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[Jurph]

I lost my most recent fortress to a Forgotten Beast made of glass.  Steel axes appeared to fracture-but-not-destroy his body parts, and steel hammers bounced off harmlessly.  He made a mockery of my iron-armored dwarves -- punching them through the head, ripping off limbs, and basically decimating the fortress single-handedly.  Given his ability to shrug off steel weapons, I can't imagine my dwarves would have lasted much longer in steel than they did in iron.  I know mineral FBs are fearsome for exactly this reason... but I had always gotten the easy ones (e.g. salt) so I never had to prepare for them before.  What is the preferred approach for dealing with them?  Do knockout dust traps still work or do I need to do actual crushing damage?  Can an atom-smasher bridge do the trick?

[dagger]

Cave ins and Giant Spiker Silk covered cage traps...?

[RAKninja]

fracturing is good.  if you continue to pound on it, eventually it will die.

FBs are atom-smasher immune, bridges will not lower onto them, nor can you raise the bridge while they are on it for that matter.

for the really hard materials, your best bet is a cave in.

the way i prepare for FBs is to wall off the caverns.  when i do place settlements into the caverns, i will wall off those settlements from the rest of the caverns.

[Sphalerite]

I use magma for the ones that aren't made of magma-safe materials.  Forgotten beasts made of magma-safe inorganic materials are tough, the only way to reliably kill them is with a cave-in.

[Proteus]

fracturing is good.  if you continue to pound on it, eventually it will die.

FBs are atom-smasher immune, bridges will not lower onto them, nor can you raise the bridge while they are on it for that matter.

for the really hard materials, your best bet is a cave in.

the way i prepare for FBs is to wall off the caverns.  when i do place settlements into the caverns, i will wall off those settlements from the rest of the caverns.

Same for me...
as soon as my exploration stairs breach a cavern level,
I reseal the shaft,
plan ahead which part of the caverns I want to claim for my fortress (ideally large connected regions for agriculture)
and search the best position near the planned borders where I can separate my part of the caverns from the rest caverns)
then create a new breach and send my masons down to build the necessary walls and floors as soon as possible

[MonkeyHead]

Have had some joy with spears, even with awkward mineral/metal FB's...

[Jurph]

Does the [TRAPAVOID] tag make them immune to lever-operated spear traps?  I'm envisioning a "cleansing" corridor leading from my exploratory shaft to the caverns, lined with upright spear/spike traps and loaded with Menacing Spikes.  By connecting it to a lever in the dining hall and setting it to repeat in times of trouble, I feel like I could probably land a few dozen respectable hits.

Thanks for the tips so far.  I'm off to research the preferred methods for generating cave-ins. 

Oh -- if I build a 3x3 ceiling on a support on the cavern floor, and then dig a 3x3 room under the cavern floor, will the cave-in punch through the floor?  If so, will it create sheer walls or sloped walls?  I think I might be able to create a drop-trap that would both cause cave-ins and massive falling damage.

[Proteus]

Does the [TRAPAVOID] tag make them immune to lever-operated spear traps?...

Nope...
lever operated spikes are the only kind of "traps" that work against [trapavoid] creatures
(meanign that they also work against kobolds)

[Nidokoenig]

Oh -- if I build a 3x3 ceiling on a support on the cavern floor, and then dig a 3x3 room under the cavern floor, will the cave-in punch through the floor?  If so, will it create sheer walls or sloped walls?  I think I might be able to create a drop-trap that would both cause cave-ins and massive falling damage.

Been a while since I did this, but it should cave in and leave sheer walls. Since you'd have to dig out the levels below to get falling damage, why not just have the FB fall into a pit and then bring the the ten floors above down on it? Or make a Dwarven Machine Gun, bringing water and magma together on a hole between two hatches, so the obsidian is unsupported by solid ground and immediately caves in? Really, if the game's going to throw indestructible FBs that throw out cave-in dust at you, why not throw several tons of obsidian a second at them?

