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[Callista]

This is meant to be a long-running, moderately challenging game which should force you to use strategies you don't usually use. I'll be playtesting it today.

Dwarf Fortress: The Lost Colony
A long time ago, an expedition of dwarves was lost on the way to their embark site when a group of kobold bandits proved too adorable to resist. Presumed dead and having lost all their equipment, the dwarves learned to live off the land, hunting wildlife, harvesting plants for food, brewing truly horrible booze out of rotten fruit, and eventually having children.

But now the lost colony has been found. A band of merchants, seeing the potential for profit, has made an agreement with seven of the descendents of these intrepid survivors: Every year, if the merchants arrive and trade successfully with the dwarves, the merchants will teach some of the lost dwarven technology to the inhabitants of the colony. To celebrate their new investment (and ensure they would still be alive the next year), the merchants left many of their goods with the dwarves.

What's in it for our colonists? Well, as a show of good faith, the merchants have shown them how to brew proper booze--and that is an incentive that no dwarf can resist. In fact, it's likely that by the time the merchants return, there'll be many more than just the original seven, once the rest of the lost colony realizes the wonders of civilization.

Challenge Rules:
Your dwarves will start with the usual embark; choose any embark you like, any size. Your starting seven can have any skills you like, as long as those skills do not use a restricted workshop (see below). You may spend your embark points however you like.

Following is a list of industries your dwarves start out unable to use--the restricted industries. There are fourteen of them. To complete the challenge, you must unlock all fourteen industries and become a Mountainhome.

To unlock an industry, your dwarves must fulfill these requirements:
1. The industry is available (some industries have prerequisites).
2. The dwarven caravan successfully exited the map on its last visit; or, this is the first year's dwarven caravan.
3. The dwarven caravan this year must have successfully entered the depot and traded with your dwarves. The industry is unlocked when the first successful trade has been made.

List of Industries
1. Stoneworking
A dwarf is at home surrounded by stone, but he still needs to learn how to work with it.

• Mason's Workshop
• Engraving Labor
• Paved Roads

2. Farming
Raising animals and growing plants--a necessary evil if a dwarf's going to have reliable access to cheese, eggs, and booze.

• Farmer's Workshop
• Farm Plot
• Pasture Zones
• Hives
• Nest Boxes

3. Food Production
*Plump Helmet Roast*s? Yes, please!
Prerequisite: Farming

• Kitchen
• Fishery
• Quern
• Millstone

4. Woodworking
It may not be dwarfy, but at least it pisses off the elves.

• Carpenter's Workshop
• Siege Workshop
• Bowyer's Workshop
• Wood Furnace

5. Mechanics
PULL THE LEVER!!
Prerequisite: Either Stoneworking or Metalworking

• Mechanics Workshop
• Bridges
• Stonefall Traps

6. Animal Husbandry
War Giant Grizzly Bears are a dwarf's best friend.
Prerequisite: Farming

• Cage Traps
• Animal Traps
• Animal Training

7. Crafts
Useless Crap to sell to the merchants, plus some not-so-useless stuff.

• Craftsdwarf's Workshop
• Jeweler's Workshop

8. Leatherworking
Because wearing untanned hides will chafe.

• Tanner's Workshop
• Leatherworks

9. Textiles
Clothes make Urist less likely to strip down and run around babbling because he's embarrassed about not having any socks to wear.
Prerequisite: Farming

• Dyer's Workshop
• Loom
• Clothier's Workshop

10. Smelting
Essential for the processing of goblinite, steel, and those three bismuth items that the baron is demanding.

