Bay 12 Games Forum

I crank out a bunch of wooden weapons when I embark so my military can train up while I work out my metal industry.

This runs the risk of a soldier "becoming attached" to a wooden weapon, of course.

Another quick question, how do you get rid of a ghost, a swordsdwarf from the first caravan died somehow or other and now he's haunting my place. He hasn't killed anyone but i don't understand what you do get rid of him. Oh, and his body is in the middle of a lake, so i don't think I can bury him.

Find out his name, make a stone slab at a Mason's shop, engrave it with his name at a Craftsdwarf's shop, set it up in a tomb as if it was his coffin... and that should put his troubled spirit to rest.

Also, an elven caravan arrived. Should I kill them, seize the thing or whatever, or just trade with them?

I usually trade with them. They are a good source of wood, rare types of booze (Sunshine!) and exotic animals. Starting a war with them is fun... but not until you have a trained Military. Be aware that Elves are [TRAP_AVOID], so a party of hostile Elves will waltz right through your trap defenses without setting them off.

He created a "Mechanic has created Igestrinal (dot things) a dolomite mechanism!" Don't know what that is but if he's legendary I'm okay with it.

A Legendary Mechanic is very useful... weapon traps get better to-Hit rolls from high-quality mechanisms. Plus, he works faster.

Save that Mechanism for your deadliest trap.

Training weapons work fine in Dodge-Em Traps, since the idea is to force your opponent to dodge (into a deep pit) and die, rather than trying to kill them with the weapons in the traps. Trap components work better, since they get more attacks (AFAIK).

Dodge-Em Traps are the latest fashion in Dwarven Self-Defense.

Dig a really big pit in the ground... like... REALLY BIG. Try seven tiles wide by nine tiles long by fifteen-or-twenty levels deep. Use a strip of constructed floors (do NOT use a drawbridge) to make a one-tile-wide path across the pit. Put a wall all around the top of  it except for a one-tile-wide entry and a one-tile-wide exit. Wall it off so that anyone entering or leaving the fort must cross that narrow path over the wide and deep pit.

Now totally cover the path with weapon traps, each containing 10 weapons or trap components (Big Spikey Balls, Sharp Slicey things, whatever). It doesn't really matter what sort of weapons you use... even wooden training weapons will do, although deadly weapons are more Dwarfish.

The idea is to use your opponent's own strength against them... like in Judo.

An opponent starts to cross the path. He steps on the first weapon trap. Each weapon in the trap gets three attacks, and there are ten of them in the trap. That's thirty attacks. Per trap... you've likely got seven-to-nine traps on that path. In order to safely cross the path, your opponent needs to get lucky about two hundred and forty times in a row. You only need to get lucky once.

When a unit is attacked, they often dodge one-to-three tiles in a random direction. That will carry your opponent off the path, and out over the fifteen-to-twenty level deep pit. The wall around the pit will make sure that he has no safe place to dodge to... he ends up falling into the pit. A fifteen-to-twenty level fall will usually disassemble your opponents into their component organs.

Note that high-level opponents (Goblin Hammerlords, etc) have better dodging skills, and will dodge (and therefore die) more often.

Include a lever-controlled raising Drawbridge at entrance and exit, so that you can isolate the trap for necessary maintenance (prying corpses out of jammed weapon traps, etc), and another lever-controlled raising Drawbridge at the very bottom of the pit, so that you can send in the Haulers to cart off the splashed innards and the dropped weapons and armor. I also include lever-controlled retracting Drawbridges to cover the pit and turn the whole thing into a safe, walkable surface... in case my Army needs to fight an engagement there (I don't want them falling into my own pit trap).

Sell Adamantine crafts. One to a customer.

I searched "Red Letter Corner" and got the hit.

Really? I searched for "Red Letter Corner", and got a list of sex sites.

... going through it now...

I've got a brook. Will that help?

Yes. Brooks are fine for waterwheels. And unlike Rivers, they don't contain hungry wildlife.

Channel out the "crusty surface" of it in 3 x 1 tile strips, and install Waterwheels. Brooks are typically four tiles wide, so a 3 x 4 area of your brook can generate 355 Power (4 x 100 per Waterwheel, minus 4 x 10 friction, minus 5 for the mounting-gear) That might be enough to run your entire pump-stack, if the top end of it is close enough to the brook. If not, throw in a few more Waterwheels.