[Astramancer]

Really, if the game's going to throw indestructible FBs that throw out cave-in dust at you, why not throw several tons of obsidian a second at them?

And this is why I love Dwarf Fortress.

[Jurph]

Since you'd have to dig out the levels below to get falling damage, why not just have the FB fall into a pit and then bring the the ten floors above down on it? Or make a Dwarven Machine Gun, bringing water and magma together on a hole between two hatches, so the obsidian is unsupported by solid ground and immediately caves in? Really, if the game's going to throw indestructible FBs that throw out cave-in dust at you, why not throw several tons of obsidian a second at them?

Mostly for lack of time and resources.  This was an early-game fortress death that I'd like to include in my "what not to do" standard operating procedures.  I'm looking at setting up a one- or two-layer trap system that can hold me until I crack through to magma. 

I think my problem this most recent fortress was that I had already denuded the outside world of trees, and so I thought that I needed to send a fairly aggressive lumberjacking force into the caverns for wood.  (My rationale being that wood would allow smelting, which would allow armor, which would make me mostly safe vs. caverns.)  The conservative play would have been to sprint for the magma and come back for the wood later.  Lesson learned!

[Lagslayer]

Loaded upward spike traps over a very tall pit. Make the trap path winding so it has less chance to dodge to the end. It still probably won't kill the really tough ones for a long time, but a big enough fall should do it. Just make sure you have lots of dwarves on standby to pull the lever.

[Nidokoenig]

Mostly for lack of time and resources.  This was an early-game fortress death that I'd like to include in my "what not to do" standard operating procedures.  I'm looking at setting up a one- or two-layer trap system that can hold me until I crack through to magma. 

I think my problem this most recent fortress was that I had already denuded the outside world of trees, and so I thought that I needed to send a fairly aggressive lumberjacking force into the caverns for wood.  (My rationale being that wood would allow smelting, which would allow armor, which would make me mostly safe vs. caverns.)  The conservative play would have been to sprint for the magma and come back for the wood later.  Lesson learned!

Any particular reason you didn't just breach, wall off a little bit of the cavern then dig out a massive chunk of soil layer/flood several stone layers using a river? Dorf Fort isn't a game you need to speed run. Hell, it's rare that I get the whole of the surface denuded of trees and actually use that wood. If you're doing that, remember that any tree or plant has a chance to be replaced by either a tree or a plant, so be sure to send out plenty of herbalists. Herbalism improves memory, too, which helps prevent skill loss.

Another option, which is pretty much cheating, would be to grab the wood conjuring parts from My Little Fortress, so you have have "conjured plump helmet wood logs". You'd still need plants to turn into wood, but it's a nice supply of it if you want to be able to use wood for something other than beds and barrels. To balance it out, add the honey badger pegasi at the same time.

[Jurph]

Any particular reason you didn't just breach, wall off a little bit of the cavern then dig out a massive chunk of soil layer/flood several stone layers using a river? Dorf Fort isn't a game you need to speed run. Hell, it's rare that I get the whole of the surface denuded of trees and actually use that wood. If you're doing that, remember that any tree or plant has a chance to be replaced by either a tree or a plant, so be sure to send out plenty of herbalists. Herbalism improves memory, too, which helps prevent skill loss.

I did have a tree farm started up top, and I was picking all of its plants each season to allow the trees to grow.  I always do that fairly early so that I can have plenty of wood around the same time that I breach magma.  As for 'speed run', I prefer to move quickly and deliberately towards my goals in DF... for instance I always buy the maximum amount of raw materials and useful finished goods from each caravan.  I probably could have walled off the cavern (conservative move) but I would have inevitably continued the downward expedition to the magma sea at the fastest pace possible.

I've played the opening game so many times that I like to rush through it for efficiency and focus on the midgame (steel, training Legendary crafters, color-coordinating architectural designs).  I find myself so vulnerable during the early game that I rush through it in order to get to the game that I really want to play.

[Proteus]

But overexertion in itself is something that makes you vulnerable as well
as you, as it seems, now have experienced for yourself.