• Smelter
• Magma Smelter

11. Metalworking
What being a dwarf is really about--other than booze, goblin-slaying, and insanely complicated plans, that is.
Prerequisite: Smelting

• Forge
• Magma Forge

12. Medical & Hygiene
An oft-ignored industry... until your legendary hammerdwarf breaks his fourth finger, left hand.

• Ashery
• Screw Press
• Traction Bench
• Chief Medical Dwarf
• Soapmaker's Workshop

13. Glass and Clay
It may not be fancy, but there sure is an awful lot of it.

• Glass Furnace
• Magma Glass Furnace
• Kiln
• Magma Kiln

14. Fortress Defenses
Ah, the smell of gibbed goblin in the morning.... Doesn't actually smell that good, but hey, it's the thought that counts.
Prerequisite: Mechanics

• Weapon Trap
• Pressure Plate
• Upright Spear/Spike Trap

The shortest time to complete this challenge should be a little under fifteen years. Good luck!

Notes:

• If it's not on the list of restricted industries, it's available. If it's available, you may build as much of it as you like.
• You may enable any labor you like, except for the Animal Training and Engraving labors, which are restricted. That means, most importantly, that you are allowed to use Masonry and Carpentry to build most constructions even before you have Woodworking and Stoneworking. Go ahead and set up that stockade; the giant capybaras aren't getting any less hungry.
• If a building is restricted (for example, Hive, Screw Press, Nest Box), that means you can't place that building, but it doesn't restrict anything else. For example, the Nest Box cannot be placed if you don't have Farming; but you could still buy a Nest Box from the caravan, or make one if you have the Crafts industry available. They won't be much use to you because you can't actually build them for your birds to use, but they can sit in your stockpiles until you get Farming.
• Pasture zones are the only zones that are restricted. All others, including Hospital, are available from the start. Hospital zones may be designated and used--it's just that, without soap, traction benches, or a chief medical dwarf, they won't have particularly low mortality rates.
• Note that your dwarves will start with the Butcher's Workshop, the Still, and the Trade Depot; and that, like with any dwarves, mining and fighting are in their blood.

[Sutremaine]

Very interesting. Just to clarify, you get your first industry in the first year, assuming no problems with the traders? But I don't want to become a Mountainhome, because then you lose the trade liaison.

[Callista]

Very interesting. Just to clarify, you get your first industry in the first year, assuming no problems with the traders? But I don't want to become a Mountainhome, because then you lose the trade liaison.

You don't have to become a Mountainhome until the 15th year, if you don't want to.

Yes, the first caravan brings you your first industry.

[Sutremaine]

Moods are going to be fun, unless you cap the population to the first two waves, and that brings its own problems...

[Sutremaine]

Okay, here we go. I loaded up on axes, picks, woodcutting skill, and some crossbows (but no bolts) and suits of mostly leather armour, and have some dogs for breeding. The area is a hot jungle with a river source and is in general a nice place to live, but something other than the local flora is brewing...

[TopHat]

Sounds good. I'll attempt it shortly.

[TheKaspa]

I'll try it after my current fort will succumb the Circus.

[Sutremaine]

It's the first autumn and what do I have to sell? Rough gems and dye plants.

I think my first unlocked industry will be... woodworking. It might be less dwarfy than stoneworking, but you can't make beds, shields, or crossbows out of stone. Unfortunately, bolts are made at the craftdwarf's workshop, so they'll have to wait.

Hopefully I can get some nice wooden items made in the next month.

[Callista]

I was pretty sure that woodworking was going to be first on most people's lists--there's just no other way to get beds, and dwarves without beds are plenty unhappy if you can't get them other sources of happiness--which, this early in the game, you really can't.

I have my first mood. The guy wants a craftsdwarf's workshop and can't get it. I just hope he doesn't go berserk.

A dwarf died from a mining injury. He bled out from a cut on his foot because I had no hospital. I'm lucky to have avoided a tantrum spiral, but the dwarves have had no time to socialize, so the dead dwarf wasn't married to anyone and the bad thoughts eventually ran out. His body is still sitting in a corpse stockpile right now, since there's no way to bury it. No ghost so far.

Safely welcomed the first caravan. Traded some plants, gems, and random refuse for some small bits of useful stuff. I've never been so glad to build a carpenter's workshop.

