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[De]

So I hadn't quite finished the necessary three tile tree prevention paving for my walls when a purple feathered, web shooting, flying snail turned up. The map, as far as I can tell, has no iron and no coal so I'm stuck with copper equipment and the snail managed to slaughter almost all of my militia (and animals) before I could get everyone inside. My plan is to seal off the surface and just live underground... forever I guess, but there are all these saplings right next to my walls... Does anyone know a handy hack or something that will get rid of saplings?

[Flying Dice]

If you're using DFHack, drop a line or six of magma outside your walls.

Of course, that might also inadvertently solve your titan problem. And your migrant problem. And your caravan problem. And your undead problem. Not your siege problem, though because sieges are no problem. 

[Jay]

I seem to recall an extirpate command in DFHack for just that purpose, though it might not have survived the 0.40 update

[PatrikLundell]

Placing stockpiles on the ground prevents saplings from maturing. When the stockpile is removed years later the pent up development happens instantly, so a couple of trees may mature and a lot of saplings die.
In my later fortresses I've covered most of the surface in default animal stockpiles I've then removed the animal part from, resulting in no item stockpiles.
If you've got sand available it's easy (but time consuming) to solve your titan problem, provided the bugger doesn't camp in the air (like mine did). Just dig down to the magma sea and start up a glass industry to produce green glass menacing spikes. Meanwhile, build an airlock that just does not breach the outside. Build a door by the inner drawbridge as bait and then an array of menacing spike traps (I use full sets of 10 spikes in each) in the rest of the airlock and hook those up to a repeater (I use an impulse ramp driven minecart repeater). Breach the outside and lock the door behind the miner (probably not needed), activate the repeater and close the drawbridges when the titan arrives. Watch titan die.
If you haven't got sand, use the same setup sans the traps. You've then contained the titan and the surface is free to use through another route (probably the original one you sealed). Engineer a cave-in on top of the titan, and have your dwarven survivors feast on titan brain roasts for years.
If the titan is camping in the air, use civilian alert burrows to very carefully keep your crew out of sight of the titan (note that they'll pass over non burrow terrain between parts inside, so burrows are useless for directing traffic). Build a catapult and set a dorf or two on siege operator training with it. Build a staircase in line with the titan but well away from it. When at the titan's altitude, build a 3*3 platform with the center row aligned with the titan. Build a ballista on the platform and fire away with ballista arrows at the titan. This may eventually get it. In my case, I managed to hurt it a bit, until local wildlife got it to move, chase my siege operator, and get caught in my entrance airlock while munching on the door. It was then ended with a cave-in.

[De]

I will try the stockpile thing before I start messing around with hack. My understand of dfhack is very rudimentary.

Yes, the titan is camped in the air. He only comes down these days to murder giant wrens and then takes off again. I tried luring him into the entrance with the hopes of trapping him there but no go. Also, the caverns are right there. I've only got about three z levels to build with so digging down to the magma sea and then pumping it or carting it up would be quite difficult. The first cavern takes up almost all the map. I'm still working on building a secure entrance into it.

[Inarius]

You can just wait, and your problem will be resolved in a year, maximum.
 Know that titans will fight goblins and elfes, and also your caravan. I have once had a quite powerful flying fire-breathing titan like yours, and it was eventually killed by a archer elf riding a mosquito - it was quite an epic battle. The titan had time to wipe out the entire siege, giant tiger and giant frog included ; but before this he killed all the guards and the caravan, so I had a lot of things for free.

[PatrikLundell]

Almost the whole map still should give you some space to squeeze a staircase in safely, though. I generally build a workshop by the magma sea for heat dependent processing. To haul magma you'll need a magma safe cart, i.e. one made out of one of the three magma safe metals (nether-cap does NOT
work, as it will burn when filled with magma), and I'd gotten the impression you don't have that.

Do you have a door as bait in your entrance?

