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[MrCactus]

I'm relatively new to the game but understand most of the mechanics fairly well (I think). But when I'm under siege by goblins and I station my troops so as to force the goblins through trap ridden corridors to capture/kill as many as possible without my dwarves getting harmed some of my military dwarves simply walk all the way out of the fortress and try to kill the goblins themselves, this usually results in death unless the dwarves in question are some of my higher level military dwarves, how do I keep them closer to their station and stop the unnecessary deaths?
And secondly I've recently built a 19 z-level death pit yet all the goblins and most of the animals that I've thrown into it have survived and sometimes not taken any damage at all, does the pit simply need to be deeper or is there something more to it?
And finally this is my first post on the forums, so apologies for any idiocy or failure to understand basic game mechanics and/or the workings of the forum, thanks for any help!

[donpost]

Hi mate I'm just as new as you are but I think I can answer your pit question: I read on the wiki that falling from height into pits will rarely kill especially if they are falling onto the bodies of previous creatures thrown in. Let me see if I can find the article...

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Mass_pitting

Under "Empty room":

"If you are planning to kill your goblins by pitting them into an empty room, remember that height alone is not a reliable method of enemy disposal. Even if your empty room is 10-15 z-levels below, you will still get a high number of survivors and some will escape unharmed - especially when falling on top of enemies pitted previously."

[MrCactus]

Thanks for the help, I'll cover the bottom with traps and make it a bit deeper to see what happens, and if all else fails I can always flood it, and maybe burn them all with magma.

[cdombroski]

In regards to your station question, dwarfs have two reactions when they see an enemy. If they're civilian they run away; if they're military they try to kill it. I'd suggest stationing your squad in a room behind all the traps so that there's no line of sight. If the gobs make it past all the traps then they'll enter the room for the melee contest.

[MrCactus]

They are stationed underground in a room after all the traps specifically for that purpose, and they walk all the way through the trap corridor, up the stairs through the main courtyard of the fortress and out the gates before they have line of site with the gobs

[Garath]

They probably have some way to have a line of sight to the goblins, otherwise it wouldn't happen.

flooding a room generally has little effect as nearly everything attacking you can swim or learns to swim before they drown. Only if you flood something all the way up to the roof will anything that needs to breath die for certain

[MrCactus]

But they're on completely different z-levels there's simply no way they could have line of sight, different z levels with several walls between them and the gobs. And ok on the pit thing I'll just occasionally pump some magma into it then.

[fricy]

Possible explanation: When you issue a station order they'll check their equipment. If they find a suitable piece of armor/weapon they'll try to claim it, even if it's out on the surface behind the goblins.
I lost a few soldiers this way, when a siege came I opened up my trap corridor and stationed my squad out of sight, then observed as one or two of my soldiers decided to claim THAT pig-tail sock from the wreck of a slaughtered caravan that I neglected to forbid. (walking through my pre-webbed weapon traps. dwarf chops anyone?)

[MrCactus]

Ahhhhhh thanks very much, I'll try and move armour stockpiles around and stuff so that they won't go up to the surface.