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[Callista]

I'm having good results just sealing up the fortress completely until I'm ready to face sieges. Could work for other newbies. Make sure to use constructions only--bridges, walls, floors, that kind of thing--or else the trolls and other strong stuff will just break through it.

[Garath]

the problem is that sometimes ambushes are halfway through the gate before i see them, or a quarter of my dwarfs will be locked outside if i close the gate in time, so you cant do without some way to defeat them

[Jerg]

For traps, glass is the most efficient material.

Have 1 dwarf designated as glassmaker, and in no time he will be legendary. Glass is practically free (just have a ton of bags made and a dedicated sand-collection zone, and a magma glass forge), and masterwork glass trap weapons can be churned out at absurd speeds; load a couple of rows of traps (with high quality mechanisms) with 10x masterwork glass trap weapons and you're set.

[Nan]

If you really care about that, use the a gate held open by an animal using a "dead man's switch".

One simple way to do this, is in your entrance corridor, this is a cross section (P = pressure plate, d = dog or other animal, ___ = bridge, \ = ramp)

################
   d    ___#####
###P####\
################

Make the pressure plate triggered by friendlies, and pasture the animal on top of it in a 1x1 pasture.

When enemies arrive, they will either kill the animal or it will move by itself. The bridge will then return to it's default state, which, as a retracting bridge, blocks traffic going up or down the ramp. A retracting bridge used in this way can't be jammed open - there is no possible way, it also wont squash anything. This trap is also trifling to extend to make a self-sealing chamber - just have another retracting bridge over the exterior entrance. The chamber can then be flooded (I would link that to a lever, rather than the pressure plate!)

The one and only problem with this method, is the enemy might stand on the pressure plate and re-open the gate and something might slip through before the gate re-closes. This risk can be almost entirely eliminated by putting the pressure plate somewhere enemies wont path, for example at the outside of a bend in the hallway.


This of course does nothing to address the problem of dorfs being stranded outside, which is a problem regardless of whether or not you have a sealable entrance. I suggest taking your most important dwarves (such as legendary armorsmiths) and turning off all extraneous labors such as hauling, recovering wounded, and cleaning. This way only useless immigrants will be caught outside. If you want to be hardcore, have your barracks on the outside (rookes should train deep inside where it's safe though). Then the self-sealing entrance provides a useful fallback for if your military loses.

[highmax28]

Thanks guys! And a few questions regarding barracks: I have 2 racks, 3 beds and alot of weapons and etc in it (not laying around, stockpile is inside area) and I don't have any crossbowdwarves atm so I can delay the archery targets,  but I keep getting bombarded by snatchers and my guys never make it to kill them, cause my dogs sniff them out and they run like the little goblins they are, but is there a way to make them run faster and also why is it taking so long for my one dwarf, who was a peasant with a bunch of military stats but no weapon combat skills (just striker, dodger, armor user, shield user, and kicker), and is there a way to get him to get stronger with his adamantine sword since hes attached to the damn thing? Its still dabbling and the speardwarf keeps kicknig his ass in sparring (he wasn't even touched!) and hes proficient speardwarf, nothing else special, jsut novice everything

[FuzzyZergling]

Armor User skill effects how fast creatures can run with armor (at least in adventure mode).

[Flare]

In addition to what other people have been saying, I would recommend that instead of building traps first, that you find some way to seal off yourself from the outside world before making sets of traps. Not only is a bridge linked to a lever quick to complete, but its utility will be immense to the point of breaking the game.
Given a sufficiently well planned defensive perimetre, nothing can get in or out so long as the bridge is intact. Unless of course, you encounter some sort of eldritch flying abomination.

[Nan]

Thanks guys! And a few questions regarding barracks: I have 2 racks, 3 beds and alot of weapons and etc in it (not laying around, stockpile is inside area) and I don't have any crossbowdwarves atm so I can delay the archery targets,  but I keep getting bombarded by snatchers and my guys never make it to kill them, cause my dogs sniff them out and they run like the little goblins they are, but is there a way to make them run faster

Have your dwarves spar in squads of 2 for at least 3 years. It only takes one year to become legendary in a weapon skill - but after a couple more years they'll be legendary+5, their other skills will also be higher, and their attributes will be much, much better. I'm not sure what the exact cause is (attributes I guess), but at that point they'll move REALLY fast, they can run down anything. Resist the temptation to put other dwarves into their squads.

and also why is it taking so long for my one dwarf, who was a peasant with a bunch of military stats but no weapon combat skills (just striker, dodger, armor user, shield user, and kicker), and is there a way to get him to get stronger with his adamantine sword since hes attached to the damn thing? Its still dabbling and the speardwarf keeps kicknig his ass in sparring (he wasn't even touched!) and hes proficient speardwarf, nothing else special, jsut novice everything

Usually I advise putting two dwarves who are very closely matched in the same squad, for example putting two peasants with no combat skill together, it is quite possible they'll get legendary faster than skilled immigrants. The weapon skill-less military peasant is a tough nut to train up because he'll waste time demonstrating skills that aren't really that helpful, which also slows down whoever he's paired with. Often I make these ones miners and train their weapon skill that way, picks are good weapons.

And with weapon-attachment, it's not absolute. You can "detach" a dwarf from his weapon by changing it in his uniform, I like to use "specific weapon" to make sure they're using one I want them to. I believe you can also assign the weapon to another dorf using "specific weapon" and the second dwarf will confiscate it from the attached dwarf. Dwarves don't seem to mind this.

[highmax28]

And with weapon-attachment, it's not absolute. You can "detach" a dwarf from his weapon by changing it in his uniform, I like to use "specific weapon" to make sure they're using one I want them to. I believe you can also assign the weapon to another dorf using "specific weapon" and the second dwarf will confiscate it from the attached dwarf. Dwarves don't seem to mind this.

Do I really want to if hes attached to a good quality Adamantine sword? And I'll use your tactic on my dwarves, and I honestly had my best speardwarf just give birth while sparring... Hence why I made hgis profession name "Battle-Born" not cause I'm playing skyrim as i play DF (lol), but because he was literally BORN in a fight (if sparring is really fighting), so should I put her into early retirement?

[Garath]

baby is excellent meat shield

[kardwill]

Do I really want to if hes attached to a good quality Adamantine sword?

Nah, you don't. De-attachment is only useful if the little moron gets attached to a wooden training weapon or no-quality copper sword, that kind of crap you use as a placeholder for your militia until you can get the good stuff. If he's already attached to a good weapon, I see no reason to change it.

[highmax28]

Lol at the baby meat shield  And a little question... WHY THE HELL IS MY MARKSDWARF RUNNING AROUND PUTTING AWAY HIS STUFF WHEN HE SHOULD BE PRACTICING!? It takes him a long time to put it away and you know what he does when hes done? He goes and has the "Cannot Follow Orders" on him... I got archery targets in my barracks, PLENTY of arrows for training (i think i got well over 500, left wooden bolt on repeat on accident) and like 100 iron bolts for combat... So why the hell is he running around putting his stuff away!?

[FuzzyZergling]

Because the "Store owned item" job has higher priority than training?

[highmax28]

Hes storing his ARMOR and his CROSSBOW, and hes stuck in a loop atm with putting away his quiver, but then hell pick it back up... What the hell?

[highmax28]

Whoops... Disregard that, I foudn out I didn't assign any bolts to them  BIG whoops...