If the blasted titan is in one place, you can try to dig another one at the other edge of the map to get yourself a ballista tower. Of course, both ballistae and their arrows require wood, which can only be acquired "safely" in the caverns that are not yet secured. Also note that a siege engine off the ground is useless for anything that a particular target it's built for, since siege engines can only fire at their own Z level, but the machine can be dismantled afterwards.

@Inarius: Your description doesn't sound like DF2014, as I've never seen a mount (although I haven't been at war with the elves). With luck a titan will eventually be whittled down by goblin or black tower sieges, but goblin ones won't arrive unless the population is above 80 with default parameters, and it sounds like this fortress is way below that. Black tower sieges are, obviously, dependent on a black tower within range, and they very quickly run out of steam (don't think I've had more than 3 or 4 sieges before they stop coming, and usually about 2).
I would rather say the best chance of outside assistance is the dwarven caravans, where the guards might slowly hurt the titan in a way that isn't healed up, but I'd say that's a 10 year project.

[De]

-snip-

*palm forehead* Magma safe! You're right. I don't have magma safe anything. I'm so used to having something that I've forgotten that all I've found so far is malachite, tetrahedrite, silver, casserite and galena. I also have strictly limited fuel reserves, which is why I want to focus on the caverns. Another big problem is you're right, we have 85 survivors and most of them are childless widows and widowers. Eventually we'll have to find a way to get migrants in or the fortress won't survive at all because we're not breeding any replacements.

This was a strange world. I almost scrapped it after gen but decided to keep it just for the weirdness factor. Most of the world, including the dwarven civ has been conquered by the Confusing Orange, a supposedly elven civ that has a largely goblin population. The only elven noble they have is actually their diplomat and traders. I can't actually tell if my civ is dead or not. It's been so long since I saw a caravan that I can't remember if the outpost liasion shows up or not. We have a king but I think he was appointed by goblins. I was wondering if I could get him to show up by discovering adamantine or something, but that seems like a bad idea with the titan camped out outside. I genned this world to have plenty of minerals but given that when I used the find feature to search out an embark there were only a handful of suitable sites, I'm wondering if there is any iron ore to be had anywhere. What iron I have is from melted goblinite (my first iteration of the militia was wiped out by incredibly ill timed goblin siege, the current militia commander is the one survivor from all these attacks, she fought off 13 goblins single handed in copper armor and equipped with a bone crossbow). The only steel stuff I had is outside on the body of the dead Captain of the Guard. (This titan showed up during the fruit harvest when the maority of the fortress was outside.)

I don't want to get rid of the titan by cheating but this is a pickle. I've got to find some way to stop the trees making the game unplayable. I don't think I can train up troops strong enough to fight this monstrosity even after a cavern conquest. It flies and shoots webs.

Edit: Well, so much for that. The titan found a way by trashing my windmill and storming the farms. Fortress population now standing at 60. Best I can figure out, the titan died falling down the stairs.

Edit of the Edit: Checking the battle reports. Somebody shot it with a copper bolt to the brain. Looks like it was a very weak fish cleaner.

Further updates: But now I'm under siege by the Crazed Poison, again. The Fun, it does not stop. This does answer an earlier comment. Turns out, goblins will totally siege you even if you've only got 61 dwarves. (One of the speardwarves managed to breed before he died, hurray!)

[PatrikLundell]

Well, you've passed the 80 pop threshold with your 85, and it might be that once you've triggered that, it remains triggered, but it's useful info.

You've also managed to uncover a number of weaknesses in your defense strategy, which is useful (once the siege is dealt with). A goblin or black tower siege will last for either a season or a year (random, as far as I know) before they give up and run away. Thus, you can turtle your way through the siege, or try to use a divide and conquer strategy to eliminate the siege. You can, for instance, try to  get some of them into an airlock and close off the accesses. My standard strategy is to use cage traps in the airlock, so it's just a matter of open, haul away the cages, reload, rinse, repeat, although at times a few too many invaders end up in the airlock, so the militia will have to deal with the excess. Also, the camping around the commander bug/behavior means you probably can't get all of them to come to you.

Magma safe stone is not much of a problem, since there is usually a lot of gabbro around, if not high up, then further down. If the situation is desperate you can always make obsidian yourself (although that means an unsecured access to the magma sea, at least for the first batch).

