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[WolfeyS]

After standing back and looking at my fort I had to ask myself

"What the fuck Urist was I thinking?"

Which lead me to wonder, how does everyone else defend their forts?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

At this rate I don't even need to use my 8 legendary soldiers, or other useless troops.  I just flick a few levers and even the largest sieges are done.  With careful planning I try to catch a few of them to throw in my arena.

I blacked out most of the non defense stuff so I had room to place pointless labels, and to save brain/eye power.

[King DZA]

DeathMaze.

And a heavy dependence on my 27 dwarf militia.

[Loud Whispers]

I prefer instead to completely lack the use of atomsmashers, dodge traps or danger room trained soldiers, just to make it that much harder for my marksdwarves to defend the fort.

(Or should I say castle, when it comes to above ground forts...)

Oh, and mass conscript + full time military. If the situation is looking dire for my 50 professionals, they will fear the might of the entire fort - 150 more dwarves to the war machine. It takes a lot of management though, so you have squads of useful dwarves which you would only dare call to arms in the direst circumstances.

[WolfeyS]

I think I would turn around and walk quickly if 150 wrestlers came at me.

[Thorik]

I don't even use traps, not fun at all!  I love getting my military dwarves killed and then to give them a lavish tomb and memorial, with a statue in the main hall to commemorate their sacrifice!  If all else fails conscript the least useful dwarves and the fort guards!  I have around 16 dwarf soldiers now and it's all good, their magnificent in full steel

[NecroRebel]

I typically defend my fort with soldiers. I embark with 2 dwarves for soldiers and enough malachite, cassiterite, and wood to make a full suit of bronze armor for them, then make an armor stand or weapon rack early and have them start training. By the time the first sieges show up in the first winter (I play a pared-down form of Fortress Defense, but I almost always get sieged by beak wolves or frogmen early), they're suitably skilled to take it down all by themselves.

Often, for kicks I'll later build an overcomplicated, but very effective, magma trap that I designed some time ago, but even once it's built I rarely actually use it. Even minotaurossi aren't strong enough to deal with decent squads in full masterwork steel armor with masterwork steel or candy weapons, and they're the strongest enemies I ever have to deal with.

I don't think I've ever actually trapped anything for use in an arena. I just see cage traps as too powerful, and arenas not valuable enough given how quickly dwarves become decent fighters when you can sic them on a weak beak wolf or frogman siege. Also, all of the more threatening enemies are trapavoiders anyway, so I couldn't capture them even if I wanted to.

[WolfeyS]

I use the arena to train marksdwarves and gather goblinite at the same time.

[Loud Whispers]

minotaurossi

I'd hate to be the one to break it to you...

Besides, I understand not using cage traps and the like, but what about over the top cave in/water/ice/magma/ground collapse cage/bridge traps?
_{As a side note, you may have picked a rather unfortunate name...}

[VerdantSF]

I'm trying a fort with no danger rooms, traps, or drawbridges.  There's always a way into the fort provided the enemy brings building destroyers.  Playing this way totally changes the game and makes vanilla pretty thrilling!

[Loud Whispers]

I'm trying a fort with no danger rooms, traps, or drawbridges.  There's always a way into the fort provided the enemy brings building destroyers.  Playing this way totally changes the game and makes vanilla pretty thrilling!

Embark in a haunted/savage biome, no trees, no plant, river optional and build everything above ground. Elves and their wood suddenly seem useful.

[Mushroo]

I get pretty good results from legendary soldiers and lots of serrated disk traps.

[Sphalerite]

Walls and drawbridges for defenses.  Drop traps and repeating spikes for killing invaders.  Marksdwarves firing form behind fortifications and a handful of military dwarves for mopping up anything that gets in anyway.  I admit I'm still not very good with the DF military system, so I rely more on traps and architecture.

[proxn_punkd]

Cage traps and bottlenecks in early stages. Then I develop armies, and once those are secure I start experimenting with whatever else is handy.

[Shinotsa]

I'm trying a fort with no danger rooms, traps, or drawbridges.  There's always a way into the fort provided the enemy brings building destroyers.  Playing this way totally changes the game and makes vanilla pretty thrilling!

This sounds wonderously Fun. Usually I do this for the first few years of my fort while my miners shear/smooth half of a mountain for my grand entrance, but then build a square courtyard and simple drawbridge over moat with fortifications carved in the mountainside for archers. Cage traps can provide fodder for arenas (I usually have a dwarf with bone armor and a silver dagger perform sacrifices when things get dull) without breaking the game if you just scatter six or so around the entrance to your fort so that any single attacking squad would only lose a man or two to them.

I just lost a fort to an angry military, but instead of cutting their schedule I think I'm just going to put more artifacts and statues in the barracks next time. I will say that when you set them active/training the whole year in squads of 3 they sure learn how to do their jobs quick.

[NecroRebel]

minotaurossi

I'd hate to be the one to break it to you...

Besides, I understand not using cage traps and the like, but what about over the top cave in/water/ice/magma/ground collapse cage/bridge traps?

I'm not sure what you mean. I very specifically noted that I build a magma trap and sometimes use it 

As a side note, you may have picked a rather unfortunate name...

Note the join dates. I was part of this forum for a year and a half before that person joined. He's the one who copied me, and his behavior besmirches my good name  I'm not fond of him, but the name is mine.