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I try to run a fortress with just seven dwarves inside which never go outside. Literally they are sealed inside.

The question is how to deal with migrants. I want every migrant wave to clear mess after the previous wave, sort corpses and spare belongings to stockpiles and die quickly (so they don't spam with complaints).

Surprisingly it turned out to be a hard task for, at least for a newbie. Don't forget, that seven dwarves must be able to build killing conveyor during first spring and summer, before first waves appears on the map.

Bonus question is how to solve a problem of ghosts. I had to devote a whole full-time dwarf (remember, I have only seven!) to make coffins. Is there better way? Special problem arise when next wave can't bury corpses because of a siege. I tried slabs, but their interface is sooo inconvenient when you have to place memorials for 20 migrants in a row.

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  • Are you using third party tools? I know they can be controversial, but utilities like stone sense, the job manager, and other items in the newbie pack really help to supplement some of the weaker implemented facets of DF.
    – zero298
    May 16, 2014 at 14:52
  • Do you actually need the migrants (or their drops)? There are ways you can limit the number of available dwarves in a single map, either by making dwarves disappear at worldgen or by altering the init files.
    – Doktoro Reichard
    May 16, 2014 at 17:52
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    @zero298 Doktoro and lose all the fun? Naaah :-)
    – Daniel Vartanov
    May 16, 2014 at 19:16
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    @DanielVartanov: This particular site lives and breathes odd question titles.
    – Williham Totland
    May 16, 2014 at 19:54
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    @DanielVartanov And there it is.
    – Pierre Arlaud
    May 16, 2014 at 20:10

2 Answers 2

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  1. Make a holding area with a floor of upright spear traps all linked to a single lever inside.

  2. Have a drawbridge to raise up and close off the entrance to the kill room. Link the drawbridge lever somewhere inside the fort proper.

  3. Make a "meeting area" zone inside the kill room. Since the rest of your fort is cut off, your own dwarves can't path to it, and when migrants come they'll go there automatically.

  4. When a new wave comes, shut them in and put the "Pull the Lever" task on repeat.

  5. Make some tea and watch the drama unfold.

  6. The lucky lever-pulling survivor can be used to clean up the mess, maybe putting all the dropped stuff into a cart for delivery into the fortress later while getting rid of the... um... "biological by-products", if you will.

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  • I dig around 10 layers of pit beneath a drawbridge. And still there were lots of survivors which spammed complaints and they could not even move in order to kill each other in a tantrum
    – Daniel Vartanov
    May 16, 2014 at 17:18
  • Add in some weapon traps to slice them up in carry ready pieces. Or for bonus points pump in magma from the magma sea. You can also have your dwarves do some siege practise on them, you never know when that comes in handy. Really there are a billion ways to deal with this. I suggest to play/learn the game in a normal manner.
    – Madmenyo
    May 16, 2014 at 21:10
  • Magma and ice are especially deadly, if you can get ahold of them. If not, drowning should eliminate all but the vampires. (If you have both magma and ice, ice is better for keeping their stuff intact.)
    – Brilliand
    May 16, 2014 at 21:11
  • Huge thanks for an idea about spikes, probably I can take them in initial embarkment kit. But unfortunately magma pool can't be built within first 6 months, when first migrant wave appears
    – Daniel Vartanov
    May 17, 2014 at 6:49
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Well you can lure them into a trap. Create some work for them outside your fortress and activate those jobs on them. When they approach the work space you switch a lever and they end up in a deep channeled hole with spikes for instance. Plenty of fun ways to think of killing dwarves. You could also just starve them inside a airlock using burrows, when they died just open it from inside and gather the goods and bodies.

You can build memorial stones to have a funeral without the body. Build stone slabs and engrave them with the proper names of those who had a accident while commuting. This will get rid of your ghost problem.

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  • I tried to starve them to death. They turned out to live trough half of a year till the next wave comes to be buried alive in the same place!
    – Daniel Vartanov
    May 16, 2014 at 15:30
  • Add multiple airlocks? Just make rooms with raising bridges to lock it off. Set a burrow to it and assign those pesky migrants. Add multiple airlocks? Just make rooms with raising bridges to lock it off. Set a burrow to it and assign those pesky migrants. For all that matters you could let them roam outside too. Anyway, if i may ask, why are you playing like this, you say you are new to the game so why add a challenge like this?
    – Madmenyo
    May 16, 2014 at 16:02

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