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[Dwarvinator]

Presently, goblins visiting the fort are first treated to cage entrapment, swiftly followed by de-weaponisation, mass pitting and then a good kicking. Really though, I would prefer to avoid all the processing by just having a pitched melee battle each time. I have an idea to have the action take place in a large tank so the goblinite can be flushed out with water to a lower level for separation.
I digress, because the main plan is to make the goblin archers less formidable to make this all possible. I recently saw a design (which I can't find now, naturally), using a set of doors between archers and a target, which used a repeater switch. As the arrows fly towards the target, they are knocked out of the air by the doors and then harvested.
I want to adapt this design, in order to make goblin archers less pointy, by encouraging them to use up all their bolts before the main party kicks off.
I am already training a suitable target. A leather-clad female dwarf with anger management issues, packing a silver scourge. She, and her soon-to-expand corps of war widows and the like, will be disciplining restrained goblin war leaders in plain sight...
I can see it will be a lot of effort to set up though - will it work?

[Sheb]

I have two suggestions that might be easier to implement.

a) Have the goblins shoot through 20 fortifications at some kittens. Few arrows should cross the all.
b) Build a battlefield with an unregular checkered patterns of walls, so that LOS is restricted to 1 or 2 tiles and goblins can't shoot.

[Dwarvinator]

b) Build a battlefield with an unregular checkered patterns of walls, so that LOS is restricted to 1 or 2 tiles and goblins can't shoot.

Less colourful than what I had in mind, but I like that concept. I could also make the floors of the maze retracting bridges to collect the swag.

a) Have the goblins shoot through 20 fortifications at some kittens. Few arrows should cross the all.

I wanted to collect their arrows if possible. Also, wouldn't the arrows collect on the fortifications?

[Sheb]

I'm not sure what would happen if the Fortifications are built over an open space. Wouldn't the bolts and arrows fall through?

[kilakan]

in my experience arrows that hit fortifications break, so shooting through them isnt a good way to collect them

[Dwarvinator]

I'm not sure what would happen if the Fortifications are built over an open space. Wouldn't the bolts and arrows fall through?

It would be cool if that worked. I just looked in gobbo storage, and noticed I have a few fully armed archers in stock, as luck would have it. I will run some tests.

in my experience arrows that hit fortifications break, so shooting through them isnt a good way to collect them

That's fine, they're going to get chewed up by the intensive metals industry I've got going.

[EvilBob22]

I'm pretty sure I know which post you were talking about in the beginning, but I couldn't find it either.  I did, however, find this post from a few years ago that describes the same setup.

[Wastedlabor]

A quick drain/reload magma chamber is the best for collecting goblinite and burning trash at the same time, but it takes quite a while to setup, as the path has to be long enough to capture a lot of goblins.

[i2amroy]

I have an idea to have the action take place in a large tank so the goblinite can be flushed out with water to a lower level for separation.

Keep in mind that water is horrible at pushing objects. Water will only push when it is less then 7/7, and even then it is kinda chancey (with the chance of some weird bugs happening as well, like objects disappearing but being able to be "recovered" from the spot they were pushed from, and other strangeness).

[Wastedlabor]

I think next time I'll just cart the goblin cages to a mini magma chamber. I'm trying to make my forts more compact.

[Di]

I have two suggestions that might be easier to implement.
a) Have the goblins shoot through 20 fortifications at some kittens. Few arrows should cross the all.

Actually, they don't fire at the targets behind even single fortification if they aren't good enough. And if they are, the fortifications or empty space are all the same to them.

So have them shoot at some kittens but don't bother with fortifications. If projectile hits a wall but then falls down a z-level it doesn't break and it can be collected later. So ensure that gobbos fire at them from maximum distance and that there's plenty of space for projectiles to fall if they miss kitty.
You can also use elite warriors for this, when they become somewhat experienced with shield gobbos can fire can fire enough arrows to blot out the sun and these guys won't even bother.
Though at this point it may be simpler to just send them head-on into battle.

[Lida_Brainbroken]

Too involved.
To disarm the goblin archers, while they're caged use the "z" -> "stocks" menu, find the bows, un-forbid them and mark for dumping.  That should work, leaving them armoured so your training session lasts longer.

[Dwarvinator]

Thanks for the link EvilBob - that's certainly a good lo-tech solution - I've had limited success with the repeater switch. In fact, I've constructed almost 7 z-levels of a twin pump-stack tower and set up a Forgotten Beast silk production line in the same time it took me to set up two repeater switches, #1 didn't work at all and #2 was a little 'lumpy'.

Wastedlabor - yes, magma probably is the most efficient way - and it would help with my plan to minimise the number of items on the map. In fact, I am about to start casting the 21x21x21 Trade Centre and Military Hub, which will include plenty of magma-based facilities. Only a shame steam doesn't still kill.

i2amroy - thanks - you just saved me from a nightmare.

Di - yeah. Had mixed results with a goblin bowman I have been experimenting with. He seems very shy. I shall send a couple of the boys down 'to have a word' and then see if a crossbowman is more forthcoming. I like the idea of a 'kitten shooting gallery'. As it happens, I do have surplus animals that need 're-homing'.

Lida_Brainbroken - I have been using a similar system thus far. Reclaim and mass-dump everything on the gobbo stockpile, check stocks and remove dump on all their armor and clothes (except for their used loincloths, which are popular with the dorfs, when not bloodied - there's no accounting for taste). It's a pain. I also have a backlog of about 50 caged trolls that need dealing with, I just want to phase out cagetraps altogether - well, at least on the front gate.

[Werdna]

To improve on the kitten-arrow trap, use cows, or larger creatures like elephants if you can.  Kittens are one-shot kills, but cows and other large creatures will soak up many, many bolts and still may not even go down.

[Mr S]

Does that Elephant Shooting Gallery come with an incredible grazing area or Raw edits?  Because, GRAZER.

However, a bear, lion or other large BONECARN would fit the bill nicely.