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[Rude]

So I started playing DF again after a year or so in anticipation of the pending update.
My fort is rolling along, I'm a little rusty so I'm slow getting some things up like they should be -- like clothing -- but for the most part everything is great. I've got 2 master axe dwarfs and 2 trainees coming along nicely ( I wouldn't hesitate to let any one of them solo a squad of goblins) and I'm about to add 2 more trainees and a squad of 10 no talent xbows. All kitted in bronze, soon to be steel. In short, I feel this is (or will be) a successful (long lived) fort.

I mentioned I'm a little rusty right? I've been playing Cataclysm:DDA for the past year off and on.

After a few thieves and ambushes I'm a couple years in putting together a more reliable well house and streamlining the metal industry when my first FB shows up. Actually a forest titan. No big deal right? They are usually just like big animals -- they can 1 hit you IF you get hit in the head. So far none of my soldiers have been hit at all thanks to shields and dodging -- I'm confident, I basically ignore it after making sure my soldiers are in the only path into the fort. It's a spider with venomous bite -- no dust clouds, no infectious disease, no webbing, no problem.

I have a policy of not barricading access to the fort. This is for "Fun". It's not an oversight, it's a concession: Impenetrable forts are not allowed. So I'm not surprised to see him beeline to the entrance. Next thing I know, I get a "... has been struck down" purple message. 

I mentioned I'm rusty right? I've been playing Cataclysm. In Cataclysm spiders are just big animals -- dangerous to noobs, trivial once you get a few days in. But most importantly, they don't cover the whole map in insta-death gems. When I saw the message announcing his arrival didn't include "webbing" I assumed he didn't have any. Big difference between Cataclysm and DF:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

apparently ALL SPIDERS HAVE WEBBING

Yeah as you probably assumed 500 words ago, he 1 hit my entire army and is running amok in a defenseless fort. The scattered herd of 3 yaks is my best hope. In hindsight I'm not really surprised, a little shaken, but this is DF; carry on.

tl;dr? start here  |
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The thing that gets me. The reason I'm sharing my recklessness with you. The thing that made me stand up and walk away for 30 minutes before trying to decide which game to play next. Is that there is this bunny. That has been... fighting(?) the spider ( a poisonous titan) for a few pages of combat logs. "Buck rabbit child." I mentioned my soldiers were in bronze. Bronze helmets, not masterwork, but not plain. Their whole fight with the spider lasted about 5 moves.  "... jamming the skull through the brain" x4
The bunny is tangled. helpless. hopeless.
But for going on 18 pages, the spider has failed to penetrate the rabbit's apparently sugar forged cranium. Every kick "glances" away. Is this a case of "The fingers you have used to dial the phone are too fat." WTF spider?

I'm considering modding rabbits so I can assign them as war animals.

[gtaguy]

Rabbits are especially tiny when children, imagine punching a rat that can out-dodge anyone who isn't on crack. It's no surprise the rabit lasted very long.

Now as for that spider: A cave-in cage trap ring would/should capture it or atleast severely cripple it. I do hope you have an entrance cave in mechanism.

[Deboche]

walled off fort or not, are you against fortified walls and crossbow squads?

[chevil]

DF has this weird thing where very small body parts have no bones in them making blunt attacks almost useless.

[Dwarf4Explosives]

I'd advise sealing the area with the spider in it off. That way you'll be capable of harvesting it's webs for silk using a bit of ingenuity (there are several pre-made designs for silk farms, which you can find on the wiki).