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[Economic Snake]

So I've been playing DF for a while, on and off, and without fail, every fortress I've made so far has gotten fairly big and then gotten utterly demolished by some wandering werecreature. Every time I make a fortress, I think to myself "This time I won't get killed by a werebeast; I have a foolproof defense all thought out!" But every single time something goes wrong. I've tried making a pillar with floors on top to make it collapse on the beast but it didnt work for some reason. Ive also tried making a moat with drawbridges but my dwarves were too slow to pull the lever. How do i protect my poor, poor dwarves from this gruesome fate?

[Ulfarr]

Put a couple tame animals in chains/rope some distance from your entrance for early spot/distraction (don't expect them to live).

Use a couple of doors to slow down the werebeast until it changes back.

Have a couple of fully armored dwarves, ready to intervene. Preferably with edged weapons, they are better

Skimm through the battle logs for anyone that was injured and quarantine them. Use individual rooms for your hospital's beds that can be walled off in case of a werebeast infection.

[DoubleG]

Chained up watchdogs at a distance from your door is your best bet, plus doors to slow it down. I also think its can help to keep an eye on the combat logs. I once caught a werewolf early, before it revealed itself, because it decided to attack a random duck before it came near me.

[NordicNooob]

Another good preventative measure is placing statues all over the map, and setting announcements of statue topplings to pause and recenter. Don't worry, though, they're rare and typically important in all but the most insane forts. This'll give you an early warning before the beast even becomes visible, giving you some time to get everybody inside the deepest part of your fort and yoink a lever. Some bait animals (pastured, not chained) can also buy time; toss a few puppies outside and the beast will waste its time slaughtering them, since unchained puppies can still flee.

[Economic Snake]

Thanks for all the tips. The most recent time, the bear came too early for me to have full armor or anything, although I think it might have been a migrant from another fort.

[TubaDragoness]

As far as I know, the only way migrants can be werebeasts are if they were infected in a previous fort and survived; world generation werebeasts run off into the wild and live naked in caves. I prefer to gen a new world for each fort anyway to prevent issues from unhappy/unfulfilled dwarves migrating in at the state they were when my last fort went under. (You can save seeds/parameters if you really like a particular world's features!)

Adding to the general fort defense tips, having a good "airlock" style of door makes it easier to keep unwanted "guests" out long enough to seal yourself in, and setting up early indoor farms, breweries/wells, and your emergency lockdown civilian burrow are good habits to get into.

[Economic Snake]

By airlock do you just mean have two doors? I was also wondering if floodgates were in any situation good in place of a door. Are they more powerful?

[PatrikLundell]

Like TubaDragoness, I use airlocks, i.e. two drawbridges with a fair bit of space in between.
My fortresses typically have 3 two tile wide dug entrances with an outer drawbridge at the remote end, an inner drawbridge at the inner end, and a pair of doors inside the airlock just by the inner drawbridge (to keep building destroyers occupied long enough for the drawbridges to be closed). I've also got a guard animal in a box above the tunnel with a grate as its floor to detect sneakers.
Apart from that I also have a 3 tile wide entrance for caravans, but that one has to do without the doors.

Floodgates and doors can both be destroyed by building destroyers (and I never use floodgates, but some people do).

[Economic Snake]

Alright! Thank you.

[Economic Snake]

Hold on, how do I make it so it centers on a statue when it topples?

[Bumber]

Hold on, how do I make it so it centers on a statue when it topples?

In announcements.txt, replace

Code: [Select]

[BUILDING_DESTROYED_OR_TOPPLED:A_D:D_D]with

Code: [Select]

[BUILDING_DESTROYED_OR_TOPPLED:A_D:D_D:P:R]

[Economic Snake]

Okay cool, thanks.

[Lurdiak]

Honestly, every single time I've seen a werebeast they turn back into humans or whatever fairly quickly, usually before they can do any damage.

[Mort Stroodle]

Thanks for all the tips. The most recent time, the bear came too early for me to have full armor or anything, although I think it might have been a migrant from another fort.

There's  your problem. If a fort falls to werebeasts, DO NOT use that world for more forts. Werebeasts will join your forts as migrants and there's nothing you can do about it.

[Loci]

There's  your problem. If a fort falls to werebeasts, DO NOT use that world for more forts. Werebeasts will join your forts as migrants and there's nothing you can do about it.

Nonsense. You could have nicknamed your werebeasts in the original fortress so you could immediately expel them if they immigrate to a new fortress. But, assuming you didn't have the presence of mind to do that before the first fort fell, you can still identify immigrants from a previous fortress by checking their "thoughts and preferences" screen to see if they were a member of your failed fortress. Or you could expel all dwarves with preexisting thoughts to exclude all dwarves that even visited your prior fortresses. Or just quarantine all the new arrivals until after the next full moon.