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[Amostubal]

Excerpt From Ashnaratsrithmog: An Orc's story - written by Matughagak the Urukhai, translated by Amostubal
On a cold mid winter day we set out on our journey.  A wagon full of sand to hide a few tools, rocks, and ores in.  6 unskilled orcs running from the failures of our civilizations past, following a crazy Urukhai wanderer who gathered us out of the slag pits... or maybe he just deceived us to drag us into another slag pit....  We played our parts as we traveled from our home along the shores of Zsinensissine, the last crumbling remnants of our once great race home.  We knew the journey would be long but hope for our own future and the future of our race were strong.

As we traveled along the roads our oppressors had built avoiding towns along the way we came across a Human built wall seperating this land.  We had not the equipment to climb it, so our travels took us inland searching for a point to cross. We wore civilized clothing, no armor, our appearance was to convey humble merchants as our leader Bagroqu had demanded of us.  Each role had been preached to us and practiced daily as we traveled. Along the high wall a tower rose nearly twice its height.  We quickly realized that eyes were upon us... archers staring out from fortifications along the wall and tower.  a squad of ten heavily armored humans stood before a giant gate in the wall, in the road in front of us.

'Keep to your roles,' whispered Bagroqu to me and the others.

'Halt! Orcs, What business you have here in Airydale?' cried out the most decorative of the 10 soldiers before us.  He must of been their warchief.

'We are traveling north to trade sand with the mountain folks of the Sacred-Axe... the far ridge beyond the crag of dispairingwails.  We have no desire for confrontation with Airydale,' claimed Bagroqu with much confidence.  All of this was done in the language of the humans, I asked bagroqu about his knowledge of human words many months later, only to be informed that orcs were not the only ones known to enslave other races.

We stood their in the road for mere minutes that seemed like days, knowing this may be the end of our journey and our very lives... Our little Squigs ran around our feet and squealed at the soldiers staring down upon us.  The human war chief called out to his soldiers to search the wagon... three of them climbed quickly into our possessions, moving and shifting our goods.  hopefully they would not search it too closely, our most valuable items stowed in secret compartments.  The smell of blood filled our noses as they opened our meat storage.  My mouth watered, but I stuck to my role as being a simple merchant... I nearly laughed as the small soldier quickly shut the barrel and stuck his head out of the wagon.  I never new humans could have that shade of green to them...  a few minutes later they cleared the wagon, one of the soldiers reported our inventory to their chief.

After some thought the chief approved of our travel plans, we embarked from the tower through the gate with a squad of human warriors on horse back.  they rode with us for 4 days until we passed another wall and gate, listened to much discussion of humans and the chief of this tower who waved us away.  We had cleared the land of the humans and given orders to return along the same route when we come back from our meeting with the mountain folks... we felt more at ease as we left their lands, and the journey became more laid back, until the morning of the 10th of Granite.  Bagroqu stopped our progression and pointed to a series of hills to the east.  'There my companions, between the 3rd and 4th hill, we will find our new lives,' said our new clan leader.

We traveled through valleys for 5 days until the raw scent of blood and obsidian wafted into our noses we cleared a ridge and we saw the most glorious sight.... A stream ran perfectly through a recessed valley.  A mountain of obsidian rose before us.  Mighty oak trees for as far as the eye could see behind us.  Clay and sand lined the walls of the valley on both sides.  'This sand is soaked with the blood of a great army, stained permanently red from the very strength leaving their bodies.  Here we will raise anew our civilization will be saved by our very actions on this land. Here we build Ashnaratsrithmog*! For from here we will cry terror through our enemies and they will remember us forever!' spoke Bagroqu.  (from Amostubal, Ashnaratsrithmog literally translates to Cryterror fitting for an orc fort that brought the fall of so many civilizations.)

Bagroqu barked,'You 2 grab the picks and dig the earth as I have ordered, you 2 grab the axes and fell these trees.  Tonight we dine and tomorrow we plot our vengeance on the vile races of this land!'............................




Welcome to my Post on how I orc fort.  Its been an on going conversation, and I decided to get into the details of how I do orcs.  If you disagree or have any suggestions while I move through it, I'm fine with criticism.   I'll play this out for a week or so... maybe longer... who knows how well it will go.  Also let me say that I'm not saying you have to follow this path, its just the current path that I take when I'm 'orcing it up'! 

First off though lets discuss what settings and mods I'm working with.

Pretty standard.  I will be running the Meph tileset with TWBT font set to Ishmera and 5 z-levels.


yeah some people hate the standardized stuff... I love it.  I'll leave aquifers on... cross your fingers. 


Mod options... I'm skipping earth strikes back... it just always feel buggy to me.


Yeah I'm ignoring aquatic animals, birds, and sapients.... agravating... I'll leave all the werewolfs and vampires in for fun.  This is a little more then I normally add in so expect the fun.... oh and I set the men/woman to 0 I hate sapient life forms... and large creatures to 20.

okay on the civs and invaders page: I've only have Orcs available for fort mode.  I removed all other slavers from active... just don't want a world with a bunch of traders I don't want to deal with.  All the evil, savage, and civilized are active.  On the orc mod page all options are selected. so lets jump in and create a world:


Pretty standard for me... I want the orcs to have time to gain access... maybe have a decent story... lets build it and see what I can find in an embark...
For those that love to read these:


so hopefully I'll have a mountain with no aquifer, and a forest area with an aquifer and sand somewhere.... hopefully not all wet.  Hopefully a peat layer, cross your fingers... and of course trees and shallow metals!  so I can get some raiding going early... who knows.

