Seeing as assorted enemies- the procedurally generated ones- have gotten a lot tougher, I'm working on a comprehensive guide to combating the assorted beasties, by finding defenses that work against them, and traps that can handle them.
The guide is a work in progress, and I'll be happily taking any advice or anecdotes posters have and editing it in- with that in mind, the first section is pertinent questions about the enemies.
"Know thy enemy and know theyself, and you might fight in fifty battles and never know peril" ~Sun Tzu
"Except for Carp"~Urist McTzu
-Will enemies path through buildings, or merely destroy them if they get close?
-Will enemies path through water or magma, and does it depend on whether or not they can survive in such?
-If no dwarven targets are available, will an enemy seek out pets or animals to attack?
-If no dwarven or pet targets are available, will an enemy intentionally seek out buildings or constructions to destroy?
-Can moving water push such enemies?
-Can falling water force a flying enemy down?
-If so, can it do so with enough force to hurt them?
-If a flying enemy is grappled and finds itself over open air (for instance, if a bridge is removed,) will it hold up its opponent, drop it, or will they both plummet?
-Do "hot" enemies melt ice they come near?
-Will enemies encased in obsidian leave a body that you can mine out?
-Will enemies encased in ice leave a body that you can mine/melt out?
-Can certain enemies "Phase" through fortifications? Without water pressure?
-Really? Yikes.
"Invincibility depends on one's self; the enemy's vulnerability, on him." ~Sun Tzu
"What do you mean, 'demons can fly'?" ~Urist McTzu
The author is not responsible for fortresses lost by following the advice in this chapter. Certainly not until questions are answered, anyway.
1: Obsidian.
While dwarven construction is as refined a defensive science as any, to the point where icy walls can hold back magma, it isn't perfect. Thankfully, the gods saw fit to gift the dwarves with the ability to remake natural stone, thus rendering your fortress as safe as it was *before* you decided to start digging that pretty blue stone.
Advantages: Reusable, impenetrable.
Disadvantages: Difficult to do the first time, not much easier to repeat. Also, whatdoyaknow, it turns out constructions *are* perfect.
2: Cave-Ins
If you collapse natural stone, it will reform where it lands with full integrity (collapsed constructions will *not*). You can use this to seal off that path you really shouldn't have dug.
Advantages: Impenetrable, makes a big noise. Has the advantage of being remote-triggerable, letting you seal a path without having to bring dwarves near it.
Disadvantages: Even harder to repeat than magma, dangerous to the miners, won't work for long if you need a "gate" you can open and close (You'll run out of stuff to collapse.)
3:Waterlock
Build your entrance to the dangerous zone upwards, and put a gate (i.e., drawbridge) over it, then put a lake of water (or magma) on top of that. How you do this and how you drain it depends on your map; be careful not to let the way the liquid gets in let the fun stuff out.
Advantages: Relatively easy to build, makes a solid "gate" that can be opened or closed. Pour the opposite liquid over it to make it truly unbreachable.
Disadvantes: Tricky engineering, uncertain defensive value, wet dwarf smell.
4: The Pet Brigade
Store all of the useless animals you can in cages near wherever you expect danger; when it comes, let them all loose. Won't stop an enemy, but may buy you time as the giant spider made out of low-quality pewter chases around the caverns, trying to catch your cat. Plus, it's revenge for all the time your soldiers spent neglecting their duties in a futile attempt to run down the olympic sprinter of groundhogs. For bonus points, use cats- as dwarves discovered long ago, enough of them will breed faster than anything can kill them.
Advantages: Saves your butchers some work. May wear out an enemy, making them easier prey for your soldiers.
Disadvantages: May put dwarves in danger, may put your FPS in danger.
"There are five methods to attacking with fire. The first is to burn personnel; the second, to burn stores; the third, to burn equipment; the fourth, to burn arsenals; and the fifth, to use incendiary missiles." ~Sun Tzu
"What's this 'fire' stuff everyone keeps talking about?" ~Urist McTzu
This chapter consists of assorted traps to kill or contain powerful enemies. For the moment, I'm trying not to include well-known devices such as dwarven attom smashers or simple magma floods.
The Death 'Shroom
Carve a large mushroom shape out of rock, with a single constructed wall/support as the "stem", and put bait beneath it. Either remove the support by lever, or, for irony, allow the enemy to destroy it himself. Splat.
Advantages: Easy to build, no special requirements.
Disadvantes: No guarantee, may require timing, and really, who *doesn't* want a new Titan Leather cloak?
