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[Foxbyte]

... And it's flying down Main Street, tearing apart my canine armies. Any dwarf I recruit to the military runs like a coward; even the crossbowdwarves are refusing to engage.

And before it gets asked, yes they are on duty, they have ammunition [I have over 3000 bolts in storage], and their squad is set to harass dangerous wild animals.

Help? 

Edit: Also before people tell me to Search The Forums, I already did. Several posts say that marksdwarves SHOULD attack Giant Bats with the z-axis fix, and I've got the latest version. Also the Giant Bat isn't in the air, it's walking around my tunnels.

[Albedo]

Your soldier-dwarves aren't "running", they're going to get equipment.  The armor and crossbows that you told them to get.

If it's inside, you're in luck - relatively speaking.  If you have any real soldiers (who are trained wrestlers),  <v>iew the nearest, toughest wrestlers, and <A>ctivate them as soldiers.  Use the < s>oldiering menu to make sure they're happy fighting unarmed and in clothing.  They should wrestle it down with a minimum of injuries, if any.

Don't tackle it untrained - unless you have both dwarves to spare and a dark sense of humour.

If you have no wrestlers (nearby), then evacuate that section by <a>ctivating everyone and sending them out, then lock the doors on the beast.  Armor up, go in en masse, and speak to it harshly. 

(Edit - to be clear, a GB is size 10 - that's on the large side.  When I said "trained wrestlers", I meant "well-trained" - not just a couple levels, but Proficient at least.  And several of them, because they'll probably get tired or stunned, maybe worse - this can be a serious threat, not like a lone wolf or cougar.  Dogpile that sucker.)

[Untelligent]

Once you have a trained military, contrary to what Albedo implied, you should have them active all the time. Not necessarily on duty, just active. If you keep them active, they'll wear equipment all the time, and will be ready for a sudden bat-raid or goblin siege; this could potentially save your fort.

Also soldiers won't spar while inactive. Once you put them into the military, you should never have a reason to deactivate them, unless you have a sudden shortage of civilians for some reason.

[smjjames]

If you have any bridges and it's linked up, use it to try and whack the thing when it walks on one. Provided it's a drawbridge since a retracting one is no good against a flying creature. If you do it right, you may be able to atomsmash it.

[Albedo]

Once you have a trained military, contrary to what Albedo implied, you should have them active all the time.

(That's personal preference, and you know it.  It's also untrue as you present it - "some" should be, not "all".  It depends entirely on what stage the fort is in, starting up or well-grounded, and how many you have.

All my woodcutters/masons/plantgatherers (same thing) train up to at least Proficient in wrestling and axedwarf, and carry axes 24/7.  Sim w/ miners.  I have a few professional military, but believe strongly in reserves. 

I also don't earmark anyone until they finish their attributes - some wrestlers never get tough, and so are never melee troops, just haulers or masons.

But they can't both train and do their job, so they rotate as needed.)

[Skorpion]

You're in for some casualties. Those bastards are tough and rather lethal.

EDIT:
Once you've got more than 50 or so dwarves, you CAN support a few trained military dwarves. 5 or so champions can take out a siege squad of melee goblins with nary a scratch, remember.

[smjjames]

I suppouse I should be drafting more of my immigrants into the army, I always find myself with more dwarves than I have possible jobs.

[Foxbyte]

My military was active at the time, minus the legendary woodcutter who was nearby; she's tackled goblin ambushes alone, and JUST healed from her previous wounds.

In the end, the crossbowdwarves [Fully equipped and armed] simply stood 8 tiles away and watched as the Woodman-turned-axedwarf stood 3 tiles from the bat and did nothing as it ate it's way through seven of my war dogs. I have it locked in the Mechanic's house, and the Mechanic is locked in his bedroom absolutely terrified. He's got food and water in there, but I'm not sure how long it'll take to kill. My units seem to only attack it when they get wrestled by it.

Edit: I stationed troops at the door and opened it... Immediately the bat tackled the woodcutter-turned-axedwarf and tore three chunks off her, but she managed to slice the damn thing in half. Good riddance, Crazylancers! Now to make soap out of it.

Edit: Oh man, the leatherworker I just got in a migration wave went -fey- and took the leather my Meatsmith made from Crazylancers. This is going to be the coolest thing -ever-.

[smjjames]

Is it a tamed giant bat? I know there's a bug (or feature rather) involving tamed creatures who have killed dwarves before they got tamed and so, they will still attack your dwarves (and the dogs I think.)

[Foxbyte]

Is it a tamed giant bat? I know there's a bug (or feature rather) involving tamed creatures who have killed dwarves before they got tamed and so, they will still attack your dwarves (and the dogs I think.)

It flew out of the bottomless pit. Though I suspect this might be a bug related to that.

[Byakugan01]

No, they should fly out now and then. By the way, next time this happens I would recommend locking it in a room and setting up cage traps and some dwarven bait right outside the cage traps. If you can get one of the opposite gender, all you would have to do would be lock the blooded bat in a one-tile room (build it's cage there, then connect it to a lever-and for armok's sake LOCK THAT DOOR!-, pull lever), then chain the one you want it to breed with somewhere else. Voila, giant bat pups for the taking.

[Skorpion]

Is it a tamed giant bat? I know there's a bug (or feature rather) involving tamed creatures who have killed dwarves before they got tamed and so, they will still attack your dwarves (and the dogs I think.)

It flew out of the bottomless pit. Though I suspect this might be a bug related to that.

Oh, so THAT'S where they come from? That's it. I'm flooring that over.

[Byakugan01]

Don't waste your time. If you have a chasm on your map, that's most likely where it came from. You probably have an end of it exposed somewhere. Also, hate to tell you this...but any bats in there most likely are long gone from it by now. Seems to me they like to get out into the open whenever possible.

[Haedrian]

Don't waste your time. If you have a chasm on your map, that's most likely where it came from. You probably have an end of it exposed somewhere. Also, hate to tell you this...but any bats in there most likely are long gone from it by now. Seems to me they like to get out into the open whenever possible.

Are you still allowed to magma/drown the denizens of the chasm ? Or did they remove that with the 3d version?

[Derakon]

Um, chasms don't spawn creatures in the current version. There's a set population on the map when you arrive, and no more will be created (though more can breed, for the creatures (like troglodytes) that are capable of breeding). Flooring over the chasm, and dumping magma into it, both have no effect.