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[Skooma]

I don't mess with magma until I have a fireteam ready to watch over the pipe until the imps are all dead.

[Satarus]

Just build a few cage traps.  You'll eventually get them all.  Also this is why I bring plenty of wardogs with me.

[Grendus]

I make my soap makers prove themselves by wrestling a fire imp if one is out wandering. Works well, lets the unworthy dwarf prove himself and deals with the cackling imp problem. If you have a fire man that likes to play, that could be a problem.

[darthbob88]

I don't mess with magma until I have a fireteam ready to watch over the pipe until the imps are all dead.

Agreed. Unless I embark on the magma, I don't mess with it until I have a forge level set up and channel carved out, with imp- and fire man-blocking fortifications. It's easy enough to make your own weapons using charcoal.

[Grendus]

Carving out a magma work area comes right after digging storage space and before sleeping space in the priority of building my fort. It's usually finished by the end of early summer. Maybe slightly later if I have to deal with the hassle of making bauxite cage traps with nickel/iron/steel cages to stop undead imps. Not hard.

The only time I ever actually deal with imps is if they're exposed when I embark. Even then, I usually tolerate them since their brushfires have killed quite a few irritating goblin ambushes.

[KitsuneStudios]

I have not had much luck with magma.

First for decided that "Measure twice cut once" is for sissies, and accidentally flooded the dining room with magma while trying to create a lava moat. Oops.

Second fort perished after fire imps killed the liaison from the Mountain homes on his way out of the map. leaving me with no immigrations.

The third, I finally thought I had it nailed. I built well away from the pits, and started spitting out piles of iron bolts in the Hot biome. The ponds dried up, but I'd tapped the river for well water, and was in the process of making an obsidian pit. So when spring arrived, and the first major migration happened I was ready. Or thought I was.

The migrants spawned on the opposite side of the magma pipe. Imps started blasting everything! Burning dwarves quickly set alight the parched landscape, which had recieved almost no rain since starting. A few of those burning dwarves made it as far as the trade depot before expiring. A trade depot filled with elves... and their flammable, flammable goods. It was abo tthat point, I paused, grabbed some popcorn, and watched everything die in a fire. Losing is fun!

[Lamey]

Losing is fun!

I was looking for an excuse to post what happened in my fort last night, but that tragedy puts mine to shame.

As for the imps themselves, I finally finished them off with my mighty force of wrestlers.  One did die (a new recruit - custom title "fresh meat") but the wrestlers handled the imps well overall.  Once a dwarf gets his hands on the little bastard's throat they can't put out anymore fireballs - or if a legendary gets his hands on the imp it can longer breathe, move it's limbs, or do anything but pray for the sweet release of death.


I suppose I will mention what happened though...

One day the dwarves of the mountainhomes came to my fort and made a heart wrenching plea.  They spoke of all the poor orphan children and how their lives would be made more bearable if only they had toys to play with.  My mayor was moved deeply... to get another barrel of whiskey.  The liaison then indicated that they would pay the maximum possible amount for any toys produced when they returned the next year.  Thus did the dwarves set to producing a mighty assortment of wonderous toys. (cheap junk)

One year later, the dwarven caravan arrived - ready to collect the toys that would bring 'joy' to orphans everywhere.  The dry grass crinkled beneath their wagon wheels and they sang a merry dwarven travel song.  And then the fireball struck.  The first wagon caught flame immediately, and the fire spread through the grass beneath their feet like... wildfire.  The world burned and the flames spread until there was naught but ash and smoking corpses.  One lone mule survived, his rear legs burned to the bone.  He was driven to madness by pain and carnage. (He may still be alive)

The dwarves were saddened, of course, by the terrible loss of profits.  But also because Urist McLumberdwarf had been especially industrious.  He had cut down every tree in the entire forest - but the haulers were to busy (and frankly too scared of the vile imps) to collect them.  Much were the imps cursed for the lack of beds and barrels in later seasons.

[mal7690]

I just use a lot of cage traps and store the imps for my eventual labyrinth of death.  Fireball + narrow corridor + non-flame-proof creatures + stray cats for spice = fun

The current map I have has a HFS as well, so I plan on linking my labyrinth of death to the pit and enjoy the resulting doom of anything hostile that walked in my front door.

[Grendus]

My last exposed magma pipe cost me somewhere between four to six dwarves. I can't exactly remember, and I think one was also maimed (he recovered inside of two years, not bad for a no-stat dwarf). Every time one would come out and torch a pheasant, I'd send a few champions after him.

If you're paranoid about the imps torching your immigrants and lighting the world on fire, there's a little trick you can try. Ash doesn't burn. Chain an animal close enough to entice them, they'll burninate the world, and when your migrants come they'll light one up, he'll die on pre-burned ground, and you can draft a few of the cannon fodder new migrants to kill the imp.

[Eagle0600]

You guys are all pansies. I embarked with an exposed magma pipe, and almost immediately sent out a crossbowdwarf to deal with them. He didn't have ammo, either. He beat them all to death with his crossbow (no hammer skill, either) and didn't get scratched. With ammo, he then proceeded to stand by while other members of my fortress built a wall. End of story. No deaths. Easy.



Pansies.

[GenericOverusedName]

If you're going to try and cap it by redirecting water. you want to make sure the water falls down onto the lava/magma, instead of flowing next to it. The obsidian floor that forms below will just let the water spread to the next open tile, as opposed to just clogging up the piping.

Also, if you manage to kill the imps, FORBID THE CORPSES. Your butchers are idiots and will try to carve them up. Unfortunately, imp fat and meat spontaneously catches on fire!