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[Pseudobob]

So I'm being 'visited' by a forgotten beast, and it's made of fire. My immediate thought was that it should be easy, since fire is fragile, so of course I send in a bunch of inexperienced hammerdorfs. For some reason only one dorf came to fight it, and the others sat around and did nothing. Next thing I know there are five unreported corpses in the caves and the beast is uninjured. (I later found out that they chose to fight it one-by-one.)

Luckily I've got some stone doors to protect the rest of my fortress, and I recruit some more dorfs and train them in a danger room. The next year, I send down eight Hammer Lords (forgot to give them shields, oops) and what do they do? One by one they fight it, while the rest wander around acting like they can't reach the kill order. A firey arm gets knocked off in one of the fights but the general outcome is not success. Three corpses later, I lock the doors and retreat.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After some reflection, I think the problem may be with the clouds of smoke and fire that this beast flail around whenever it fights; they may be screwing with the paths somehow, or preventing my soldiers from seeing their kill. Potential solutions involve building manual traps like spears into the floor and luring the beast into them, or setting something up with floodgates and hidden niches where the soldiers pop out and all notice the beast at the same time. But I'm not sure if this will work. Drowning it might be a better idea.

Has anyone else had this problem? Any ideas?

[C27]

Have you tried archery?

[Pseudobob]

Not yet. That dug-out area is actually going to be an archery niche, but that's primarily as a precaution for later attacks. My concern in this case is whether fireballs can go through fortifications, because this guy throws them like nobody's business.

[PatrikLundell]

I usually deal with FBs using menacing spike traps, since they can be hand cranked. I've seen it said dorfs somehow get a minimum of self preservation when it comes to fire beasts, so they're reluctant to get near that fire. Otherwise, apart from crossbows (which I've abandoned for the time being due to the related problems), a nice corridor closed off by draw bridges, a fortification in the middle with a draw bridge closing off the corridor bending around it, and a ballista at the other end of the corridor, firing through the fortification from a safe distance, and a nice juicy door for the building destroying FB to attack (so you get time to close the bridges to trap it) should work. Just fire ballista bolts at it, once it's destroyed the door, until it's gone. If you fail (shouldn't happen with this FB), you can just leave the FB trapped until you've figured out a way to deal with it (I've heard steel FBs are hard to tackle, for instance).

[Pseudobob]

Surprisingly, this one can't destroy my doors. Stone beats fire? Anyway, I'll give manual weapon traps a try, although my metal industry is somewhat backed up at the moment and I don't want to use wood (obvious reasons). In the meantime I'll set this place up as a drowning pit for fun times later on.

[Magistrum]

Remember that "fire" is actually pretty cool, and that "dragonfire" is hot. Magma is between those two and is warm, good for just about everything.
Also, doors won't go down unless there's is fire on their tile, no adjacent to it, so if the door is kept locked it should be fine. Forgotten beasts are building destroyers though, and will destroy doors the traditional way without need of fire.
Fire is a really weak material for forgotten beasts, so go with marksdwarves or catapults or ballistas or whatever you've got to make any harm at all, since it will just disintegrate if you as  much as touch it.

[AlexanderTheIncompetant]

Maybe water pumps? Idk if this will work as I've never encountered a FB made of fire. Or any FB for that matter. Or maybe since it's fire is cooler than magma that will do the job. You could save, try something, and if it fails close the game and give it another try.

[Naryar]

Just do some damage to it. Fire beasts are the ultimate glass cannons and will lose limbs due to kittens scratching it.

Marksdwarves should do the trick.

[PatrikLundell]

If you've got sand you can try glass menacing spikes. Also, I suspect wood would actually work against a fire FB. The spikes might catch fire, but I think they could destroy the FB before they are destroyed themselves.

There is some weirdness with building destroyers in that it seems they actually have to stand two tiles away from their target to destroy it, and one tile away is too close, somehow.

[Magistrum]

Maybe water pumps? Idk if this will work as I've never encountered a FB made of fire. Or any FB for that matter. Or maybe since it's fire is cooler than magma that will do the job. You could save, try something, and if it fails close the game and give it another try.

Sadly, it's not possible to "put out" forgotten beasts, you will just get lots of steam.

