Bay 12 Games Forum

Take them off duty so that they will put down the weapon.  At that point grab it and do one of the following:
- melt it down
- put it in a weapon trap

Forbidding it might work, but the other two are very sure options.  I put weapon trap "displays" behind glass in my museum of named iron and bronze weapons with multiple credited kills.  I then re-armed my legendary fighting dwarves with candy weaponry for increased mayhem.

If you make enough finished goods, you can just trade a load of them for anything. That's my strategy when it comes to trading - mine out massive warehouses, use the stone from it to build hoards of finished goods, bung them in the warehouses and forget about them until I can palm them off to the next caravan for everything they own. I like to think that there's a kingdom somewhere whose economy is getting overrun with tacky gift shops because there's nothing else that they can do with the £10,000 worth of diorite sceptres that they end up buying every year.

Actually the traders are making a bundle since even your low quality crafts are authentic souvenirs from a *legendary* fortress (reason for said legendariness varies of course since it might be for awesome, tragic, or comedic reasons.)  They haul them off and then get a fat 200% markup.  Especially once you're adding the "Good Mountainhomes Seal of Approval stamp on the bottom of that mediocre mudstone mug.

Yep. Once they are adequate+ in their respective weapons, they'll pretty much solely use them.

And then they get real good with their weapons, get bored, and go back to training up biting and kicking.

And you think this is annoying until you see them go all kung-fu on goblins with one-kick kills or nose-biting followed by shaking until the goblin's head comes off.

Does your entrance have a door?  Lock it.

Ambushers can't pick locks.

Just last night, I had a dwarf run out of the front gates, Matrix his way through the bolts of an entire squad of goblin archers or crossbowmen (two and a half pages of 'Urist McNeo dodges the silver bolt'!), get into the midst of them, and kick four of them to death before any of the rest of his squad showed up.

I wasn't aware that dwarves can kick a goblin in the side of the head, and this guy gives me six pages of 'Urist kicks Gobbo in the head/ankle/leg/chest, chipping/shattering the bone!'

Yep, I imagine those as some sort of funky kung-fu flying kick attack.  Had a dwarf squad vs goblin squad fight in a tunnel.  The goblin squad leader was out in front and the combat report for his demise was one line as a spear dwarf did a one-shot boot-to-the-head kill. The dwarf basically not breaking stride heading towards the rest of the goblins.

My one fort has a "mascot" ghost wandering about.  Caravan guard who got melted in a magma pit and was thus unburiable and also cannot be identified and settled with a slab (known bug).  So he has a tomb (which can be assigned) and I take extra steps to keep an eye on morale by seeing who he chooses to follow around and haunt.

And the final chapter from the Ok Okbod series...
(the series for the next fort was a bit more technical since Ok Okbod started mid-fort and the reader wanted a description on how forts got started.)

CHAPTER 19 – The Saga of Lokum Adilibel (with dwarves like this anything is possible)

Grand Master Mason Lokum Adilibel, one of the founders of Ok Okbod heads to work in the Depot Tunnel.  Entrance #2 has gotten a new gate and the entrance area has been ordered roofed by the mayor.  As he turns into the northern extension to reach the new work area a shadowy figure jumps out at him.  GOBLIN!  Lokum staggers as the thief jams a silver dagger into his lower body and twists it.  He kicks clear of the goblin and stumbles south towards safety as more goblins emerge from hiding farther north in the tunnel .  Arrows start to clatter on the ramp behind him as he staggers to an alarm pull and then crawls onto the main tunnel level.   Lokum faints for a moment as the alarm tocsin starts to sound .

Coming to, Lokum starts to crawl eastward towards the fortress gate.  Two arrows strike him in the leg as the goblins archers come into sight again.  And their leader, a lanky goblin with a war hammer, approaches.  Lokum attempts to dodge the strikes but the goblin incessantly pounds on his arms and legs while easily deflecting his weak counterattacks.  The archers ignore him at this point and head down the tunnel s looking for other dwarves .  The goblin leader laughs.

Lokum lurches to his feet and charges the goblin.  The attack misses, but they collide and goblin and dwarf collapse in a pile on the ground.  Lokum draws back and solidly punches the goblin in the center of the back.  The hammer goblin breaks clear and stands up, but he is certainly hurt .  He is also no longer laughing.  The nearby archers start firing again and Lokum is struck by half a dozen copper arrows.

The hammer goblin closes in to finish things off.  Lokum rolls into the goblin to avoid the attack and takes the opportunity to bite the goblin in the right leg and grab a solid hold on the left leg.  Their field of fire temporarily blocks the archers shift position.  The hammer goblin struggles to break free.

Lokum suddenly stands and starts shaking and swinging the hammer goblin about.  Two more arrows strike home, including one into the already serious lower body wound.  Undeterred, the goblin is shaken about a few more times and then tossed across the tunnel.  Exhausted, Lokum finally surrenders to the pain and collapses to the tunnel floor.  Before he passes out he gets the joy of watching the hammer goblin expire.  His first kill after twelve years in the fortress .

The three archer goblins in the area lose interest in dispatching an unconscious dwarf and head eastward into the trapped section of the tunnel.  They are taken out by traps and the militia. Soon afterwards a rescue team comes into the tunnel.  To their surprise Adilibel is still alive and is immediately carried to the hospital for Dr Vucar  to look at.

The diagnosis is not pretty .  The nerve damage in one arm cannot be fixed.  Beyond that there are broken bones and severe lacerations in all four limbs plus the very serious gut wound.  Specialists are called for since immobilization of all four limbs is called for in addition to cleaning, suturing, and applying dressings to all the cuts.

A month later Lokum still lies in the hospitial.  Twenty-two wound serious locations are still in the process of being treated with sutures, dressing, setting, cleaning, or a combination of treatments.  Two locations have infections, with the serious gut wound being the most serious.  Whether he hangs on is still in doubt, but progress is being made.  If he does pull through the only permanent damage will be some nerve damage in one hand that will impair his ability to grasp.  In the next couple of weeks casts were applied to immobilize the broken limbs and carry out the last diagnosed treatments.  The infections are still an issue.

Two months later he visits the site of his fight with the goblin… 
… wearing four casts, two splits, and multiple dressings on his body.

I keep a few cats loose around the fortress for vermin control.  Additional kittens are caged until I start building animal watchtowers above my access tunnel exits.  Those get a male cat each so that the Cat Overlords get their own personal castles for watching the birds and rodents run about on the surface.