so lets set up the embark party:
Matughagak Lagakbologhaakh "Hellishcongeniality"- 27 - Male Urukhai
Horbagakh Gazatabazaghamuzgak "Aureatebackbitings" - 30 Female Urukhai
Ghashagakhakh Pushnaakhsnazguul "Massagednightmares" - 27 Female Peon
Ughamuzgak Lagakgimauhump "Helishstonkers" - 45 Male Peon
Zatalat Gaasharkuurzhorbagakh "Issueputrefyed" - 37 Female Peon
Urbagakhak Azagrishamuulurb "Spinstermonster" -31 Male Urukhai
Bagroqu Uzgazgazgakhardbuubagrimat "Spitefulwrits" - 45 Male Urukhai

the only one with any skills set is Bagroqu with a 2 points in Persuader, Negotiator, Judge of Intent, Appraiser, and Conversationalist.  He will be my everything I know its not a great pick, but he will work for now.

the rest will be on autolabor as I hate trying to decide these things... I usually pick these guys for military duty...  the peons are nearly useless... I refer to them as the "better then a goblin" orcs.

now to Items:

One change here - 2 quivers - I forgot them, I had to trade for them in month 3 to start hunting... really can't believe I did that.  I'd switch stone or tetrahedrite for them.
so lets go:


And That my friends is an Orcish Valley:




At which point I layed out my initial design for a base:
z=129: Initial workshop floor, Shops, Depot

z=128: Main hall, water access for fishing, drinking, area for breeding squigs, food etc here too, can access a sand layer for farming if needed and other "fun" stuff.

z=127: Raid Floor, the left side is where 5 raid docks will be built, north and south seige shops, upper right slave cells, lower right goblin/kobold shops.

z=126 will be housing - not planned yet
z=125: Foundries, this floor will be magma heated eventually (around month 6 to 9) after I start raiding regularly and have access to more metals.


in addition all the trees on the east side of the river are designated for chopping.  I then go into z:Status ->stocks->e:enhanced view where I target the 100 sand(bags and all) and set it dump.  I then set a dump spot one square from wagon so the orcs who dump the sand wont have far to go.

This is plenty of work for all of them and it's time to do start working.  I really don't care what these initial 7 become, I rely on future Orcs to become armies etc usually.  So we "enable autolabor", and let the scripts decide who does what.  I also use "fastdwarf 1 0" as I really don't like waiting on the guys to slowly roll around the map doing things.  So all of what your seeing is planned on day 15 of granite in the year 250.

Granite 27 - most of the bags are dumped and the first floor is dug, second floor is d->M except for the path to water.  On the first floor a Carpenter, Craftorc, Mason, Mechanic, Bower and smelter shops are built.  Build 8 magma safe blocks, 2 rock tables, 1 wood table, 4 wood chairs, 3 minecarts(for quantum stockpiles if you don't like them then ignore this), 1 wood pump mechanism, 2 armor stands, 1 weapons rack, 10 rock mechanisms, 2 wood bows, and a standing workflow order to create wood arrows.  As soon as the blocks are built, a Molten Pit is to be built on the first level.  I avoid the center area all together, placing workshops along the wall.  In the Molten Pit a standing workflow order to maintain wood to coke production (I've not hit any lignite, peat, or coal yet or I would move to those for coke production).  As soon as Molten Pit starts producing coal, I set the 2 gold nuggets and platinum nugget for smelting, along with a repeating order for the tetrahedrite... ignoring any metals I'm currently digging up.

slate 7 - second floor finished, were nearing the 1 month mark.  At this point I install the equipment for quantum stockpiles, but don't set up routes.  I also designate an area for a remains/corpse stockpile along a diagonal path from the second floor room.  near this stockpile, along the wall of the second floor, I place a kitchen, butcher, tanner, leatherworker, and a boneforge.  I setup 12 more blocks and 5 wood tables to be built for future buildings.

slate 15 - all the materials are ready.  I build all 5 Caravanserai buildings (yep even the shadowbroker),  I also build a tribal wargear shop on the second floor.  In my craftorc shop I set up a workflow order for 10 large rock gems set to a junk material (current case cinnabar).  We are really about ready for full production in 1 month from embark.  Also the Depot is constructed, all of these large 5x5 shops are placed inside the first floor center area leaving a 5x5 space around the center stair way.  the entry routes for the wagons are cut along with the rejection route.  Soon we will build bridges so that routes in and around the first floor can be restricted as necessary, for defense.
We need a forge and I place it on the first floor and have a copper chain made.  this plus a rock table from earlier we can build a traction bench and then a dismembering theater.  which I place on the second floor... And then I butcher the 2 hauling animals, this time a Dromedary and a Tuskox.  This will provide me leathers bones and fresh meat for use in making bonemeal -> bonemold ->bloodsteel...  but first I will make 2 quivers, since I forgot them at embark, so I can establish a hunting crew.

Slate 20 - I set up the rest of the orthoclase to be turned into blocks and mechanisms (I need 12 of them), since I have a ton obsidian(in other words don't do this if you don't have obsidian).  The orthoclase blocks and mechanisms are for 4 bridges(defense) and their levers.  as soon as there is enough I build the gates to block the entries into the base.   this is completed by Slate 30.  I also go ahead and Designate the raid dock floor to be dug out.

Felsite 20 - the raid dock area is dug out and bloodsteel production is underway.  Bodies are piling up from the hunters.  and I designate the foundry levels to be dug out.  On the raid dock level 4 seige workshops and 5 drydocks...  soon we will be raiding and Its just now the 3rd month.... summer is soon to come.  since copper is the planned metal for raider's kits, bloodsteel picks and axes are made in case the copper picks and axes are picked up for kits.  a bridge is planned to span the stream to enable better hunting and gain access to more wood. 

Hematite 10 - A trader's caravan arrives... and there is no liason... A bridge across the stream was completed as the caravan arrived.  I'm trying to figure out a way to get a orc foundry running... was just about to make a bloodsteel anvil when they arrived, maybe they have an anvil.  I think this is a good place to stop... save the game and continue the story.  Were at 3 months minus 5 days from arriving in this valley.

[Aboshen]

Look forward to learning from this.

