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[tmountain]

So I have a pretty fun scenario going. My dwarves are in their second year (coming up on 3rd), and I've built an ad-hock fort into the side of a narrow mountain passage. I'm using the Orc mod, so my main strategy so far has been to design the fort to turtle up when the siege happens. In my last game, the orcs showed up right after the first new year and quickly destroyed me. This time I have two drawbridges running through the granite mountain wall (and tons of supplies), so I should be able to just order everyone inside, throw the switches, and ride it out until my military is strong enough to put up a good fight.

I found a magma pipe right out of the gate using the cheap trading depot hack, and I have a forge and smelter attached to it's outflow. The problem is, I've only found enough hematite to make about ten pig iron bars. I have five miners that are all at or near legendary skill level just utterly decimating the first four z-levels desperately searching for ore. All my wrestlers are elite champions and such, and I would love to get them geared up to take on the Orcs, but the resources to make lots of steel just don't seem to be there. Does anyone else run into this issue often? Are there any good alternatives to steel weaponry? I'm having a lot of fun on this map and want to play it out to the end, but I'd also love to rain some hell down on the Orcs.

[MetalGear]

You got magma right? You can try making obsidian shortswords which are just as good as steel, I think. As for armor...Sorry, but I can't really think of anything. Try trading for some iron or maybe get some from gobbos?

[3]

Yeah, obsidian's your best bet for weapons. You could try making some wooden shields if you're really desperate, they'll work. Somewhat. Or leather armour.

[tmountain]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a magma pipe, which runs down many z-levels. I haven't explored around it too much other than digging a channel to run it closer to my fort, but I don't recall seeing obsidian over there. Is obsidian typically found near magma pipes as well as pools?

[MetalGear]

Obsidian is always around magma. You just gotta have miners with high skill to excavate more rocks during digging. You can also make your own obsidian with magma+water.

[Derakon]

The stone immediately next to the magma is always obsidian.

As for ore, just check your stone layers against the wiki; it'll tell you what kinds of ore you can expect. Then it's just a matter of prospecting.

Finally, you should have an endless supply of iron from the orcs...

[Albedo]

I found a magma pipe right out of the gate using the cheap trading depot hack

If that bothers you, just punching shallow exploratory shafts down the center of the area blocks is not very time consuming.  Only takes 1 if you noted where the vent was on the embark map.

...I've only found enough hematite to make about ten pig iron bars. I have five miners that are all at or near legendary skill level just utterly decimating the first four z-levels desperately searching for ore.

Ore comes in veins, veins tend to be long.  You don't need to expose every tile to find them - a diagonal tunnel every 10 or 15 tiles (or so) is a great way to start. (Multiples of "5", because 1 diagonal tunnel/5 tiles then exposes 100%.) Read the wiki, "exploratory mining" and "vein" for some ideas about how to cut some corners and still find what you're looking for.

Also, as Der' mentions, you want to do your exploration in layers that are promising - best place to start in the wiki is the above article, plus on the main page, under "guides" is a link to "The non-dwarf's guide to rock" (or something like) - start there.  And "iron", to then follow links to the 3 ores that produce that.  ID the layers - then punch down thru each area block (on a corner to avoid large clusters) to ID all the layers on your map.

You may be SOL, but with that info and some work (but less than you've been putting into it!), if it's there you'll find it.

All my wrestlers are elite champions and such

An elite weapon skill is deadly even with a (well-made) copper weapon - if you can overwhelm the orcs, you will one-strike them.  The problem is that copper armour... well, sucks, and if the orcs get to swing a few times some will find their mark.

I'd go with obsidian swords and use the steel for helms and plate - 4/soldier.  Layer that with copper chainmail and caps, plus the usual highboots, greaves, gauntlets and shields, and hope for the best.  Arm/leg wounds can heal, where organs/brain/spine won't.

And/or marksdwarfs - stand-off battles from behind fortifications are usually a win.

[dragon0421]

If you have some copper/malachite/tetrahedrite and some cassiterite you can give them bronze armor until you mine some orcanite and goblinite, and possibly humanite, and turn it into steel. You can also request iron, iron ore, and iron items (to be melted) from caravans. If you give generous profit margins and request it at full, you should get a ton of it.

Typically after a single vein of hematite, between that and sieges I get more iron than I know what to do with.

[Kietharr]

Take note of what you're mining in. Chalk and other sedimentary layers tend to be very good for finding iron ores and coal. Some layers simply won't produce weapons grade ore regardless of how much you dig in it. Since you're in a volcanic area Andesite and Felsite should be around, mine around in that a bit and you should find some copper at least, it's better than nothing.

If you simply can't find any, wait until a siege and use traps, dogs, marksdwarves and such to kill them, melt their armor down and you'll have some iron bars to work with.

As far as weapons go, Obsidian shortswords are the best unless you can find Adamantine, unless you want other weapon types in which case you should hold out for steel. Obsidian shortswords are statistically very similar to steel ones and are much more cost efficient. Saves you steel for making armor.

[Kanddak]

You can also request iron, iron ore, and iron items (to be melted) from caravans. If you give generous profit margins and request it at full, you should get a ton of it.

I've never gone out of my way to do this, but one time I did try buying up all the various iron toys and miscellaneous crap from a human caravan, and there was quite a bit of it. I can only imagine how much you could get by requesting it, and you could also request every possible steel item from dwarven caravans. If you're roasting a bunch of dwarven syrup and quarry bush leaves your ability to buy things is pretty much unlimited.

But I've never made a point of it because invaders' armor has always provided me with more than enough iron for all my needs.

[Albedo]

Typically after a single vein of hematite, between that and sieges I get more iron than I know what to do with.

You have either no imagination, or legendary+5 weaponsmiths and armorsmiths and a very small military.* 

But, yes, don't forget goblinite, a traditional, reliable and (theoretically) infinite source of iron, if not a perfectly quick one. I'd estimate maybe 2-4 bars/ambush, and many times that per siege.  And 2-3 ambushes can arrive/season, easy. 

If you only make plate plus helm out of steel, that's 4 bars/soldier.  You'll make it work.

(* One soldier wants 13 bars worth of armor and items, and that's at top quality.  More bars for ammo and/or reject quality, times the number of soldiers.  Plus a few more for axes for non-military.  So an average vein might equip 7-8 soldiers, at whatever quality you can produce.)

[smjjames]

Not to mention that melting the iron objects can help keep your forgeworkers busy when you aren't doing much smelting or whatever.

[dragon0421]

You have either no imagination, or legendary+5 weaponsmiths and armorsmiths and a very small military.* 

Orc sieges are a much more substantial source of iron than goblins. Almost all of the orcs are decked out in iron gear, and typical sieges have 40+ orcs. My last siege had 60 orcs. They easily yield a bar each.

[Albedo]

Ah, orcs - roger that, my bad. I'm still dancin' wit da puny gobbos.  Next fort.