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[ykcud]

So here I am, rulling over my fledgling fortress when a group of migrants arrive and after looking over there military skills (which most of my soldiers were felled on a goblin invasion a season earlier) I found one with about 150 kills to her name, all of which were dwarves, humans, elves and goblins (but especially humans). After further investigation I have found this dwarf to be a vampire!

I have a room for all those who are were beasts or vampires, a room I close behind the creature, never to allow them out until death takes it toll. I did some thinking however. I might be wasting these monsters which may be put to use. I am considering making a small room outside the fortress, which can only open via a bridge of which is to be operated from a lever inside the fortress. I will put her inside with a full set of steel armor and a sword to keep her company. She will also be conscripted into her own special squad. When another siege is upon me, I plan to wake her, tell her to put on her "Sunday dress", close my gates and unleash her onto them.

A few questions arise. Tales of vampires say they are immortal, but feed on blood like a bearded dwarf feeds on a fine ale. Now does this mean without blood she will die? I am hoping the more time she is locked away the more this wench will thirst for blood. This has also given me an idea for what I would like to call a "Dwarven Petting Zoo", where as all foul and/or fierce creatures I capture or have shall be lined on a road, just outside my gates, inside of small rooms closed off via bridges. I want at least one wall facing the road to my fortress to be a grate or anything similar that can keep these beasts held while letting all those who pass by outside both see and hear them shriek, bellow and yell. I want word to spread to every inhabited part that laying siege to my fortress is a rather terrifying idea.

On one side I want all the creatures that will just as likely chew the faces off of my dwarves as they would my opposition to locked up and on the other all my larger war beasts, such as tigers, jaguars, bears, ect (I shall be also locking them in with the same specials as to encourage breeding).

There will be 5 levers inside the fortress for this part. The first two will control the bridges locking away these beasts, one for each side. The 3rd will close a bridge on one side and another lever will close a bridge on the other, trapping my enemy within the walls. Those ladder two will be the first in use. I will proceed by asking them if they "want to play a game?" I will then unleash my war pets onto these poor fools. If they survive, thats great, as I they move onto round 2, the more voracious, beasts.

Now, if they get killed by these beasts, I do not want to lose them, they are too valuable to me. So as it is, they too are trapped inside this hell hall. I will then pull the fifth lever, which will reveal a another hall, full of cage traps and at the end of this, encouragement (perhaps a kitten on string).

Thoughts on this, ideas you have for the vampire or your own interesting experiences with vampires.

[Immortal-D]

Vampires are a legitimate !FUN! military tactic.  They will not die from lack of blood.  However, as a Dwarf, the Vampire will still suffer from alcohol withdrawal, becoming increasingly lethargic & weak.  As for releasing night-creatures onto the battlefield; just make sure your Fort entrance has multiple 'airlocks'.  This will allow you to feed gear and building materials to the outside.  Have your Vampire construct his own prison!

[ykcud]

Vampires are a legitimate !FUN! military tactic.  They will not die from lack of blood.  However, as a Dwarf, the Vampire will still suffer from alcohol withdrawal, becoming increasingly lethargic & weak.  As for releasing night-creatures onto the battlefield; just make sure your Fort entrance has multiple 'airlocks'.  This will allow you to feed gear and building materials to the outside.  Have your Vampire construct his own prison!

So they drink both blood and ale? If the withdrawal is only from a lack of blood, I could always drop a kitten into the chamber below if I make it two stories and have a cat-splosion. The idea of a vampire who feeds exclusively on kittens intrigues me.

[StagnantSoul]

No, it's purely from alcohol, and an explosion of gore wont make them drink blood. Has to be from an unconscious creature.

[ImagoDeo]

Vampires are a legitimate !FUN! military tactic.  They will not die from lack of blood.  However, as a Dwarf, the Vampire will still suffer from alcohol withdrawal, becoming increasingly lethargic & weak.  As for releasing night-creatures onto the battlefield; just make sure your Fort entrance has multiple 'airlocks'.  This will allow you to feed gear and building materials to the outside.  Have your Vampire construct his own prison!