[Amostubal]

Excerpt From Ashnaratsrithmog: An Orc's story - written by Matughagak the Urukhai, translated by Amostubal
The days had warmed, and the availability of prey in the woods around us had risen.  I waved to my den mate, Horbagakh as she past me carrying her latest kill.  I had just finished felling the last tree in the little valley and was pausing to admire the rise of the mountains in the distance, when a familiar scent came to me, I turned and spotted the caravan coming over a hill to the southeast.  I did not recognize the driver or any of his group.  They must of been from another group in the region maybe?

we rushed to the great hall and gathered a few goods to trade with them, many a bonemold coin and a few extra items we were not going to be needing for a bit.  As the ragged group of traders arrived, our spirits fell.  There cloths were tattered and there goods were sparse.  There was no clan liaison traveling with them... when asked about our home lands the look in the eyes told all.  More armies had invaded and our people were scattered across the plains.  Our moods fell with the news, but Bagroqu climbed onto a table, 'We will avenge all our fallen brethren!  We will avenge all our enslaved people!  We will not fall to before our enemies submit to us!  To the Forges, to the Flames, to the beat of our drums, bring fear to their heart!  They will bow their heads or on our spears they will be!'  (from Amostubal - this is a orcish poem or song the rhythm and cadence is lost in translation, but the meaning is not)
...
...
With anvils from the traders, we built our foundries and began the process of converting our stocks of copper to weapons for our Raiders,  We began building our boats and sent out the call for our wild brethren to man them.  Before the summer was out we laid our ships into the water and cast them to the farm lands near to the south and the mountain people's home to the north.  Soon we will have the materials we need to construct and even greater home then we had.  Soon we would  kill our enemies and drag their youths to our mines and we would rule this land with the bloodsteel fist and the cry of terror that rings in the scattered ears.
...
...


So the trader's arrived... no iron anvils, but they had a bloodsteel and 2 steel anvils, I spent a few bonemold coins on these and a few other things, extra quivers, cloth, wool, thread, meat, fish, a couple of animals to be sent to the slaughter.  it wasn't much but I wasn't planning on buying a lot at the first trade.  The lack of a clan liaison makes me wonder if we will have to house and deal with royalty.

The foundry level is dug out and a quantum stone stockpile is designed.  2 orc foundries are built with the anvils and a couple of serrated discs made from copper.  the seige shops and drydocks are set to built ballista parts and boats.  the orc foundries are set to make copper daggers which are to be turned into kits at the drydocks.  I use workflow to keep the counts on these (the boats, kits, daggers, and ballista parts) at 20.  I'm only using part of the shops I built as I have yet to get any immigrants, and I really can't go full production and loose my hunting yet.

Malachite 6 - we have immigrants arrive... 4 rather useless ones and a stonecrafter... who took over production of large rock gems immediately.  We are almost raid ready and I can taste it.

Malachite 8 - we have been found by gnolls.... hate gnolls... they stole some arrows...  I throw a small army together and send them after the gnolls...  I haven't reached a level where trapping my defenses is ready and so a rag tag army will gave to do.  with gnoll invasion repulsed I send them all back to work... no casualties.

Malachite 20 - my internal bridge and fishing zone:

, along with a water source and water hand pump is completed.  Its beautiful to me, roofed area for fishermen and another source food so my use of meat for bloodsteel does not affect my food rations.  I set the hadpump up to gather 100 stacks of water (since I'll be using it to cure dwarven thirst too, and I don't want to go thirsty in winter).  I set up my first raids, 5 goblins, 5 kobolds, 5 dwarven, 5 farmlands...  lets see if I can get some new labor.

Malachite 30 - well I hit snag... small one I didn't count my raidkits and ran out before completing them all... but I did get some iron and steel and goblins and some food.  a few slaves,  I left the drydocks to let them build their goods up while creating my slave shops.  I set the iron to be built into anvils.  My first slave shops are 2 goblin tinkerers, a kobold bonescrimmer, and a dwarf cell.  the water from the handpump is used to feed the dwarf and he's set to harvest ores...  Mine Dwarf MINE!!!!!! 

workflow setups:
Dwarf Cell - find ore is set with workflows for gabbro(magma safe and will be used for blocks/mechanisms instead of obsidian so as not to over exert the stock) and for malachite(copper), cassiterite(tin), sphalerite(zinc), and galena(lead).  Find coal is set with a workflow maintaining that, and I ensure that the molten pit is no longer producing coke from wood...why waste it when I got this on repeat.

Tinkerers Shanties - set to maintain a stock of bars in those 4 metals.  copper for daggers, tin, zinc, and lead for coin minting.
Forge - mint the 3 coins, I set these to 10 stacks, just so when they get used new stacks will be made.  When I get a Human Cell, he will be force fed to make these coins into bonemold coins, reducing my dependency on large rock gems for bonemold coins.

At this point I let the shops play out their roles till Fall.  I need them to start nearing max stocks for their workflows to avoid the pitfalls of low production stops.

Limestone 1 - Shops are beginning to stop and my Orcs are finding a little rest.  Its time to make bedrooms so I designate a dig site for it and setup the following workflows:
Bonescrimmer - I start up max 10 for tables, chairs, barrels, doors, cabinets, beds, chests, and cages.  all made from bone for the Hall and housing level.  I also designate a dig for bedrooms.  I ensure that there is no other productions of these items at the carpenter and mason shops.

Here's my bedroom floor:

I'm only going to dig out the first 20 bedrooms the other 20 are for the future (I'm only at 12 orcs now, so grabbing all 40 would just make the task longer.  The route all the way around I left open... I'm stilling searching for this aquifer and well I'm trying not to cheat... but I'm seeing soil on one edge of my fortress from top to bottom... I'm wondering where this thing is with out using DFHACK reveal.  and 3 days later....