[Witty]

Fire is a very odd material, as you can see. I think you're soldier pathing issues might be related to how sentient creatures treat fire, which is pretty buggy. It's been reported more than once that titans made of fire are totally ignored by military dwarves, something similar might be happening here. Are your soldiers actually attacking the creature, or just retaliating the beast's attacks? Try stationing your troops next to the FB instead of a direct kill order and see if that helps.

Either way, I think traps are the way to go here. I wouldn't put too much faith in the marksdwarves. 

[Sirbug]

Maybe water pumps? Idk if this will work as I've never encountered a FB made of fire. Or any FB for that matter. Or maybe since it's fire is cooler than magma that will do the job. You could save, try something, and if it fails close the game and give it another try.

I once witnessed fire beast swimming in the lake. In the end there was intact fire beast, and no lake.

[AlexanderTheIncompetant]

Maybe water pumps? Idk if this will work as I've never encountered a FB made of fire. Or any FB for that matter. Or maybe since it's fire is cooler than magma that will do the job. You could save, try something, and if it fails close the game and give it another try.

Sadly, it's not possible to "put out" forgotten beasts, you will just get lots of steam.

Maybe water pumps? Idk if this will work as I've never encountered a FB made of fire. Or any FB for that matter. Or maybe since it's fire is cooler than magma that will do the job. You could save, try something, and if it fails close the game and give it another try.

I once witnessed fire beast swimming in the lake. In the end there was intact fire beast, and no lake.

Maybe the lava? maybe it will burn the fire? Or how about obsidian farms? Again, keep in mind that I have never encountered a similar situation and that this is complete logical speculation so it probably doesn't apply to DF...

[Niddhoger]

Honestly? Just use shields.  Wooden shields can protect against syndromes and dragonfire.  In fact, the only statistic that matters for shield is weight- heavier shields bash for more damage.  Addy shields are actually the worst shields you can give your soldiers for this reason (since -only- weight matters)  You could also set up a few ballistae ~100 yards down the hall and use those. 

personally? I'd bunker him near the start of your fortress and have him toss fireballs at goblins.  If gobbo archers get close then drop a bridge cutting off its line of sight.  Think "giant cave spider silk farm," but instead with a flaming beast and roasted goblins!   Name him "Torchy" and use him as your mascot.  Let him give the elves hugs! The possibilities are endless. 

You can't "trap" forgotten beasts, but you can create corridors sealed off by bridges and baited with puppies (put them behind walls so they have ot path forward to get in range).  Channel out the tiles adjacent to hte beast room from above, but have a bridge ready to be lowered over said hole to keep the beast from firing on your miner.  Then have it wander down the corridors/up the ramps to the puppy bait in your fortification carved/bridge sealed room at your entrance. 

I hate simply killing forgotten beasts- its far more dwarfy to bend them to your will, or at least keep them as pets.  You can go all "Jabba the Hutt" and have them in a pit under your throne room.  You can give out maniacally laughter as you drop other nobles and liasons into the pit! If they have syndromes you can coat your weapons/ammo with it and spread it to enemies.  You can also use them as a silk farm, but sadly they have no material modifiers to said silk.  Ones made of steel can be used as target practice for marksdorfs with wooden bolts... etc. 

[Pseudobob]

I resolved this situation on the 24th, but I felt that words wouldn't be enough to describe what happened. So I've prepared a mini-comic to help explain it.

Behold:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Okay, the trap is set. Surely wood will attract it.



Just need to open this door.



Locked...



Unlocked.

That should do it.



...

Okay, the wooden doors aren't enough.

We need live bait. Who among you is suitably naïve?



Ézum, you're our man!

Wait, where are you?



Shit, drop what you're doing and get over here! There's no time to spare!



Okay, sure, but... no, this isn't the time. Where are you, Ézum?



Great, you've made it. Now get in the tunnel.

No, the other tunnel.

...

Okay, now unlock that door.



Wait...



...

Uh...



Okay, maybe his door doesn't work. If you'd be so kind...





WHAT IS GOING ON.

SHIT, JUST ATTACK HIM THEN.

FUCK



...





Oh.

Thus concludes my story of frustrating circumstances and probably a buggy BUILDINGDESTROYER tag... for now???