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[Poncho]

first of all i love dwarf fortress, i go through phases of playing it for hours solid then forgetting about it until the next time i want a game that requires a bit more intellect than shooting aliens or capturing the flag.

this week i was staying with a friend and while she worked through the day i would play df non stop, i must only have around 30-40 failed forts under my belt, you know... learning forts. like it took me until around fort 10 to learn to dig down into the ground so my dwarves wouldn't go insane from sun exposure before the year was out.

anyway, i had a good feeling about my last fort from the beginning, great starting area, river, cliff face, deep soil, no dicking aquafier, good climate etc etc, everything a lovely shade of green. this was going to be my best fort yet, i could feel it.

my first ever attempt of making a functioning well succeeded (attempt prompted by animals dieing of thirst  ) i didn't even drown anyone, it felt like i'd reached the peak of some far off mountain. realized bookkeepers are essential and how much fun it is making traps, appointed nobles and a few other things, all with extensive dwarfwiki research, the kind with ten separate tabs open and two windows lol.

the entrance to my fort was in the cliff face, a hallway filled with falling stone traps, something song iplithy - child snatcher found out the hard way. i felt like nothing could go wrong, i didn't know how to set up a military but who cares? those traps will take care of anything that feels like a little looting and pillaging.

well as it turns out, no. no they wont. (ill update this post with screenshots when i get home)

at around 81 population, a titan showed up. a sheep titan. a one eyed, eight legged, red wooled sheep titan with a 'purposeful stride' decided to pay me and my blissfully happy dwarves a visit.

i sit back with a smile, unpause and watch with baited breath as it approached the mouth of overkill trap cave, wondering if dwarves like mutton. little did i know, i would never find out.

it either didn't set any of them off, or was completely unharmed (which i find unlikely, when i say overkill i mean it) this thing must of thought it was christmas or something, 81 plump dwarves and not a battleaxe in sight. the next half hour was a slaughter, killing every dwarf EVEN THE BABIES apart from my mayor (who was in jail at this point for over-setting a chair in a tantrum, tied to the wall with a rope, missing a leg and trailing intestines. none of this stopped him chatting with the liaison though, that's what i call a strong work ethic)

how can i avoid this? i don't want to play again until i have a plan to deal with it, otherwise my population count will act like a ticking clock counting down to gorey dwarvern oblivion

i've never played a game where losing is so fun

[Byakugan01]

Open up the caverns, catch some helmet snakes or a few GCSs. If the next invader is biological, either should be nasty. If you get both...see my thread "Was this a good idea...or even WISE?" for the effects of helemt snake venom. And GCSs venom causes total paralysis. inclduing of the diaphram. You can see where I'm going with this...And if the next invader is NOT biological, setting up the traps so that the GCS spit webs on them will allow the traps to affect him. Including cage traps. Note you need to have the GCS spit on them before hand, and untamed ones will do this more easily than tamed ones...well, try modding the raws and giving GCS the trainable tage.

Alternately, once you get too many idlers, whip them into a military. At 81 dwarves, they can't ALL have been employed, especially as a new player. It took me forever to learn how to get everyone employed in the old version, and now I'm re-learning it.

[agatharchides]

That could take forever though. I've been waiting 11 years for a GCS. The easy way is a repeating spike trap.

[Dantrithor]

You can also quick-dig a moat and remove all the ramps but one (so your miner can leave. Keep your dwarves inside your fortress until the next goblin ambush/siege/merchant caravan. They'll eventually (probably) kill the FB.

All my fortresses now have a moat, empty, filled with water, or magma depending on the environment and resource availability. Other than ambushes spawning -inside- the fortress (solved by placing restrained dogs / cats / whatever on the entrance) you should be pretty safe, specially if the lever for the bridge access is near somewhere where inactive dwarves roam.

[Slugman]

You will definitely want to set up a military (next time?). Megabeasts and forgotten beasts are immune to traps as far as I know. I have never tried traps against them myself but your story seems to prove it. I suggest you kill those from a safe spot with an archer squad if they have nasty abilities like firebreathing. Most of the time they can also be killed by a melee squad. In that case you will probably suffer some casualities though. Totally depends on the monsters abilities (your titan must have been a pushover by the way). Some might even cause necrosis to your whole population as far as stories go on the forums.

Setting up a military is quite essential and easy to do anyway. An army can even be effective if you simply let some dwarves train all year round with no further attention and lost recruits can always be replaced by unpopular migrants. Some useless dwarves, a chest/armor stand/weapon rack as makeshift barracks, a few weapons and wooden shields are all you need for the beginning (the shield is easily more important than any other armor piece!). Should you ever embark in an evil biome I also suggest that you take along a military dwarf right from the start to deal with minor nuisances like werewolves and harpies which might otherwise jeopardize your whole expedition.

As for the weapons... you should probably focus on axes, swords, spears and hammers - in that order. Axes seem to outperform pretty much anything else when it comes to killing and chopping off body parts, swords cripple enemies a lot while dealing nice damage to the enemy and spears have an improved chance of piercing a vital body part (sometimes killing a serious threat outright) but are otherwise somewhat crappy. Hammers have to be made from different materials (silver is generally considered the best option) and are supposed to be the best choice against heavily armored opponents. You can also kill unarmored opponents with hammers but the kills seem to take a whole lot longer than with axes and swords. Basically the hammerdwarf breaks a lot of limbs first and finishes by smashing the skull which can often take a while. Axe- and swordswarves simply chop off the limbs immediately and hasten the process.

