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[anzelm]

Dodge-me traps are everyday bread, but this one works much better than anticipated:

Code: [Select]

# - wall
^ - floor + weapon trap
. - empty space
<> - stair down/up
I - floor + upright spikes

single floor layout:

 #####
##^^^##
#^...^#
#^...^#
#^...^#
##<#>##
 #####

side view:

-1 #^...^# <- siege enters on this floor
-2 #^...^#
-3 #^...^# -> tunnel to fort
-4 #^...^#
-5 #^...^#
-6 ##...##
-7  #...#
-8  #...#
    #...#
(you get the idea...)
    #III#

All floors are connected with stairs. The goblins enter, get semi-minced by traps and dodge-fall to the bottom. As survivors try to escape upwards (The traps have one glass disc each, and the fall is not 100% lethal - we don't want to kill the poor sods just yet! Plus, they don't explode, so it's easier to get rid of the corpses) they dodge the traps and fall back again. And again. Master goblins do this over 20 times, before they are fully blended in my setup. From the last 8 sieges of over 80 gobbos, a total of 4 goblins survived so far.

TL; DR: goblin siege comes in, goblin giblets and goblinite comes out. Cheap, simple and easy to implement.

As for the song, here is "Wooden pints" by Finnish band 'Korpiklaani':

There's men, underground
Who have never seen the sun
But they really know how to party
Little men from underground
Who have never seen the sun
But the really know how to party

[Chorus:]
The rise their wooden pints and they yoik and sing
And they fight and dance 'till the morning

(...)

There's also a hilarious video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIc4VHxU7iM

[slothen]

I really like this, especially since in my next fort I was planning such an entrance anyway, that is an open shaft down to the first cavern level, with a staircase-ramp spiraling along the walls.  Once I get water (and later magma) I can widen the path to allow wagons, and used flow to push stuff into the middle ( I like the idea of updating dodge-me into push-me traps).  Eventually, I'll lure goblins in and fill the whole thing with magma.  Perhaps with two shafts, one as an entrance, and the other as a magma tank.  A single pumpstack with T-junction inputs and outputs could serve to quickly transfer magma from one to the other and back.

[anzelm]

Aye, when I think about it now, combining this with a magma-based goblinite rectifier seems natural.

[RanDomino]

Wooden Pints is the only song about dwarves that matters.

[Hommit]

stairs only -1 to -2, then trapped path around the hole, then stair -2 to -3, another path, and so on, or have i got this wrong?

[anzelm]

Yes, the invaders have to go around on each floor.

[Hommit]

Works perfect!

this need to be wiki'd (under traps)

[Gentlefish]

Oh gosh wow this looks just plain deadly and effective.

[Tirion]

Is this just a variation of the old "dodge me" trap, or something improved?

[Aseaheru]

Posting so I can locate this...

[Callista]

Is this just a variation of the old "dodge me" trap, or something improved?

Is a variation, but a useful one. Sometimes a tried and true old idea works better than a new one.

[dewboy]

There's men, underground
Who have never seen the sun
But they really know how to party
Little men from underground
Who have never seen the sun
But the really know how to party

For some reason, In my head, I heard this to the tune of Stairway to Heaven

[Whackjob]

Going to have to use something like this tonight.  Could have a pool underneath it all, a few Zs deep, with the bottom flight of stairs a few Zs up, and archer fortifications around a layer or two above the top of the water.  Let them sink or swim, and plug 'em with bolts even if they do.

#EDIT:  Ok, I have a question.  Let's say the cistern at the bottom is 3z layers deep.  We have five goblins swimming and alive at the surface.  Now, we throw a lever, cut a support, and drop a 3z plug of rock straight down on top of them.  What happens?

Will the jet of water reach above the top of the hole?
If we'd spiked the bottom, would the plug of rock impale them on the submerged spikes?
Would the goblinite bits get ground up by the rock and then aerosolized by the water jet?
Would the Dwarfhome planning and safety commission revoke your building permit?
Would the King insist on riding the next plug down?

[anzelm]

For some reason, In my head, I heard this to the tune of Stairway to Heaven

Oh god, why? Canot unhear it.

@Whackjob: water from underneath the falling rock will be teleported above it. No idea what happens to the gobbos, but I suppose you won't even find the bodies. Especially if the king supervises the event 'in person'.

[slothen]

water at the bottom will lessen fall damage, meaning they can spend more time in the grinder.

The spiral/shaft design means you have room for all kinds of tasty modifications and access-ways.  A marksdwarf room could have a field of view over much of the trap, you could blast water/magma, you could set up a GCS or Dragon turret.  You could even make a windowed meeting hall and when a siege enters, lock the doors, forcing whichever of your frightened dwarves that happened to be there to watch the ensuing chaos.

At the top you could put a retracting bridge for caravans that is protected by latch-operated pressure plates (or just manual access with plenty of guard animals to give you time to retract it, if PP's block caravans like other traps).