Will enclosed (i.e. walled off but not caged) creatures die in between abandonment and reclaim? I know that tame animals will, but what about wild ones? Chasm dwellers? Vent dwellers? Invaders? Demons?
I ask because I have two wild polar bears and a ton of wild musk oxen and elk that I am considering putting inside glass oubliettes to use as "interrupt traps" and block off various approaches to the vault. I also have two wild fire imps that I will probably put behind fortifications at a critical choke point, provided that they will survive until reclaim.
Another question is about wagon placement on reclaim. Is this predictable in any way? What happens if the entire soil layer from the original embark has been dug out? Will it just go to the next lowest level? Can this be used to force the wagon to embark in a certain spot (for example, by only having one clear 3x3 area on an entire layer.
Ideally I will be able to force a start in an area from which there will be little or no access to non-aquifer or magma-bounded soil, stone, plants, animals or trees. An ideal start would be on a constructed island in the middle of the ocean (I am on a small coastal tundra map) located next to a bunch of nasty tricks that will hit Dakira hard with dwarf casualties or item losses before he gets a chance to dig in. I don't think I have the engineering skills to make a totally impenetrable bunker so my intended strategy is to have the entire map conspiring against any kind of organized effort.