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[Urist McTaverish]

So, I managed to embark to a completely flat location with any kind of rock two z-levels down.  There's a brook in the southwest blocking off a small section of the surface, but nothing worth getting there.  any ideas for defense? I started carving a channel out for a moat around the perimeter, sourced from the brook.  I'm thinking a drawbridge with traps on either side, plus two archer's towers on the inside, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

[Aspgren]

traps and moats are boring.. arrow towers is where it's at. LOTS AND LOTS OF ARROW TOWERS

[Hokan]

If the worldgen doesn't give you a mountain, you CARVE one.

[TheSummoner]

Does the area freeze? If so, real men build their fortresses out of ice.

First matter of business is to build a wall.  Decide how big an area you want and wall off the area, leaving only a small area open.  Since you've yet to hit stone, its unlikely you have metal for a proper military... you could arm dwarves with crossbows, but wood bolts wont do much against invaders... in my experience, they bounce off cloth.  Still, a lucky shot to the throat will kill a goblin, even with a wood bolt.

Until you have a proper force, you're probably going to want to use a retractable bridge to close yourself off... If you do use marksdwarves, you could have them fire potshots from the safety of your wall (assuming non-ranged enemies) for experience... even if they arent likely to kill goblins, it'll level their skill quickly for when you have proper ammo.

Steel is important... Either keep digging or import as much of the stuff as you can get your hands on... Better yet, do both.  Soon as you can, train a proper melee force.  I personally prefer axes and hammers since they're the most dwarfy weapons, but its really up to you.

Soon as your melee military is formidable, tear down that pussy bridge gate and let them be the things keeping the goblins out.

[Urist McTaverish]

I've hit stone, its just chalk and gypsum so far.  I also hit a vein of bituminous coal and another of hematite.  Area is temperate so it probably will freeze.

[Jordrake]

Gypsum, you say? I have three words for you my friend:
Big yellow castle.
I find castles to be among the most aesthetically pleasing ways to protect yourself when you don't have a mountain to carve. It being garish yellow adds to the awesome.

[TheSummoner]

You've got hematite and chalk? Perfect, get to work on the steel while the masons work on the walls.  I also reccomend Gypsum, but not for the color... because of the stones you mentioned, its the only one with no real use.

Or ice if you prefer ^_^

[Urist McTaverish]

You've got hematite and chalk? Perfect, get to work on the steel while the masons work on the walls.  I also reccomend Gypsum, but not for the color... because of the stones you mentioned, its the only one with no real use.

Or ice if you prefer ^_^

An Ice castle.  That'd be pretty nifty if I do say so meself.

[TheSummoner]

Its what I typically do... Pick a map thats frozen for most, but not all of the year, and make a requirement that all walls and floors must be made of constructed ice. Including those underground, the exception being cavern areas since those are part of the landscape, not part of the fortress.  Doing so forces you to plan ahead and work fast during the time when the map is frozen over.

You COULD just wait for a freeze and turn temperature off, but in my opinion, thats only justifiable when you need to construct stuff far enough down that it would thaw by the time it was hauled down there.

[Oneir]

There's a brook in the southwest blocking off a small section of the surface, but nothing worth getting there.

Assuming you mean a brook brook (ie. loo'k'ing at it at ground level shows "brook") and not a stream brook (loo'k'ing shows open space at ground level) it's not blocking anything. DF brooks be magic and let people walk over them. That is, until you offend them by channel away their magical top layer, making that section of the brook open space.

[Shrugging Khan]

Wall up all ground that has value. Wherever trees or shrubs grow, put walls around it. And make some water wheels at the brook, but make sure you put them in a walled-off compound that trolls can't touch.
After you have walled everything off, connect the compounds by means of underground tunnels. Congratulations, you are now entirely safe, with wood, food and energy.

And if that isn't enough, put marksdwarf-suitable fortifications on each of the compounds.
And create a ramp tunnel for incoming caravans, but make sure to fill it with traps and siege engines. And maybe a flushing system.


At least that's how I handle business. Only problem is that for the last few fortresses, the gobbos always appeared in stacked ambushes right before the caravans, so it was always 15-20 gobs against two or three human fighters, right at the map's edge. Which made my defences rather useless... :/

[Biag]

You've got hematite and chalk? Perfect, get to work on the steel while the masons work on the walls.  I also reccomend Gypsum, but not for the color... because of the stones you mentioned, its the only one with no real use.

Or ice if you prefer ^_^

An Ice castle.  That'd be pretty nifty if I do say so meself.

The Twin Cities Winter Carnival featured an ice castle a few years back. It was the first winter in a while that was cold enough.

FEAR MINNESOTA, LAND OF ICE AND LUTHERANS. WE WILL FREEZE YOU ALL IN A VERY POLITE WAY AND BE EXTREMELY APOLOGETIC ABOUT IT

[Urist McTaverish]

There's a brook in the southwest blocking off a small section of the surface, but nothing worth getting there.

Assuming you mean a brook brook (ie. loo'k'ing at it at ground level shows "brook") and not a stream brook (loo'k'ing shows open space at ground level) it's not blocking anything. DF brooks be magic and let people walk over them. That is, until you offend them by channel away their magical top layer, making that section of the brook open space.

How much channeling does that take? I've got a two square wide, two z-level deep, channel going up the west edge of the map and 3/7 water in the lower level (open space in the upper level)