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[HatfieldCW]

So my fort got up to 80 population (30 military) and spanned 40 z-levels and was pretty stable.  I beat up all the goblins and troglodytes and a giantess and a bunch of little stuff and a few FBs.  My FPS was down to 20 or so and the chores (smashing vermin corpses, killing pet cats, reworking squad rosters and schedules and uniforms, etc.) were getting tedious.  I decided to go for the gusto and just drill to the center of the planet.  Here come the spoilers:

I hit a glowing pit around 80 z-levels down, after carefully tunneling around a magma sea.  It was totally sweet, by the way, the subterranean landscape (what I could see of it) was wonderful and I really wanted to get my guys down there, seal off the surface and start a Hell Fortress.  Moments after I poke a hole in the ceiling, though, I get a couple alerts that I didn't fully understand, and suddenly my exploratory tube was chock-full of dozens of flying, fire-breathing, seemingly invincible monsters.  I had a brave miner tarry long enough in the hole to smash through to the magma sea, straining several z-levels' worth of molten rock through the onrushing horde.  No effect.  I dispatched my three full squads of competent melee warriors down there (good skills, but bad equipment due to supply issues) and they succeeded only in giving a few of the horrors new names.  Not so much as an injury among the underworlders.

With my next fort, I'll try to plan better and get some cave-in traps and/or atom smashing apparatus in place before I poke the fateful hole, but here's my question:  Can the denizens of the netherworld be defeated and controlled such that dwarves can take their rightful place and subterranean conquerors?  I had no problem keeping crundles and cave ogres under control with a few patrol routes, but it looks like just one of these buggers could lay waste to my entire civilization in spite of my military, and I see no way to fortify my entire world against them if they decide to come in a second wave.

Does anyone have any experience on the bottom of the world that could guide me to success?

[Hokan]

A good dwarf is nothing without good equipment.

[a404notfound]

 It is yet unclear whether the amount of demons is finite; in information exported from the legends screen, the population of demonic species is listed as "unnumbered," a descriptor usually reserved for ants, worms, and other omnipresent vermin. -dwarf wiki

[Cotes]

It is yet unclear whether the amount of demons is finite; in information exported from the legends screen, the population of demonic species is listed as "unnumbered," a descriptor usually reserved for ants, worms, and other omnipresent vermin. -dwarf wiki

I suppose you could still try to wall off the areas that serve as spawning points for demons, no?

[ZaDoktor]

I haven't had much experience first-hand but effectively the Demons are nigh unstoppable.

There are of course exceptions. Enough dorfs with enough axes and armor can kill anything, but even so, I believe there was a thread on whether demons are pretty much infinite or at least so high that killing them all would take probably years of RL time.

Of course, being DF the impossible has never stopped a true dorf. If you make a wall of fortifications, you may be able to minimalize casualties of dwarves. Train up a large number of legendary marksdwarves, use plenty of adamantine bolts and you'll most likely be able to take quite of few of the underlings down.

And of course, if all else fails, you can always hack.

[armadilloHD]

The demons of hell are as the apostles in "Berserk" varied, horrible, and every individual is 1000x stronger than any mortal.

[HatfieldCW]

Walling off the spawns isn't feasible.  There's a whole landscape down there, 20 z-levels of hills and cliffs and forbidding rocky outcroppings, and all that land is like volcanic islands rising from a vast sea of glowing pit.  I want so badly to conquer that unholy land.  I did find adamantine before I found the doomrealm, so I might be able to get all my fighters properly geared up in glowing blue suits before I make my move.  That's my new goal, and the new version out tomorrow, with its improved archery training and general goodness, will be my means to the end.

Truth be told, it's my favorite fort loss ever.  Undisputed superpower of the above-world, beating back megabeasts and FBs and GCS and feeling good, then getting cocky and going to war with hell, losing catastrophically and tumbling to ruin.  Awesome.  A phalanx of gleaming superwarriors doing the same thing should be ten times more epic.

[Shrugging Khan]

New version out tomorrow? 'TIS HEAVEN'S BELLS I HEAR!

Ehm. Aside from that, the HFS. How about making a vertically snaky access tunnel, and flooding part of it once hell is breached? Make it so that an intermediate section is underwater, but without the whole thing just draining into hell. So, unless those demons can dive through water...

[Silophant]

They can. Water does not stop them. Magma does not stop them. Traps do not stop them. They outnumber you a billion to one, and they will never stop hunting you.

[Eric Blank]

You could make an interesting trap with water- and magma-filled tunnels.

The path they take to the fort is perpendicular to these tunnels, each tunnel is an odd number long and only one tile wide, separated by one tile of natural walls. Along the walls is 1 magma-safe door every other tile (or every tile). The tunnels are intermittently filled with water and magma, so that as the demons break down the doors water and magma fill in the place at once, casting an obsidian wall. Sometimes the demons are killed by these walls, sometimes they get through before it seals, sometimes they're trapped behind. They're fast, you see.
At the end of each tunnel is a staircase that lead up one level to water- and magma-free halls that lead up and over the walls separating the two substances below, this way the demons can path through the maze even with all the doors destroyed and all the other paths sealed. The staircases need to be at opposite ends from each other, so they must travel the length of the passage to reach the next one that jumps over.
This, if large enough, will thin their numbers, jumble and confuse them, break up the stream so they only come one or two at a time, perfect for your soldiers, or any other traps you can create. Once all the doors are gone it's simply a really really long passageway.
You cannot win, but you can extend the reach of their divine punishment right into your own fortress, so that they may suffer further.
It is however dependent on there not being many fire-based or otherwise super-hot() demons, and then that they miraculously fall behind the others, or the water will evaporate. You could also attach both elements to a huge reservoir, also completely disconnected from your fort so they don't try to path through it.

and they will never stop hunting you.

Not even when they clearly cannot reach you.

[FreakyCheeseMan]

walling off will only kill your FPS.

I did a thread some time ago you might look up- "Urist McTzu's Art of War". It was supposed to be a guide to fighting FBs and HFS... I'm pretty certain some of the traps could kill demons as fast as they spawn.

[Lord Aldrich]

Breaking into the HFS basically ends the game. Even if you can contain and wall it off, you're stuck at 1 fps as an infinite number of demons attempt to path-find up to you (even though they can't). Also, as to building a fortress down there, all the rock is Slade, and Slade can't be mined out (same with the semi-molten rock).

[Silophant]

and they will never stop hunting you.

Not even when they clearly cannot reach you.

Their chief weapon is persistence. Persistence and infinite numbers. Their two weapons are persistence, infinite numbers, and near-invulnerability. Their three weapons are...

[FreakyCheeseMan]

Our chief weapon is an automated cave-in gun. An auotomated cave-in gun and a long magma-filled hallway with grates overhead allowing them to be encased in obsidian at the pull of a lever. Our two weapons are an automated cave-in gun, a long, magma-filled hallway with grates overhead allowing them to be encased in obsidian at the pull of a lever and the breeding rate of cats. Our three weapons are...

[ZaDoktor]

Our chief weapon is an automated cave-in gun. An auotomated cave-in gun and a long magma-filled hallway with grates overhead allowing them to be encased in obsidian at the pull of a lever. Our two weapons are an automated cave-in gun, a long, magma-filled hallway with grates overhead allowing them to be encased in obsidian at the pull of a lever and the breeding rate of cats. Our three weapons are...

Truly the greatest of double-edged swords.