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[Lordraymond]

So, apparently not only are buzzards a nuisance, but also a serious hazard to a young fort. My fresh embark in a .06 world was going well - the outer wall was erected, the meeting hall dug and the magma forges set (I'm playing with Fortress Defense, so I need a metal industry early). Suddenly, I see a combat report. Upon hitting 'r', I, in fact, see about a dozen combat reports, six dwarves and six buzzards.

Most of the reports are just a few attacks of bruising on both sides, but when I check my miner...

Eleven. Eleven pages of the buzzard shaking him around by the arm. Most of the results were just major bruising, but then, finally, shortly before my nearby militia commander whacked it once with his battleaxe and put an end to it, it manages to tear the skin. My CMD is busy hauling and I have no hospital. My bedrooms are still under construction, but I figure they'll be done; however, tragedy strikes. A mere two in-game weeks after the bite, I get the message "Urist McMiner, Buzzard Victim has been found dead from infection!".

Needless to say, in a fort that had been going for approximately twenty out of game minutes and about a season in-game, no dwarves were happy. One particularly wimpy planter who had been starving to death (Let's just say this wasn't my greatest fort...) snapped almost instantly and went stark raving mad. My farmer threw a tantrum and blew up my still AND my plump helmet fields, rendering my fort without food OR drink as the river was frozen over. I feel sorry for whatever reclamation party arrives.

And, so this topic warrants a bit more than a "Cool Story, Bro!", I unearthed a bit of possible !!SCIENCE!!... Apparently, the "doesn't care about anything any more." tag is rediculously easy to get. After simply being attacked by a buzzard and being hungry/sleeping on the grass, my miner attained it shortly before she died. She never even dipped to unhappy.

[slothen]

that's nothing.  Try building a giant megaproject in the sky and watch your dwarves dodge off and splat because of buzzards.

Of course, the upside is you can station marksdwarves and the buzzards will go splat even more.

[Girlinhat]

Axelords are the solution.

Also interesting!  I've been trying to pin down exactly what registers psychological hardening, and I believe it relates exactly to combat.  Specifically, relating to witnessing deaths as a result of combat (such as axelords or falling damage, but not butchering) or of being attacked.  I'm not sure if witnessing combat will encourage it or if they must receive combat upon themselves.

Either way, I know how to train my militia.  Give a recruit a steel helm and set him to kill a GCS.  Before he arrives, cancel the order and he'll flee.  After being webbed and bitten on the head for months of abuse, he'll eventually crawl away and the GCS will be re-caged by prepared traps, hopefully obtaining endurance and psychological trauma.  May be lethal, but that's fine as well.

[KodKod]

Suddenly I don't feel like a Complete Monster anymore.

[NonconsensualSurgery]

They're nearly as bad as badgers. Build a couple of anti-buzzard SAM sites marksdwarf towers and your fortress will look like Baghdad in 2003 from all the aerial bolt spam. You waste a lot of ammo and everything is covered in unslightly exploded buzzard bits and broken bolts.

Oh, and the buggers steal. If you don't build an air defense system then they'll swoop down into your surface fortresses and run away with items. They also like to run off with masterwork bolts still stuck in them.

[Urist McBeard]

Oh, and the buggers steal. If you don't build an air defense system then they'll swoop down into your surface fortresses and run away with items. They also like to run off with masterwork bolts still stuck in them.

Forget the masterwork bolts, stacks of food! Not just one or too, but stacks of 5 cave lobsters these beasts took off with! I lost nearly all the food I brought on embark thanks to the aerial scourge.

[Girlinhat]

I don't even embark with food.  Softy...

[Urist McBeard]

I don't even embark with food.  Softy...

Yeah, I'm not quite good enough to keep a fort going on ☼Dwarven Child Roast☼ tenderized by wild turkeys, sadly, but you don't have to rub it in.

[KodKod]

Yeah, I'm not quite good enough

You shouldn't say things like that! You need to remain optimistic, you need to believe in your own abilities and not allow yourself to become demoralised by what others accomplish. Your own achievements are no doubt grant, and even by coming to grips with the complexity of Dwarf Fortress itself have you proven that.

You might think that you're not good enough, but have you ever stopped to consider that the very reason why you're not good enough is because you think that? You have to believe in yourself!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Because only when you do can your spirit truly be broken. Only the mighty can fall, and such a fall is far sweeter than any Dwarven Child Roast or Sunshine. It is the very essence of ‼FUN‼.

[Girlinhat]

Embark with a herbalist + farmer, with 5 points in both skills.  Immediately, order the map to be harvested of all plants.  By the time anyone is hungry, you've already got something foraged and can produce some abover-ground farms.  Water for their first drink, booze by the time spring ends.  Works perfect.

[Urist McBeard]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Because only when you do can your spirit truly be broken. Only the mighty can fall, and such a fall is far sweeter than any Dwarven Child Roast or Sunshine. It is the very essence of ‼FUN‼.

So I should stand tall and grow mighty so that my fall can be all the (bitter?)sweeter? That sounds really cool, actually.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Don't believe in the you that believes in me, or the me that believes in you, but the you that believes in you!

Embark with a herbalist + farmer, with 5 points in both skills.  Immediately, order the map to be harvested of all plants.  By the time anyone is hungry, you've already got something foraged and can produce some abover-ground farms.  Water for their first drink, booze by the time spring ends.  Works perfect.

Water for their first drink

Water

ISHYGDDT

[Girlinhat]

*sips tea* That first drink of water affords me to embark with a half ton of marble and reforge native iron or claimed goblinite into a significant amount of steel.  A set of steel spears counts heavier than a drink of water.

[KodKod]

Frankly... I'm having trouble imagining a situation in which the survival of an entire fortress depends entirely on getting a few Steel Spears churned out a month faster than normal.

A year of torture at the hands of a GCS is one thing, but to deprive a dwarf of alcohol... you're dedwarvenising them. You might as well have them frolick in meadows picking flowers and... wait...

Embark with a herbalist + farmer, with 5 points in both skills.  Immediately, order the map to be harvested of all plants.

She's a witch an elf! Burn her.

[Kofthefens]

But... I really like deserts and oceans. Though, to be fair, I only embark with seeds and drinks. And when dwarves die, that means less demand on drinks. Problem solved!

[Girlinhat]

Don't even start that on me.  I'll be the last to accuse of elfdom.

Embarking with flux proves important if your site has none.  It's not "a few months sooner" is "at all".  Caravans don't bring enough to supply a military, even buying out all their flux and bars.  I can embark with like 150 or whatever marble boulders, that's a lot of steel.