Considering the very real problem of corpse disposal, I'm seriously considering adding the funeral industry as #15: Tombs, coffins, and slabs. But it's good enough as it is, I guess.

This is turning out to be interesting.

[Sutremaine]

What are the rules on medical stuff anyway? You need workshops to make all the equipment yourself, but the only things you need to make yourself are tables, beds, traction benches and soap. The hospital is a zone, and the medical skills have no associated workshop and are not disallowed as the Engraving skill is. Oh, and how about the Carpentry and Masonry labours for the purposes of building? You need to enable them at least once to get the Trade Depot built, but apart from that I don't know.

Anyway, the second caravan rolled round, and I lost a lot of trading time to a minor zombie siege (seriously, there were half a dozen. I think they were just out for a walk and happened across the fortress). I also lost one soldier out of three, which isn't bad for one year's training, leather equipment with a few light copper pieces, and a pair of wooden shields. I think I'll grab another two dwarves and turn both the survivors into squad leaders. There were a couple of injuries, including the only competent ranged attacker in the fortress, and they're currently lying where they fell and doing nothing. The caravan is still here and I have some time to load them up with a mountain of =wooden shields=, though I haven't picked out my second industry yet. Probably crafting, as I really need to get everyone armed now. No moods for me yet, as I've capped the population at the initial two waves. It's much easier on the food supply (and the supply of things I can't yet make, such as quivers and waterskins), though it does mean I can't waste dwarves.

Unless you pick a tough embark, you can probably avoid deaths until the first autumn. Most of the fortress is flat, with the only deviations in level being the ramp down, the stairs up to the secured water supply, and the staircase I dug to get the grazing areas all spored up. There's also only a single miner, which with this few dwarves and no stoneworking is enough.

Challenge-within-a-challenge: pick something other than Woodworking for the first year.

[Callista]

What are the rules on medical stuff anyway? You need workshops to make all the equipment yourself, but the only things you need to make yourself are tables, beds, traction benches and soap. The hospital is a zone, and the medical skills have no associated workshop and are not disallowed as the Engraving skill is. Oh, and how about the Carpentry and Masonry labours for the purposes of building? You need to enable them at least once to get the Trade Depot built, but apart from that I don't know.

Yeah, that's deliberate--I want to be able to set up a limited hospital even before the Medical industry is allowed. You can buy cloth and thread, set up a hospital, put patients in bed, stitch them up, splint, and bandage them--but you can't have a chief medical dwarf, set up traction benches, or make soap. It's a rather primitive hospital. Infection is common and compound fractures can't be fixed. Sounds pretty realistic to me.

Yes, you can use things you buy from the caravan, just as long as they aren't otherwise restricted. So no buying a nest box and placing it to get around the Farming restriction, but you could buy (or even make) one and let it sit in your stockpile until you were allowed to use it.

The only labors restricted by any of the industries are Animal Training and Engraving. Any other labors can be turned on, but are of limited use without their associated workshops or buildings. The obvious exceptions--carpentry and masonry--let you build with wood and stone before Woodworking and Stoneworking are actually available. If a dwarf can chop down a tree or dig out a rock without training, I'm gonna guess he'll have no trouble piling up logs or boulders to make walls.

If you wanted a harder challenge, you could put metal, wood, and stone constructions in their respective industries. But I didn't do that, because since your dwarves start out with mining available, then there's nothing stopping you from just making a one-Urist-wide fort entrance and digging a channel down a couple of z-levels to lock out all but flying enemies. If water freezes in the winter, you could easily dig your entrance into a frozen river and wait for spring thaw to block it, and then you'd just have to worry about swimmers. Or you could cave-in to close your entrance completely. Since walls don't give you a huge advantage over simply being able to dig, I wanted them available so that you'd have the option of building above-ground. I don't really like challenges where you basically only have one possible best strategy.

Challenge-within-a-challenge: pick something other than Woodworking for the first year.

