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[Tcei]

Generally I start off with a small wall around my entrance, with flood gates and a hand full of  weak traps at the gate. The first immigration wave I normally select two to become my first uber battledwaves.  At this time I start work on fortification on the second level of the wall and begin construction of a much larger outer wall sometimes I add traps at the second wall and sometimes not depending on mood. This normally gives me a safe outdoor area to cut down trees and access to a water source (if I dont already have a well) provided its relatively close by.

In my current fortress I've converted the second wall into the outer wall of my tower. I've also got a handful of walls strategically placed to contain the frequent fires I seem to have, as well as cage traps to catch the damned fire imps and flame spiders *grumbles*

[Shzar]

I'm not big on complicated defences, so my fort is rather low-tech in that regard. I start training a standing army early on, usually with the first immigration wave. Frequently, I'll have two entrances into my fort: a small one for farmers and woodcutters and such, and a large, long one for traders. In my current fort, the small entrance has just a few traps and an elephant chained outside, the big one has a few layers of traps, more elephants chained outside, and a ballista and two catapults behind a fortification. Those are rarely used, since I have a formidable army of 30 champions (29, really, with one being out permanently with a sparring injury) with mixed weapons, decent iron armour, and lots of war dogs. Thus, I usually have them sally forth for a bit of fun, unless the enemy have ample ranged capabilities, in which case I will wait until a few of them are disabled through traps. None of my champions have died in battle. Not even the skeletal titan could so much as bruise a finger. Pity.

[andrea]

the walls of my fortress are the shields of my soldiers.
that, and the several z levels tall limestone walls of my tower. with fortifications on second level.

but usually i just send my soldiers to fight outside

[DavesWorld]

I like to be sure about defense, so I've evolved a particular Entry Hall setup.  This takes some time to get going initially, especially with some bugs I've noticed where rock that's fallen down a Zlevel seems to never get picked up for hauling.  I should note that fallen rock can be used for a construction, so I sometimes build silly stuff that will get destroyed just to get the dwarves to move rocks out of the entry path (so Carvans can get inside unobstructed).  Sometimes I also simply issue a Stay Inside order and use a lever to retract the bridges to drop any stray rock the hell out of the way.

4wide ramp down to the first sub level.  ~5 rows left as ground for traps and pressure plates.  Channel out 18 rows (still 4 wide), leave 2 rows as ground, another 18 channeled, 2 more ground rows, and a final 18 channeled out, with five more ground rows at the end.  Everything above all of this is channeled out to make them outside tiles, so the Stay Inside order keeps dwarves out of this area (which is where the falling rock bug causes lots of problems, since rocks seem to block caravans).

Each 18 channel section gets two 10row retracting bridges, so total there will be six bridges (each 4 wide and 10 long) covering the 3 sets of 18long open spaces.  The first row before the bridges start is pressure plates linked to each bridge, set for any creature that's not a dwarf.  The rows between the ramps and the plates are weapon traps (10 obsidian swords usually).

The rows next to each bridge section (the 18s) are also channeled to create open space; but the ground sections between bridge pairs are left unchanneled to support that ground.  I then create a long 3-5 wide room along each side of the Entry Hall, smooth the bridge facing walls, and carve fortifications.  These are the barracks, usually with ammo storage, beds, and archery targets setup.

Below the bridge pairs, channel down as far as you feel you want/need to (usually at least five Zlevels).  These are the pits, and the bottoms can be further trapped if desired.  I like simple stonefall traps down there, since caravans will never be transiting this area, and thus can't be obstructed by any stones.

Let's see if I can put in a simple web-o-gram:
+FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
+00000000000000000++0000000000000++000000000000+0000
^ttttp=------------------==------------------==------------------=tttt.
^ttttp=------------------==------------------==------------------=tttt.
^ttttp=------------------==------------------==------------------=tttt.
^ttttp=------------------==------------------==------------------=tttt.
+00000000000000000++0000000000000++0000000000000+000
+FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

^ ramps
t traps
p pressure plates
= bridge with solid ground beneath it, anchoring it
- bridge over the pit
0 open space
+ solid rock
F fortification carved wall

Whole thing is fairly idiot proof once you've given the Stay Inside order and activated your military.  Dwarves will mill about in the fortress proper, away from the bridges.  Any invaders that enter the hall are sliced up by the initial weapon traps.  Any that make it past those step on the pressure plates before hitting the bridges.  They're usually just past the halfway point (just onto the second bridge of the first bridge pair) before the bridges retract and drop them into the pits.

I use three bridge sets because it not only seems very dwarfy to over build the hell out of anything, but also I'm not sure if there are any FAST mobs that might be able to clear 40+ squares before the pressure plates react.  I link each pressure plate to each bridge because when I was evolving this setup, I initially had plates in front of each bridge, and on the first serious siege, I watched in horror as they made it past each bridge before the plate finally triggered the retract.  Now any plate retracts ALL the bridges, so far guaranteeing a pitting of any hostiles.