Also... next time design your fortress in a way so you can quickly cut off the fortress from the rest of the world in emergency situations. A simple - yet rather unreliable - option would be to make entrance doors (lock them to buy you some time). A moat & drawbridge are a much better solution though. You can also be very creative about that sort of thing. Some people tend to build magma cannons, freeze traps, etc. to kill everything in their entrance hallway for certain. If you have a very long hallway you might also consider building a ballista or catapult. However, siege equipment is rather lacking at the moment - in many regards.

Of course you can probably save your fortress in some way by walling in the beast and rebuilding the fortress with new migrants but I don't really know enough about the situation and the fortress itself. Embarking anew on a promising site with a fresh concept in mind is always a lot of fun and would probably be my personal choice.

[Ghills]

Megabeasts have [TRAP_AVOID] in the RAWs, which does what it sounds like.  Cave-ins and military are the only things that can kill them.

I like to wall off a large area of the surface and attach a drawbridge to a lever.  Hard-won wall and moat wisdom:

1) Make sure it's a raising, not retracting, bridge.
2) Filling a moat with water means that giant toads and similar goblin mounts can swim across it, which can be !!FUN!!. 
3) Roof over the walled area so that flying mounts can't get inside.

Good luck!

[Darkweave]

I've killed several titans and semi-mega-beasts with just 5-6 dwarves with average skills ( proficient axeman, talented fighter, competent armor and shield users) without losing a single guy. It's not that tricky to take them out with a military in bronze/iron that's been training for about 1-1.5 years. Though, if you get something with deadly dust or fire it may be a bit trickier, mine were pathetic really.

Having a moat for defense and locking yourself away = boredom for me, so I usually get two to three dwarves training in a sqaud from the very start and they lead my military, usually getting lots of kills.

[gtmattz]

Other than ambushes spawning -inside- the fortress (solved by placing restrained dogs / cats / whatever on the entrance)...

They don't spawn when they are revealed, they actually spawn at the edge of the map and sneak their way in.

[Poncho]

okay, i'll look into creating a military, thanks for all the advice.

i've never managed to make anything metal either, i should look into that too if i'm going to be crafting weapons

[Saim]

 
         
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2 Walls with ramps on the outsides and a bridge in the middle hooked to a level, I can't suggest that enough. Locked doors will keep goblins out but the FB's and trolls break 'em down, that set up a friend gave me is invincible until there's flying building destroyers just flip that and you're safe inside. Just don't break down a wall by accident to let the cave ogres in unless you set up and entrace to the underground caves with that bridge. I always set up a small danger room asap with at least 1-2 dwarves in it it.

[Hyndis]

A wall and/or moat with a drawbridge linked to a lever is essential for any fort.

Most FB's really aren't all that tough. Even completely untrained militia can often times handle an FB, assuming you swamp it with many dwarves.


Of course then there are times where you get an FB made entirely out of metal or stone, then you're in trouble.

And if an FB made out of slade shows up, at that point seal off the outside world and never, ever, ever open the gates again.   

[Jachim]

There is two ways to make a military right now. The easy way, and the hard way. The easy way is called 'Danger Room' training, I won't spoil it for you, just look it up if you want. A forewarning, if you do it properly, it feels like cheating

The hard way is to actually gather up a few hapless fools dwarves and make them train in a room. Set them up so they are always nearby each other and that'll let them spar more often which leads to quicker skill increases. Have them fight wildlife and such to train their swinging skills up.

Use whatever metal you can find to armor them at first... it's very important to have that. Titans typically spawn and attack at roughly 80 dwarves, so you'll know roughly how long you'll have before they come a knocking.

If all else fails, wall off your entrance, make a retractable bridge so your traders can get in whenever there isn't madness outside, and train marksdwarves to shoot enemies from afar

My first successful fortress survived siege after siege just on 3 really poorly trained marksdwarves and a few towers built around common siege routes. Titans will USUALLY make a bee-line right for your front entrance, so have them perched on a second level to rain their (inaccurate) death down upon whatever is below. Fortifications will make them survive longer against ranged foes.

[JmzLost]

i've never managed to make anything metal either, i should look into that too if i'm going to be crafting weapons

Yes, you should.

Setting up a military is quite essential and easy to do anyway.

Essential?  Yes.  Easy?  Not so much.  The military interface has it's own learning curve cliff, but some simple rules will help.  Keep squads small.  Concentrate on immigrants who already have military skills.  2-5 Marksdwarves should be able to handle anything with 5-10 infantry for backup.  Always have armor/weapons/backpacks/quivers/etc in your stockpiles before assigning it to a squad.  Give your military good rooms, good prepared meals, and statues for happy thoughts.  Then make them train continuously, so they have a chance against whoever invades.  "Practice, practice, practice" applies to you AND the dwarves.  If When your military fails, try, try again.

Good luck.

JMZ

[Avo]

Bring plenty of female (and one male) dog with you. You can then train them into war dogs which can kill of things like monkeys raiding your food, titans with some casualties and late game they act as a mighty fine meat shield. 

[Byakugan01]

Bring plenty of female (and one male) dog with you. You can then train them into war dogs which can kill of things like monkeys raiding your food, titans with some casualties and late game they act as a mighty fine meat shield.

[CAVE_SPIDER_GIANT]
[PET]
[TRAINABLE]