I make little mini forts whenever I have some mountain side and little outcroppings sticking up, usually overlooking a river. I think it's the German in me.
Seriously, these little castles are everywhere on the Rhine. Few are built without the terrain in mind and none are just a box with towers in the corners.
Damn you, robber. It's a plan to set up your own toll extortion racket - I have read your mind.
For me, the first thing I read on the wiki was about "losing is fun". The game is quite basic in graphics and control interface and that would normally turn people away. But if you approach it with a certain attitude it is really funny. And I really don't notice whining and complaining here - kinda unusual, but nice.
So I failed a number of times, turning to call out "NEXT!" when doom stroke again. I spent six hours to find the perfect embark (without actually starting the game) - I'd call that OCD. Now I landed in a flat cold treeland. Brook is frozen, massive clay, no aquifer, all iron ores present, magma not very far down there but it's a sinister land. The first party was slaughtered by harpies and ogres and I reclaimed.
Everything was littered around - a nightmare for an obsessive mind. I got the thing going again, but my intricate hall of death is not working as planned.
Anyway, those times when the ambush nears the gate, everone is actively drinking booze and NOT pulling the trigger - well, it's just bad karma. Don't be perfect, just enjoy it. How? Build somthing complicated with wicked intention and watch it fail.