Meanwhile, marksdwarves are lighting them up from the barracks rooms while they're hitting weapon traps and falling from retracting bridges.  The channeled open space that runs alongside each bridge ensures the invaders can't get up next to the fortifications, and thus can't return fire very well.  I suppose you could leave this as ground (instead of open) if you wanted it to be funny, for more weapon traps, so invaders are further sliced and diced as they attempt to get next to the fortifications.

I place the stairs leading down into the pits inside the barracks, so anyone who somehow survives the pitting, and pit traps, and climbs back up the stairs, is in the barracks where your military can have a further crack at'em.  Honestly, if anything survives the fall into the pits, you need more traps down there, or it should be deeper though.  The point of this is to kill'em.

I also suppose, though I've never done it, for extra dwarfy fun, you could fill the pit with magma.  That seems a waste though; any invaders that fall into the magma have their gear lost to you.  I rarely make crafts or any trade goods past the first year since ambushes and sieges bring more than enough value to let me shower caravans with high cash amounts.  This is good, since I've noticed giving the caravans massive amounts of export value causes them to crank up how many wagons they arrive with, and thus they bring more stuff to buy.

Very helpful, since I've not yet found a map that has both magma and enough trees to run a serious steel industry, build enough beds, and keep the brewers and stockpiles stocked with barrels and bins.  I usually start getting 100-150 trees via import around year three.

[Gork]

This is what I've used in my latest fortress: since the mountain features housed a chasm and terrifying creatures, I worked on the flat forest.

The upper half of the picture is the main entrance to my fortress, where I've placed a small outdoor farm, Depot, and siege weaponry. The dangerous environment is to the southwest, so the hallway faces east. In the lower half is an example of the remote entry points to my fortress: they have a scouting animal and some traps on the surface, and they are all linked to the death passage running through the middle of the map.

In terms of dwarven defense, I keep roughly 10% of my dwarves as champion military (half swordsdwarves because of the obsidian deposits, and half marksdwarves), and train the rest of the workers to proficient wrestling or so when they're idle. 12 dwarves divided into 2 melee squads and 2 ranged ones are already enough to fend off all goblins who make it through the winding hallways and traps.

[Andir]

Let's see if I can put in a simple web-o-gram:

Code: [Select]

+FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
+00000000000000000++0000000000000++000000000000+0000
^ttttp=-----------==-------------==------------=tttt.
^ttttp=-----------==-------------==------------=tttt.
^ttttp=-----------==-------------==------------=tttt.
^ttttp=-----------==-------------==------------=tttt.
+00000000000000000++0000000000000++0000000000000+000
+FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

^ ramps
t traps
p pressure plates
= bridge with solid ground beneath it, anchoring it
- bridge over the pit
0 open space
+ solid rock
F fortification carved wall


Used {code} and {/code} to make your diagrams monospaced.  (replace the {} with [].)  I fixed(?) some of the alignment and extra characters you put in there.  I hope I got it all lined up right.

[DavesWorld]

Looks about right.  The --- segments are 18 long though, each bridge is 10 long with the ends anchored on solid ground, leaving 9 of each bridge segment over the pits.

[LegacyCWAL]

I used to integrate the landscape as part of an elaborate defensive network that would make a typical Corridor Of Doom look like a crudely-built picket fence.  My favorite one is where I took a valley that was 3/4 the length of the map, put my fortress's entrance and depot at one end, and shaved the ramps off of the entire length of the valley.  That meant the only way to get to the depot was by entering one end of the valley and traversing its entire length.

I then put four fortification-lined bridges across the valley, stationed a few dozen marksdwarves on them, and placed ballistae to cover the length of the valley both longways and sideways.

And then I put a row of weapon traps, some war dogs, and several dozen macedwarf champions at the depot end of the valley, behind a 90-degree bend where enemy archers couldn't shoot them.

As a wise man once, said, "There is no overkill.  There is only 'open fire' and 'I need to reload'."



In my current fort though, I wanted a little bit of a challenge.  So instead of my usual Dwarfy defense scheme, I just put up a batch of pillars to channel wagons to where they're easier to protect from ambushes, built a little bit of anti-archer cover, and send a bunch of swordsdwarves and marksdwarves charging into any enemies that reach said cover.  The only other defenses are two rows of traps well behind the soldiers' deployment area that I haven't gotten around to removing yet, plus three tamed cave crocodiles chained next to the depot to catch thieves.

[Login]

Let's see.                =++=++=     bridge built on level (1)  (++)=bridge
                             in   +    in
road to the fortress ->    +             <- road to the fortress (level 0)
                      ________=_________
                      archers  |t|   paradise  \3 bridges to make the siege take the right long route.
                       level (3)|r|                  and to isolate the fortress.
                                  |a|
                                  |p|
                                  |s|