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[neblime]

sorry for the late reply to this one, as for the fortifications comissioner:
Well I see no problem with it, but the vast majority of the council shows great voting apathy...
I move that Urist mcDwarf is appointed fortifications comissioner.
If no one votes against me 1 is a majority!

What should we do?
Should we risk our most valuable dwarves or should we turn this battle into a bloodbath by conscripting peasantry and using them as meatshields?
Should we sally forth and attack the enemy in the field or should we seek a more defensive ground, although risking being surrounded by yet hidden enemies?

The enemies are ~70 steps to the southwest of longhall. here is our military situation:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The cowardly goblins are tricking us, I believe their numbers are yet small! station the marksdwarves in range and have the melee fighters defend them.  Defend the council members, their lives are worth more than the peasants!

[☼!!Troll Fur Sock!!☼]

Remember those two big votes we had so far? First time council mandated to dig for ores, second time - to craft crafts. Noone given me permission to build buildings, so we still have exactly one. Have you checked out the map?

Also, are you sure about Derpislava? After all she stll has that baby on her tit...

Well, we still have workshops. They count as impassable tiles.
No, I can't get this damn thing to load to more than 55% no matter how much I wait/refresh.

Yes. As long as you think this will not result in a tantrum spiral, don't really care about her life. Rather how will she lose it.

[Erils]

We have to make a gate to protect the fort from these goblins. While this may prevent yummy vermin from getting in, it will save us cats from getting slaughtered.

[TeleDwarf]

the vast majority of the council shows great voting apathy...

OOC:
That may be because some of them never actually wanted to be in the council in the first place, or maybe because they do not have a strong opinion on the subject, or because they are reluctant to vote "nay" for human relationship reasons...

But I think it is because how unorganized this game currently is. It started as a running AAR, but was quickly overrun and turned into a community RPG with some political structure, roles, titles and even rights of the players. But the OP is still more like a running AAR, and I am a pretty inexperienced GM, so I could imagine that people can get confused as to what is expected of them. And newcomers are even more so...

That said I would greatly appreciate the OOC help with managing it all, even "trivial" advice as of what to put on OP and how to properly notify players of their options(or obligations) would be welcome.

ambush vote results so far:
Derpislava - wants to lead the sally.
neblime - wants to participate in a fight, but to use peasantry as meatshields.
Cain - would either sacrifice a few peasants(and elven caravan, and Urist Mc Dwarf) and wait out inside or risk a pitched battle in close quarters among the commoners.
cyberTripping - would rather desert and hide in the cellar until all is over.
Urist Mc Dwarf - is going to do an artifact or die trying.

Please correct me if I got your intentions wrong.

That suggest following plan of battle:
Derpislava with 9 conscripts will hide in a mashroom cave, cyberTripping will hide in the cellar. Other dwarves will hide in the Longhall and bar the doors.
Once goblins are close enough - Derpislava with her conscripts will sally from the cave, while other peasants will swarm from the longhall, encircling the goblins around the Urist Mc Dwarf. Other council members (except Derpislava and cyberTripping), along with anyone who knows how to use a crossbow will go upstairs and try to shoot goblins from the Longhall roof, while remaining relatively protected.

Possible problems:
1. We could not be able to gather everyone where we need them and goblins can catch us half-prepared, with doors blocked by some random gander.
2. Squad reassignements may lead to some dwarves dropping their weapon(namely Derpislava and cyberTripping), or armed conscripts not managing to pickup equipment in time.
3. Other goblin suqads may encircle  our encircling troops.

Does this plan sounds reasonable?

We have to make a gate to protect the fort from these goblins. While this may prevent yummy vermin from getting in, it will save us cats from getting slaughtered.

If your adopted dwarf will gain residence in castle - you will most live inside the gates most of the time

No, I can't get this damn thing to load to more than 55% no matter how much I wait/refresh.

That is weird. Does anyone else has similar problems? any leads what might be causing it? Do you have same problems with other maps on that site?

[neblime]

Derpislava with 9 conscripts will hide in a mashroom cave, cyberTripping will hide in the cellar. Other dwarves will hide in the Longhall and bar the doors.
Once goblins are close enough - Derpislava with her conscripts will sally from the cave, while other peasants will swarm from the longhall, encircling the goblins around the Urist Mc Dwarf. Other council members (except Derpislava and cyberTripping), along with anyone who knows how to use a crossbow will go upstairs and try to shoot goblins from the Longhall roof, while remaining relatively protected.

"There is no democracy without compromise!  I agree under the condition I have plenty of peasasnts in front of me!"

OOC section:

That said I would greatly appreciate the OOC help with managing it all, even "trivial" advice as of what to put on OP and how to properly notify players of their options(or obligations) would be welcome.

I think a section, maybe as the first spoiler (or maybe after the background/history) dedicated to a brief outline of council rules and responsibilities, and a little note on the position of newly entering dwarves?
Just something like the fact that there are votes etc etc, and that the council started as the 7 original settlers.
(if you want I could write it up and pm you?)
Other than that, I'd be happy to give you any other help, but what can I do?
btw, to help with structure, maybe if whenever you put forth an issue you give a time limit for voting, and then I can count it up when the time limit comes (I did intend to do that originally to ease the load, sorry!)

[TeleDwarf]

I think a section, maybe as the first spoiler (or maybe after the background/history) dedicated to a brief outline of council rules and responsibilities, and a little note on the position of newly entering dwarves?
Just something like the fact that there are votes etc etc, and that the council started as the 7 original settlers.
(if you want I could write it up and pm you?)