There it is.... grrr I knew I didn't build deep enough into the mountain... And here's where the water fun comes in...

above this:

is this:

part of a built drydock... and above that is:

the south wall of my main hall and the passage to the fish platform...
the plan is to build a fluidcaster on that south wall of the main hall, remove the drydock.  Dig stairs down from the dry dock into the aquifer, and build a containment area around that... then cast magma into that from the fluidcaster and into that hole.  just to finish my bedroom floor.  And now that I know where it i I can use magma casting into the aquifer a little further out and have a never ending supply of obsidian that will fuel it.... not that its needed but because it can be done lol... a side project for this orc fort while I wait for the shops to fill and the raids to go full force.

so to start that steel I recieved from the dwarf raid is going to spent on a statue and 2 pipes to construct the fluid caster.  This part will be done at the forge and be complete around the same time my dig site for it will be complete and I'm ready for it to cast.  And I have a lucky break:

There is the aquifer open on the bedroom level, and its only a portion of the area I had planned on filling. 
Drydock level:

thats where I'll cast a small amount of magma.
Meeting Hall level:

that's the fluid caster in all its glory... ready to toss magma... cross your fingers...
3...
2...
1...

we have magma!
and after a second small cast...

we have filled the aquifer and the bedroom floor is ready to be completed.... orc ingenuity, who needs to meander through an aquifer when you can just turn it into obsidian!

After a little clean up my drydock floor can return to normal,  the fluid caster is deconstructed to protect myself from accidentally casting again.

Sandstone 5 - We also had a giant animal that injured one of my orcs... I turned my meeting hall into a hospital and added a few pieces of equipment to accomplish the tasks of saving him... good thing one of my orcs was trained a bit in healing through the dismembering theater... a bit later and hes up and moving.  I ensure my dismembering theater is set to allow only the one orc who has all the skills, same guy is receiving an new title of shaman... just for the hell of it.  I set up another 2 anvils to be made this time, from bonesteel.  From these 2 more forges will be made and these will be set to maintain bloodsteel armor/weapons for a future army... This will create a need for bloodsteel bars <- bonemold bars <-bonemeal, blood, ash <- from the dismembering theater and boneforge.... so soon I'll have plenty of armor/weapons and a master surgeon etc from the work needed to make the bloodsteel.

Also a plan is laid for the fluid caster to be placed on the housing level, there it will cast into a chamber on the foundry level that will have a gated flow that will enter into channels for heating the foundries. I'm going to figure out how to route a spill way also from this chamber where we can drain off lava to a pit for casting obsidian.  the aquifer will be used to send water through a separate channel to flood over the lava pit.  If I had a need for Machinery later (haven't thought of anything I wanted to use power for.... but I have years to come up with cool things to do, this spill way would be a good place for it.  Obsidian is a good renewable resource to have available for future endeavors.  also since I'm working with magma already....

There is a cheat to open up magma buildings without digging to the magma sea.  I hate to use it, but otherwise I got to dig deep just to get what I should be able to do with what I have access to.  ORCS NEED AN OPEN UP MAGMA SHOPS option on their fluidcaster buildings.  Go to DFHack and type in "feature magma" and now you have access to magma furnaces!

The place is growing, I get a migration wave that raises my pop to 21.  I've been operating on the materials I had so I haven't been pushing the raids... but now is time to raid some more... so I send out 5 raids to the dwarves, 5 to the elves, 5 to the farmlands...  that should get me enough materials to finish out the shops I want, plus arrows and food.  Also sent out goblin and kobold raids in hopes of getting the enough captives to finish out their shops.  Winter is fast approaching and I'm wondering how dry the river will get when the upper area freezes as it was when I arrived.  I may be able to build traps and bridge gates in the river and then be able to trap the river animals that float around there from time to time.  More fun.

Timber 20 - I found my answer:

the river went dry under the fishery... I'm digging a stair down to under the fishery/bridge, to the stream bed... will build a bridge gate on the north and south sides under the fishery and close them till spring... that way my base wont be swarmed through a hole in the ground....

Moonstone 5 - so the bridge gates to the stream are in place and closed.  The foundry level is fully heated now and I've moved all my smelters and forges down there, magma versions, the orc foundries have been dismantled and replaced with magma versions. all their jobs have been reset. the dwarf cell has been turned off since I currently don't have a water source and I don't want to push my water supplies.  Its okay because I'm currently way up on my drink and material stocks.  my raids have completed and are being unloaded.  I'm at a point where continuous raiding of dwarves, elves, humans, succubus, farms, and the merchants is possible... I'll set dwarves elves and humans now.  As I'm still in need of elf and human captives for work shops and hey I can always ransom the extras.  I''ll just use a workflow restriction to keep 10 of each loot packs in storage.  then when I want to open them it restart.  My biggest problem is keeping hunters outside hunting... they will do it for a minute and bring back a few animals... then stop.  so I've shut down autolabor.  I'm setting 10 hunters and reducing the number of labors each unit has.  maybe in 10 more migrants I'll re enable autolabor and set hunters to 10... labor issues is one of the biggest problems in this game.  Along with keeping orcs happy...

Granite 1 - almost a year on this fort and exactly what I expected would occur...

along with his rival doing this...


which means that the entire game is changed... I now have to build real rooms for nobles and bunch of other stuff and watch this guy act like prick (he already is, lol).

I've got my hunters finally hunting often.... I just upped the equipment to 5 to 20 bows and quivers and suddenly orcs want to hunt again... now all my industries are becoming steady.  Raids stocks are nearing full and its time to unpack them regularly.  so along with the workflows from above I set up an unpack of each of the raid loots (dwarves, elves, humans) based on assault plans and treasure maps.  I have 1 human cell who is turning those minted zinc lead and tin coins into beautiful bonemold coins... the water is returning, soon so the dwarf cells are fueled again.  I plan to make an opening into the aquifer again so that next winter I will have water from a non freezing source.

To appease the nobles... I revise my bloodsteel plan... I melted it all down since I never got to a high enough level of gear, and started rolling through furniture creation, sending the low qualities to a melt stockpile.  Soon they will sit in masterwork bloodsteel thrones.

Since my pop went up and I my raiding of dwarves and elves is provide a lot of high quality metal.  I am refitting with steel armor until I get my ancient foundries.

As my assault plans and treasure plans increase, I'll soon start running pillages and assaults particularly on the dwarven mountain home where you get the ancient foundry plans.

