Stories from the field. I have my pop-cap set in the init file fairly low at the start of my forts (20, then 30, then 40) so I only have around 35 dwarves and the goblins are doing non-stop ambushes. I think the elven traders have been butchered 3 years in a row because the Depot is still outside the main trapped area.
Hamlet Alathorrun ("Boltsroars") is thus a sleepy little dwarven outpost with a set of trap-lined catwalks as a welcome mat over a 10-12Z deep pit. Then a set of drawbridges which open up to connect to the catwalks.
Spring 1054, the goblins attacked again and caught us napping. A few dwarves were hauling wood and got caught in the open, the elves were running scared, and I decided to station the 2 1/2 squads of militia just inside the drawbridges overlooking the traps. They started peppering the goblins with wood/bone bolts as they came around the corner and things looked like it was going (mostly) to plan.
Of course, as soon as they used up their 25 bolts, they switch into hammer-time and run *out* to play with the goblins. Including the goblins who were beating up on the elven traders a good 30-40 tiles away from the trapped catwalks. Which then resulted in us discovering another ambush squad of goblins sneaking around. It got ugly.
Amazingly, I only lost 3 dwarves in all that. A ranger died early, but I also lost the weaponsmith (who was middle-high skill level). Four dwarves were severely wounded and I had to scramble to get soap made and a hospital setup. All four survived, but the backup cook is now crawling around the fort at a slow pace because he's lost the ability to stand.
I'm still convinced this is a good idea, but mostly as fighting a rear-guard action while they run towards the military alert burrows. I don't send them out with a station order now until all the goblins have either fallen down into the pit or have been softened up by the weapon traps. Even then, I only turn off the military alert, which releases them from the burrow. As they run out to pickup new socks from the fallen invaders, they start shooting at any surviving / unconscious / heavily wounded invaders who are still trying to escape the pit.
I'm hoping to setup archery targets (on catwalks above the trapped catwalks) and fortifications on the walls sometime in the next few seasons. Then I can send them up into the battlements and lock them in so they can't go into hammer-mode.