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[miauw62]

I embark next to a stream. 3 wide water moat and a wall with marksdwarves. If invaders decide to climb, you can take potshots. You could also line your roof with cage traps.

[Uzu Bash]

I did that too, but when it came to building the wall I realized that cutting myself off from the potential water and power from it was a tremendous waste, and not necessary for a good defense. And bounding my courtyard with water is both functional and aesthetic. I just put the drawbridge on the outside, opening inward, with separate footbridges to get to the wall.

[PatrikLundell]

Funny enough, I haven't had any starving grazers in my fortresses (I'm not counting the war trained elephants that decided entering the fortress and go down 50 levels was a good idea, since they've abandoned their assigned pasture and no job to haul them back was ever generated), despite small courtyards. Also, it takes time to dig down to the caverns, and you need to keep your grazers somewhere, so by the time I've breached the cavern I've already built a decked over courtyard, and thus don't feel a need to move them.
I'm not too keen on drowning enemies in a moat because it's such a hassle to get rid of the bodies afterwards, so I mostly use cage traps and magma dipping to get rid of enemies. Leaving bodies in the moat promotes unhappiness and panicking caravans...

Bumber's trap suggestion has the disadvantages that you'd need to clean out the traps or having unsightly body parts lying around (as well as jammed traps). I want my dorfs to be able to manage trap reloading in safety, so I have them (both the dorfs and the traps...) inside an outer drawbridge.

[Uzu Bash]

Well any traps for climbers leaves a security hole for fliers, but the enclosure isn't necessarily to prevent enemies from entering so much as to control their entry for your own advantage. If you can open inviting entry points only when its convenient for you, then it's not a disadvantage.

[Dunamisdeos]

I MADE A VISUAL AIDE

[Bumber]

Bumber's trap suggestion has the disadvantages that you'd need to clean out the traps or having unsightly body parts lying around (as well as jammed traps). I want my dorfs to be able to manage trap reloading in safety, so I have them (both the dorfs and the traps...) inside an outer drawbridge.

It should be sufficient for early game. You can use a magma moat later.

Well any traps for climbers leaves a security hole for fliers, but the enclosure isn't necessarily to prevent enemies from entering so much as to control their entry for your own advantage. If you can open inviting entry points only when its convenient for you, then it's not a disadvantage.

If you want to stop fliers the only way is a roof. Stops everything, pain to build.

I MADE A VISUAL AIDE

-snip-

They might be able to jump and grab. I mean they definitely can, but I don't know if they will.

Enemies don't climb without line of sight, anyways. The simplest way to avoid climbers would be simply to not let them see fort members they can't reach. That means your archers should be positioned in an entry hall, not along the walls.

[PatrikLundell]

@Bumber: You said enemies can jump to grab an overhang two Z levels above the ground? I though they only could do it one level up?
@Dunamisdeos: On Z+2 you can actually get rid of the part of the wall that's on top of the other two, since the overhang works perfectly well with only connection through the floor atop the second level, and the top level overhang doesn't really add anything.

[i2amroy]

See, the mistake that you are all making is a simple one, it's that you are attempting to build defenses that don't involve magma. A 1-high wall with a 1 z-level deep ditch filled with magma will stop any enterprising climber from making it through. For way less resources then it would take to put up a bunch of traps you can just dig straight down, find the magma, and set up a minecart track loop to bring it up to the surface. Then you just run the loop until your moat is full and put up a wall, done. (And it gives you nice early access to magma workshops!).

[Uzu Bash]

They might be able to jump and grab. I mean they definitely can, but I don't know if they will.

They actually can't. If there are trees outside the perimeter, they can climb those and jump across, but jumping up z-lvls isn't possible.

