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[Supernerd]

So I got this nice caged Ettin around my fortress. I am thinking that maybe I should chain it up somewhere out in the open near the entrance of my fortress and forbid my dwarfs from getting within its striking range. The idea is that when something such as a goblin invasion comes, they will engage the Ettin in combat. The problem with this idea is that I am not 100% confident that I can get the Ettin out of the cage and into restraints without the Ettin slaughtering my dwarfs, and even if this works the Ettin would likely try to kill any merchants that come as well as invaders. Furthermore I am almost positive that my cats won't give half a shit about the fact that I am forbidding people to get near it and I do not currently have catsplosion problems so I don't want all my cats dead yet. Could anyone give me some input as to how to go about setting this up and whether or not its a bad idea?

[Thatdude]

As an idea, yes you're right, it's terrible practically.

An alternative however is to have a deep dark pit which you dump it down, cover the pit with a bridge and then through some means get the goblins/elves/troublesome almost all nobles down there with the ettin to play. The easiest way would be to have the bridge to be quite long (as in X by 10) and pull the lever when the enemy is about half way across. This would work better with true mega beasts though because as far as I know, an ettin is only a half mega beast. I think even a few goblins can take down an ettin.

[Poindexterity]

i tried almost this same thing once.
didnt work out very well.

archers will turn your chained up ettin into a pincusion.

[BodyGripper]

I believe I tried something like this with a dragon.  It sort of worked, since it killed a goblin or two.  It died in it's own fire, if I recall correctly.

[Mimidormi]

Create an alternative entrance to house your chained Ettin, an airlock within two bridges and some tightly-closed yet passable doors to forbid animal passage, with a sharp, diagonal turn, to force marksgoblins to engage in melee with him/her, and create a burrow for it, just to be even more sure no dwarf will attempt to go there after the chaining.
Remember, before assigning the Ettin to the chain: link the restraint to some lever, just in case in the future you'll want to relocate him/her.
With this system, even if the goblins end up killing your Ettin you may trap them within the bridges.

As for the chaining process, it's mostly luck dependent.. even if you build the cage right by the restraint, assign animal caretaking to an armored civilian dwarf both very agile and with very good dodging skills and hope s/he can get away before the ettin realizes what's happening.

If you want to retrieve goblin armor and stuff, you could add some hydraulics.

[irdsm]

This is easy guys. Just 'b'uild the cage outside your entrance, hook it up to a lever and close it off. When the goblins come let it loose and keep some cage traps nearby to catch it again.

[Oliolli]

Why even a lever? You could simply build pressure plates next to the cage, you wouldn't need to care about pulling the lever at the right time.

Or, get some more ettins and make a doberman bomb, except with ettins.

[Triaxx2]

Simple solution. On flat lands, channel a three wide entrance. Or just cut into a hill. Three wide ensures depot access. Give 10 tiles and channel down 2 z-levels. Dig out and rise up the rear side. Lay a retracting bridge over the outside, and on the inside, a raising bridge. Me, I'd use a step trick to send traders up and out of harm's way. Ramp, Wall, Ramp on the primary z-level, with a raising/retracting bridge that leads to the Depot one level up. That ensures that they get out of the path way in case of invaders/ambushers.

Now you can safely chain the Ettin at the bottom of the pit and going through is the only option the gobbos have. Particularly useful if the only way around the raised bridge are long trap corridors. They'll get abused by the Ettin, and then run a trap gambit. If there's anything left that's not mincemeat you can let the military handle it.

[kotekzot]

Your ettin will likely get slaughtered. Cage the goblins, strip them, then drop them down a couple of levels to the ettin's lair. That should keep it until the gobbo gets a lucky roll and decapitates it.

[Oliolli]

Your ettin will likely get slaughtered. Cage the goblins, strip them, then drop them down a couple of levels to the ettin's lair. That should keep it until the gobbo gets a lucky roll and decapitates it.

You mean...

"Ulspa O'Prisoner punches the ettin in the left head and the severed part sails off in an arc!"

I would like to see that.

Ettins have two heads right?