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[beorn080]

40 by 40 above ground fort with fortifications forcing any invasion to approach form NSEW. 169 catapults raining stones on anyone who I thought deserved it, which was pretty much everyone. Also had walkways extended over the map so Crossbow dwarves could raid death from above.

[Canaris]

My first (and best) real trap hall was pretty cool.

Using a canal system that ran under my fortress, my main entryway had pump-fed waterfalls (for decoration really) which flowed down into a z-level crossed by a drawbridge. From this level, holes led into the canals and these holes had lever-tied hatches.

The whole system drained into a chasm.

One day, some gobs showed up, ran right into the hall. With the throw of a lever, the doors on both sides were sealed, and the drains in the hall closed, and retracted the drawbridge. This shut off my water supply, but the process was so fast it didn't matter. I could flick it on and off like a light-switch. Rinse, repeat, etc.

Needless to say, that fortress was impregnable.

Now I want to do the same thing with magma one day.

[The Grackle]

My fort kept getting attacked by goblin lashers, and I kept all their iron whips/scourges b/c they seemed too cool to just melt. So, I made a long winding passage and filled it w/water up to depth 2 and the whips installed individually in weapon traps.  The idea was that none of the traps would kill a gobbo outright, but their constant bleeding would stain the water red.  Then they'd emerge weak and bloody into the cave crocodile chamber.  It didn't work perfectly b/c they'd get a quarter of the way in and then retreat or just mill around like idiots. I needed a pressure plate to lock them in or something...

[Tormy]

There is no such thing as "best trap hall". The best thing is running a fortress without placing any traps! 

[flabort]

a long tunnel, under which another tunnel ran, and crossed over 70 times.
at every crossing was a channel, over which was a bridge. add a pressure plate to the bridge, and goblins would fall into the lower tunnel.

then, make a similar set of traps with a third tunnel using the second tunnel. of course, the third tunell led to the start of the second, which led to the start of the first, but no goblin reached the end.

next, i added a couple more tunnels leading outside, with grates at any crossing. i set up a water tunell over all the others, so presure plates would dump water into the tunnels.

finally, i made a trap-reset system, so after falling, the goblin would step on another plate that lowered the bridge again, so more goblins would path over the traps.

finally, i set up "alternate routes", through witch gobbies would take a longer path, with more bridge falls, but they'd be constantly moving into traps, with a path to take no matter what. finnaly, I stationed my military in front of the end, so any goblin that made it through would be slaughtered any ways.

i kept adding more routes, backtrack traps, and other, spikyer traps until my first goblins showed up on that map, and they brought about 70 goblins with them. about a season later, the sole remaining goblin drowned and was flushed out.

next time they came, they brought a spirit of fire with them. ever taste steamed goblin? discusting. they baloon up, and taste like 12 year old carp, diluted with motor oil. but they didn't last as long as thier previose siege, because i had added about three more layers, and many more spikes (at the bottoms of the falls)

[Hobgobwin]

You guys make me feel inadequate. Mine was a choke point leading into the fort that if anything nonfriendly heavier than a cat were to step on a bauxite pressure plate, the hall would have bauxite floodgates slam shut on either end of the hall, and fill with magma into a room that was a Z-level up, and a pressure plate on the far end of the chamber that upon reaching 7/7 magma, it'd turn on a pump outside that was accessible only from dwarves inside the fort and drain the entire thing out harmlessly, after the magma cleared out entirely, I'd hit a switch to open up  the floodgates and sift through anything made of iron and the like. Any invaders lagging behind would simply have archer towers pick them off.

[koruth]

Sometimes the best traps are the simplest, so don't feel too bad.  One of my favorite traps I ever built was just an oversized dwarven atom smasher:  big long hall, 3-wide, with raised bridges along the left side and walls along the other.  Gobbos come in, take a minute or two to reach the end, during which the dwarves have plenty of time to hit the magical lever of doom within the fort.  Squish.

[Foa]

I like to use a safe approach, 5x wide hall, and is bordered by 2x  of empty space, then there is the 3z tall hall of marksmen, and at the end of the hall is the 'Pulter Brigade, who guard the alternate entrance ( only used by the survivors, said survivors either fall to their death, or get hunted down in Barrack Halls, or survive the fall and get a double dipping of hell ) .

I am planning on adding a triple bulkhead lock to trap them in the hell hall, the lazy bastards get to use the other entrance into the hall, via some bridges.

[darknight]

My latest one, is a Goblin Pinball machine, with 6 flippers.

My fortress has two ways in, the main peacetime entrance, and the pinball entrance. If invaders or undead elephants show up, and get close to the fort, I pull a lever that raises the drawbridge door to the main entrance, leaving the pinball entrance as the only other way in.

invaders come down a length of 3-wide hall, to a huge 10-wide hall divided by two pairs of 5 by 10 bridges, with a small island between them. The top of the pinball machine. One of each pair of bridges is alway up, and the other is always down, so there is always a path across. the first one to get to the center island hits one of 6 pressure plates, activating spikes in the first hall. Those spikes arent meant to stop anything, just to add to the blood and confusion. Then, as they get partway across the second pair of bridges, the levers are pulled, reversing the up and down bridges, dropping anything on them into a 6 by 13 pit 5 levels deep. And at the bottom, there are two 6 by 6 bridges for the lower flippers. And, in case any of the guests dont care to go near either of those flippers, there are the BONUS BALLS! On the lever below the top, there is a garbage dump over each flipper, where rocks can be dumped. When the flippers fire, the rocks go flying all over. So the smart gobs that avoid the flippers, get pelted with falling rocks! And, of course, every pinball machine has at least one drain, where the balls get taken out of play. In this case there are two of them, the spaces underneath the flippers. Anything in those areas when the flippers come down, gets taken out of play instantly and permanently!

And, just as a backup in case anything gets past the pinball machine, there is a pretty standard long hall of death, with both regular weapon and cage traps. And! In the event of a flier coming in and bypassing both of those areas, they end up in a roofed-over courtyard, with a fortified bunker next to the main door. Anything coming across that courtyard is fair game for the crossbowdwarves in the bunker. And, as a fall back to that, there is a team of melee troops waiting in the hall inside the door.

As a bonus to all of this, the bridges were made from blocks, and the hallways were smoothed all the way out to the road in front of the walls. So caravans can come and go thru the pinball machine. At least they can if they are allowed to. But if the elves get too uppity, it might become an Elvin Pinball machine!

A lot of good metal and trade goods might be lost in the machine, but the entertainment it provides is well worth it!

[userpay]

My best one was two courtyards, the outer larger than the inner, in which to trap whole squads of sieging goblins (best yet I got BIG sieges with every gob riding a beak dog, never accually finished playing through that fort but I've had sieges for years) so that I could either pincushion them with marksdwarves stationed in a tower, open the gates (read floodgates) so that my melee guys could come out and fight, pull a lever and scores of war dogs come out of their cages (generally a last line of defense or just for kicks), or selectivly draw certain gobs (like the leaders) into cage/weapon traps. I also had two methods of executing captured gobs. 1. a small room where up to two cages are placed with weapon traps surrounding them 2. a very long drop from just about the highest natural point (very very high moutain) to the very bottom. If anyone wants it I can give them the world, this spot is perfect with my only complaint being that the magma pool isnt a magma pipe. To put it simpily though I was making just about everything out of steel, thats how awsome it is. It even has some HFS that I haven't dug out (didn't want the bugged king).