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[UristMcHuman]

So, Wallarches has hit the caverns, and I'm concerned about Giant Cave Spiders, because I have no military at this point. Can they climb walls? Because I found some gems, too, and I don't want to get this:

"Urist McMiner cancels Dig: Interrupted by Giant Cave Spider"

Any help regarding GCSs and FBs are greatly appreciated.

[Girlinhat]

GCS are common creatures, except they spit web and inject poison.  They also destroy wooden things.  They don't have special rules about climbing walls.  You can (very) easily catch them by putting cage traps in front of your doors (with 1 empty space, they break things from 2 squares away).  This is very good, as GCS are a highly valuable creature, for their silk and their ability to capture any creature except HFS.

[Gatleos]

Nope, GCSs can't climb walls. GCSs and FBs are both building destroyers, but GCSs can be caught in cage traps. If you have no military, I'd suggest dealing with FBs like this:



With clever use of lever-activated drawbridges and a useless dwarf for bait, you can trap FBs in a dead end room and wall them in. Then, if you're really clever, you can turn their room into a prisoner execution chamber. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

But seriously, don't take chances with Forgotten Beasts. When one appears, WALL UP EVERYTHING AND HIDE.

[elf-fondling human]

Yeah, I lost my favorite fortress to an inconveniently timed FB attack, it walzed right through a hole in my defenses the second after I saved, so I couldn't do anything about it or reseal the hole before it wiped my midgets out. My military had consisted of a militia commander with an artifact zinc warhammer, a guard captain with...actually, I think he was barehanded, and a pair of miners with adamantine picks, but this beast was made of pure dirt and slime and had no weakpoints because it was a blob.

[UristMcHuman]

GCS are common creatures, except they spit web and inject poison.  They also destroy wooden things.  They don't have special rules about climbing walls.  You can (very) easily catch them by putting cage traps in front of your doors (with 1 empty space, they break things from 2 squares away).  This is very good, as GCS are a highly valuable creature, for their silk and their ability to capture any creature except HFS.

So, if I walled off the caverns with a wooden wall, the GCS can destroy it?

I didn't do ^ that, instead using a lump of useless (?) cobaltite that my diggers knocked out of a wall.

I thought the DM's tame exotics tag was broken.

Ok, I'm glad they can't climb walls (yet). So, my dwarfs will be safe, for now.

[Pan]

Walls are indestructible by anything, no matter the material. I think he meant wooden doors and the like.

[dfJuice]

What do you mean GCS can capture any creature? How would you use it for that?

Also I like the idea of trapping a FB to use for killing prisoners, would a room blocked by a floodgate suffice to trap it? Will it destroy a floodgate, and I'm not sure what you guys mean by using a trap with a door behind it, would a single trap not work? How about two traps in a row.

[Jelle]

You made adamantine picks but didn't bother equiping a military? 

Anyway, I've dealt with forgotten beasts with only unarmed dwarves before, an organic one not those weaksauce made of sand, I don't really see what the problem is unless it brings !!fun!! or syndromes.

Also my observations on giant cave spiders thus far is that they are rarely agressive, attacking only when provoked by a nearby dwarf (I think they have large predator tag).
They can easely be trapped, just don't try and attacking it head  on if you want one dead as it spews webs in a cone the direction it faces, and a webbed dwarf is easy prey for its venom.

[tomblifter]

I don't know what you guys are talking about, my millita commander (which I nicknamed Slaughter) instakilled two forgotten beasts. One made of flesh and the other made of some kind of gem.
He has something like 200 kills, and is the main source of meat for the fort.

[Ieb]

What do you mean GCS can capture any creature? How would you use it for that?

Also I like the idea of trapping a FB to use for killing prisoners, would a room blocked by a floodgate suffice to trap it? Will it destroy a floodgate, and I'm not sure what you guys mean by using a trap with a door behind it, would a single trap not work? How about two traps in a row.

GCS silk currently causes every creature to get tangled on it(excluding HFS creatures, I figure, never tried it myself), so if you manage to get a GCS to shoot web on a cage trap, then if a creature that otherwise would walk right over the trap goes over it, they first get tangled on the web and then as they're "vulnerable" they'll get caught by the cage trap. And tadah! A trapped forgotten beast or whatever!

As for the FB trap: I'd just wall the creature up somewhere if it is caught in an area, either by a bait dorf or a chained creature. With a real built wall, those it can't destroy. Floodgates and anything you place by the Build command can be smashed to bits and you don't want that.

After that it's up to how to drop things to the FB to kill. A retracting bridge would work the best. Just make sure that the FB isn't one that can fly. Otherwise, whoo boy.

[callahan.44]

I don't know what you guys are talking about, my millita commander (which I nicknamed Slaughter) instakilled two forgotten beasts. One made of flesh and the other made of some kind of gem.
He has something like 200 kills, and is the main source of meat for the fort.

It depends on the RNG. You always get easy ones that can be killed by a single crossbow bolt to tough mofos that make bronze colossus look like kittens. Add in the extra !fun! of syndromes that can instant-blind/ko/rot your dwarfs and doom your fort if any of that blood/splatter ends up in your hospital/well/dining/booze area. 

[UristMcHuman]

You made adamantine picks but didn't bother equiping a military?

I don't have adamantine ANYTHING!!! I only have (and can find ores for) copper! I can't possibly deal with a FB toe-to-toe with wimpy copper axes and picks!

[kotekzot]

You really want all the GCS you can get, and there are only like 3 or 4 that'll spawn in the caverns over the fort's lifetime, so you might want to trap it.

[UristMcHuman]

I don't have any dwarfs that I can render useless. Peasants may be considered useless, but they can be trained, so peasants aren't totally useless. Most every dwarf can be trained to do anything, so no dwarf is useless. I guess I could put pit an animal such as a cat to explore the caverns without the risk of losing a dwarf.

[GreatWyrmGold]

You don't consider ANY dwarves useless? You're new here, aren't you?