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Author Topic: What's your defense strategy against Forgotten Beasts?  (Read 3561 times)

Ivar360

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Re: What's your defense strategy against Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #15 on: August 25, 2014, 06:40:12 pm »

I wall of a big part of the caverns entirely so i have access to the flora and can collect plenty of webs.
I have a seperate entrance into the actual caverns with a long hallway, a dog on a chain as bait to catch the wildlife in cage traps.
On both ends of the hallway are raising drawbridges so i can close off the entrance into the caverns to empty my traps safely.

When a FB shows up I trap it between two drawbridges and have the crossbow squad kill it from behind fortifications at a safe distance.
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Dorf and Dumb

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Re: What's your defense strategy against Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #16 on: August 25, 2014, 09:43:00 pm »

If a cavern is shallow enough, your dorfs can pretty readily wall the entire thing all the way around at the edge, as long as whatever wildlife is inside at the time is passive enough to let them.  (By "wall" actually I usually mean fortifications, because stuff has a harder time moving around on top if it appears)  But I don't know if the complete walling that defeats entry is part of what kills my FPS.

Or you can wall it off at choke points.  You don't really need a whole cavern.

Or, build doors in the wall, but make the passage with multiple doors (and no z-level ways around them) followed by a wall that you've mostly finished and then suspended.  Since a FB gives you a warning you can finish it before the door goes down.  But some other stuff might walk right in if you're not watching.  (Far as I can tell, a Voracious Cave Crawler is much, much worse than a FB.  For that matter, most FBs I just leave alone and the wildlife takes them out within a few seasons.
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jei

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Re: What's your defense strategy against Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #17 on: August 26, 2014, 02:26:47 pm »

Best working general strategy has been what I call "20 adamantine axes."

Mainly axes, because swinging adamantine usually cuts off an appendage or a body part, more so than a sword. These harsh days I only make axes of adamantine, nothing else. Maybe a sword too, if I have a skilled swords dwarf.

Some FBs, like snails, usually die easier if you deny them access to water.
Others are easier to fight in shallow water area or pool, where fires are extinguished and poisons wash off.

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Aslandus

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Re: What's your defense strategy against Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #18 on: August 26, 2014, 05:10:06 pm »

I haven't faced too many FBs, I usually just send my military to kill it before it eats too many dorfs, but I bet those deadly blood and dust syndromes would be less dangerous if you built a big cistern and flooded washed the entire cavern after the fight

ImagoDeo

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Re: What's your defense strategy against Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #19 on: August 26, 2014, 08:49:09 pm »

I abuse floor hatches quite shamelessly and often wind up trapping several beasties between raising drawbridges and double sets of locked hatches. From that point, I use them for various traps and testing and training purposes.

Nothing else can get through a locked floor hatch from below, either. They make the best entrances and exits, bar none, in my humble opinion, for both surface activities and cavern access.
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Saiko Kila

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Re: What's your defense strategy against Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #20 on: August 27, 2014, 02:49:17 am »

While I use different setups(*) I found out that I don't actually have to fight FBs. I keep my caverns closed, and the strongest FB survives. It also kills trolls, dralthas, rutherers and whatnot, thus exchanging generations of caverns quickly. And then the blind cave ogres come and punch it in the face so the head collapses... I just limit myself to carving slabs


(mostly a range of door-baits and single tile bridges, jail cells in short, it allows me to redirect the FB to a different area, and safely use it for webbing cage-traps, plus I can isolate more interesting underground specimens from FB and cage them. I can flood every cell with magma to sanitize. I also make drop holes for throwing cat scouts in. Cat scouts can be redirected with some minimal effort. But al these setups are usually not necessary, natural survival rate of my FBs seem low).
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Sus

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Re: What's your defense strategy against Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #21 on: August 27, 2014, 03:25:06 am »

1) Make damn sure you have at least one marksdorf and two melee squads in full armor and with good skills before taking on the caverns.
2) Make an "airlock" entrance into the caverns with raising bridges at both ends, possibly with an additional lockable hatch in the fortress side.
3) Wall off a section of the caverns ASAP. If you're exceptionally lucky, you may even block outside access altogether with some planning. This prevents the FB:s and other assorted nasties from eating your dorfs. An alternate strategy is to section off parts of the cavern piece by piece, setting up bridges to seal the secured parts off from the rest of the caverns. (Note: unless you want some ‼Fun‼ flying surprises, remember to wall up the cave all the way to the ceiling!)

Most of the time, I won't even bother to uncork the caverns, just carving fortifications in the walls so my marksdorfs can take pot-shots at whatever lurks down there. This also allows cave spiders (the regular, non-dwarf-eating variety) to weave webs in the tunnels behind the fortifications.

Also, controlled cave-ins are your best weapon against FB:s. Especially the metallic or otherwise extra ‼Fun‼ ones.
(P.S. As a rule of thumb, if its species name ends in "-saur(id)", the FB will turn even armored dorfs to a fine paste with a single kick.)
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Quartz_Mace

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Re: What's your defense strategy against Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #22 on: August 27, 2014, 11:00:36 pm »

I generally just go for a safe shoot-out with a Marksdwarf squad behind fortifications for anything fleshy or easy to kill that has no poison or fire. If it has potential syndromes or poison, I generally pit it against prisoners (usually trolls) in a controlled airlock situation. After I see what it can do, I either engage with the military or set up a ballista based off of how tough it's proven. For anything made of stone, metal, gem, or anything that I know I can't kill, I keep it blocked off until I've prepared a suitable weapon or trap. I've considered cave-ins and minecart shotguns, but I'm a relatively new player and haven't mastered those yet.
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moz

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Re: What's your defense strategy against Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #23 on: August 28, 2014, 09:28:43 am »

I trap them with a 3x1 room with a raising bridge entrance and a bait piece of furniture at the end of the room. Let their bloodlust for crushing tables lure them into the room then seal the entrance with the bridge. Mostly just use them for !SCIENCE!: pit them against each other, make a web/acid spitting turrent, feed nobles to them. Once they are locked in a room they are very easy to manipulate.

There's a nice thread not too long ago about automating the FB trap if you don't trust your lever pullers.

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Rum

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Re: What's your defense strategy against Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #24 on: August 28, 2014, 03:03:47 pm »

I use old school fortifications.  Think castle underground.   2/3 of military training and patroling the various caverns.  marksdwarves at all the chokepoints.   

though honestly cavern patrol duty is easy for my dwarves.   the dangerous wildlife down there is nothing compared to the constant elf/goblin sieges that continually overrun the above ground fortifications.   Elven archers with metal arrows are deadly....

If an fb kills a squad down in the caverns its got at least 2 more sets of metal doors/angry dwarves to get through.

havnt had to wall off my caverns in a while.   those fb syndromes on diamond beasts are a bitch tho.
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