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[garyg]

Alright, so, I first started playing DF about a week and a half ago, and in that time I created a nice beginner fortress in a dolomite hill, with virtually all of my wealth from selling masterwork dolomite mechanisms. I didn't assemble a military, since I didn't really understand how to, and so when the fortress hit 200 residents and about 8-900000 in wealth, a squadron of goblin macemen killed about 140 dwarves. I guess that's what I earned.

Anyway, so I was watching the fun ensue, and many of the dwarves are just carrying on in the fortress, randomly venturing outside to get drinks (and then be killed by the marauding goblins), and I was just letting things take their course. Dozens of mindless dwarves rambling around the watering hole, dragging corpses to the corpse stockpile (where the goblins killed them), etcetera.

Suddenly, I get this message, which helpfully informs me that a minotaur has come.

Initial reaction: okay, the game is designed to make me lose. I knew that.

So, anyway, I unpause to see what happens, and to my amusement, the minotaur immediately starts kicking goblin ass. I don't know if anyone's ever played SimCity 2000, but when your city was on fire (and you were letting it burn like a pyro), SuperSim would come along and magically put the fires out (somewhat). This minotaur was SuperSim. It killed two goblins in about ten seconds and then walked into my fortress, where it killed a couple of random dwarves (who were hauling stones, naturally, because what would you do when your fortress is being besieged?). It got stuck in a hallway, putting the beat down on a fisherdwarf, who somehow managed to survive the ambush. Then, it wandered into a room with a gemcutter's workshop (and an unfortunate dyer), and I sealed the door behind it.

The siege ended right after the minotaur came to town (no shit -- it's a minotaur), and with him locked up, everything seems to be in order again. A few dwarves tantruming, but nothing aside from that. The fortress was promoted to a metropolis the year before, and its baroness survived the siege. Imagine my further surprise when the caravan from the dwarven civilization showed up and told her, despite the fact that the hallways are drenched in blood, there are corpses everywhere (the goblins killed almost all the animals, too), and that we literally might not recover, that they wanted to promote the colony higher within the civilization.

tl;dr: Goblin siege, minotaur appeared, killed goblins, fortress in ruins but now has pet minotaur, things are going back to normal.

Somebody tell me what the hell is happening, why this fortress is smiled upon by Armok, and what I should do next. What do I do with my new pet minotaur?

[CT]

since you can't tame minotaurs (dont hold me to that) you could build a 1) pit to drop stupid elves, gobbos, nobles in. Or you can make a long elaborate entrance to your fort through which everything has to pass...or wait no a direct route to your fort for caravans but during a siege this way gets blocked off causing them to path to your fort from the long elaborate way where the minotaur is waiting in its own separate area. You could also just build a labyrinth.

[zehive]

first, noone understands military second, make a kitten lined hallway into a sealable room, then when your fortress is truly screwed by goblins release it again.

editted because i said minotaurs rather then military, wat?

[VerdantSF]

I commend you for not abandoning!  Perhaps you can create a levered hatchway above its new lair.  When enemies are amassed on top, pull the lever and send them to their death, Star Wars Rancor style!

[Putnam]

first, noone understands military

Not true! The military system is truly wonderful, once you've figured it out! It just takes a damn while to figure it out!

[Corneria]

If you removed [PET_EXOTIC], tame it and let it be the new leader of your army. Otherwise, dump it in a pit and dump any future prisoners in there. Also, cats.

[g2knee]

I vote for building a labyrinth and forcing future seiges/ambushes through it to get to your fort.   Might be tricky without letting the minotaur in/out though!

[Anathema]

You have to build a labyrinth. It's traditional. Then carefully coax/drop the minotaur into the maze somehow (if you leave a kitten inside, and it's the only creature the minotaur can path to, he should go for it). Finally create a floor hatch or drawbridge that drops incoming goblins into the maze - it can be triggered by a pressure plate if you want to be fancy, or manually by lever otherwise. As a backup you can have some cage traps to snag any goblins that make it past your elaborate pressure plate+drawbrige, and pit them into the labyrinth manually.

By the way, keep in mind that one needn't build a truly epic labyrinth all at once. You can start out with a modest labyrinth, just be sure to build it with a bunch of exits on each side blocked off by floodgates or raised drawbridges. Add minotaur, then continue expanding your maze adjacent to the blocked exits, unblocking them as new sections of it are finished.

[Crustypeanut]

I vote for building a labyrinth and forcing future seiges/ambushes through it to get to your fort.   Might be tricky without letting the minotaur in/out though!

b
This - use a system of bridge-gates to do this (or floodgates i suppose) - have the minotaur stuck in one room with one (after having caged him and contructing his cage there, then attaching it to a lever and pulling it), a complex labyrinth, and another set of gates - one leading into your fortress, and one leading out.  Normally, these three would be sealed, but during a siege, open the two that lead into and out of your fortress while sealing your main entrance, wait for the goblins to get inside the labyrinth, seal both of them off again, and open the door with the minotaur - vuala, carnage.

To get the minotaur back into the room when he's done, pit a cat in there as bait.  Or even better, have another room leading to the minotaur's room, normally sealed, with a bait animal tied up.  Open that door, let him go after the bait, close the door before he gets to the bait and close the door behind him in his room.

I gotta try this next time I find a minotaur..

[imperium3]

Just wondering... aren't minotaurs building destroyers? So if he's only held in that room by a locked door, he won't be in there forever...

[CT]

Just wondering... aren't minotaurs building destroyers? So if he's only held in that room by a locked door, he won't be in there forever...

 
               Urist 1: so...should we wall him in or not?
               Urist 2: Nah, he should be fine we locked the door remember.
               Minotaur: *punches through door* Sup Bitches.
 
                                          In fact that is what every building destroyer does.

[zehive]

first, noone understands military

Not true! The military system is truly wonderful, once you've figured it out! It just takes a damn while to figure it out!

i spent 6 months looking at the military screen until i pressed enough things that they started training in a barracks. about 2 weeks ago I figured out I can assign them metal uniforms and they'll all automatically get exactly what I want them to.

[Crioca]

Mazes are traditional. I have one sitting in a maze guarding an artifact platinum warhammer. Many a dwarf has come to my fortress, to rise through the ranks of the militia of Splittomb and to take their chance at claiming the artifact. So far, none have succeeded in their quest. The minotaur has over 160 kills. (Most of which are goblins, but still.)

[Wurgel]

hmmm cant you just put him on a rope in the middle and increase the area of the restraint? or doesnt it increase the length of the rope?

other option: big labyrinth, 1 way in, 1 way out. both ways "sealed" with a 1-way speed-system, that just let friendly units escape.   

XXXXXXX
___PH___ <- Moving direction
XXXXXXX

x=wall, _ = Floor, P= Pressurplate, H= Hatch conected to plate with a channel under it.

The 1-way system yhould keep all goblins and the minotaur inside the labyrinth

[BeforeLifer]

Once i had a Gaint come and im like.
AHHHH crap-_- because my military is only 10 melee dwarves and 5 marksdwarves at the time. So i lock up and the a little while later a siege comes... just my luck...
However the Giant charges at one of the goblin squads then proply gets analy raped by the squad. Dident even get off one attack>.>