incinerate enemies are “still effective”, although invaders can now liberate trapped allies from their cages.

The Siege Update has breached Dwarf Fortress’ walls and is running amok inside the keep now. Bay12 notes that old saves will still function with the update, outside of a couple of features like the great picks carried by trolls, and certain mounts introduced by the update. And if you don’t like the sound of intelligent invaders ruining your lovely fortress, you can turn some or all the new enemy behaviours off.