Even more challenge-y: Roll dice to determine which of the available industries you're going to choose.

[Callista]

Woot! Second caravan just arrived safely. I can't decide between glassmaking and masonry. I've had five failed moods so far and one obvious vampire, who is now locked away. Population, fifty-two. Most have bedrooms; there's a dining room, but it's not great. I'm using the site of my future well as a water zone. Practically every dwarf has skill in plant gathering, and I don't know how often I've mass-designated everything to be picked clean.

With only the woodworking industry, you just can't trust doors--even the weakest building destroyers will take them straight down; and I can't pasture guard animals near the door. I finally chained one of the migrants' random peacocks up at the entrance, and that was enough to alert me of a babysnatcher. The peacock got killed, of course. I need more peacocks. I can't breed them (no Farming) so I've had to buy them from the caravan.

Mustered up about 13k dorfbucks for the caravan this time around, mostly from substandard wooden stuff and reject herbs. The bowyer's workshop has been surprisingly profitable. Even though I have no access to ammo, crossbows are still good to sell, and are the only way I currently have to craft anything out of bone.

Mining has been going faster than usual, probably because there's not too much else to do. I've hit all three caverns, magma, and candy, and am working on the magma forge level down near the magma sea.

The food and booze situation is tight, but doable. Dwarves have been forced to eat instead of brew a lot of the plants, with the result that they're drinking from the cistern which will one day become the well, and of course complaining about it. They seem to get booze often enough not to slow down, though.

Fatality rate is tolerable. Mostly failed moods. No ambushes or sieges yet--the military is woefully underequipped, with some armed only with wooden training weapons or nothing at all; I was only able to afford a few weapons from the caravan. The miner militia is probably the best equipped right now, simply because they have pickaxes (all six of them). Other than that, I'm trying to answer the question: What's worse--wooden crossbows without ammo, training spears and axes, or no weapon at all and let's hope they train up in wrestling?

I'd love to hunt the wild horses in the area for their yummy meat, but not until my military has at least helmets. Those hooves are deadly.

[Burnup]

Ha! This is an awesome idea.

[Solon64]

Posting to alert everyone that I'm attempting this challenge!  I'm also going to attempt it with the challenge-within-a-challenge of random industries unlocked each caravan.  May get lucky and get woodworking, may get stuck with glass and clay, and be boned completely.  We shall see!  I'll do it by making a quick list of the available industries to unlock, assigning them a number, then using a random number generator program to pick one off the list.

Wish me luck.  Strike the Earth!

[Solon64]

Update!

From a flyer seen in the Mountainhome:
"The long lost colony of CeilingShadows has been found!  A hundred years have passed since it's strange disappearance but the members of that once great city still live, or at least their descendants do!  The Mountainhome is pleased to reestablish contact with these lost dwarves and lend our expertise, aid, and technology to slowly rehabilitate them into society!"

The Mountainhome's engineers have already begun work setting up a small palisade to house and protect the dwarves of CeilingShadows whilst they are rehabilitated.  Construction has already begun on a small Governor's villa for the visitor from the Mountainhomes, Zasit Bridgethorn.  A well has been dug so that fresh water can be obtained by the tribe, and a massive project to bring in food from the surrounding area has already been well under way.

The Mountainhome has sent to me this year, as an expert for improving technologies, a.....*drum roll*..... leatherworker!  The village now has access to tanners and leatherworkers.


Player's notes:  Oh.  Armok.  At least with clay I could have had an easy unlimited building supply and some crafts.  What the heck am I gonna do with leatherworking.  Welp.  Looks like it's time to send my militia dwarves out to go round up some animals for butchering and processing to leather.  I didn't bring any breeding animals so that option is gone.  This coming year will be grim, I forsee.  I already have two dwarves pissed off at spending every night in the pouring rain in the dirt.

Further player's notes: loving this challenge already.  The Fun is only beginning.