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[dakenho]

I want to use traps to help bolster my early fortress defense, but any time I have used traps in the past I tend to go overboard  making my fortress un-siege-able.  so my question is, what do you guys feel is a reasonable number of traps,  4 by the front door w/4 where the fortress meets the surface?

[Savolainen5]

Assuming they're cage traps, that's probably fine.  Just enough to hold off an ambush, but not enough for two, and definitely not enough for a siege.  That many weapon traps will probably be enough to hold off two ambushes, but no more...

[BigD145]

Give more races [trapavoid].

[nil]

Agree with BigD and Savolainen.  Plus, you could always turn invasions off via init.txt until you're ready, swearing off traps entirely.  Sure, it's basically cheating but this thread shows why that doesn't really matter in this game... 

[rephikul]

Each trapping spot has a good chance of holding a squad if the squad leader got stuck there. I'd say 50-50. So plant your traps accordingly.

[Urist Imiknorris]

I say there is no kill like overkill.

[Hans Lemurson]

I want to use traps to help bolster my early fortress defense, but any time I have used traps in the past I tend to go overboard  making my fortress un-siege-able.  so my question is, what do you guys feel is a reasonable number of traps,  4 by the front door w/4 where the fortress meets the surface?

A...reasonable amount of traps?  I...I do not understand the concept.

In all seriousness though, it's a highly subjective thing varying both by situational necessity and personal taste.

Basicly, ask yourself the following questions:
-How many invaders do I want to get past my front gate?
-How do I want them to die?

[assimilateur]

Give more races [trapavoid].

If the original poster's intention was to make traps useless, he probably wouldn't ask questions like that: he'd just forgo using them altogether.

Basically, ask yourself the following questions:
-How many invaders do I want to get past my front gate?
-How do I want them to die?

Sound advice. I also recommend making your access tunnel pretty long: think at least 5 to 7 shifts long. Put all your traps close to your fort proper and place some floodgates or a bridge at the tunnel entrance. That way you can cut off your invaders' escape when they inevitably try to retreat after getting a dozen of them cut to pieces or caged.

[Lamphare]

keep in mind that, siegers tend to follower their leader when it's (still) alive
sometime the problem with cage traps is not just putting your haulers in danger, but keeping all other siegers at one place. if their lead is trapped in a cage, whether there is a cage right next to anyone of them or not, they just stay there, hardly, if ever, move around, until they decide to leave after a very long waiting.
you could try weapon/cage trap corridor along with one or two ballista if you have some spare hands, would be sufficient for a underground fortress(aboveground, or "human" style is totally undwarfy, yet amusingly difficult), since ballista would take care any enemy left over by the traps.
but in some more challenging mods like genisis, you would be needing more defence, i've had beed sieged in spring the second year...

[assimilateur]

cage traps (...) putting your haulers in danger

After setting up your traps, you can mass-forbid them until you're ready to pick up your prisoners and replace the cages.

[tolkafox]

cage traps (...) putting your haulers in danger

After setting up your traps, you can mass-forbid them until you're ready to pick up your prisoners and replace the cages.

You can also forbid animal hauling from outside through {o}. This works for everything but items dropped from your dead, in which case you'll have to forbid.

Make a 4,20 tunnel, put a kitten behind two walls in the very middle. Attach floodgates at both ends. Build a military barracks above the tunnel and connect them with staircases, put the lever for the floodgates in the barracks. When a siege goes for your kitten, lock them in and let them fight it out with your military. Even if your military loses, the siege is trapped inside until you decide to mine them out. Or, you know, send the tunnel plummeting down 20 Z lvls, whatever you choose.

Contrary to popular belief, kittens are very good at dodging projectiles.

[Maklak]

I tend to follow advice from video turorial, and make a big burrow called Inside, that I assign civilians to during sieges. The only 2 downsides are: it takes a few minutes, and "cannot pick up item" spam.

As for traps, I try to maximize their potential. My military sucks (but I'll build a danger room with 10 spikes, and see if that helps), and goblin cooker is too high tech for me.

If you want weak traps, go for stonefall. They suck about as much as war dogs.

[Lamphare]

stonefall, if i understand correctly, does not notify you with intruders, it just drop the stone and then some poor mechanic would haul a stone and simply walk into ambushers.
similar for cage traps, though i do forbid placed cages, may dwarfs would alway go n' fill them with new cages while the rest uncaught filthy siegers are still roaming

also i often deploy a small labyrinth right inside my main entrance, where my dwarfs would rarely, if ever show up unless ordered for outside errands. it is either channelled beneath, or hollowed above for few z-levels. bridges are employ to either drop intruders into the deep pit(filled with 7/7 water if needed), or smashing them aganst the ceiling. the tough ones might survive the first blow, but hardly the water or collision with floor. it takes quit an amount of micro management and few weeks of a handful miners n' architects. and it needed to be large enough (though i said small ) concerning the delay from lever/pressure plate.
seeing your enermies throwing off high(or deep) and blood splattered all around the place worth such effort, i promise you.

oops, kinda off the topic?

[zephyr_hound]

Lamphare you really need to MASS-FORBID your traps (d-b-f) once they're primed and ready. That also forbids the materials the trap is made from which stops dwarves from touching them at all. Then you've got time to clean up the siege/ambush, then station your military outside for protection - THEN unforbid the traps with d-b-c and let the civilians do their thing.

I usually have an entrance in this order in an early fort, with maybe a raising bridge at some point to cut off access in emergencies. I still have the old 40d habit of maintaining a 3-tile wide entrance for caravans, and rely mainly on military for defense.

fort <-- _____ (dogs) _____ (trade depot)(military barracks) ____ ^^^ (Cage traps) --> outside

The ambushes get noticed when they hit the cage traps and kobold thieves get spotted by the dogs. Then since they're already past my barracks I just tell the soldiers to step out into the corridor and greet the kobold on his way out. Thieves don't escape my fort very often

[Chocolatemilkgod]

I usually turn off invasions until I feel like I'm ready. Which takes a while since I like to have everything perfect. But when the time does come...I definatly use spike traps. One possible design is:

BM       TTTTTTTTTTTT       MB
BM       TTTTTTTTTTTT       MB

B is for bridge/drawbridge
T is for spike trap
M is for Moat

Used correctly the enemy will be trapped in here running against spike traps ^^. Simple and used by other people...but effective.