1st Hematite
3 Automatons were left, when the militia finally arrived, and they were quickly dealt with. Everyone moved back, when we spotted another ambush led by a legendary drone. For reasons I couldn't understand, most of the militia refused to attack those, even though they had orders to do so. So it was up to a lasherdwarf and a swordsdwarf to do all the dirty work alone. And they did it. The drone was immediatetly beheaded, although with some support from the axethrowers, and the other Automatons were also destroyed in quick succession. Seeing, they were not needed, the others decided to slaughter the elves in the meantime. Another ton of mithril went into our stockpiles...
3rd Hematite.
Catten has finally brought the corpse to the stockpile... Maybe i can catch, when the butchers try to butcher it.
10th Hematite
Kamikazi herself has started the big military reform.
All dwarves in military will now have to join a guild, preferable the legion or the wrestlers guild for melee combat dwarfs. Also the equipment will be upgraded again. We are working now on steel plate armor, and even the ranged dwarfs will receive regular steel armor. Weapons will receive upgrades as well, which is keeping me quite busy for now. This process will take probably more then a year.
2nd Galena
Tenderroast is still fairly isolated in the city. Most dwarfs distrust him. But today he found a new friend.
14th Galena
Now every melee soldier is part of a guild. Also most soldiers are already wielding their new weapons, but we haven't yet started on the armors. We would also like to get our javelin throwers into the marksman guild, but with the end of the season looming, this would be bad timing. Everyone has to be ready.
25th Galena
An ambush! And not Automatons for a change. But Goblins.
Bowgoblins, to be exact. 16 of them. And not a single melee one. Maybe they are still hiding?
27th Galena
That was anticlimactic. The goblins had decided to hunt some traders again. But the goblins did this right below the bastion with Ber and his two axe thrower recruits. And Ber, using the artifact axe thrower I had made several years ago, was just in the mood.
Goblin bodyparts were flying everywhere, and before the goblins realized what had just happened, they had already lost 4 of their kind. Noticing this was mostly the work of a single dwarf, while they were attacking a town with more then 200 dwarves, they realized the hopelessness of their endeavour and ran. Two of the traders had also died, but they were not worth more then a bunch of moleweasel as scouts for us anyway.
28th Galena
Our never resting haulers went out there to grab the remains of Ber's victims. But when they arrived there, they did not only find the dead goblins, but also a giant drowspider. Irks! Luckily Ber and his men were still in position. The spider webbed the hauler, but somehow wasn't sure if it should attack, which gave the worker valuable time to free himself and start running. With her victim out of range and several axes hitting the ground right next to it, the spider turned and fled the field.
1st Limestone
Summer is up. Another uneventful season full of restructuring. Our industry building is finally fully roofed, and soon masons can begin their work in the city center. But we are lacking blocks, again. There was only one special thing about that summer. There was no caravan! Have the humans realized what the situation is? That would make them much smarter then the elves, who are coming here again and again.
9th Limestone
Tenderraost promised me, this would be the last time, he has to do this. Afterwards he would be done and ready to defend the city. Well, right now there is nothing to defend us from, but anyway, I welcome his wish to finally participate... Hopefully he remembers, when he is done studying.
(that the final upgrade)
24th Limestone
We have started construction on our new trade building. This should be done quick, just the lack of blocks is slowing us down. But today we finally got some visitor again.
While the other big races are visting us less and less, it seems like the beast of this world now all pilger here. Since our marksdwarves weren't on the wall anymore, there may even be a fight this time.
25th Limestone
The beast managed to get to the entrance without being hit once by an axe or javelin. But our militia was already waiting together with the drakes.
As soon as they had the giant in sight, they started their attack. One of our swordsdwarves was the first to reach the creature, just to nice he had forgotten his sword in excitement of the upcoming battle.
The giant looked amused at the dwarf, who took all his strength, and punched the giant straight in the face. He had a great teacher! The incoming fist was the last thing, the giant would see in his life.
