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[Blaze]

To paraphrase Patton: "Fixed defenses are monuments to dwarven stupidity."

I dunno, my defenses tend to not run away from their post for the following:
Eating
Drinking
Sleeping
All other activities in between.

[Martin]

Well, I have means to slow invaders down - certainly long enough for Morul to nap and nosh. 1500 orc kills and not one has made it inside, and that's on the heels of 800 previous orc kills.

[Fastler]

I have never actually done it, but I have always wanted to make a trap in my entrance that somehow used an obsidian farm above a lake of magma to instantly vaporize anyone in my entrance with the ensuing magma mist. And in the next version I plan on having a lot of uses for hot steam.

[alway]

Mine would have to be my three pump magma cannon capable of rapidly covering my entire entrance with magma. It was quite difficult to construct since the magma pipe was about 4 or 5 z layers under the surface and on the other side of the map from where the cannon was. Oh, and it was shaped like a giant tank, with the magma coming out the barrel and with fortifications on the top for marksdwarves.

Unfortunately, I only got to use it once, since by the time contruction was complete I had channeled a large parimeter around my map for safe woodcutting.

[dAGNARUS]

Gentlemen, I present to you, the ultimate deadfall trap.

Z|MMMMMMM|
Z|MMMMMMM|
Z|MMMMMMM|
Z___I___I____

_ floor
| wall
M magma
I support

A simple yet genius design.
I pull the lever, the supports break, everything collapses, and the world ends in magma.

Pro's:
100% effective

Con's:
VERY time consuming

[kilakan]

my best trap was probably the classic bridge retracts to drop the invaders a few z's, however I made it just far to break a few limbs and stun them, I made is so on the floor where they landed was a pressure plate that when activated, opened about 100 cages containing captured creatures from them bottomless pit, chasm, underground pool, underground river and some giant desert scorpions I got from the elves, so when the goblins hit the ground and they were stunned and injured, suddenly hundreds of crawling and running horror creatures spilled from the shadows in the recesses of the walls and ripped them to shread while they were still stunned.  Bad thing was it only had the shock factor the first time, every other time the goblins just fell onto the creatures and the bones and rusted armor of the previous invaders.  After awhile only the scorpions were left so I dubbed it the scorpion pit!

[Astramancer]

I use land mines - pressure plates dropping floor tiles on the heads of those who trigger the trap (it takes a minimum of 3 zlevels, but it's worth it).

I'll also do something simlar, but with a line of 3 pressure plates across the path, dropping a copy of the path, just a few levels up, on the heads of everyone on the path.  Usually for hundreds of tiles back (this is for sieges).

One fun one I'm implementing I got on the forum, you have pressure plates opening floor hatches that prevent the person who triggered the plate from moving.  Bring in marksdwarves and shoot the trapped foe to death.  His bolt-ridden body somehow weighs less than when he was hale, so the pressure plate closes the hatches again, and you can get the loot (or someone else who was waiting patiently steps onto the pressure plate, giving the marksdwarves another stationary target).

I've, of course, done the 10 zlevel drop pit trap, both using bridges and floor hatches/grates.  I made a trap that used the fact that flow pushes people through fortifications to make a 100% sealed room that goblins languished in forever.

[Tradanbattlan]

In my current fort, I just have pressure plates that drop supports and make the ground fall below the intruders. From there, there's normally lava.

[Urist Imiknorris]

I use land mines - pressure plates dropping floor tiles on the heads of those who trigger the trap (it takes a minimum of 3 zlevels, but it's worth it).

I'll also do something simlar, but with a line of 3 pressure plates across the path, dropping a copy of the path, just a few levels up, on the heads of everyone on the path.  Usually for hundreds of tiles back (this is for sieges).

One fun one I'm implementing I got on the forum, you have pressure plates opening floor hatches that prevent the person who triggered the plate from moving.  Bring in marksdwarves and shoot the trapped foe to death.  His bolt-ridden body somehow weighs less than when he was hale, so the pressure plate closes the hatches again, and you can get the loot (or someone else who was waiting patiently steps onto the pressure plate, giving the marksdwarves another stationary target).

I've, of course, done the 10 zlevel drop pit trap, both using bridges and floor hatches/grates.  I made a trap that used the fact that flow pushes people through fortifications to make a 100% sealed room that goblins languished in forever.

The "Hold still while I shoot you" thing was mine. It's rather funny.

[Arrkhal]

I use land mines - pressure plates dropping floor tiles on the heads of those who trigger the trap (it takes a minimum of 3 zlevels, but it's worth it).

How are you attaching the floor tile to the support?  It only takes 2 levels if you're not counting the floor.  Just attach the floor tile to the ceiling.  Supports can anchor to the roof and hold up things below them.

Ceiling
Support
Dropping floor tile
Victim zone
Pressure plate
Floor

Hold up the floor tile with a staircase, then build a support on top of it, which touches the ceiling.  Remove the staircase, and the floor will stay up until the support is destroyed.  Just remember to link up the stupid support before deconstructing the staircase.  I make that mistake all the time.

[Martin]

Supports can anchor to the roof and hold up things below them.

Why have I never thought of that?!

[lemonpieman]

My best trap was a guy I named Red Ivan and he carried a modded weapon which had a 85% chance of making the enemy explode.

[mal7690]

Here is roughly my main defensive situation

Sea of cage traps
Sea of 1-weapon weapon traps
Main event (see below)
Sea of powerful weapon traps
Sea of cage traps
My front door (can be sealed just in case)

Nothing not trapimmune gets through that.  Or at least hasn't yet.

Occasionally, I have it so anything that dowsn't get into the main event get moved onto a longer path and encounters more cage traps.

Main event:
It depends on my whim, my current favourite has to be the cistern-filled water trap that fills in under 10 steps.  I use a similar version to kill nobles, currently it fills in 4 steps.

[labouts]

Mine was a large pit trap (several adjacent 10 by 10 bridges) that dropped 4 z-levels onto a platform surrounded by magma. The goblins would eventually burn to death, but their equipment would usually survive. Simple but extremely effective, I didn't need an army after setting this up.