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[domanite]

I'm new to DF, so I've been playing with badness turned down. Pretty much the only bad thing I see (at least so far) is the occasional big monster, and the were-creatures that I hate more than life itself.

This last time, the mighty dwarves of Pantherroom heard about my previous were-failures, and decided to build a were-proof abode. They had received a fragmentary report from another fort that had tried to identify all the possibly-infected dwarves, and lock them in their rooms. Unfortunately, the doors failed to hold; all remaining details are lost to history, as the report ended there.

So the Pantherroomites decided to completely wall off a large section of the surface, so no weres could reach any citizen. This they did with typical industry and ingenuity - they architected an airlock system to allow caravans in and out. When the cyclops showed up, they pretty much figured they were safe.

Of course, there were a few dwarves unexpectedly running around on the surface. Pantherroom had chosen to dispense with the position of bookkeeper, so it remains unclear if these were migrants making their way to the fort, or an unfortunate caravan.

In any case, the cyclops made very short work of those dwarves, but then just wandered around a while and eventually left. Success! The wall apparently worked for more than just weres. The dwarves returned to their underground activities: most importantly, figuring out how to controllably get water underground for a farm. After several years of relying only on caravans for booze, the dwarves were getting a little anxious.

The farm was successfully muddied, when suddenly, an alarm! The cyclops had returned, and apparently climbed over the wall! A few random dwarves were all that stood between the beast and the unguarded entrance to the fort. (The expedition leader had put off the chore of setting up a military, and no superior had as yet arrived to make her see the wisdom of her ways.)

Well, having seen what the cyclops did to the previous set of dwarves, the village quickly wrote off the ones on the surface, and instructed their masons to wall off the stairwell to the surface. (The hospital, halfway up the stairwell, made this a very difficult decision for the more soft-hearted dwarves.) This they accomplished with alacrity, after which they waited... Sounds of fighting dragged on, and then eventually died - as, presumably, did the dwarves on the surface.

Finally they broke down the wall and peered carefully up to the surface. Amazingly, all dwarves were alive! While everyone else hid in fear and assumed their death, these brave dwarves fought the monster for a long day and night, with only three dwarves suffering injuries, only one of them serious. According to their reports, most of them fought only with their fists; stopping only to take short naps when exhaustion overtook them. The struggle ended with a most appropriate pick-axe to the head, as recorded in the official fortress records:

The Miner strikers The Cyclops in the head with her (copper pick) and the injured part is cloven asunder!
An artery has been opened by the attack!

authors note: I really have no idea how this happened; I truly expected the cyclops to lay waste to all dwarves on the surface and in the hospital. Does anyone have suggestions for improving my walls so they are cyclops-proof?

[EDIT] After letting the game run a bit, then checking the hospital beds, I realize that the injuries were more severe, and more numerous, than I originally thought. It looks like this is a more normal case of some extremely hardy and motivated dwarves defending Village Gatinmosus - "Pantherroom".

For some reason the battle logs only had the dwarves' side of the fight, so it looked like they were hitting a lot and not getting hit. In reality, the fight was much more two-sided.

[SimRobert2001]

Walls can be made out of bricks and blocks to make them harder to climb.  Build them above the treeline, and with a 1 tile overhang to prevent climbers.

[Niddhoger]

The only wall that is inherently unscalable is a smoothed NATURAL stone wall.  Other than that, you have to provide a ledge over the top of the wall to prevent enemies from being able to climb straight up.  Also watch out for trees.  They'll grow and provide excellent purchrase for an invader to climb over your walls.  If you don't want to make your wall higher than the tree-line, you can build a ring of paved roads around your fort.  They can be built cheaply, prevent trees from regrowing, and improve fortress wealth. 

[Ghills]

You don't need to muddy ground to start a farm. Planting on dirt works just fine, both above and below ground.