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[Uronym]

I heard Fun stories from here about the evil biomes in the new version, so I decided to try one out.. I embarked in 2x2 embark, halfway in an evil region, halfway in an Untamed Wilds region, with a river running through it and a very shallow and deep aquifer.

Spoiler: Background Information (click to show/hide)

When I began, I started by cutting down some trees for extra wood while my miners checked the depth of the aquifer on both sides, after which, they began digging a hole to live in. When they finished enough to squeeze the dwarves in, I had them begin taking everything inside, remembering the terrible stories I read here, not wanting these dwarves to all be zombified/husked/thralled/killed by evil rain/mists/etc. While I was getting everything inside, two of the dwarves were killed by violent wildlife. This is key: these dwarves happened to be the only females in the starting seven.

Getting everything inside, I built a wall to keep out the terrible beasts of above. There weren't hordes of zombies yet or anything, just a few scattered zombie giant mosquitoes and giant sponges and sponge men, mainly. So, after sealing off, the dwarves sustained themselves on nothing but plump helmets and dwarven wine for a while while some basic stuff was set up like bedrooms and a dining room, very minimally, before we worked with the two-slit method to breach the aquifer. That took a while, and this seems to have caused quite an issue.

While we spent a year or two digging through the aquifer, many migrants came. The first ones died slowly of thirst, an occasional wild animal, and anguish. Slowly, this progressed more towards being killed instantly by the enormous zombie horde, always growing, waiting for them. By the time we finished with the aquifer, the zombie horde was impenetrable.

Spoiler: Problem (click to show/hide)

Though I am really enjoying the small 5-dwarf fortress and the policy of isolationism that is necessitated by the environment, I'd really like it if we had a female so that these dwarves aren't doomed to die out in a lonely hole with no successors. The problem is twofold: I need to get rid of the zombie horde or subdue them somehow so that I can get a female migrant, and I need to make the fortress attractive enough that anyone is willing to come. The former is the main issue.

How do I kill an enormous zombie horde? It's really looking like a daunting task.. 

[NecroRebel]

Build a couple traps on the non-Evil side of the map, put a bait animal in there that'll be visible from the surface once the surface is opened, open the surface, seal off the trapped area. Zombies will gradually walk over to the non-Evil side, see the bait, walk over the trap, die, and stay dead because they're not in an Evil biome.

Alternatively, pump magma up and make a pressurized-magma fountain system using the place you have walled off above ground as a top-level magma source to spread fiery death where the dead walk. Soon, the flames will consume them and they will walk no more.

[Flying Dice]

1. Lure zeds into good region.
2. There is no 2.



If you aren't a coward, make a deep pit (at least 10 z-levels, enough for them to splat), fill the bottom with magma, and use a repeating bridge and some animals to dump them into it.

[Loud Whispers]

Use special Dwarf tactics.

Isolate, siege engines, super soldiers, flood, pit fall, traps, drop a mountain...

[acetech09]

1) Magma the surface... that'll get rid of all the corpses.

2) If they are standard zombies, not husk/thrall zombies, they are pretty easily killable via blunt force, in my experience. Find silver and steel, deck the dwarves out in masterwork, and send them out as a last stand. If they're the fumigated type, well, heh - a thrall buzzard can snap a dwarf's thigh with a lucky bite. and them birds are extremely lucky. I lost two iron-armored swordsdwarves to a single one.

3) I dunno if zombies are trapavoid, but if you have iron, you can make a iron-axe-laden trap hallway on the less evil side of the map.

4) Catch them in a dodgeme trap and save them for a tough siege.

[quintilius]

hmmm... unless something has changed in 03, last time i dropped zombies into my magma trap they just sat down there piling up wounds and smoking. I had to pump the magma out so i could shoot them with xbows.  So - magma is out.
Also - find the necromancers do NOT atomsmash their corpses if they're dwarves - you'll get ghostly necromancers and that corpse is going to come in handy

[DrGravitas]

If you can kill them temporarily, you can always designate-dump them into a pit they can't get out from (assuming they can't fly. Can undead fly?) Bonus Bio-Hazmat-Team points if the bottom of the pit is on fire or filled with magma.

However, from the sound of it, you don't have many dwarves to spare. So, you'll need some kind of unmanned solution. Working on the assumption that the undead don't dodge (rendering dodge-drops useless) I instead propose a ridiculous bridge flinging solution:

Dig a big pit, long enough to require 3 bridges across and maybe 1 or two tiles wide. On one side, provide an entrance from the surface. On the opposite side, provide bait, (an animal if you have one, or a dwarf if not.) The all 3 bridges should have an open square above and to both sides, as well as be centered over the pit. The bait-side should be 3 tiles long, with the bait on the furthest side and a 2  square bridge oriented identically to the first 3 bridges. The bait-side room should be constructed such that when it's bridge draws up, it creates a solid wall separating the room from the rest of the bridges (sealing off the bait-space in case of problems.) The bridges should all be linked to draw up together and away from the bait-side. Finally, a lever is placed where the operator will not be startled by the undead. Lock a dwarf in the lever space with only a repeated task of pull that lever. Let the undead in and watch them be flung into the pit.  Spikes optional.

[SirAaronIII]

You could always go down to the candy, suit and train everyone up, and send a 5-man heavily armored special assault team out. But that takes a really long time, and it's hard. Plus even with 5 guys in full candy, they can still die. And they'll be resurrected if they die, and they'll still be wearing their awesome armor (I think, when one of my soldiers went out to kill a zombie but was defeated and revived, he was still carrying his sword).

[Broseph Stalin]

Vampires. Eventually one migrant is going to walk right through the horde, it's a vampire. The undead are insanely strong, build a well of unlife and manufacture a vampire or two and train them into soldiers. They'll be strong enough to kill zombies and the zombies they don't directly attack will leave them alone, after you kill the bulk of the horde send out dwarves to haul the corpses over to the side that doesn't raise the dead.

[ZzarkLinux]

They'll be strong enough to kill zombies and the zombies they don't directly attack will leave them alone,

Do you know if this is still true in latest DFVD?

Last patch notes had lots of bugfixes for allegiances, so I'm wondering if corpses, ashes, and vamps will stop chumming it up...