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[Altruist]

I'm sort of a new player, but I've been reading the wikis intensively and searching the boards for answers.  I've finally come across a problem I cannot solve on my own.

I'm getting zombie sieges in my first winter.  The first time this happened, I fought, then had to abandon the fort.  This time, I hard-restarted (and backed up) because I really liked the embark site and the way the first few months had gone.... up until I got 2 necromancers and 26 zombie elves, and I only had 14 dwarves (and 7 children), and a few untrained dogs.

I accidentally erased the anvil at the embark prepare page, so I have to hold out with wood, stone and bone (but I have tons of wood and stone).  I have hematite and lignite, though, when it comes.  I forget if I had flux, and what the evilness or savageness was, but I think wilderness.  There's a bit of river but it's off on the far corner. I have my trade depot just inside the hillside, with a 3x14 hallway to it, and then a 1x10 hallway back to the rest of my fort.  There's a couple of rooms coming off the place where the 3x hallway narrows into a 1x hallway (I've been storing a few trade goods and some wood), and a great room just at the end of the choke point, currently a dining hall and dormitory.  Directly underneath is a bigger great room that I had meant to turn into a better dining hall, but I haven't put anything there yet, so I could build a pit trap room.

What traps/pits/etc can I or should I build? How do I kill or trap zombies until I can muster a military, or at least some armor?

[MrWillsauce]

I accidentally erased the anvil at the embark prepare page, so I have to hold out with wood, stone and bone

You can buy the anvil back if you press "n" at the item selection screen.

In regards to the zombies, the best answer is magma. Magma solves any and all undead related problems as well as pretty much any other type of problem you might have.

[Wrex]

I prefer to lock myself away and build a self sufficent community until I am ready to face the zombies. When I do, I use hammers.

[DrKillPatient]

Make sure your military is using blunt weapons. If you use axes or swords, any severed limbs will just join the ranks of the undead seconds after detaching. Smashing zombies to a pulp will collapse them without creating additional enemies.

As for traps, follow a similar route: build spiked silver balls. A pit trap will do little to actually kill zombies, since unless they fall on their head, they almost certainly won't die (normal creatures might bleed out if they don't die instantly from the impact, zombies will not). Don't use magma. Zombies care little about being on fire, and will just be a greater threat when ignited.

Possibly try to cage-trap the necromancer, since they can be used to resurrect zombies as training for your military, create zombie bacon, and other such things.

[Altruist]

I accidentally erased the anvil at the embark prepare page, so I have to hold out with wood, stone and bone

You can buy the anvil back if you press "n" at the item selection screen.

I do this with other items for every fort, but I never take the anvil off, so I forgot to make sure it was still there.

In regards to the zombies, the best answer is magma. Magma solves any and all undead related problems as well as pretty much any other type of problem you might have.

I have 14 adult dwarves when the zombies arrive. I haven't dug down far enough to find magma. (I actually have never found magma.)

[Sutremaine]

Make sure your military is using blunt weapons. If you use axes or swords, any severed limbs will just join the ranks of the undead seconds after detaching. Smashing zombies to a pulp will collapse them without creating additional enemies.

I once managed to clear up a zombie siege during the siege itself, though 1. all the undead were right by the entrance and 2. maybe it was an ambush instead of a slightly too slow cleanup job. I couldn't find the necromancers, so they kept reanimating parts, but the military were putting them down fast enough that the haulers were able to dive in and out of the entrance grabbing stuff while the necromancers were keeping their distance so they wouldn't reveal themselves. Sometimes the haulers would flee into the wilderness, but the reanimated parts were really slow (and small. What, I wanted some speardwarves for a change) and the haulers would just evade them until they went down again.

Eventually I was down to a couple of invisible necromancers who kept animating the same two clumps of parts, so once there were a quiet few moments I ordered the military inside and sealed the entrance.

[Loud Whispers]

Sometimes the haulers would flee into the wilderness, but the reanimated parts were really slow (and small. What, I wanted some speardwarves for a change) and the haulers would just evade them until they went down again.

Edged weapons are excellent against the undead, I don't get why they've garnered so much hate

Anyways yeah, if you can't separate one zombie horde from the next or eliminate the necromancers, the chances are you will have to rely on a great deal of weapon traps. A simple diversionary corridor leading into your fort from the outside world filled with spiked balls, axe blades and serrated discs should suffice.