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[silhouette]

What is the difference with the 2 bridges?

One folds up completely while the other creates a wall i think...

[IronyOwl]

Channels and walls are completely impassable, so they can easily seal off the outside from invaders. Traps do not trigger from friendlies, so can be placed anywhere.

It's remarkably easy to make a hallway or channeled path completely filled with traps- stonefalls are cheap, weapon traps are effective, and cage traps instantly cage- thus removing- any foe that steps on them. The result is a passage of death that bars anything hostile from touching any dwarf that isn't outside fishing or gathering lumber.

Of course, it's precisely because of this that many choose not to use such simple methods- they're too easy and too effective, in many cases completely removing the need for a military.

Hence, I'd recommend getting a better military over architectural solutions, unless you've got a really good one you're just looking for an excuse to build anyway. Make sure you train up their wrestling before giving them weapons to spar with, and that they're wearing armor (even bad armor) and carrying shields at all times, and I think you'll find they'll be more than up to most adversaries. Just remember that squads follow the leader, even when said leader decides to sleep or drink, so be ready to promote someone else to the task if the current squad leader is taking a nap.

[kcwong]

I make it a personal practice to never, ever let that Idle counter hit 0.  I even go as far as creating pump rooms (a.k.a. gymnasiums equipped with exercise bikes) so that if I can't find something for an idler to do, they can work themselves ragged on a pump. 

Watch out if you later assign these dwarfs with bulging muscles to the army. Their lack of combat skill combined with super strength will kill or maim their sparring partners.

It's so effective the nobles in my current fort rarely ever throw parties (I honestly don't know how I pulled that off... maybe it's the lack of available attendees?)

No buildings assigned, no parties.
http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Party

If you have a Meeting hall designated from a table (dining room), a cage ("zoo"), a well, or a statue (Sculpture garden), dwarves will often throw parties there and many of your precious productive workers will now display the status Attending Party.

[Satarus]

Point of order, your military dwarves will form friendships simply because they are always near each other.  They can still form friendships while on duty.  My miners are always busy in my early fort, but by the end of spring, they are already friends with each other despite never getting time to be idle.

[Haus Party]

Maybe I've just had good luck with antisocial dwarves, but I find very few of them make friends. The military dwarves will, sure, but even they never seem to throw parties. I haven't had to deal with a single party yet.

e: And I've got plenty of meeting areas.

[darkflagrance]

Maybe I've just had good luck with antisocial dwarves, but I find very few of them make friends. The military dwarves will, sure, but even they never seem to throw parties. I haven't had to deal with a single party yet.

e: And I've got plenty of meeting areas.

It's not meeting areas per se - it's  buildings around which one is centered.

Though I am not sure if military dwarves throw parties.

[Comrade]

It's remarkably easy to make a hallway or channeled path completely filled with traps- stonefalls are cheap, weapon traps are effective, and cage traps instantly cage- thus removing- any foe that steps on them. The result is a passage of death that bars anything hostile from touching any dwarf that isn't outside fishing or gathering lumber.

Could i just have a large hallway of traps ranging about 20 traps on a 3 wide tileset and not have a military?

[NecroRebel]

20 cage traps? That will probably take out an entire ambush party, but bear in mind that eventually more than one ambush party will be on map at the same time. The problem with cage traps is that they take out exactly one enemy before needing to be reloaded, and when you have 50 goblins coming for you at once, well, it gets difficult to load traps fast enough.

I find a 10-deep field of weapon traps is more than enough to take out the vast majority of comers, though, and will almost always break sieges all on its lonesome. When I go trap-defense, I generally set up a 3x10 hallway filled with serrated disc traps, each with 3 discs, with higher-quality discs and mechanisms used on the innermost traps. However, since you often will want dwarves to work outside, especially woodcutters, a military is the best defense.

[Comrade]

I didn't mean a hallway of cage traps, i would use those at the end for extra safty.

[Kraegan]

I don't use traps much either.  I opt for more intricate ways of killing enemies, although caging them and then hurling them off pits/into lava is somewhat fun.  If you do use stone traps make sure you don't let mechanics try to reload them *while* they are killing enemies.

On one particularly large seige, I lost ALL my mechanics to this.

[eerr]

*sigh*

This is actually the most common way for a Dwarf-Fortress to end.

[geoduck]

To prevent goblins from taking over, I recommend having a single entrance filled with 5 or 6 rows of rock-fall traps. It's a simple and effective defense that's perfect for novices. Do this at least until your military is well skilled and properly equipped, and then you can scale back the traps. I like having at least a double row of traps to alert me of ambushes and weed out attacks that aren't worth my attention.

Chaining a couple of dogs inside the front entrance will also help pick off anyone who misses the traps. Just make sure crossbow goblins can't shoot them from a distance.

[Angry Pierre]

I'm only on my second fort right now, but in the first I just set up 3 rows of cage traps and one row of steel serrated disc traps at the end, with a tied up dog around the corner guarding the central stairs. My woodcutters get cut down pretty quick, but not one goblin made it past the disc traps until I had plenty of preparations.