One of my favourites was the supergoblin bug, which I ran into myself.
To defend the fortress from invading, I had a narrow walkway with spike-filled pits on both sides. The idea was that as the goblins ran over, they would be peppered with arrows, and if they managed to dodge they stood a good chance of falling off in the process. It worked, as far as it went.
The problem was that a very few goblins survived both the fall and the spikes at the bottom, and those goblins became truly nasty.
The thing is, when someone deflects a weapon in that version of DF, they got a small bit of training to their weapon skill, depending on the size and weight of their opponent. Unfortunately, they also got a chance to block the upright spikes at the bottom of my moat. Which were technically "wielded" by the ground itself.
So the few goblins that survived by blocking the upright spike as they fell, instantly became supreme grand masters of their weapon. If they dodged it instead, they likewise became inhumanity good at dodging. The worst was, the moat was constructed so that if they survived, they could run up and try again, and this time they had a very good chance of dodging and blocking, boosting their skill even further.
To defend the fortress from invading, I had a narrow walkway with spike-filled pits on both sides. The idea was that as the goblins ran over, they would be peppered with arrows, and if they managed to dodge they stood a good chance of falling off in the process. It worked, as far as it went.
The problem was that a very few goblins survived both the fall and the spikes at the bottom, and those goblins became truly nasty.
The thing is, when someone deflects a weapon in that version of DF, they got a small bit of training to their weapon skill, depending on the size and weight of their opponent. Unfortunately, they also got a chance to block the upright spikes at the bottom of my moat. Which were technically "wielded" by the ground itself.
So the few goblins that survived by blocking the upright spike as they fell, instantly became supreme grand masters of their weapon. If they dodged it instead, they likewise became inhumanity good at dodging. The worst was, the moat was constructed so that if they survived, they could run up and try again, and this time they had a very good chance of dodging and blocking, boosting their skill even further.
Thus ended one fort of mine to ninja goblins.