[Niddhoger]

Funny enough, I haven't had any starving grazers in my fortresses (I'm not counting the war trained elephants that decided entering the fortress and go down 50 levels was a good idea, since they've abandoned their assigned pasture and no job to haul them back was ever generated), despite small courtyards. Also, it takes time to dig down to the caverns, and you need to keep your grazers somewhere, so by the time I've breached the cavern I've already built a decked over courtyard, and thus don't feel a need to move them.

How many grazers can you keep in that for how long? Sheep are the smallest grazers that are useful, and they have been scienced to need that roughly 4x4 area (will eventually strip smaller areas completely bare). 

As for taking too long.....? Huh? Breaching caverns is done in a couple weeks tops unless you miss all 3 layers on your way to SMR.  Once breached, your miner just digs a set of up/down stairs next to the breach and grabs a stone from a few tiles above him to wall off the bottom of the main shaft.  The other miner can easily have an underground "pasture" dug out and maybe the dining room as well.  It takes -far- more time to cut the stone blocks, build the courtyard, and then deck it over  (you can be doing both at the same time anyway...).  You want to find your cavern layers anyway to help plain your fortress.  Is the first layer at -8/-10? That drastically cuts into your basic fort layout.  Is the magma past -150? that makes magma powered smelters all the more annoying.  Are the first couple of layers dry?  Should I just set up a drain for those murky pools and then pump them into a reservoir then?  You can also cage trap the crap out of the entrance to the first one for early food/beasties to train- just be prepared to seal it off in case something actually dangerous (FB) comes through.  Getting the spores going not only gives you an underground pastures that is both "walled" and "roofed" in a fraction of the time (dug from dirt), but you can set up an underground tree/herb area as well. 

[Bumber]

They might be able to jump and grab. I mean they definitely can, but I don't know if they will.

They actually can't. If there are trees outside the perimeter, they can climb those and jump across, but jumping up z-lvls isn't possible.

Just tried it in the arena. They don't even need to jump. You can hang onto the ceiling and climb right around the overhang.

Edit: Use floors for the overhang. They can't be held, even from below.

[Uzu Bash]

I agree with Niddhoger, outdoor defense is way more effort than it's worth, and colonizing a cavern is a much easier and more secure alternative. If you have a hostile exterior then it's imperative to do that first and capture the topside after you have the necessities covered and military trained. If your surface is relatively tranquil, then you have the luxury of spreading pastures and harvesting plants while fortifying a perimeter that will remain porous until construction is complete.

They might be able to jump and grab. I mean they definitely can, but I don't know if they will.

They actually can't. If there are trees outside the perimeter, they can climb those and jump across, but jumping up z-lvls isn't possible.

Just tried it in the arena. They don't even need to jump. You can hang onto the ceiling and climb right around the overhang.

You can hang onto ceilings? I don't think I've seen a ceiling I was able to grab hold of. Overhead branches and twigs for sure, but not a solid ceiling.

[Bumber]

You can hang onto ceilings? I don't think I've seen a ceiling I was able to grab hold of. Overhead branches and twigs for sure, but not a solid ceiling.

If they're made of walls, then yes.

Immune to climbers:
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[Uzu Bash]

You can hang onto ceilings? I don't think I've seen a ceiling I was able to grab hold of. Overhead branches and twigs for sure, but not a solid ceiling.

If they're made of walls, then yes.

Immune to climbers:
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Made of walls? Do you mean rock block specifically? I just tried with a stalactite I dug a level out of. Couldn't grip the level above from directly beneath or from any of the edges or corners.  I do not see how replacing that floor with a wall would make it more vulnerable to climbers.

[Bumber]

Made of walls? Do you mean rock block specifically? I just tried with a stalactite I dug a level out of. Couldn't grip the level above from directly beneath or from any of the edges or corners.  I do not see how replacing that floor with a wall would make it more vulnerable to climbers.

Looks like it wasn't the ceiling, but the wall. They can move diagonally up:
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Making the overhang longer helps (but is impractical to build):
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Or just use the floor method, saving a z-level and width because they can't grab that tile:
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