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[Albert the Absentminded]

Inod Vurcarlinem was a peasant who showed up in the Spring of '52 migration. Since I didn't my sixth miner with the summer migration, I made a copper pick and assigned her to mining duties.

(Yeah, I use 6 miners. My corridors are 6 wide, so that's the maximum efficiency I can manage.)

Anyway, so she had a baby, Sodel Sosadedem shortly thereafter. Well, he had barely gotten to childhood when she had Ral Momuznin in the spring of '54

Yeesh. If she keeps this up she's going to be surrounded by a crowd of adoring dwarves.

-Albert

[puke]

i think i once had a countess with four or five kids.  it was pretty crazy.

[Dwarmin]

The biggest Dwarf family i had ever 5-I actually kept track of them through nicknames. Both Parents died in a goblin attack, leaving the oldest son to take of them. Later on, he and the 2nd youngest died in another Goblin massacre, leaving the final child orphaned and alone when I finally abandoned the fort.

[Slartibartfast]

Bear in mind that dwarves have no protection.

I'd also point out that in the real world there are many families with even 10+ children (just as an example, the more devout jewish families in Israel as well as arabic families often have great numbers of children (more than 5 in most cases).

So dwarves with no protection and almost nothing to do with their spare time... I'm surprised there aren't more children around. (Though if you read this, Toady, do not make it so there are more children please)

[Albert the Absentminded]

Mormons and old-fashioned Catholics also tend to have big families.

Inod, however, got her family started during her drive to Legendary mining skill, working on the low-income housing project. A real Rosie the Riveter type.

-Albert

[Mzbundifund]

I've got one generic peasant hauler that had something like six kids in as many years.  I changed her job to 'brood queen' and put her on weaving duty.  I'm hoping she'll lose a masterpiece bag, go nuts, and eat her children.

[Albert the Absentminded]

I just checked Ral's preferences, and apparently he hasn't had a drink in far, far too long.

Since I've seen his mom boozing it up, I guess she likes her drinks so much that she refuses to share.

-Albert

[Veroule]

I got so irritated with dwarves breeding like rabbits in a previous fortress that I sterilized them.  Minor change in the raws was all it took, and I don't feel bad about it at all.  You can even do it in a current fortress, all babies and chiledren will become adults once thier ages reach whatever was required for a stus change at the time of thier last status setting (birth or childhood).

I personally much prefer dwarves to be sterile since the children of a dwarf will tend to follow thier mother around even when they are adults.

[Mzbundifund]

I know it's hideous, but I often send my more fertile dwarves to a small room on the magma vent with a single lever and a sturdy door.

Once they have like four kids they can never go anywhere because there's always kids standing on them.  They're not even any good for hauling since they take so long to get anywhere they tie up claimed materials for the longest time, so nothing can be built there, food rots, refuse spews miasma, and on and on.  

Their grown up kids won't even spar in the military since they're too busy standing on mom.

Toasting the offenders before things get out of hand is the only solution I've come up with, although it does tend to color the engravings and artifacts the fortress produces.

[Faces of Mu]

Most of my mothers so far have all been in the military. I was concerned the defence forces were using some new drug that I wasn't aware of and that was having strange side effects on either their fertility or libidos. Would recruited children spar with their mother? Would make a classic case of the pupil succeeding the master when the mother finally succumbed to her children's relentless attacks. It seems like a great way to have natural groups, particularly if in her off time you made her a hunter and her children were horn catchers.

[Mzbundifund]

In my experience recruited children seem to prefer standing on their mothers to sparring with them.

Weird, I know.

[Genuine]

Sterilization/death of the mothers is by far the best solution. Children are worthless in a fortress, especially if they're part of a big family (had a mother in the military with 6 children tailing her around).

Well, a bronze colossus got inside my fort, and the mother was sent to fight it. 2 of her kids were punched into pieces, making me laugh, but this set off EVERY DAMN MEMBER OF THE FAMILY. That's right, an entire family running around tantruming. And the worst part is that CHILDREN CAN'T BE JAILED FOR BREAKING CRAP. So these children run around throwing one, long continuous tantrum for about half a year, busting up my masterpiece trade depot, making the maker of that tantrum and then doing it again while the humans are there, making them siege me.

Now I cheer when goblins make off with kids.

[puke]

you people are HORRIBLE.

so, if you made dwarfs butcherable in the raws, will they eat their dead?

we could have a breeding class and an eating class.