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[elkin]

Hi there. Long time lurker, newly registered, and in need of some assistance.

Okay, so my fort is in its eighth, prosperous year, and my dwarves grow wealthy from turning the pleasant rolling hills and the lush green forests into smoldering ashes, barren rocks and large piles of gold and silver treasures, later to be locked for all eternity in a sealed underground vault.

Since I hate ambushes, I decided to seal off most of the overground map with stone wall (dirt trenches being a solution more fitting to goblin engineers), and using the nearby river as a natural moat, controlled by a single bridge. After over two years of construction, the wall is finally ready. Only one section remains: the one immediately adjoining the river. Being way upstream, this particular spot has been a fertile breeding ground for various fish. My masons, being a bunch of sissy civilians, were scared of fish and refused to complete the wall.

Instead of casting the sorry lot to the Dungeons of Despair to do battle with wild cougars and rabid raccoons for the rest of their miserable lives, I decided to send in my elite marksdwarf to clear the river with his bolts. I stationed her a few squares away from the bank, ordered her to fire at animals and stay close to the station. Since carps were nowhere to be seen, I figured it would be a safe and quick bloodbath.

She started sniping, killing a few of those scaly bastards, before running out of ammo and into the river for some extreme dwarf-on-fish wrestling action. She drowned shortly thereafter while still smashing fish skulls with her crossbow. Her loyal war dog quickly followed her to a watery, fish infested grave, and a stupid peasant decided to join in before I remembered to forbid the corpse and the loot.

Now I'm pissed off. I got two dwarves, one of which was valuable to the fortress defense and a loving mother of four, rotting at the bottom of the river, the water of which run red with the blood of crippled fish. The killer Pike, Ilreal, swims joyously in the middle of the stream, mocking the land-creatures with its bloodied fins.

The Killer Pike cannot be suffered to exist. I began planning a punitive expedition to purge the upstream portion of the river river from all life with as much needless brutality and flying fish chunks as possible. I filled a room to 2/7 with water, and sent my five axe-wielding champions to patrol it until they can swim better than the damn river fish themselves. I will have my brutal dwarven vengeance.

Problem is, I don't have much experience with making amphibious dwarves. What sort of skill level should I aim at before sending them to the river? Will they be able to get out on their own once the job is done, or should I make sure they have an escape channel and a staircase handy? Will they be swept downstream? Will they die the moment they're grabbed by a fish? Can this plan even work, or should I choose the safer (and more cowardly) option of training additional marksdwarves and declaring Pike hunting season?

[LostEnder]

You might try enclosing the wall as much as possible, then stationing archers on top of it with ammo stockpiles nearby.  In my experience, dwarves trying to go hand to hand with fish usually goes something like:

Urist:AHHHHHHH MOTHERLAND!
Fish: *bite* *grapple*
Urist:*glurgleglurgle* ACK! *dead*

If you send enough, Skilled swimmers should be able to take quite a few out, depends on how many fish you actually have to kill. You could alternatively set up an array of catapults oriented on the area, train up a few siege operators.

[Thanshin]

You could alternatively set up an array of catapults oriented on the area, train up a few siege operators.

Sign me up on the catapult fishing side.

[Hyndis]

Dump war dogs into the river. This works well with cave rivers as well. The dogs can swim and if you put the dumping point on one end of the river with the exit on the other end, they will clear out the river for you on their way to the exit.

[smjjames]

Dump war dogs into the river. This works well with cave rivers as well. The dogs can swim and if you put the dumping point on one end of the river with the exit on the other end, they will clear out the river for you on their way to the exit.

Assuming they don't drown first.

[Cthulhu]

Dump war dogs into the river. This works well with cave rivers as well. The dogs can swim and if you put the dumping point on one end of the river with the exit on the other end, they will clear out the river for you on their way to the exit.

Assuming they don't drown first.

Dump war dogs into the river. This works well with cave rivers as well. The dogs can swim and if you put the dumping point on one end of the river with the exit on the other end, they will clear out the river for you on their way to the exit.

[Doomshifter]

Who cares if they drown? Just make more =3

[psychologicalshock]

Dump war dogs into the river. This works well with cave rivers as well. The dogs can swim and if you put the dumping point on one end of the river with the exit on the other end, they will clear out the river for you on their way to the exit.

Wait, woah, dogs can swim?

[Satarus]

That isn't dwarfy enough.  Dam the river upstream from the carp.  Air drown those Armok-cursed bastards.

[monkeyfetus]

I think 4/7 water is required to train swimming, but I'm not 100% sure.

[Lobos]

Flood the river with magma.

[Overspeculated]

I think 4/7 water is required to train swimming, but I'm not 100% sure.

This, dwarves will not gain swimming skill unless its 4/7 water. And even then, at 4/7 they have the choice between swimming and walking and most of them will choose to walk.
There are three ways to train swimming:
Drown 'n' Drain chambers, you have a chamber full of wannabe swimmers, fill it up to 7/7, wait a while and then drain all the water. Repeat until sufficient level in swimming is attained.

Slush Patrol Chamber: Put some dwarves in a chamber, make them patrol around. Fill the chamber to 4/7 and add some more water to make about 1/3 of them 5/7. Dwarves gain skill alot faster if they are moving in water rather than standing still. Note that the dwarves must be on patrol before you begin flooding, otherwise they will not pave.

Underwater Statue Garden: Simple, make a statue garden/meeting zone in a depression in the ground, surround it with ramps, fill with water. The dwarves will hang around the top of the ramps, occasionally falling in and getting back out, thus gaining skill.

As for the skill wanted, atleast "Swimmer", anything else and they will drown.

[o_O[WTFace]]

Build a very small 2z tower with a door as close as you can get it to the river.  Quantum stockpile some bolts there, station crossbow people on top and lock the door.  Once its cleared build fortifications around the river

[qoonpooka]

Designate a refuse pile next to the river.  Build a dozen butcherys and a dozen tannerys.

Dam it on one end, then the other.  Use the floodgate/pump method.

Alternately build a bypass to the stream/river, floodgate it, channel to it, open the gates and let it fill.  When it contains a slew of fish, close the gates and switch on the pumps to drain it back into the stream.

Wait for airdrown, then task an army of peasants to butchery/tannery.

Fish bits, bones, skulls, and leather.  Not only will you slaughter the fish wholesale, but you'll get good eats out of it and plenty of economic benefit.  (Plus the desecration of their corpses.)

Make tapestries out of their leather - bonus points if you get a decoration depicting the fish in question.

[Hummingbird]

Your dwarves should melee the fish perfectly fine once they're at Swimmer level—if they're not drowning, it's no different from fighting any other critter, after all.