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[Sysice]

In every DF players life, there comes a time when you think, "I'm bored. How can I make this interesting?" It is a fact of life that eventually, DF gets too easy. How do you people deal with that? do you make your entire military out of miners? Do you make no walls at all? Do you ban traps and bridges from your fortress? Post your defense strategies that get the job done, but with a little excitement!

Personally, I ban cage traps, seige engines, marksdwarves, and bridges.
Except for orcs. Those things need to be caged or pincuishoned FAST.

[Phazer]

It may be off-topic but, if you really want it to be hard just mod it.

[Sysice]

I do. It still doesn't make any difference, because of how overpowered some things are. That's why you have to not use them. I'm asking people what they consider overpowered.

[Phantom]

Orcs are basically zombies but minus the paralyzing bite and with armor.

[Elvang]

Only thing I don't use actively in defense are atom smashers. Everything else is fair game against terrifying goblins (takes a squad of 4 marksdwarves plus weapon traps to hold off a single ambush squad, still ends with a melee sending a dwarf or two to the infirmary). Even orc sieges fall to a single dwarf in iron armor with a sword/crossbow.

Magma traps, a magma version of the mist generator, drowning chambers, turning them to obsidian, layer upon layer of single whip weapon traps, booze explosions, etc all make defense more interesting.

The Entrances

Spoiler: Old Hold n' Hope (click to show/hide)

This is the oldest defense in the book. A nice long corridor with some recruits at the end. Simple and effective. Thieves and baby snatchers think twice when entering this corridor. Its a long walk back to the exit, especially if one of those dwarves is carrying a crossbow. Toss some armor on those recruits and maybe a hammer or two and vanilla sieges are a cinch.
You'll be doing more Hoping than Holding though against some of the tougher races out there.

Spoiler: Should've Bought a Squirrel (click to show/hide)

This creative defense abuses the pathfinding of creatures and makes extensive use of pressure plates and doors. While your victems are busy looking for an unlocked door you'll be busy dropping all sorts of fun stuff behind them. Crowd favorites include POWs, dragons, dogs, and if you've creatively breached the HFS, a tentacle demon or two.

Spoiler: I don't care how long ago you ate, in you go (click to show/hide)

A pump here and there, maybe a retracting bridge or floodgate, and several z-levels of pressurized water go a long way. While it won't get rid those 3 pages of blood, vomit, and mud, creative designs will conveniently push items towards a location of your choosing. A grate here, a window or two there, and suddenly you've got a waterfall and a place for dwarves to place bets on lung capacity.

Spoiler: Now you see it, Now you don't (click to show/hide)

Step 1: Lure creature under bridge.
Step 2: Pull lever \R
Step 3:
Step 4: Profit

Spoiler: You hear something? (click to show/hide)

Cages are wonderful things. They can contain everything from tame cardinals to the mighty dragon. Hundreds of them even. Stick it behind a bridge/door/etc and link it to a lever for great effect. They say the shock kills them first but we all know its the sudden onslaught of a mewling horde.

Spoiler: Kebob Alley (click to show/hide)

A ballista is a fearsome weapon. A corridor full of them can make short work of anything, so long as your operators don't get hungry. Or thirsty. Or tired. Or scared.

Spoiler: Is something burning? (click to show/hide)

A few pumps can ferry magma around at amazing speeds. Toss in some grates and a power supply and suddenly you've got a magma fall. Not only does it sound cool, but it will sort your enemies' items for you.

Spoiler: That statue looks familiar... (click to show/hide)

Obsidian farms are cool. Obsidian farms in your entrance are awesome. For bonus points line the entrance with the resulting statues.
"Hey Urist, take a look at that one there."
"... Amazing, the likeness to our king is uncanny."
"I'll say, they ever find him?"
"Nope."

Spoiler: How many z-levels does it take to get to the center of an elf? (click to show/hide)

Its not retracting a bridge that draws crowds. Its the ensueing 40 z-level drop that does. Enough said.

Spoiler: Why are there holes in the floor? (click to show/hide)

Ever see that picture with all the ninjas in it? Couldn't see a single ninja could you? Well, this corridor is like that. Only with spikes. No spike trap is complete without a hint of chaos, so this one has been meticulously linked to a number of pressure plates in high traffic areas.