That would be great! except that the council started not as the 7 original settlers though, as in your council list Derpislava Patternedlance and cyberTripping Trussmine are migrants of the first and second waves.

Other than that, I'd be happy to give you any other help, but what can I do?
btw, to help with structure, maybe if whenever you put forth an issue you give a time limit for voting, and then I can count it up when the time limit comes (I did intend to do that originally to ease the load, sorry!)

That is cool too. I am perfectly fine to play it slow. It will be slow anyway and I am perfectly fine with having "turn-based RPG" with special interrupts. for example we might lay plans for some time period(year, season), then look how it plays out and interrupt if something quite unexpected happens (like this first ambush).

I can even envision more freedom for players, like decisions of what to do, or not do(like Derpislava decided to seek glory despite the danger to her little son). Create guilds and work unions including NPCs(mason player may decide to create masons guild, other players may or may not join him, NPCs join according to their relationships and/or personality...), then union leader, or guild master, or vote of members may decide what to do, or whether to make demands and such...
For example masons guild may decide to demand to move their quarters closer to city center, additional workshops for new guild members training and 2 months off every year.  Council then have to negotiate, give in or deal with masons guild strike. Loads of fun...

[Dwarf4Explosives]

I'd say migrant meatshields; that will help avoid tantrum spirals, as the migrants shouldn't have had enough time, or less time, at any rate, to become friends with the other dwarfs.

[neblime]

That would be great! except that the council started not as the 7 original settlers though, as in your council list Derpislava Patternedlance and cyberTripping Trussmine are migrants of the first and second waves.

close enough, who says it will be remembered that way?
who do you think writes the history down?
The council secretary
I love the idea of yearly plans, once we're properly established I suppose we can start doing that?
In the meantime are you going to whack a time limit on votes now?

[TeleDwarf]

close enough, who says it will be remembered that way?
who do you think writes the history down?
The council secretary

Ok, since you are the historian - have it your way. I never liked history anyway .

I love the idea of yearly plans, once we're properly established I suppose we can start doing that?
In the meantime are you going to whack a time limit on votes now?

This time it would be nice to be reasonably sure that everyone chose their behavior before unpausing as certain choices can result in swift death or at least a metal bolt protruding from the liver.
It would also nice to somehow facilitate more proactive behavior. The more I know about the dwarves - the more I can flesh them out (like Derpislava's incline to mechanics made her a first choice to become bower). Any ideas how to do that?

[Cain12]

That suggests the following plan of battle:
Derpislava with 9 conscripts will hide in a mashroom cave, cyberTripping will hide in the cellar. Other dwarves will hide in the Longhall and bar the doors.
Once goblins are close enough - Derpislava with her conscripts will sally from the cave, while other peasants will swarm from the longhall, encircling the goblins around the Urist Mc Dwarf. Other council members (except Derpislava and cyberTripping), along with anyone who knows how to use a crossbow will go upstairs and try to shoot goblins from the Longhall roof, while remaining relatively protected.

Possible problems:
1. We could not be able to gather everyone where we need them and goblins can catch us half-prepared, with doors blocked by some random gander.
2. Squad reassignments may lead to some dwarves dropping their weapon(namely Derpislava and cyberTripping), or armed conscripts not managing to pickup equipment in time.
3. Other goblin squads may encircle  our encircling troops.

So you are using the fey mood one as bait, fair enough.
Could just order the individuals, so some of them don't have to change squad, to deal with part of problem 2, might be time consuming and will probably not help much. The other two are a bother though. The plan seems sound enough, plenty of room to end in disaster though.
Hoping Cain lives to see his wife buried/his son brought back to him but won't hold my breath, will probably be one of the many that need to be buried after this.

[TeleDwarf]

yeah. most wants to be relatively protected, so battle will have to take place near the Longhall, but the lumber mill is also near the longhall... I could try forbidding all the workshops to save Urist, but we desperately need him to keep going. if he stops for a second - he is dead.

Look at the brighter side though: if we win - we will have a well, soap supply and longhall will be turned into a hospital. Any of you guys want to volunteer your room for healthcare?

PS: Can you guys see the map? Is it only Urist, or have I messed it up? Proper visuals are kind of essential

[Cain12]

This one right? http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-11941-gorgeadmired
Can see it fine, fails if I refresh it sometimes. Edit:Prefer screenshots personally but the map is probably less effort for you.
If Cain has a room go nuts, unless you think that would be the last nail in the coffin, but I assume that dining room means he is over his families deaths by now.

[TeleDwarf]

This one right? http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-11941-gorgeadmired
Can see it fine, fails if I refresh it sometimes. Edit:Prefer screenshots personally but the map is probably less effort for you.

Thanks, that reassures me a great deal. Screenshots of smaller areas are good and nice, but I really want to get community input on the general layout, city planning, keep design and such. And for that the big picture is necessary.

If Cain has a room go nuts, unless you think that would be the last nail in the coffin, but I assume that dining room means he is over his families deaths by now.

Sure he has one. All named dwarves have a room. It was kind of priority.
As of family - he is kind of oblivious about that all. for all he knows - his wife was is somewhere on a very important mining mission and hadn't returned yet. To prove that she is gone we will have to show him the body, and for that I am going to drain aquifer. But that will probably not happen until next Spring.

[Cain12]

Yay, Cain has had a bed. Ah Cain don't worry, soon your wife shall return, along with your little Malfon, and you will have to work hard to ensure there is a good home for them to return to. Ignorance is truly bliss.

[cyberTripping]

Sorry for the late response.

I'm fine with the military plan, and I can see the map.