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[Prometheusmfd]

This is my first real fort, so I'm expecting FUN! I'm going to try and keep it interesting, but it's a bit difficult to write while my music is blasting and I REFUSE TO TURN IT DOWN!

Spoiler: Setup (Warning: Big Images) (click to show/hide)

I took the best embark I could find, and really don't mind that it's a bit isolated. That might make for less FUN in the long run, but we'll burn that bridge (hopefully with magma) when we get there.



The game is afoot, there is FUN to be had.

Spoiler: Spring 126 (click to show/hide)

First thing I noticed after the embark was there was no river. I could have sworn I embarked with one running right through the area. It was only then when I had started digging that I realized the river was there, just frozen and covered in a thick layer of snow. At least my fisher dwarf will have something to do after the thaw, I thought to myself.
Well the thaw came sooner than I had planned, and my farm was only just finishing when the water poured through the new aperture (which I had dug while it was frozen). Finally it was time to set up a farm so that my workers would not starve or grow sober, both prospects surely spelling an early end for a player such as myself.
While the water evaporated, the space for the workshops had been carved out and were ready to be placed. I started with a Carpenter, Mason, Craftdwarf, and Mechanic's shops, all leading directly into a master stockpile. In my laziness, I merely designated the stockpile to hold everything that wasn't raw materials or food. I waste no time setting everyone to work, making the doors and tables and thrones and mechanisms and beds that will sit in the stockpile until the living quarters and chow hall have been carved. Right now my only defenses are most of a wall and a rough draw bridge with no levers. This is rectified, and I continue on with the fort, striking stone that I have no idea what it does. Looking at my food stores, I can see we have plenty of fish and plant and drink for now. Once the farming booms, it won't be hard to keep that up. The bridge works, but it's useless when you can still enter the fort through the murky pool I drained. I set up a wall in the hole immediately. The game tells me my stonecrafter has made a masterpiece. This is both a blessing and a curse, as it will invite wealth, but also those that follow wealth. After all the tales of carp and hippos, I'm wary of my fisherdwarf. Though the river is filled with trout, I do not know enough for that to be significant.
Alas! The area I've placed the eatery is sand. This will not do. I let the digging continue, however, and just make it into a food stockpile.

So that ends the first spring. Rather uneventful, but what can you expect?

[Prometheusmfd]

Spoiler: Summer 126 (click to show/hide)

Migrants arrived rather early. I frantically checked them for vampires, as I would need to change my gameplan quickly to suit them. Only five are in this wave, four of them military. Too bad I can't outfit them. Looks like whoever isn't going to mine is hauling the stone. The sand on that level stretched to where I had planned out the new dining hall, but I figured it was little enough that I could replace it with a constructed wall to little effect beyond aesthetics.
I realize now my apartment plans looks like a centipede. Specifically Mr. Centipede from James and the Giant Peach. Most of the rooms are carved into Microcline, a rather pretty cyan color if I should say so myself. I just manage to start the bedrooms when Autumn falls upon me.

[Prometheusmfd]

Spoiler: Autumn 126 (click to show/hide)

A quick glance at the status screen tells me we're out of food, so I immediately set my fisher to not haul anything and focus on his fishing. Luckily some kittens were just born, so I have emergency rations. Finally, I've removed my original wagon.
I start building what will be the military barracks, placing it above the entrance to my fortress. Hopefully I can put it to use before being taken out. Now we have puppies! Maybe a food source until I can get a hunter and animal trainer. It seems to rain a lot here.
After digging down a ways, I find my first cavern. I immediately floor it off and go work on other projects. Food seems to be picking up, which is very good.
Another wave of migrants appears at the corner of the map. I now have a surplus of farmers. I set up a pasture for the llama, bull, and camel they have brought with them. Animal traps seems like they'd help keep food up, so I make five of them and have a migrant get to work. And now it seems the pools have frozen over. I should really look into making a well. I assign one of my excess farmers to the craftsdwafshop. Hopefully that will become very productive. Which is good because a caravan has arrived. It seems rock crafts have been made throughout the year, since I had seven pages of them. Right as they start to unload, I'm alerted to a kobold thief. I have absolutely no way to stop him right now, what with the walls atop my fortress still uncompleted, rendering the drawbridge useless. Well, hopefully he'll take something nice to bring back to his family. And, mulling over the fact that I have no idea how to initiate trading, Winter falls.

[slothen]

you should definitely make a well, either by draining a murky pool into a pit or placing one where the bucket can be lowered down into a cavern lake.  Buy some ropes from the caravan and tie some puppies near your entrances.