Because you just never know, you might be the lucky one and make it through.

[dragon0421]

I concentrate my energies on building multiple, convoluted layers of defensive structures, even if I never use them. This game is more about building than a wargame for me.

My current fort has a dozen chained wardogs, a bridge over an exposed bottomless pit, two rows of cage traps, three z levels of archer fortifications overlooking the entrance, and 12 champion wrestler/hammer/soon-to-be-marksdwarves. Future plans include a magma/water with crocodiles/obsidian flooding chamber and draining system, and an array of 5 ballistas.

If I'm missing anything let me know and I'll try to incorporate it

[Martin]

Siege engines is one of the things I always retain. They don't block passage and they do consume resources, and even masterwork quality with legendary operators are inaccurate as all get-out. They'll thin a siege, but sure as hell won't stop one.

Later in the game I typically ban all traps except upright spike and guarantee a path to the meeting hall at all times. Basically only soldiers, siege engines, and dwarves activating spikes serve as defenses.

[Beanchubbs]

My favourite defense is the "Screw it" startegy. You give your best soldiers some good equipment and let them loose. This is useful for when you are beginning, don't have very many traps/walls/archer stuff, or if you have a few champions like Thor.

[Megaman]

I usually just make a massive tower where my dwarves live and put fortifacations on the roof in order to share the concept of fun with orcs. I eventaully expand it into a full on fortress.

[Skorpion]

The military MUST take the brunt of any attack.
Siege engines are fair game, but I never use them anyway.
No atomsmashing ANYTHING.
Traps only as a last line of defense.

A this-fort-only thing:
No siege engines; can't spare the wood.
No moat; no room for it.
Cleanse and purify: Any hostile creature on the inside must be killed. That includes anything in a cage trap.

Other options:
Dwarven recycling: Tidy the outside up; haul it indoors and get it dealt with. Metals are recycled for scrap, usable wooden gear is tossed into magma to stop it being used, and clothing is either sold or destroyed. (I'm working on a system for mass clothing destruction. Current option is using the new noble-roaster as a dump zone and having it all moved there.)
Follow your master: Pets of the dead are slaughtered and cooked.
Skulls for the skull throne!: Skulls are made into totems. Every skull I get my hands on that's not dwarven.
No dwarf left behind: Everyone gets a coffin. Everyone is hauled into it, if their corpse still exists.
Viva la revolution: No middle management. If you don't serve a purpose I deem useful, into the magma/chasm/drowning chamber you go.

[WhatDoesThisLeverDo]

I tend to ban traps, save for the random cage trap to grab hostages. I like simply throwing my guys against the enemy, and letting the best man win.

[ProfessorA]

Traps only for the alternate exits/garbage dumps too small and unimportant to guard.  When a siege arrives, the military runs outside and whoever gets past the moat before the bridge retracts does not return until every goblin, human, or elf on the map is dead.
Sorta like Thunderdome.

(*With the exception of thieves and megabeasts - where murder is more important than honor, I have bunkers carved out of the mountains all around the map for my machineguns archers)

[Megaman]

In the middle ages using bows and crossbows was conciderned unamly by NOOOBS(quite a few humans). Dwarves prove that it is.

[Peewee]

I have an exponentially growing population of war dogs, all of which are contained in a doberman launcher near my entrance except for once a year when I let them all out to breed some more and give me a chance to train the newly grown dogs.

I have yet to lose enough dogs to care, and I'm considering adding the bulls from my meatpacking plant to some traps above the entrance corridor.

[sonerohi]

Only two militiary dwarves on station at a time, the rest are sent into the mess halls to keep civilian order.

The only type of traps, are those built via constructions and supports.


My favorite trap has been to make a specialty bridge. It's a 22x5 length of constructed floors over a pit, connected to land by a 1x5 bridge segment. The thing that keeps it from collapsing is an L shaped support that goes down 2 levels from the bottom of the bridge, and then over 10 tiles to hook it up to the wall. Above it is a platform with a support, that lets me drop a block into the L support, which breaks it, which sends the 22x5 segment plummeting. The pit isn't very deep, so just in case, I have some grates and pumps in the ceiling too.