I think this is a good place to stop talking about it.  My next post will be image posts of what the fort looks like once I get the noble rooms filled with furniture.

[Amostubal]

Excerpt From Ashnaratsrithmog: An Orc's story - written by Matughagak the Urukhai, translated by Amostubal
....
As the days grow cold again, I reflect back upon our last 3 years.  We narrowly escaped the growing hands of the Human empire and established a raid fort in the middle of a mountain range. We built our armies and sent out raiders to steal from our oppressors.  We grew in influence and our leader Bagroqu took up the mantle of clanfather building our civilization.  We built walls and mines.  We became more bold in our assaults... until our size riled the attention of the necromancers...  we defeated their armies with little difficulty but not without losses, 6 of our bow orcs laid dead.  We let it not affect us, we took up our stance to fight longer and harder even still.  We built bigger walls dug deeper defenses, built more traps for our enemies to discover, sent out more raids!  Then we found the tablets... That was an interesting time.........
...
...
As I assisted unloading a raid of an ancient mountain folk cavern, I found 3 marble slab tablets laying in the bottom of a chest that no one had disturbed.  I was shocked as beside the unintelligible mountain symbols was a diagram of an obviously orcish contraption, they even copied specific orcish marks onto it.  I searched them over and quickly decided they must be taken to Bagroqu immediately....

The great clanfather scanned the objects carefully, speaking the ancient mountain language as he ran his hands over the tablets.  He called the master scribe and demanded an accounting of the availability of certain stock.  With a wide grin he cried out, "This is our greatest treasure found, yet!  Call the Masters of Architect, Masonry, Smithing and Smelting! We begin this construction immediately,".  I was thanked for my astuteness and attentiveness. 

The meeting of the fathers of our industries ran late into the night.  In the morning an alarm was raised and all the peons and heavy laborers were gathered to the foundries.  An space was cleared big enough to fit a drydock for our largest raid ships.  Materials were called for and 3 identically huge orcish machines were produced before the evening commenced.  Their sheer massiveness and size along with its markings and shape was visible as ancient orcish technology... What had  the tablets I found provided to us?  Quickly smelters and smiths were assigned to the machines and in a few quick hours the machines were producing bars of Orichalum at tremendous rates.  Another metal called 'uftatharkuul'(Amostubal - I think he's conjoining deep and bronze here, I have yet to discover much meaning in this word, but they apparently consider this metal to be as strong as adamantite and more durable then steel...I must do more research into this metal for much of the rest of his descriptions, they use it for everything... I wish I could find one of these machines to investigate its functions).  As the bars began to stack up, smiths grabbed them up and took them to the last machine and with in minutes a stack of armor made from them was on display.  Our warchief looked magnificient in them....

then the cries of alarm came from the surface.  A small group of Blendec thieves had been spotted.  The warchief in full deep bronze plate armor, a Dai-Katana of orichalum at his side and a giant Tower Shield strapped to his back rushed up from the foundries and through our gates as the defense switches were thrown.  He rushed to the sounds of alarm to the NorthEast.  Instead of going through the gates, he climbed to the top of the fortress wall and at full speed leaped the wide gap dug around the citadel.  He landed on his feet as he pulled his Dai-Katana from its scabbard, with three slashes he slayed 3 of the 4 thieves scatter along the western ridges.  The last screamed in terror as he ran beyond our boundaries to the west.  The warchief stopped his forward advance, assessed the mountain side and returned along a more safer route.  Truly this is why he is called 'Uduruk Duurbnazagakh' (Amostubal - translates 'Dread giftfouls' a name conjunction that might mean 'dreaded foulish gifts' or Dreaded gift of foulness'  hard to say.  the 'family' title name is found in other histories and is usually a warrior, especially one that kills his enemies quickly.  The 'personal' name is one usually given to one who is feared by his enemies, but I can talk for hours about the naming of orcs and how the translation can be ambiguous).

Within a week hundreds of armor were produced and our entire army was outfitted with the new metal.  Standing armies were set to train constantly in the outer courtyard.  we dug our defenses even deeper and wider.  We trapped the edges and gathered enemies to practice on.  Our raids became more targeted to handle our new metal industry needs.  Our reliance on blood metals lessened and it became a source of our wealth, furniture and private equipment... those were interesting times....
...
...
...
...
I sit here now on the top of our walled fortifications looking out to the west where the sun sets and the moon rises thinking more about the treasure piles deep inside the earth.  Our needs were not satiated by the raids completely.... dwarven miner slaves were sent deep into the earth to seek gold and silver for our production of orichalum and deep bronze. we ransomed hundred of captives and these nations sent gifts to free their wives and daughters.  Word had reached us that our name drew fear, and they seeked our location.  Now well into our third year... how long could we wait before more enemies came to walls...

A glint of metal on the horizon, woke me from my thoughts.  what is that here on the first days of the chill months.  the smell then hit me.... more undead to fall to our blades and another necromancing snake woman carrying a steel blade....  I quickly made the call out to my brethren "To arms, To arms the undead approach us again!"  Without looking back I know that the cry was heard and made deep into the earth and my fellow comrades were grabbing up orichalum Dai-Katanas and Greatbows... Mithril Singing Arrows and Deep Bronze Armor. 

I knew I would live through the night as my arrow was knocked to my Great Bow. 
I knew our fortress would hold against this army as I pulled backed my strings. 
I knew my children would never see slavery again as I laid aim. 
I knew my fate was open and free as I let the string go. 
I knew we would rise and dominate our enemies as my arrow hit its mark.
I knew my people would forever be strong as the Naga fell.
(Amostubal - a freedom and war song of ancient orcish history.  It's been modified here; as the orcs are known to do; to fit his current situation, enemy, and tool of war.)

Within the day our enemies were crushed.  One of my nephews passed on to live with the spirit of blood and earth.  With blood and stench smearing the landscape we set about the clean up and restoration of the fortress.  Within time greater armies then these must be resisted. 
...
..
.


