Shells?

[vendox]

I keep losing games to sieges.  I am able to research and build mortars in time, but then have no shells to fire them.  Frontal charges against the attackers always results in massive losses and trying to wait them out, again results in utter failure.  I always feel like I'm doing great, then a siege comes.  Any advice?   

[jack020]

RimWorldAlpha9eWin\RimWorld727Win\Mods\Core\Defs\FactionDefs

open Factions.xml with notepad by clicking on it with the right mouse button > Open with > Notepad

when it opened search for <canSiege>true</canSiege> and set all of em to false.

[Barley]

Well, there's the usual "hide your colony under a mountain" method. Copious use of Sniper Rifles to pick off attackers can also work. Waiting until the mortar crew gets sleepy then attacking the mortars as they sleep can work as well. Countermorter fire is an option, you can call in aid from other factions, or you can use shields and snipers to provoke the enemy into a full frontal assault.

[NoImageAvailable]

You can craft shells at the machining table.

[Silvador]

You can craft shells at the machining table.

I was wondering which table I'd find those at.

For OP, you can usually also find a nice supply of shells being sold by traders that go by, and they're typically a reasonable price, too.

[Gonorejus]

Wait till siegers just pass out due to exhaustion, equip your colonists with automatic weapons and have at least one guy carrying molotov coctails. Creep up on them with your colonists, only engage the ones that are not sleeping (try NOT to attack sleeping siegers). When you neutralise the ones that are awake, set their mortars on fire with molotovs and retreat to your base. Won't work if it's raining, though.

BTW you can steal shells from siegers when they're sleeping, just haul the shells from them and they will get a resuply of 10 shells almost instantly. For example you can steal 90+ shells with 10 colonists.

[Teovald]

In early games, one or two snipers are enough to disrupt a siege. 
Use the terrain to your advantage and either snipe closest enemies or if you can destroy the mortars. 
Soon the raiders will give up on the siege and try to assault your colony. From here on, you only have a weakened raid to face. 
For later sieges, I employ variants of this strategy, but I need way more striking power in order to disrupt the siege and enemies snipers become a real problem (especially since even enemies with very low stats can still often score headshots against my snipers).

[lusername]

BTW you can steal shells from siegers when they're sleeping, just haul the shells from them and they will get a resuply of 10 shells almost instantly. For example you can steal 90+ shells with 10 colonists.

Only 90? Each colonist can carry 25 shells. You could theoretically steal 250, with about 200 being par for the course for a successful raid. Haul them a short distance, then drop them. When the resupply comes, grab both stacks. Carry them a safe distance, drop them. Rinse, repeat. In fact, establish a temporary stock zone just to drop the stolen ones, and when you have a full cargo, dezone and abscond with the entire pile.

Another sneaky thing to do, instead of merely setting fire to their mortars, use their steel to construct your own turret in their base, right NEXT to their mortar, close to as many of them as possible. Then RUN! The turret will quickly come to life and open fire on them. Rotate target to wake as many of them as possible with your shots. When they destroy the turret...

[vendox]

Thanks for all the replies guys!  I swear I looked at the machining table but must have overlooked it.  I'll also check out the traders.  Thanks again!

[electrichobo]

I always dig into mountains because of sieges. And i don't like it, it's easier and more fun to build outside. Probably somebody has already suggested large-scale shields, but since personal shields are already in the game, why couldn't you build shield generators for your critical buildings and activate them during sieges? At a massive energy cost, of course.

Though it would only solve the getting ridiculously destroyed -part of the problem. Attacking siege crews is still usually suicidal.

[lusername]

I always dig into mountains because of sieges. And i don't like it, it's easier and more fun to build outside.

Wait, how is it easier? If you're building outside, you have serious problems: First, it costs materials to build things outside. Building into a mountain requires merely drilling holes and not collapsing the mountain on your head. In order to GET those materials, you have to...drill into a mountain again...only now, you have to cut up all the rock chunks you get, and assemble those into a box, instead of simply cutting your box out of the mountain. On top of that, you're not inside of a mountain, so you're completely exposed and attacked from all sides. It's infeasibly expensive to build all those turrets needed to defend the entire outside, and on top of that, building ANY number of turrets requires a crapton of steel...which means you need to cut up another mountain to get enough. Everything always comes back to mountains, and if you're going to cut up a mountain looking for steel anyway, you may as well be living in the holes you're drilling.

[electrichobo]

Wait, how is it easier?

Probably because i build obsessively squared colonies where everything is in nice order and just about perfectly symmetrical. There's probably a medical term or a condition for it, but Rimworld is the only place where i do it.  Anyway this is much easier to accomplish on a vast plain outdoors, since mountains tend to have stuff inside them you can't see until you dig in, like crypto chambers, unroofed regions etc. They ruin a carefully designed layout.

In short, it's just me.

Of course fire hazards, raids and sieges are much more worrisome for a colony built out of wood on an open field, but then i never build killboxes and only 1-3 turrets regardless of the colony size anyway.

[lusername]

Probably because i build obsessively squared colonies where everything is in nice order and just about perfectly symmetrical.

Yeah, I have this too, which is why my spaceship ends up with an extra engine. For me, however, it does not extend to the need to do this with buildings.

Anyway this is much easier to accomplish on a vast plain outdoors, since mountains tend to have stuff inside them you can't see until you dig in, like crypto chambers, unroofed regions etc. They ruin a carefully designed layout.

You know what else ruins a carefully designed layout, though? Being on FIRE.

[electrichobo]

You know what else ruins a carefully designed layout, though? Being on FIRE.

Every colony has a fate. 

[Gaesatae]

I build in the open, and sieges have become easier since the incediary mortars upgrade. Throw an incendiary shell inside the enemy camp and they will be busy and clumped puting out the fire. A couple of normal shells later there is a good chance that you will kill many enemies in one hit. Also, its easier to set their shells on fire.