The Toilet
Build an area with high water pressure/flow, lure the enemy into it, and have it lead somewhere nasty. Nasty can include some thermonuclear reaction barrels, a really long drop, or, if you like, straight back to Hell. You may build this as part of a "Waterlock", or a section of tunnel that the enemy has to walk down to reach your fortress, or a small baited chamber. You may even rely on the enemy's destructive nature to remove the bridge holding back the waters.
Advantages: It would be really cool if it worked, wouldn't it?
Disadvantages: It probably won't work. And some enemies can flash-evaporate water before it gets near.
The Cage Trap MKII
Carve out an almost full ring of natural fortifications, with a single entrance and bait inside. Lure the enemy inside, and seal the entrance with a cave-in. The enemy is now trapped in a "cage" of fortifications, letting you shoot it with whatever arrows or siege equipment you like.
Advantages: Two words: Target Practice
Disadavantes: Takes a lot of space for something that may only be usable once. Some enemies. can get through fortifications.
The Balrog's Fall
Engage (non-flying) enemies with marksdwarves and wrestlers, on narrow bridges a very deep carved pit.
Disadvantes: Dead Wrestlers, Big Mess.
Advantages: Big Mess.
The Carpet Bombing
Choose or create a large, preferably flat area the enemy will have to come to get into your fortress.
In the ceiling of that room, carve out one hole per 3x3 square, as follows:
XXXXXXXXX
XOXXOXXOX
XXXXXXXXX
Above that, carve out a large sheet, or at least one that covers every hole- hold this up by a single support. On the level below, place a cage trap on every X (every tile not directly beneath a hole). If possible, put constructed walls or other difficult-to-remove things beneath the holes; when the enemy comes through, drop the support; every square will be within one tile of a cave-in, which should knock out most enemies, allowing your cage traps to capture them.
Advantages: New pets.
Disadvantes: Difficult to build, may kill what you're trying to capture, limited reusability. Also, Chalk Lung.
The Pancake Mixer
Well above an area in which enemies will appear, build two retractable bridges, one over the other; fill the lower with magma, and the upper with water. Link them both to the same mechanism, but make sure the mechanisms used on the lower bridge are at least as good as the upper. Wall off around both bridges, and cover the lower in magma, and the upper in water. Should near-instantly form either a cave in or a sheet of obsidian wherever it lands. Either way, you're good.
Disadvantes: Rips itself apart if the upper bridge opens before the lower, hot demons may evaporate water and only get splashed with magma. Requires special timing. Destroys bodies.
Advantages: Who likes overkill? We like overkill.
The X2010V1 "Dwarven Hail"
On a glacial map, make a magma-run "melting chamber" to give you a continuous supply of water (it's doable.) Run that up a magma-heated tower to a point probably above the surface of the glacier, then build a heated "crane" out a ways, with the magma *over* the water; the magma is there *only* to heat the water, once it's in place it doesn't need to move. The water should flow out along the crane, until it reaches a point over your kill zone; there it should be run into a 3X3 room, as follows:
WWWWW
WBBBWW
WBOBFS
WBBBWW
WWWWW
W=wall, B=bridge (doesn't matter what type), F=floor, S=Source of water.
The reason for this design is so that when the water falls, it's not touching any already existing structures that could support it; as it leaves the magma it freezes, resulting in a rain of icy destruction; the hold should be positioned over a deep pit that must extend at least one level below the line where water melts naturally, thus preventing the cave-ins from building up, as they'll melt again before they would have the chance.
Advantages: Could, in theory, beat hell.
Major Disadvantes: Requires multiple megaprojects to build, including a primitive but precise dwarven computer to run the fresh water supply, and a heated tower and crane; all of this must be built on an inhospitable glacier, and, let's face it, a constant cave-in gun may be more Fun for your dwarves than the demons would be.
Minor Disadvantages: May, in theory, not work.
The Shot Tower
For this to work, you have to breach hell from above, and have a direct and preferably long shaft leading from the mechanism into hell itself.
Some ways away from this, build a "Faucet" that can pour magma at a respectable rate. A few levels beneath that, built a room similiar to the one described in "Dwarven Hail", only with water entering from all sides (this does not need to be done on a glacial map, so it should be simpler). The water must flow into this room quite quickly, if possible faster than it can drain.
As magma passes through the water it forms obsidian, which plumets through the hole in the bridge, straight into hell, knocking down any escaping demons on the way.
Advantages: All the power of Dwarven Hail, with none of the icy goodness.
Disadvantages: If the constantly-formed chunks of obsidian *don't* fall into hell, they'll pile back to the mechanism, jamming it and possibly destroying machinery in the process.
Also, in the spirit of full disclosure, I'm not exactly certain that you could get it started before the demons ascended the shaft and trashed the thing. But I'm sure you'll figure it out.
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Topic: Urist McTzu's Art of War (Read 11983 times)