So I'm reporting in on the first of winter in 252, year 3, basically 2.5 years from embark start... quick overview, best started with images.

Exterior walls:

yeah this is extreme... I'm going to come inward and build another wall area...  I just wanted something to do while other things were working.

Interior Floor 1:


Interior Floor 2:


Interior Floor 3:


Interior Floor 4:


Interior Floor 5:

Interior Floor 6 is the Heating pipes for the foundry and the !failed! caster pit and drain pipe for lava.  at least I did plan ahead and the gate functions everywhere are enough to stop any flow for future repairs/modifications.  Not a major issue.

Interior Floor 7 is just an end to the stairwell and a passage out to another stairwell that leads to a mineshaft. there is also a guard room so if anything did get in I had a defense post to put an army in.

I cheated a little and used dfhack 'locate-ore' to spot native silver.  From that location I built the mineshaft down to the native silver.  From there dfhack 'digvx' and I forgot about it until I wondered where all the silver ore came from.... I dug 5 floors and hundreds of extensions up and down all over those 5 floors.  I love digvx... just wish I had paid a little more attention to how much it targeted.  I now have no more need for extra silver, for a bit.


Back to the base and progress and how i got to HERE!

STAGE 1:  TIER 1 RAIDS!

Okay so when i stopped day by day writing this.  I had started raiding what I call the Tier 1 raids: the 6 jobs that start with raid.  I basically am running a 4-5 range on the loaded boat for each of these on workflow.
I have 5 Drydocks: so I split these jobs across 4, saving 1 for an unload Drydock.  i also have workflows on all 5 drydocks for 15-20 copper raidkits and 15-20 longboats.  each dock has 3 and 3 of these on it.  Reason.  so that i can put 3 raids on each and each dock tries to build enough kits and boats to stay ahead of the games usage of the kits and boats. I then spread the 6 tier 1 raids across these 4 docks (2 will have 2 raids and 2 will have 1 raid).

Now back to the unload Drydock.  I set up workflows for each raid I'm raiding based on what I need from that raid.  Generally its assault plans and treasure maps and captives from Elves, Dwarves, and Humans. i set these to 5-10.  Farms are for meat, plants are sold to the carvanasi shops for silver coins to use on buying wood to keep the overhead down.  meat is used to feed dwarf cells when you get them going.  Later Dwarf raids are good for steel and iron and other materials.  Elf raids have mithril singing arrows, very nice damage and will help your hunters drop beasts on 1 shot.   Succubus are sources of bloodsteel and bonemold bars and gear.  They also provide 'souls' which never was implemented in game in this version of MW, they count as plants, sell for silver coins and buy wood.  All the rest of the gear found in raids, I melt down for bars.  The merchant ships can provide all the captives and lots of gold and silver coins/bars, gems are also available.

Once I get all 3 of each cell (Dwarves, Elves, and Humans) set up with jobs for wood, ore, coal and counterfeiting boldmold coins; the rest of the captives I remove the workflows for and I set up Manager Jobs to sell them when they appear in inventory.  Eventually the raids come to a stop (around 3 months late...) as my assault plans and treasure maps fill up to max(10), meat becomes steady(I usually set it to 1000, and my hunters switching to the ranged gear/arrows from raids will start taking down beasts fast). Its time to step up to Tier 2&3 raids.

STAGE2: RAID FOR BLUEPRINTS!

Tier 2 raids are the 3 Pillage raids, Abbeys, Ruins, Mines.... And I hate the mines... basically all I get randomly from the Dwarf Cell for a few water barrels you can get from mine loot, and it wastes a treasure map.  The Abbey sucks too, unless you really have a want to waste expensive items for cloth, goblets, ruby coffins, electrum goods, and more gear to melt for bronze and steel.  Basically useless.... But Ruins.... now thats a pillage... a real steal.  overpowered.  Here's the loot list:
# rare drops
2% Orichalcum Battle Axe
2% Orichalcum Long Sword
2% Deep Bronze War Hammer
2% Orichalcum Great Axe
# uncommon drops   
10% Deep Bronze Plate Armor
10% Deep Bronze Greaves
10% Deep Bronze Tower Shields
10% Deep Bronze Helm
10% Orichalcum Mail Shirt
10% Orichalcum Mask
25% Ancient Foundry Plans <-  Key to making the above stuff yourself!
36% 4 Orichalcum bars
65% 2 Orichalcum bars
25% 4 Deep Bronze bars
45% 2 Deep Bronze bars

The rest is a bunch of junk to melt or toss away.  plus maybe a fossil/relic/old chest for when we ever get archaeologist in Orcs.  This is the only Pillage run I make.  the other 2 are just failures as far as being worth it.... I just went looking through their lists again... and ehhh nooo.  Your going to be wasting a rare tool from tier 1 raids to get junk.  I add this to my one of the raid drydocks and set an unload for it that's based on the foundry plans(by the time you get a few of these you should have some legendary siegecrafters and a MW of one of them is worth 240k at the trader, but its required to build an ancient foundry).  You want at least 3 so 3-4 is perfect.  after that set one for Deep Bronze bars and Orichalcum... these are you power end game metals for orcs.

The Tier 3 raids are called assaults.  They are Mountain homes, World Tree, and Treasure Fleet.  Assaults are guaranteed to 100% for the primary target and 2 50% for extra loot.  They cost 3 raider kits and 3 shops, 10000 bonemold coins on top of the assault plan.  So If your going to hit one of these up you really want to know if you want that target.  So lets go over it.

Treasure Fleet is an upgraded guaranteed Merchant ship, with the chance for a normal merchant ship and a Human raid ship.  the Loot has a little better chances then the normal merchant ship, and you have a 50% chance for an additional merchant ship and a Human raid ship.... but there's no great yes I need that item from the Treasure Fleet.  The Treasure fleet does drop archaeologist Old Chests (by the ton, I've found many in my stocks when I was playing around) but you don't get archaeologist ability in Orcs... I rarely do this one, if archaeology is brought to the orcs... I'll be doing this raid.