So they drink both blood and ale? If the withdrawal is only from a lack of blood, I could always drop a kitten into the chamber below if I make it two stories and have a cat-splosion. The idea of a vampire who feeds exclusively on kittens intrigues me.

All dwarves have the tag [ALCOHOL_DEPENDENT], and becoming a vampire doesn't change that. Vampires do get the tag [NO_DRINK], though, and therefore they never go to the booze stockpile for a swig. It makes vampire soldiers rather underwhelming, in my opinion, because the slowdown after a year without alcohol makes the 'can't-bleed-out' and 'super-strength' stuff less effective than you would think.

I haven't yet seen a vampire in 40.24, but the minute I do I'm going to go back to the modding board: add a syndrome to Dwarf blood that removes [NO_DRINK]. That way, the vampire only needs to drink one dwarf before she will go back to being alcohol-swilling just like all her companions. Burrow restrictions can prevent her from taking a drink from something other than a barrel of dwarven wine. (Seriously, just make a custom burrow for her that excludes all beds. It's easy.)

She can be a 100% productive member of the fort.

Or you can take it one step further and vampirize your whole damn fort with her blood. Getting a well fouled by her blood may be a little tricky, but it's not extremely likely to cost her life if you keep her wearing a helm and body armor. Leg wounds from floor spikes will bleed enough to make a <pool of X's dwarf blood> which you can then pour water on and build a well on top of. Keep all your other dwarves off the booze by forbidding your whole stockpile, make sure they can only drink from the well, assign them all to the special burrow so they don't murder each other during the transition, and before long you'll have what I had: an entirely Vampirized fort full of booze-swilling, never-sleeping, never-eating, extremely-muscled bearded maniacs ready and willing to massacre whatever the hell decides to come after your fort.

Seriously, it's f#$%ing glorious and I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I were lucky enough to get a vampire.

[vjmdhzgr]

The easiest thing to do with vampires is to just lock them in an office and make them the bookkeeper/manager, and they'll sit there and do a better job at managing than any mortal dwarf could ever dream of.

[escondida]

Burrow restrictions can prevent her from taking a drink from something other than a barrel of dwarven wine. (Seriously, just make a custom burrow for her that excludes all beds. It's easy.)

Actually, a vampire hankering for blood will ignore burrow restrictions, just as a starving or dehydrated mortal dwarf will. You can use burrowing to get Vlad where you want them (put a workshop in the target burrow, profile it to the vamp, queue a job, wait), but to protect your citizens you need a way to lock them in. You can also just put them in a single-unit, no-special-uniform squad and station them, then lock the door.

[ImagoDeo]

Burrow restrictions can prevent her from taking a drink from something other than a barrel of dwarven wine. (Seriously, just make a custom burrow for her that excludes all beds. It's easy.)

Actually, a vampire hankering for blood will ignore burrow restrictions, just as a starving or dehydrated mortal dwarf will. You can use burrowing to get Vlad where you want them (put a workshop in the target burrow, profile it to the vamp, queue a job, wait), but to protect your citizens you need a way to lock them in. You can also just put them in a single-unit, no-special-uniform squad and station them, then lock the door.

Unless that changed between .34 and .40, it's not true. I personally used burrow restrictions on vampires more than half a dozen times and it worked perfectly each time. The only fatalities were dwarves who fell asleep in odd places - i.e. hunters.

[ykcud]

The easiest thing to do with vampires is to just lock them in an office and make them the bookkeeper/manager, and they'll sit there and do a better job at managing than any mortal dwarf could ever dream of.

I rather like this idea. Not as bloody, but very industrious. I think I will still give her a set of armor and a weapon for a last ditch effort to save my fort when !fun! happens.

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

If I ever got a vampire, I would put one with a crossbow in a study/marksdwarf tower outside to permenantly update records and protect the fort.

[Bearskie]

The first thing i do with my vampires and werecreatures is to lock them into a room with 6/7 water until they end up as Legendary+5 swimmers.  Usually takes about a year, and literally zero effort required since they dont need to sleep/eat/drink.