Oh look, we’ve got two threads with “Pimpstack” in the title already. This is turning into a meme.
So how’s the fort looking since I last participated?
To sum up the current state of Demongate;
We've seen some serious depletion of military forces (down from 3/4 complete melee squads that were expanding and 2 full crossbow squads to 1 full crossbow squad, 1 partial and 3 half-full melee squads), as well as numerous civilian casualties after near continuous goblin sieges and mega/forgotten beast attacks. Morale is currently OK, with a possible tantrum spiral striking mainly children and the military should one occur. This is likely due to no morale-raising improvements I can find being completed since the reign of Vlad.
The last significant construction since your turn was the creation of the Spider, a giant, dubiously necessary liability. It was a gaping hole in the fort's defenses that serves as a bastion in case the fort falls so far as I can tell... making it the second one we have. I think it was constructed during FallenAngel or Dantheman's reign. I also found an elaborate tomb which appears to have been filled with an unnamed jem cutter. There's an incomplete railroad starting in cavern 1 and leading through cavern 2 to cavern 3, culminating in the apparently walled off and abandoned Miner's Guild. I don't know who started its construction, but this segways neatly into the biggest change; the complete and utter collapse of the cavern defense scheme. There's also been some bewildering changes to the depot airlock; the depots been moved and an abandoned one is walled off. A tower of unknown origin (filled with statues) has been erected in the main courtyard as well, but I have no idea where it came from.
The 1st cavern layer is currently secured by a single door. Which means forgotten beasts can path from the 3rd cavern layer, through the 2nd and 1st, and into the fort since there's an intricate series of passages between them. Actually, the 2nd cavern level also has multiple undefended entrances! Fortunately the only know forgotten beast (the one from my turn that got trapped behind some trees) is unable to utilize this, but future ones might. Were Vlad still alive, I'd make a post to suggest rectifying these issues; since he's dead and my current character is off getting high/being schitzo, I'll just post this instead.
There are some upsides. We're pretty stable morale-wise (I'm surprised, Demongate) and we have the beginning of adequate preparations for engaging the HFS. Still, the main thesis of this post should be understood as
Demongate's military is crippled. If it weren't for our remaining champions and our well-designed main gate I have no doubt we'd already be overrun or forced to turtle; we've grown complacent. We're taking losses faster than we can replace militia dwarves, and we've allowed previously tight defenses fall apart.
I'm getting a stable 33 FPS. Demongate is aging, and seems to be nearing an inevitable end bar a revitalization. Unfortunately, the leader who canonically would have addressed these issues, Vlad, is dead. The fortress story-wise seems to not have gotten over his death; it's running on inertia thanks to the Prayer Group, but from what I can tell our alcoholic illuminati is falling apart. Thane doesn't trust them anymore, Brenzen doesn't trust them any more, and they've let in a lot of dwarves who are either insane or outright traitorous. The hard core of old EPG loyalists as far as I can tell consist of Thanatos, Tarmid and Cornelius; they can probably call on Thane if she remains sane and feels there's an urgent danger to the fortress.
As dark forces gather, the fortress starts to crumble from within; it's physical decline into weakness matched by the decay of the fort's once proud institutions. Of the old players, the EPG is weaker than ever before; the Miner's Guild has completely lost all political authority, and Vlad's military has been decimated. One good push and Demongate could collapse. Seeing as the leader of our civilization has disappeared (and I think it's likely she was either killed or converted by the Bloodkin) the fall of Demongate could well spell the doom of the New World's dwarves.
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Topic: Demongate: Wrapping up the Loose Ends. (Read 696758 times)