World Tree is an upgraded guaranteed Elf raid, with the chance for 2 normal elf raids along with it.  The loot has a little better drop rates and amounts then the normal elf raids, with an addition of ashland glass arrows(singing and normal).   The arrows for hunting and armies along with the chance for 2 more elf raids with just the mithril versions along with some raw mithril makes this raid semi worth it.

Mountain Home is an upgraded guaranteed Dwarf raid, with the chances for 2 normal Dwarf raids.  The loot has better drop rates and amounts then the normal Dwarf raids.  Heres the loot list:
Dwarf Raid
 Bars
  33% - 10x steel bar
  33% - 10x steel bar
  33% - 10x steel bar
  50% - 2x steel bar
  50% - 2x steel bar
  33% - 10x iron bar
  33% - 10x iron bar
  33% - 10x iron bar
  50% - 4x iron bar
  50% - 4x iron bar
  50% - 6x bronze bar
  50% - 6x bronze bar
  25% - 4x mithril bar
  25% - 4x tunhgsten bar
 Tools
  10% - 1x Assault Plan
  10% - 1x Treasure Map
  25% - 1x dwarf captive
 Gear
  30% - 1x iron war hammer
  30% - 1x steel battle axe
  30% - 1x steel battle pick
  30% - 1x iron crossbow
  30% - 1x bronze short sword

Mountain Home Assault
 Bars
  25% - 10x steel bar
  25% - 10x steel bar
  75% - 2x steel bar
  25% - 2x steel bar
  75% - 2x gold bar
  25% - 2x gold bar
  25% - 10x iron bar
  25% - 10x iron bar
  75% - 4x iron bar
  25% - 4x iron bar
  75% - 4x silver bar
  25% - 4x silver bar
  75% - 6x bronze bar
  75% - 6x bronze bar
  75% - 6x bronze bar
  25% - 4x mithril bar
  25% - 4x mithril bar
  25% - 4x tungsten bar
  25% - 4x tungsten bar
 Stone
  10% - 4x raw adamantine boulder
 Tools
  25% - 1x Ancient Foundry blueprint <---- The other source of Ancient foundry blueprints
  25% - 1x dwarf captive
  25% - 1x dwarf captive
  25% - 1x dwarf captive
  25% - 1x dwarf captive
 Gear
  5% - 1x adamantine battle axe
  5% - 1x adamantine mail shirt
  50% - 1x iron short sword
  50% - 1x iron short sword
  50% - 1x iron short sword
  50% - 1x iron short sword
  45% - 1x steel cavebear arms
  15% - 1x steel battle pick
  15% - 1x silver war hammer
  30% - 1x iron war hammer
  30% - 1x steel battle axe
  15% - 1x mithril battle axe
  30% - 1x iron crossbow
  15% - 1x iron crossbow
  15% - 1x mithril short sword

So in the end I push the pillage ruins and assault mountainhome.  I stop doing succubus raids around this time as I'm now pushing for ancient foundries.  With that in mind I have to rearrange the raids:
Raid dock 1:
  3 dwarf raids->4-5x loads,
  1 mountain home assault->4-5x loads,
  3 copper raidkits, 3 longboats.
Raid dock 2:
  3 elf raids->4-5x loads,
  4 copper raidkits, 3 longboats.
Raid dock 3:
  3 human raids->4-5x loads,
  1 ruin pillage->4-5x loads,
  3 copper raidkits, 3 longboats.
Raid dock 4: 
  3 merchants->4-5x loads,
  4 copper raidkits, 3 longboats.
unload dock:
 unpack
  1 dwarf->9-10x plans/maps,
  1 elf->9-10x plans/maps,
  1 human->9-10x plans/maps,
  1 merchant->9-10x plans/maps,
  1 ruins->3-4x blueprints,
  1 Mountain->3-4x blueprints
  1 farm->1000 meat (shouldn't run at all unless hunters faulter and the incoming meat levels drop, need meat to maintain wood at the elf cells)
  2 raid kits and 1 longboat

Gear from the ruins will start filling the military ranks, and as better sets show up the old sets will have to be melted down.  As soon as I have 3x blueprints, I remove those workflows and let the raiders max out their raids.  The assault plans and maps will max out quickly and then the raids will max out there accounts again.  It takes about 3 months to reach this point.

STAGE 3: SET UP ANCIENT FOUNDRIES AND GATHER YOUR METAL!

With the foundry blueprints I set up 3 foundries.  1 is to produce Orichalcum, 1 is to produce Deep Bronze.  the formula:
3 steel + 3 iron + 3 silver = 3 orichalcum bars
3 bronze + 3 gold + 3 mithril = 3 deep bronze bars

so its time to go over the requirements and sources for these metals:
Dwarf cell - produces plenty of metal ores, including copper ores, tin ores gold ores, silver ores, and iron ores.  also has a coal production. random and very rare for certain metals.
Molten Pit - most effective converter of iron ore into iron, plus production of pig iron and production of steel, many times these reactions will produce the flux needed for the next reaction
Metallurgist - produces bronze bars from copper and tin.
goblin tinkerer - can efficiently convert copper and tin ores to bars but cost fuel (can't use magma). 
millstones - can turn mithril ores into 1 bag of mithril dust.
Damascus foundry - turns mithril dust in mithril items which can be melted down to mithril bars:
  Katana - 1 mithril dust and 3 steel bars; mat.size: 6; melts into 1.8 mithril bars
  Battleaxe - 1 mithril dust and 3 steel bars; mat.size: 4; melts into 1.2 mithril bars
  Greataxe - 1 mithril dust and 4 steel bars; mat.size: 9; melts into 2.7 mithril bars <-  Best rate per bag of dust
  mail - 1 mithril dust and 2 steel bars; mat.size: 6; melts into 1.8 mithril bars       <-  Best rate per steel bar

and lastly raids:
Raid elfs:
 Some chance for mithril silver, iron, and steel gear to melt.
 Raw mithril to be ground to dust used for weapons at damascus and then melted.
 ransom elves give mithril statues that can be melted.

