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[Redgaia]

This may be a cowardly thing to do, but I set up a puppy or kitten or something attached to a restraint outside my fort so that whenever orcs appear, the rush in front of my fort, which is now heavily barricaded with both drawbridges raised. I then have my legendary marksdwarves attack the now randomly wandering orcs by firing the bones of the last siege at them, usually killing them with heart shots. I then harvest the orcs for steel and convert their remains into totems and more bolts. It is a wonderful system ^^

[KenboCalrissian]

Oddly enough, I've left the grand majority of the outside edges of my map unmolested and my caravans reach me just fine.  They only rarely stumble across an ambush - normally, it's one of my dwarves that get ambushed before the wagon, and by then the wagon is often already at the depot.  Either that, or the sieges start so early that I won't get a wagon anyway, so it doesn't matter.

Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe not.  Logic dictates that if you try to bottle your fortress down to a single entry, and all wagons AND ambushes must enter this one path, then nine times out of ten the wagon will find the ambush.

[Viroath]

Oddly enough, I've left the grand majority of the outside edges of my map unmolested and my caravans reach me just fine.  They only rarely stumble across an ambush - normally, it's one of my dwarves that get ambushed before the wagon, and by then the wagon is often already at the depot.  Either that, or the sieges start so early that I won't get a wagon anyway, so it doesn't matter.

Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe not.  Logic dictates that if you try to bottle your fortress down to a single entry, and all wagons AND ambushes must enter this one path, then nine times out of ten the wagon will find the ambush.

The real problem with Ambushes comes when you lock up your fortress so that they just sit around outside.  I don't follow the belief of locking away the outside world (Rather, I have a lock on the main entrance that opens up a maze of 2x5 corridors filled with markdwarf kill zones and patrols, as well as choke point traps and shifting passages, all to the point of making opposing snipers unable to fire)

And since you need to keep away the champions while the recruits train, no better way then stationing them in the main hallway.  Have a few war dogs assigned to the dwarves that go outside, and you'll be clearing the amushes as they crop up, keeping it safe for the caravans.

[smjjames]

Sometimes though, there can be quite a span of time between ambushes. In my current game, I think I went at almost a year (the norm is about two or three sets per year) without ambushes and I know it wasn't pathing issues because I had my dwarves outside working on my outer walls and stuff when three (I think, could have been 2 1/2) ambushes popped up right about the time the caravan came, one on the west area, another which hit my cage traps at the only crossing point over the brook turned stream and another to the east. A couple dwarves and a bunch of animal. Actually, there was a part of the ambush on the caravan, but they took care of that easy.

There was some funny moments though when my mayor kept running around and the goblin liason (yes you heard me right, goblin) kept following (both somehow escaped injury) with the bowgobs chasing and firing away and then chasing after they ran out of arrows/bolts. The funny part was when I activated my mayor to make her get inside, she chased those gobs.

Its like the bowgobs were like "KILL THE DWARF!" and then when she went at them "ACK! DWARF IS ATTACKING, RUN!". Neither the target nor the goblins got killed. It was more comedic than anything.

[SquirrelWizard]

Oddly enough, I've left the grand majority of the outside edges of my map unmolested and my caravans reach me just fine.  They only rarely stumble across an ambush - normally, it's one of my dwarves that get ambushed before the wagon, and by then the wagon is often already at the depot.  Either that, or the sieges start so early that I won't get a wagon anyway, so it doesn't matter.

Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe not.  Logic dictates that if you try to bottle your fortress down to a single entry, and all wagons AND ambushes must enter this one path, then nine times out of ten the wagon will find the ambush.

The real problem with Ambushes comes when you lock up your fortress so that they just sit around outside.  I don't follow the belief of locking away the outside world (Rather, I have a lock on the main entrance that opens up a maze of 2x5 corridors filled with markdwarf kill zones and patrols, as well as choke point traps and shifting passages, all to the point of making opposing snipers unable to fire)

And since you need to keep away the champions while the recruits train, no better way then stationing them in the main hallway.  Have a few war dogs assigned to the dwarves that go outside, and you'll be clearing the amushes as they crop up, keeping it safe for the caravans.

there is a good bit  of truth in this. If you decide to clam up and wait out a siege you will end up wasting alot of time as the goblins dance outside. Maintaining some sort of defense (wether it be traps or dwarves) and routing the goblins will often be quicker in the long run.

[ElChad]

Not Sure if it was answered. But for the Underground tunnel, you go to where they normally spawn, build a tunnel starting from a small area nearby. They will go down the ramp into this underground tunnel. The Goblins will follow them into the tunnel, but they won't get flanked like normal. You can use Marksdwarves to guard said tunnel (making the tunnel a few Z levels to give the guards height advantage). It'd help if you use your iron to make some weapon traps. Or Obsidian Sword traps.