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[ddonohu2]

solution to all things on a volcano that are zombie related:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

MAGMA!!!!

In my experience magma doesn't kill zombies. It just creates flaming, smoke spewing, FPS murdering bastards.

[slink]

How do we gather their books?  In a previous fortress I somehow succeeded in getting a necromancer's book onto a stockpile and do not know how.  They are artifacts and cannot be dumped.  In my current fortress I had one entitled the Fabulous Dwarf.  I have a finished goods stockpile for artifacts only, and several finished goods stockiles that allow artifacts with everything else, but only the things I don't trade.  Books are among the things I don't trade, so it would seem there should have been plenty of places for the book to be stored.  My Dwarves cleared everything from around it, but not the book.  I checked that it was not forbidden.  Although the name doesn't become {} when it is forbidden, I did check the forbid-toggle text.  After about a year lying by my front gate, it was stolen.   

[melomel]

I embarked with two necro towers as neighbors.  Better players might not have been fazed, but I found my intruders plenty frisky enough for my skill level.

I'm thinking line-of-sight may be an issue; my entire surface is totally flat.

Anything that could become animated had a tendency to become so.  Giant Olm Nose Skins.  Wild Boar Sow Left Leg Hairs.  Mutilated Crundle Right Arms.  And as soon as they were killed, they.  came.  back.  (Screw miasma, I now have a giant soil-layer refuse stockpile.)

@ Slink - I...  have no idea.  "Start Your Day With The Tower" shows up on my artifacts list, but no idea where the stupid thing is on the map.  I suggest next time you allow /entice/force the necromancer to resort to close-quarters combat; they will try to beat your dwarves to death with their trashy paperback, die horribly, and then you can at least wall the thing in to protect it from cuddlebolds until Toady programs in libraries.

[Loud Whispers]

From what I've seen of undead sieges, the zombies themselves go down fairly easily. Sometimes too easy, like a single bolt to the foot and the zombie "dies". The necromancers can be problematic if you have no way of finding where they are if they are currently hidden.

Well I have to tell you... Crossbows are one of the best ways to engage zombie threats. And wherever you hit the zombie is trivial - a hit is a hit, and you generally want to hit parts like the feet. And their strength comes in being able to keep getting back up... So yes, they are easy to kill, when it's just 1vs1, or when the zombies can't reach your Dwarves. Or their source is destroyed.

[eataTREE]

eataTREE cancels Play Dwarf Fortress: Working.
eataTREE cancels Play Dwarf Fortress: Seeking spouse.
eataTREE cancels Play Dwarf Fortress: Asleep.

No update yet. But this talk of marksdwarves intrigues me. I had not been able to complete the ditch around the secure pasture/tree farming zone on the surface, but it occurs to me that I may be able to do so safely by ramping up from below. Then I would at least have a safe place for marksdwarves to shoot from, and I can crank out -copper bolts- for a rather long time.

[WaffleEggnog]

You said you have a volcano?

MMMMAGMAAAAAA!!!!!!!

[eataTREE]

You said you have a volcano?

MMMMAGMAAAAAA!!!!!!!

You know, I'd be a lot more enthusiastic about trying that if people didn't keep telling me that they tried it and it didn't work.

In my experience magma doesn't kill zombies. It just creates flaming, smoke spewing, FPS murdering bastards.

Like that.

[FalseDead]

You know, I'd be a lot more enthusiastic about trying that if people didn't keep telling me that they tried it and it didn't work.

Obviously, they didn't remember the secret ingredient!

More Magma!

Barring that try mixing in some water for obsidian.....

[eataTREE]

Update: it is now summer and we are still besieged by the undead. Indeed, they have had "reinforcements" in the form of a goblin ambush that was quickly overwhelmed and zombified, and now there are sixty of them plus a honey badger skeleton. However, the gates hold and we have suffered only one direct casualty, a mason who didn't make it inside in time.

Unfortunately I keep derping while designating the anti-zombie pits and have killed two miners, slowing further progress. Population down to 18, one of whom is a baby. Food and booze stocks stable. A grand zombie/necromancer-crushing construction should be ready in the fall.

[ThatAussieGuy]

Is there some particular trigger like fortress wealth that brings in Necromancers?  My current fort's right by a tower and so far all he's sent is his rotten shambling footsoldiers

[eataTREE]

Is there some particular trigger like fortress wealth that brings in Necromancers?  My current fort's right by a tower and so far all he's sent is his rotten shambling footsoldiers

I don't think so. I had made Jack and Squat in my fort when they showed up. As far as I can tell it depends only on proximity.

Update update: Everything is built in the Hallway of Zombie Destruction, however I've followed up my channeling derpage with mechanical derpage and tried to get clever by hooking all the bridges and floodgates to the same lever, which didn't work. So I'm re-connecting everything, but once that's done I should have a working repeating dropper trap with fortifications for safely pincushioning survivors. It can be entirely isolated from the rest of the fortress, and includes bait so that all the zeds should path appropriately. If everything works as planned (insert hollow laugh) the main annoyance will be having to gather the goblinite from the various corners of the map where the zombie-goblins dropped it upon zombification, rather than being able to just gather it from the bottom of my trap.

For the magma obsessives, I promise to fill the moat with it, once I've made it so that it's possible to stand on the surface again. From there it will be easy enough to construct a drainable magma flooding trap in an earlier portion of the entrance hallway. Then if there are any future undead invasions, I can test the results of magma versus zombie my own damn self, while retaining a perfectly adequate Plan B. So there.

[Karakzon]

Let me specialize:

You build a corridor with magma proof traps in it. you then open said passageway and lure in zombles. Flood with magma.
Wile they get killed by the traps -which still work in magma sumbergance- the magma destroys their bones so they cannot be reincarnated.

You have now got the best anti zombie machine DF can provide.

[eataTREE]

If anyone actually cared how the story ended... the zombies left just before the Grand Zombie Dropper was ready for them. Talk about an anticlimax.

But they showed up again the next year (minus the necromancer, unfortunately)! And before that there were some goblins! And the Grand Dropper Master Lever was merrily yanked to and fro, and many were the wet splatting noises that echoed up from the Collection Zone floor to the Grand Dining Hall. (Yes, that's right, the dining hall has a balcony overlooking the Death Pits.) And many a +Human Bone Bolt+ and -Goblin Leather Quiver- were crafted, and many a pleasant dinner of Dwarven Ale and Goblin Meat (47) was had, and all was merry. Yes, that's right: a Dwarf Fortress story with a happy ending (unless I do something really dim). Who would have thought?

[slothen]

I settled next to two towers and expected lots of FUN.  The first undead seige consisted of one undead elf.  The second wave that season consisted of two undead goblins.  My 3x3 fledgling minefield was more than enough to take care of those.

It did get more FUN later, though.  I'm collecting dead necromancers in my graveyard now.   

first undead siege i encountered was in autumn of year 2, and was made of approximately 75 zombies.  No necromancer, thankfully.

[Mormota]

Yes, that's right: a Dwarf Fortress story with a happy ending. Who would have thought?

I think that highly depends on your definition of happy. Mine doesn't necessarily include death and screams and slaughter and mutilation, but whatever suits you.