Raid humans:
 Some chance for steel, silver, and iron gear to melt.

Raid Dwarfs:
 some chance for steel, bronze, and iron gear to melt.
 LOTS OF STEEL, IRON, BRONZE BARS THIS IS A GOOD RAID FOR MATS.
 some MITHRIL bars
 ransom dwarves give steel statues that can be melted.

Raid Merchant:
 some bronze gear to melt.
 some Gold and Silver Bars.
 Dwarves and Elves to ransom for steel and mithril statues.

Pillage Ruins:
 This is the Pillage for this round... making it an over all best and only Pillage raid to be running.
 lots of chances for steel, deep bronze, and orichalcum gear to drop for melting.
 lots of deep bronze and orichalcum bars possible.

Assault a treasure fleet: also possible gains of raid merchant ship and raid humans
 some Steel, copper, iron gear to melt.
 Gold and silver bars. not much better then merchant ship.
 Dwarves and Elves to ransom for steel and mithril statues.

Assault a worldtree: also possible gains of 2 elf raids
 some Mithril gear to melt.
 more raw mithril then elf raids...

Assault Mountain Home: also possible gains of 2 dwarf raids.
 Some steel and iron gear to melt.  All the bars for both deep bronze and orichalcum bars, this is the prefered assault!

So all in all I don't change my raider drydocks by much I already have the preferred set earlier, my main change is in raid dock 3 and 4 where I replace the human and merchant runs with dwarf and elf runs, and remove the unpacks for humans and merchants:
Raid dock 1:
  3 dwarf raids->4-5x loads,
  1 mountain home assault->4-5x loads,
  3 copper raidkits, 3 longboats.
Raid dock 2:
  3 elf raids->4-5x loads,
  4 copper raidkits, 3 longboats.
Raid dock 3:
  3 dwarf raids->4-5x loads,
  1 ruin pillage->4-5x loads,
  3 copper raidkits, 3 longboats.
Raid dock 4:
  3 elf raids->4-5x loads,
  4 copper raidkits, 3 longboats.
unload dock -
 unpack
  1 dwarf->9-10x plans/maps,
  1 elf->9-10x plans/maps,
  1 ruins->100 bars Deep Bronze and Orichalcum
  1 Mountain->100 bars all 6 metals
  1 farm->1000 meat (shouldn't run at all unless hunters faulter and the incoming meat levels drop, need meat to maintain wood at the elf cells)
  3 copper raidkits, 2 longboats.

At which point the workflow settings here should pass over to the ancient foundries and the other shops that are producing these bars.  Generally Mithril and Silver for some reason are my 2 hardest to gather mats.  I had to mine for more silver.

STAGE 4: GEAR UP!

At this point I set the last ancient foundry to making 19-20 of each gear item I want (only ranged I make is the great bow, because of the arrows from the elfs).  I also make Orichalcum leggings, Deep Bronze Gauntlets and Deep Bronze Bucklers in a forge. 

My gear setups for military squads:
Ancient Melee squads:
 Orichalcum Dai-Katana/Deep Bronze Hammers/Orichalcum Great Axe/Deep Bronze Picks
 Orichalcum Mask
 Deep Bronze Helm
 Deep Bronze Plate Armor
 Orichalcum Mail Shirt
 Deep Bronze Gauntlets
 Orichalcum Leggings < has to be input before the greaves or they wont put them on.
 Deep Bronze Greaves
 Deep Bronze Plate Boots
 Deep Bronze Tower Shields
Ancient Archer squads:
 Orichalcum Great Bows
 Orichalcum Mask
 Deep Bronze Helm
 Deep Bronze Plate Armor
 Orichalcum Mail Shirt
 Deep Bronze Gauntlets
 Orichalcum Leggings < has to be input before the greaves or they wont put them on.
 Deep Bronze Greaves
 Deep Bronze Plate Boots
 Deep Bronze Buckler

The one odd thing is that they don't seem to switch gear easily so you can either specify it yourself or after making the uniform profile above, go to (m)ilitary->(e)quip->(U)assign uniforms.  Then shift-enter each squad to a junk uniform and shift-enter each squad back to the uniform you have set.  I think its the fact they are special armor, I've had similar issues with volcanic, tungsten, and many other non standard metals/materials.  Basically once a month I do this until every squad has switched to masterwork versions. 

STAGE 5: How to build wealth after that

At this point I remove all the raiding and start over raid - farms(meat and plants), elfs(for arrows), succubus(for more bloodsteel furniture lol), merchant(captives for ransom, silver coins & gold coins to buy what I want at cavernasi), random pillage choice(abbey or ruins), and assault treasure ship(same reason for merchant) or worldtree(same reason as elfs).

And that's that, an orc fort that moves from basic raiding into advanced raiding without need for farming or ranching.

Now then let me get back to planting a few more undead into the ground..... why do they always seem to come around with undead toads?

[baldamundo]

Thanks for making this thread! Really great to see how other people play Orcs - and in such detail!

[Amostubal]

main thing to notice is that this is a fastdwarf run setup... you really end up skipping a lot the industries.... If you are not running the fastdwarf cheat in dfhack, you will need a little more time between start and full raiding... your not going to be able to obtain this size of fort at that rate, and you will need to micro manage your workorders and labor settings a little more to keep from overwhelming your orcs.  It would take an entire year for 2 orcs to cut that size of a fortress at normal speed... I already started a new one, because I went back to phobeus graphics... I used it for too many years and i like its size better, its just not as 'pretty'. 2 years to get t3 raiding complete to that level... a lot more raiding of farmlands... etc.  But even without fastdwarf, I don't ranch or farm... farm raiding is easier.  The biggest issue is getting the flow of food up to feed dwarves and elves to keep mats for raiding up to ...... imagine a loop that you slowly add new parts to as you get the setup going well. 

In a non fastdwarf run, I use archers in towers to deal with my first enemies.  I also end up using more clay or sand as the need for renewable materials are high.