Holy Cow I get a siege by Dwarves in the first winter. 22 axes and one mace rider. They have everything from iron to welded metals. I don't think my fort value is that high (I can verify the exact value later), but the only thing I could do was finish my wall and gate before they made it to my Tower grounds. I barely have any weapons made, no ironbone industry, no new skeletons or ghouls created beyond migrants, nor any magic or alchemy. I am forced to wait this out, but luckily the stream is providing enough food and drink. I now am forced to use the graveyard to get enough bones and souls to get some sort of skeleton archer defense ready.
After my last fort that had early goblin siege take me out basically in the same situation (there I atleast had time to get ironbone and ashland glass started), I am wondering what am I doing that is raising hatred towards me so quickly...
Does anyone have any other options I should take? I lost a few skeletons and a warlock outside the wall, I may be able to field 2 ghouls, 6 Skeletons and 4 Warlocks if I can get this unprocessed iron smelted enough for weapons and mail shirts.
Also as a balance concern. I have a dream of fielding Dreadnaught Skeletons with Ebonyglass Armor just for the mental image (and dreadnought is really expensive!). However, where does Ebonyglass, Ashlandglass fit in with other "slightly better than steel" metals like mithril and bloodsteel or dreadnought. I ask, because the cost of Ebony is much higher than Ashland or Mithril and even really bloodsteel (it needs 3 semi-rare ingredients to find in one embark), but with it's weight, it's not clear from the stats if that's worth the cost for armor's or cutting weapons, etc.