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[S4rab]

Gather round for a story of epic adventures and great hero-

Screw it, This is a story of the rise and fall of my first fort.

Before I start I must say that any tips or mistakes you may gather from this that you might think you can offer to help me improve for next time I play would be appreciated.

Well I chose a nice Embark area, You all know how it goes, for me not too dangerous with a nice river and some mountains to dig into. I immediately started to dig into the rock to start building rooms, I used the wiki and any help a friend could offer to start getting my small industry up and getting my most basic needs done first. I got all the simplistic stuff done first, carpenter, Mason, Mechanic, Crafts dwarfs workshop. I then immediately started construction of a flood gate and made a large room to flood to start underground farming. After i waited for the water in the room to evaporate (was like 1/7 water wouldn't take long) I started digging down in order to organize my fort and according to the wiki dwarfs sleep better the further down you go so I dug around 5 down and immediately started making beds and the like. After my farming area had dried out I started making farming plots that had plump helmets as my main crop but a few small plots with other assortments of crops. Migrants come and I immediately set them to work on various different things throughout the fort. I had a carpenter making barrels so the still had something to put the booze that was being made in. After a few months I had around 20 dwarfs and one became possessed and the stuff that was required of me was to hard for me to get at this early stage so went insane and was killed and was quickly rushed away to a tomb before any unhappy thoughts could arise (YAY). I was about 3/4 of the way through the first year when I hit a crisis major for a small fort and that was all the barrels were being used for plant storage and not booze storage and so I was running out of booze very fast. I quickly halted food production and pumped out barrels like there was no tomorrow. I managed to get everything under control and the end of the first year was signaled with the arrival of a dwarven caravan. I used my crafts to mainly buy booze to keep stocks nice and high.

To save people to much reading the second year went quite well with only a few problems.

The third year saw the discovery of a large cavern with an abundance of copper which I thought I might start my first military with. 1/2 way through the year I had a Troglodyte (cave man thing) invasion which my unarmed civilians held off (lol) at the loss of 4 dwarves. My fort was thriving after that with a population of around 50.

The fourth year was an eventful one. I had little experience in starting a military so I got help from the wiki, forums and my friend. I had the weapons and started construction on armour with the copper I found in the mine. I made a hospital but at the time didn't know how to make soap and the wiki didn't give me much relief (any help would be nice) and the wounded were taken there (a few small mishaps happened causing their injuries) and without soap I considered them already dead. By this time I had nobles with officers and had around 80 dwarves.

The fifth year was not soo good; I had a very small force of 4 dwarves with copper weapons and armour defending my fort (with lots of traps of course). The second troglodyte invasion had begun my military fought off the troglodytes in a small battle killing six of the things and losing one dwarf (well one military dwarf and 2 civilians). A dwarf had a tantrum because of their loss. I quickly asked my friend what could happen from this, he replied:

"Ya, that usually signals the beginning of the end"

He was right, the first tantrum sparked a tantrum spiral which led to my people going nuts and murdering each other and I had fun watching everything dying and my military trying to restore order and getting swarmed and ripped apart by the bare hands of a angry dwarf. I had around 90 dwarves but after around 40 dwarves died I abandoned the fort and thought back on everything that happened in the small gap of 5 years (seems crap to others but I had fun).

Overall this was a really fun fort I plan to make another and maybe it will make 6 years and maybe even 7 after that, a man can dream

[Blade Master Model 42]

I suggest making rock pots at a craftsdwarfs workshop. Just as effective as barrels, but the materials are far more ubiquitous.
I would also suggest drafting the first few dwarves who migrate to your fort with military skill, and set them for round the clock training. It's worked for me so far.
Also, remember that on underground soil, you don't have to irrigate for farms.
With a population of 80 dwarves, you want a military probably around 8-12 dwarves, especially if you only have cruddy copper. There is safety in numbers. Sometimes.

All this assumes you're using the current version, of course.

As for soap:
1. Butcher Ye an animal.
2. Get Ye Fats.
3. Render Ye Fats.
4. Burneth thee some ash.
5. With thine ash, maketh some lye.
6. With thine lye, and thine fat, tell one of your soapmakers to get off his ass and do some work for the fortress! Er, verily.
7. And thus you got soap. Ta-dah.