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[The Chemist]

So I was recently assailed by a dragon, I was initially very worried as my military is dodgey at best. It walked through my front gate while the lever to bar that path failed to work, it burnt the patch of arable land i have on the "roof" of my little out crop of rock and while it menaced the stairs to my top story farming complex, 2 arrows go through it's lungs. after a few more volley's one hit's it heart. causalities: 1 war dog and a lot of grass.

Do other people have more interesting encounters with these majestic beasts, and will I have them soon myself?

[Nocky]

I think the dragon I faced up against was a chump. I had one assault my fort from the only route available at the moment, which I always leave open for caravans and goblin ambush looting. So anyways, it comes up as I'm channeling to limit the amount of space any ambush/siege would have to maneuver so I can pick them off easily. All my dwarves are brought inside, while my military is set up behind my traps, ready to pounce. Well, except for my champion hammerdwarf. See, once it got in range, it breathed fire. There was still a ton of stuff left at the scene from a previous encounter, and surprisingly, nothing caught fire.

My champion hammerdwarf dislikes fire, however. He then decided to choke the damn thing to death. I pause every once in a while to see the damage done, and most of it is centered around the neck and head, with sporadic damage elsewhere.

I immediately made a tomb dedicated to that one dwarf decked out in platinum in case he should ever die.

[Dareon Clearwater]

My second fortress was going to be built into the side of a volcano.  The dragon living there had other plans.  Two fire breaths later, my wagon and half my dwarves are burning, and the other half is heading for the hills.  Apparently the game doesn't tell you when there's a megabeast already on the map when you embark. :<

[zagibu]

Dragons are physically pretty weak for a megabeast, but their fire-breath can be the downfall of a fortress. I think instead of being stronger, they should be able to fly.

[Captain Xenon]

i had a dragon walk into a cage trap and get tamed on one map. i put him behind fortifications at the front... and learned that dragons will not breath fire, when chained up behind a fortification. they can still get shot with arrows though.

for dragon combat, you really have to engage them at point blank, such as at a blind turn or a stairwell. otherwise they see you coming and breath fire. but if you get past the fire, its not a problem. aside from how they destroy buildings anyway.

[The Chemist]

what about through a wall grate?

[zagibu]

If it doesn't work, just attach e lever to it and lower the grate/bars when an enemy is near. The dragon probably has to be unchained as well.

[Steely Glint]

The last dragon I encountered died from what I believe was a single hammer blow dealt by one of my hammerdwarves, straggling away from the rest of the army. It was a heavily forested area, so there wasn't enough room for the fire breath to be effective... the dragon's corpse just flew through the air and collapsed against a tree.

[Cavalcadeofcats]

Yes. After all, trees do not burn.

[Asehujiko]

For a bit of challenge i replaced the goblin civ with a dragon one.

After loosing 1-3 dwarves on each snatcher, i finaly get a siege. And an ambush. Instead of attacking the main fort, the latter decides that after torching the unlucky woodcutter who happened upon them, the other army should be their main concern.

Some creative channel digging resulted in my entire map being a huge spiral, with retractable bridges all over. So the ambushers chase the siege across pretty much all of the map, breathing at them whenever they got line of sight though the trees. The siegers ignore this and occasionaly one gets wounded and falls behind so when the 3 survivors finaly make it to the gate they retreat upon contact, being chased across the map again. Only 1 makes it out alive and when the ambushers return to the fort, my cage traps are ready.

Result:
-1 dead woodcutter and his 2 wardog escort.
-22 !!Dragon Corpse!!
-13 -Dragon Cage-
-half the outide terrain scorched.

Then spring comes 3 days later and all of the ashes immediatly get replaced by grass.

[nahkh]

I was taking part in the Chasm Challenge game when I had my first one-on-one with a dragon. It was around year 4-5, and because of the particularities of the occasion most of our stockpiles and workshops were still outside. More than that, there was a serious traffic jam near the entrance to the fort because of some less-than-optimal design. We had no walls, moats or military bar a few stragglers. The traffic jam around the entrance prevented anyone from getting to safety, and we eventually ended up charging the dragon with 30-ish untrained dwarves.

The end result:
1 dragonslayer engraving
15-ish dwarves burninated
1200 squares of burning stockpiles
half a dozen destroyed workshops
60+ dwarves dead by tantruming

But hey, the fort survived. Actually, I think the dragon died to a stone trap ^^

[RogerN]

Elevated marksdwarves (firing from a tower or similar) will very quickly dispatch any dragon, with almost zero risk of casualties.  I don't believe that dragons will breathe fire at targets on different z-levels.  I've never seen them do it, at least.

Sometimes, though, you can't get everyone inside quickly enough.  In that case the biggest threat is that one of your dwarves will catch on fire and then decide to "rest" (while still on fire, of course) to recover from his injuries.  Even if he doesn't manage to catch the booze stockpile on fire (need a drink before going to bed, you know?) you're still not in the clear.

His bed will probably catch on fire. His clothes will definitely be burning; and dwarves don't seem to mind trying to stockpile !!Xpig tail trousersX!!.  After he dies, his room will still be on fire - and other dwarves will continue to risk spreading it as they check the dead guy's chest/coffer every 10 seconds.

[ June 02, 2008: Message edited by: RogerN ]

[Cthulhu]

Question:  Do dragons shoot fireballs, or just firebreath?  My adventurer is starting to approach epic-ness, and I'm almost ready to ask a civ leader for a quest.  If they can shoot Fireballs, I'm not going to screw with them, because you can't block them.

[zagibu]

I've never seen them shoot fireballs.

[Captain Mayday]

quote:Originally posted by Cthulhu:
<STRONG>Question:  Do dragons shoot fireballs, or just firebreath?  My adventurer is starting to approach epic-ness, and I'm almost ready to ask a civ leader for a quest.  If they can shoot Fireballs, I'm not going to screw with them, because you can't block them.</STRONG>

only firebreath.