[NullForceOmega]

To the best of my knowledge population triggers only work while you maintain a population above the threshold, but older versions (and the current version, it just has serious pathfinding issues) actually model travel time for armies invading you (in a far more abstracted fashion than is currently done), so the invaders would likely have been sent while your pop met requirements, and if they are successfully repelled you should have no more until your population once again crosses the line.

Addendum: also, that three tile wide strip of paving should be four or five wide, so that no leaves can abut the edge of the map (leaves/branches can extend three tiles from the trunk, so you need at least one additional tile to prevent treetop spawns).

[Inarius]

@Inarius: Your description doesn't sound like DF2014, as I've never seen a mount (although I haven't been at war with the elves).

Yeah, true. But a caravan (or goblins) can do it very well. It's not a 10 years project, even a good crossbower can do the job.
As long as your titan is not made of steel or iron, it's quite easy to kill, if you have ranged weapon and trained people.

[Sutremaine]

You don't need to go mad with green glass spikes to kill a titan. A little cave-in trap will work, and work bloodlessly on anything. You need three doors to hold the titan in place, two raising drawbridges on either side of the tile the titan stands on to smash the doors, and a floor perched on a pillar on the floor / ceiling above the tile the titan is trapped in when you raise the drawbridges.

One door will work, but gives you less time to get the bridges raised. It's also a good idea to put a raising bridge somewhere before the trap, in case a second beast arrives before you've finished rebuilding the pillar and floors.

[De]

To the best of my knowledge population triggers only work while you maintain a population above the threshold, but older versions (and the current version, it just has serious pathfinding issues) actually model travel time for armies invading you (in a far more abstracted fashion than is currently done), so the invaders would likely have been sent while your pop met requirements, and if they are successfully repelled you should have no more until your population once again crosses the line.

Addendum: also, that three tile wide strip of paving should be four or five wide, so that no leaves can abut the edge of the map (leaves/branches can extend three tiles from the trunk, so you need at least one additional tile to prevent treetop spawns).

I'm paranoid because I've lost a fortress I quite like to the tree crash for good. It's a matter of how long I have in between invasions to build, which is never very long.

I've had two succession forts in a row so I haven't had time for my problem child lately, but so far (knock on wood) no tree crashes in spite of periodic sieges. The sieges are quite regular in spite of the rather low population. I successfully slaughtered the first party of goblins to find me so they're not happening simply because I'm failing to repel them. You can definitely be attacked when you have only 61 dwarves and successfully broke the previous siege.

Other interesting note. Last siege (I think it was the fourth, it's been over a week since I played so I don't quite remember) I turtled inside my freshly reinforced walls. I had an issue with my dwarves somehow pathing around my closed gate (it's a miracle they survived). They must have jumped down from the wall. I'm not sure how to prevent this. I've moved all the gates farther back and I might need to carefully floor in some area and build a safety railing.

Again, we're surviving. I think the biggest threat to the fortress at this moment is still the trees. I should have known. My expedition leader and mason died of dehydration stuck up a fruit tree the first year of the fortress. None of their fellows would cut them down even with every other labor disabled and a pile of training axes. They've littered the fortress with guilt statues depicting the two in the fetal position. Some sort of weird tree sacrifice maybe?

[PatrikLundell]

I generally use civilian alerts to keep my dorfs out of the surface/cavern I'm currently having trouble with. I also roof over my courtyard, so the topside farm plots and grazing ground are all inside the "safe" area.

In your situation I'd definitely use the stockpile trick/exploit to keep the trees from destroying things (and make a vigorous use of the wood cutters between sieges).

[Sutremaine]

I'm paranoid because I've lost a fortress I quite like to the tree crash for good. It's a matter of how long I have in between invasions to build, which is never very long.

Can't DFHack help out with that? It can't kill off trees, but it can place walls to block off encroaching tree growths.

There are alternatives to paving. You can carve down-stairs on the surface, or mine out the soil walls just beneath the surface.