The battle was decided by a single unarmed dwarf, before any other dwarf could even reach the creature. I slowly begin to understand why the other races are not showing up anymore. That was now the second beast, that got slain by a dwarven fist.
16th Sandstone
During some redesign work in the industry hall we accidently left a floor without support, crashing down with one of our legendary woodworkers and her baby. The woodworker only had a few bruises, but the baby had serious injuries in head and torso. Well... babies are not important, right now... unless you are that woodworker.
12th Timber
A siege!
That is almost a week earlier then we expected enemies. But this are also enemies we didn't expect...
Looks like a mottoparty about maces... Just one guy didn't read the invitation card, and brought his teddy and a hammer. But it looks like they are patiently waiting this out and are no trying to advance towards our entrance.
13th Timber
Waiting time is over. Our most cunning plan to lure them here worked! Well, actually the moleweasel just ran around like crazy and they decided to follow it. Whatever... As usual everyone was waiting near the entrance.
Once the drakes leaped forward, the soldiers followed them, using the ensuing chaos for their attack. Ignoring the drakes, the numbers were even. But the humans could compete neither in armor, nor weaponry nor skill. Kosoth made some fun of it and tried to show off with some special moves. Those battles get more and more a bragging contest between our dwarves.
Once the guy on the bear was taken down, the remaining macemen tried to disengage. But that was nearly impossible, be stuck between hordes of drakes and dwarves. Except two of them none survived. And again our armor protected all our dwarves against injury. I'm really proud of my work! Only our drakes had suffered, with 2 being dead, and 5 unconcious.
19th Timber
The calm seasons seem to be over.
An Orc ambush! As there were a lot of haulers outside, the militia was ordered to intercept the Orcs before they could reach the entrance.
20th Timber
Another ambush, this time from the other side. That made the situation way more difficult, especially considering the fact, that the Orcs conssit almost entirely out of boworcs.
Our militia would be caught in the crossfire, if they engage into this. But at least now our marksdwarves started firing down on the Orcs.
It was kamikazi, who decided, that the only way to prevent being caught between their arrows would be a quick preemptive strike against one of their wings. Charging into them would surly be troublesome, but until now our armor had never failed us.
21st Timber
I guess, only because someone is a legendary warrior that does not automatically enable them to know the difference between LEFT and RIGHT. Ducim, a wrestler, decided he knew better and charged off in the wrong direction. Alone!
While the other flank of the Orcs got beaten down like sand under a pick, Ducim had more troubles. An arrow opened his arm, but he managed to keep grasp of his shield and weapon. Only his incredibly high agility (DT shows 7640/5000) prevented worse. Luckily a few drakes followed him and acted now as arrow catcher for him. That was all he needed. The drakes, Ducim and the constant rain of axes and javelins was just too much for the Orcs. Not a single one escaped.
1st Moonstone
While one may consider the human siege as a failure (for them), they surely had achieved one goal. Even though the siege lasted only 3 days, they had prevented the caravan from the mountain homes.
Originally we wanted to use that caravan to clean up our city. We have already stockpiled trash for it. But it looks like we have to wait for a bit. With the attacks resuming, even though still on low volume, it is good to know, that the training of our soldiers and their equipment can withstand most threats. Since we feel under control of the surface for now, we have decided to start digging further down. For that purpose we have mined out some stairs outside the city going down and bypassing our mining tunnels, that are connected to the inner area of the city. That way, in case of an incident, we will always channel what ever may come up there through our entrance. Only because we are undefeated until now, we shouldn't get lighthearted.
When we talk about constructions, we have to admit, that the masons got stalled lately. We ran out of marble to finish our trade building. Will probably continue that later. But I'm not sure, if Mosey will accept a building out of sandstone for himself as an administration building. But postponing that as well, is also not a good option. Neither is angering him... Even though he is living in that wooden hut for >5 years now... Everything would be an improvement.
OOC: my fortress value is >4 mio, i have >200 dwarves and >450 dead creatures and i still get such lackluster attacks... I guess the game will equal it out at some point with a 100 frost giant siege or smth like that...