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[VerdantSF]

For a twist on Vanilla DF, try the NTDB challenge!  Not the National Trauma Data Bank, but I suppose that's also fitting given Dwarf Fortress.  No Traps*, Danger rooms, or Bridges used as impassable barriers.  While walls are fine, there should always be a gate (doors, floodgates, etc.) that leave a path into the fortress if the enemy has building destroyers.  Anything else goes.  If anyone is up for this (or has already done something similar), please share your tale!  I haven't had as much time to play Fortress mode lately, but I always make time for Forum mode .     

* Simple traps that magically distinguish between friend and foe are out, but ones that distinguish targets via pressure plates are valid for this challenge.  Elaborate drowning/burning chambers are also allowed, but they can't be sealed by drawbridges or retracting bridge chasms.       

[chevil]

I have done this. Gave everyone a crossbow and forced siegers to run though hundreds of bolts and when they finaly thought they where safe ten (who quikly became legendary) warriors stood in their path.

[Dwarfler]

There's always a path into the fortress if the enemy has building destroyers.

Unless you do something really complex and tricky, like.. build a wall.

[celem]

Well you can always play the pure turtle card, but the minute you properly seal yourself with a wall (since you are not allowed a bridge-gate in this challenge) then well......its not really a challenge anymore is it?

I think the idea of that line was to say 'always leave a path into your fortress'.  Use doors to keep out wildlife perhaps, but anyone that really wants in should be able to get in.

While I do use the traditional curtain wall and bridge-gate on almost every fort there are times when I wish we had a building_destroyer:3 able to rip up 'C'onstructions...or just ladders/diggers/smart seiging since this defence tends to be 100% win/lose, all coming down to whether you shut the gate in time.

[VerdantSF]

I have done this. Gave everyone a crossbow and forced siegers to run though hundreds of bolts...

Awesome!  How long did your fortress last?

I think the idea of that line was to say 'always leave a path into your fortress'.

Yes. Editing that line to be more clear.

While I do use the traditional curtain wall and bridge-gate on almost every fort there are times when I wish we had a building_destroyer:3 able to rip up 'C'onstructions...or just ladders/diggers/smart seiging since this defence tends to be 100% win/lose, all coming down to whether you shut the gate in time.

Exactly.  It would also be cool if the material of the wall mattered.  Wooden walls could be quick and easy to construct, but also easier to bust down, while stone walls would take a fair amount of time to build, but also withstand a lot more punishment.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm doing this with Silentthunders, however I find as soon as Necromancers show up you need at least some cage traps to find the stealthed ones if you have a lot of ground to cover. Which I just so happen to have. So basically no traps until the zombies start approaching, which is a shame considering how the goblins are few and far between. And I just don't like atomsmashers. The quarry also has a spiral rampway which'll be connected from the surface to the caverns once I breach it (I just can't seem to find the damn things) so all the zombie trolls and FB's can play with my Dwarves up top too.
Defense wise, the outer wall is too large to have any large guard so I have to send a squad of marksdwarves or two around the walls to kill wandering zombie ravens. Oh and the outer wall is also being reinforced with constructed walls to thwart any attempts of possible future diggers making it inside. And on the off chance that they do make it inside, the wall will be flooded with water. The water'll freeze killing the digger and replacing the broken segment of the wall. Ice ice baby.
AAaaaand it is an above ground fort, so everything used to have a completely uncontested access to the central hive from all directions, but now there's only 3 entrances I know of, West (main caravan entrance), East (small postern) and the sky (which happens to be 100 zlvls high).

[Di]

And the challenge is?
My most recent fort had two cagetraps, two weapon ones and fail shotgun that rarely damaged more than three gobbos per shot.
Military was training all year round but mostly because I couldn't come up with any other occupation for them. They weren't really experienced when gobbos started coming. It's just moderately long winding pathway that divides invaders in small groups of three to five creatures (without mounts) and allows one squad of moderately trained and equipped soldiers to repel several enemy squads.
And if you take into account that half of the soldiers is getting dunk in the dinning hall, sleeping or decided to grab newly crafted helm instead of the old one precisely at the moment when you need them at the depot it even fair fight.
The fps dropped below 20 and the fort story ended.

[VerdantSF]

I'm doing this with Silentthunders, however I find as soon as Necromancers show up you need at least some cage traps to find the stealthed ones if you have a lot of ground to cover.

Wow.  Necromancers are enough of a challenge already.  Do you have a trade depot anymore?  With the absence of airlocks, caravans have a tough time trading, especially when sieges become a regular thing. 

I'm usually such a carebear when it comes to caravans.  Most of my forts have extensive underground passages that open on the surface close to the map edges so that traders can get out of sight and behind drawbridges quickly.  Without secure barriers, the vulnerability of caravans is a major adjustment for me.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm doing this with Silentthunders, however I find as soon as Necromancers show up you need at least some cage traps to find the stealthed ones if you have a lot of ground to cover.

Wow.  Necromancers are enough of a challenge already.  Do you have a trade depot anymore?

I do, but the depot's mostly cosmetic now since the first necrosiege. It appears that there must be some stealthed necro somewhere I just can't find, so it's forever siege = no caravans

[Bobnova]

What about manually constructed traps? Like a pressure plate that sets off a lavafall in the area

[VerdantSF]

Yup, I included that in the original post .

* Simple traps that magically distinguish between friend and foe are out, but ones that distinguish targets via pressure plates are valid for this challenge.  Elaborate drowning/burning chambers are also allowed, but they can't be sealed by drawbridges or retracting bridge chasms.       

[chevil]

I have done this. Gave everyone a crossbow and forced siegers to run though hundreds of bolts...

Awesome!  How long did your fortress last?

After i killed the goblin leader the sieges became too easy and the fort is still standing preserved safely on my HD.

[jellsprout]

So Spike Traps on repeat are allowed? If so, that shouldn't be difficult.

[omg_scout]

Lol? I play all of my fortresses in such way. Danger room is exploiting.

Necromancers are a bit of a problem, but there is a cure for them - crossbowdwarves.

Only real problem are titans and forgotten beasts, especially packed with syndromes - but there is nothing a pack of 30 militiadwarves cannot do. Sometimes it ends up in !!FUN!! though.

After the sieges and ambushes start, you are getting at most 1 caravan yearly, the rest is slaughtered.

[Loud Whispers]

Necromancers are a bit of a problem, but there is a cure for them - crossbowdwarves.

Zombies get in the way. You literally have to build towers everywhere and release all of your marksdwarves at the same time in a flurry of bolts and hope one of them incaps the necro.