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[Rankor]

Hey Bay12, some time ago I discovered how wonderful Cage Traps are, and began trying to enslave the elves/goblins/birds/monkey-things-that-steal-your-sh*t/other wildlife; this works out great, especially with the massive zoos it enables.

I can't recall enough detail to write out a full, descriptive story atm as I've taken a long break from playing DF up until now, but I know I've fended off a few ambushes mostly via traps. IIRC, mounted ambushers lose their mount and are forced to walk on foot if they get caught in a trap; so say a Gobrin is roaming around on his African elephant crossbred with a giant, albino alligator, and he blindly walks into your glimmering red glass cage trap. His African Elegator would get caught in the trap, while the goblin would continue on without it. Correct?

Anyways, wanted to start a thread for general stories or designs of traps and their mystical uses. Stories/advice/designs/etc... welcome ^^;

[SixOfSpades]

The most important decision regarding cage traps is whether to use them at all. They are just SO effective that many players consider their use to be tantamount to cheating. Sure, having the floor open up and spit out a cage that traps you against the ceiling is a powerful image, but . . .
1) A flimsy wooden cage is strong enough to hold and completely neutralize a fire-breathing dragon capable of ripping through doors made of solid granite.
2) That same wooden cage is strong enough to hold that same dragon forever.
3) Due to the game's (lack of) AI, 100 goblins can march down a trap-lined hallway . . . and every single one will think, "Oh, hey, the guy ahead of me, and everyone ahead of him, just got snapped up into a cage--but I should be all right. I'll just keep going."
4) Enemies lack the ability to break open cages holding their trapped allies.

If you're able to overlook these considerations, then cage traps are for YOU!

As for advice, the critical piece is to always mass forbid [d-b-f] your traps after you build them. This prevents your civilians from going out to collect the sprung cages, or to reload the traps with empty cages, while there are hostiles around. After the party's over, manually un-forbid each trap and its cage . . . and don't forget to re-forbid them before the next invasion.

Designs vary. Some people like building narrow, winding tunnels that minimize enemy archers' range advantage, others favor long, straight tunnels for maximum visibility, making it slightly easier to dislodge invaders that get "stuck" to their trapped squad leader. You might seal the exit to your trap hallway with a door, to keep out the animals that would otherwise clog up the traps that you want to save for goblins. On the other hand, trapping & killing animals can be good: Apart from the meat/leather/etc, killing an entire population group (like a wandering clan of badgers) moves that entire species closer to extinction (at least locally), so if you don't like rhesus monkeys, go ahead & trap all the rhesus monkeys.

[Snaake]

The most important decision regarding cage traps is whether to use them at all.

That should probably be "whether to use them at all for fortress defence". Because without any cage traps, it's gonna be much harder, if not impossible, to capture any wild animals for taming/breeding programs. I have a couple of traps per cavern entrance (also have troops training a bit inward from them), and a few traps in a few locations topside (with walls to make pathing into them more likely, without having to use dozens of traps), for this purpose. But after the first time I had a 4x3 formation of cage traps in my main entranceway in one of my first forts, I haven't used them for actual fortress defence.

[misko27]

It's also important to recall cage traps are not a Y/N thing, you can use them to alter the threat of military attack, especially if you are or think you may have trouble. By Putting some down, but not a lot, you  can make sieges more manageable.


Also, you cannot take prisoners without cage-traps.  You will never be allowed to drop a naked goblin in a pit and use him for marksman practice. Or drop him off a cliff. Or into Magma (or a volcano). Or drown him. Or set the dogs on him. Or just build a cage to have him be a eternal prisoner.

[Geldrin]

How about capturing a few hundreds gobbos and trolls, then releasing them to fight against the HFS?
You can pit them in a large danger room to train all of them legendary.

[BoredVirulence]

How about capturing a few hundreds gobbos and trolls, then releasing them to fight against the HFS?
You can pit them in a large danger room to train all of them legendary.

Good luck. The danger room should kill them. Heck, I had a dwarf that dropped a gauntlet in the danger room (no idea how) die. Goblins that hardly wear any armor, and naked trolls probably won't last much longer.

However, the image of goblin slave labor being used as the initial defense against the HFS is amusing, and I promote half of this message!

[jcochran]

Good luck. The danger room should kill them. Heck, I had a dwarf that dropped a gauntlet in the danger room (no idea how) die. Goblins that hardly wear any armor, and naked trolls probably won't last much longer.

Did you perhaps use something other than training spears in your danger room?

[BoredVirulence]

Good luck. The danger room should kill them. Heck, I had a dwarf that dropped a gauntlet in the danger room (no idea how) die. Goblins that hardly wear any armor, and naked trolls probably won't last much longer.

Did you perhaps use something other than training spears in your danger room?

No, even wooden training spears can damage unarmored units. Its the same problem of dwarf baby smoothies when dwarven mothers use danger rooms.