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[Sevrun]

ok, these guys are actually bigger and meaner than my sieges!  they're better armed, more numerous, and apparently much more skilled 

So my question is how the heck do I deal with the little greenskinned freaks?  I defeat three ambushes literally within 20-30 seconds only to get hit with another one that destroys my still young hammer dwarves (it's only my second year.)

[Peewee]

... Traps?

If you don't like traps, sick a dog-splosion on them.
Or you could make small guard towers with underground access, so you can safely deploy marksdwarves.

Chain up a couple extra animals you don't care to see again near your entrance. They'll spot ambushes early and give you a little more time to react.

[Sevrun]

I usually do the tower thing, but I've never seen the sheer number of ambushes I was getting.  I'd just barely managed to get my smithies up and running and here they came.  The only thing that was holding them out of my fort proper was a dual layered fortification that let four marksdwarves just pepper the holy shit out of anything coming down the hallway.

Just dig out above the hallway in front of the first firing position and set up the second position directly above the second ala tower style.  easy to supply, and surprisingly effective.  one reason I love natural cliffs, otherwise I have to build the second tier
I was literally just ending my second year, had just finished my usual setup...  Hadn't even broken 50 dwarves yet. 

[Peewee]

Ok, checkerboard pattern alternating spike traps should deal with them... in case your marksdwarves get thirsty.

[Sevrun]

lol I'll keep it in mind, heading back to the drawing board to reassess my design priorities...  been a while since I've had my ass kicked up around my shoulder blades.  Think I'd forgotten just how vicious those little green turds could get when I'm actually pushing my exports for a change.  Was trying to get a tax collector or Baron ASAP, it's been a while since I've played with the economy.  thought I'd have had at least another year before they were trying to cut my throat.  If I remove the lower firing point and dig a channel I could just give the little green...  I'll go now, my language gets a little... crude when I go to plotting my revenge.

 Thanks

[Megaman]

you could always buy wood from the elves, and put you stairs into your mines near a barracks.

[Albedo]

I build a walled compound right away for my AG farms, dig tunnels to everywhere that I need regular access to, and use TC farms instead of trees - unless I can wall the trees in, which is not too hard. Liberal use of archer towers helps while building walls, and bait animals to tip me off when they're showing.

Other than that, a sealed entrance that only opens when I expect a caravan.

[Rowanas]

I build walls around everything and then destroy my foes with packed up wrestlers. A couple cage traps here and there catch the earliest goblins and give me warning to put my squads on duty.

[Grendus]

The only really hard part about ambushes is they have a tendency to hit you before you realize they're there. One ambush got close enough to get behind my fortifications and use them themselves, fortunately my marksdwarves are very good. Tether a few animals around here and there if your map doesn't have a lot of predators, or leave some cage traps/cages around to manually detect them. Watch for FPS drops, those are a sure sign of an impending attack.

[Albedo]

<nods>

Bait animals can work well.  But even traps won't alert you by announcement - you suddenly notice by chance that they've got gobbo residue in them, and you know something happened - past tense. 

[Rowanas]

Cage traps.

They pause the game for you, tell you the gobbos are there, and you get to beat the sh*t out of them later for practice.

[Sevrun]

a little off topic, but is it possible to start a TC farm without an UG river?

I only ask because I didn't think it was but I never seem to hit UG rivers.  (I don't use the (f)ind option very often.

[Peewee]

Yes, if you have a hidden underground pool. Otherwise, sorry, but no.

[Albedo]

a little off topic...

"A little"? Ya think?

You don't have to use the <f>ind function.  If you change the setting in init.txt most features are visible in the local map - helps to catch chasms/ug rivers/magma/HFS/etc.  Then they're easily visible, and you can then adjust your embark to suit - if you want.

Or keep stumbling in the dark, your call.

(See wiki, "init.txt" for details.)