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[Kestrel]

I ran DFProspect way too late after I set up my latest fort, and realized I've only got a tiny smattering of tetrahedrite and a dash of aluminum.  I'll keep building it up for a good while; trading and melting goblinite for metal, but without a thriving metal industry I feel rather naked.

What do you do with metal poor forts?

[Ross Vernal]

Leather, bone, glass, wool, BEES! and cloth.

Pretty much.

[Old Greg]

Well, it's certainly a challenge! You can always armor up your dwarves with bone and leather, which will train their armor user if nothing else

[saltmummy626]

well, the aluminum will boost your wealth a little. you just gotta dig it all out. honestly, ive never seen much aluminum in my time playing, it doesn't seem to occur in veins, just little pockets.

[Kestrel]

It's about 29 instances of aluminum.  So I could make a few chairs... =/

[Sutremaine]

Crack open the delicious caramel centre of the world and use it to melt stuff. Any stuff. *Steel amulet*? If you can afford it and have nothing else to buy, why not? You don't need any fuel for it. If you're lucky your civ has access to tin and copper as well as iron, and then you can make bronze and possibly bismuth bronze.

Dwarves who are godly-skilled don't need armour so much because between the parry, block, and dodge skills, nothing ever gets through. But up until then you're going to need either a steady stream of volunteers or marksdwarves who can be deployed so that they aren't ever in firing range of elites.

[slink]

I had a fort that had nothing but a little gold, and that was only adjoining the Special Metal and surrounded by magma.  There was no sand.  I bought sand from every caravan and made green glass bits for my weapon traps.  I kept no military at all.  What was the point, with no metal?  I was going to make a squad of archers using wooden bolts, but the archery targets weren't working at the time.

Isn't DFHack great?  I love being able to get some idea what is there even before I embark.

[Kestrel]

Yeah my military is armed with dog bone bolts for the time being...

[khearn]

I've run a number of forts that I specifically embark in areas with no metals.

First off, dig down to magma and set up a magma smelter and set it to melt objects on repeat. Set up a stockpile nearby that takes all the iron weapons/armor/tools/etc and anything steel except weapons and armor. Maybe also bronze tools etc.

Buy every scrap of iron or steel you can from the caravans and mark it all for melting (except the steel armor and weapons).  Buy bronze stuff at first as well. Heck you might even want to buy wooden armor from the first elven caravan, it's better than nothing.

Set up traps to kill invaders and melt anything they have that isn't immediately useful. a goblin snatcher's copper dagger is more useful melted down and turned into a copper helmet.

Between what you can buy from the caravans and what the goblins will bring you, it doesn't take long to equip your troops.

[Girlinhat]

Goblinite.

[Bouchart]

Buy anything metal that a trader offers and melt it down.  You can make crossbows, spiked balls, corkscrews and spikes out of wood.

[Girlinhat]

Train a gemcrafter on rocks.  Dig out big chunks of layer stone and have them done into cut gems.  Farmland can also produce cloth crafts at a high rate.  Dyed cloth crafts studded with stone and menacing with spikes of green glass.  Renewable high-value goods.