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[Fat Friar]

Having finally conquered the circus in a savage tundra, I'd like to try a more challenging embark site, so I'm thinking I'll strike the earth in an evil biome.
From my earlier, short-lived forays into them, it seems that it's best to neglect the surface as quickly as possible, and depend on the first cavern layer for wood and water. I figure if I survive the first year I can set up a well-defended caravan entrance and an archery pillbox to deal with sieges. Before I've always kept a significant portion of my fort aboveground to avoid cave adaptation, so it'll be interesting to design a fort where traffic in and out isn't a factor.

So a couple of questions before I go: I plan to take a couple soldiers, and I'm playing the more stable 0.34 with Modest Mod installed, so no pulping yet. Given that, which would be best - axes, swords, hammers or crossbows?
Also, what would be better as a first line of frantic, early defense; cage or stone-fall traps?
And, any other tips and tricks you'd like to share about charging headfirst into fell lands?

Thanks in advance!

[BlackFlyme]

In v.34 the undead have a hitpoints system, so they will not be as sturdy as they are in the newest version, though they can still hit quite hard. If it is a raising biome, then you will want to bring blunt weaponry, and not bladed weaponry such as axes or swords. Severed limbs will just make more zombies.

Crossbows have an edged attack, but the contact area is slim enough that it is unlikely to sever a body part, and has the benefits of being able to attack at range and the fact that bolts in flight carry a lot of power.

You will likely want to turtle yourself fairly early on. It may be useful to bring along a few logs/stones to build walls quickly.

I cannot say whether cages or stones would be better. I guess it would depend on how quickly you can get cages/prisoner disposal set up.

There may not be zombies, but the weather can be nasty. Rain or mists can carry syndromes, and mists may even enthrall things caught within. Thralls can be incredibly difficult to deal with, as they can only die of bisection or decapitation.

[AMTiger]

 If it's a raising biome, turtling can be more dangerous as it means when your rooster dies your dwarves will have no where to escape from the resurrected corpse

 With alot of evil biomes, it's just a question of avoiding the clouds. And if so then it's pretty easier than an ordinary biome as the monsters you'll catch and train in your cage traps are better.

[BlackFlyme]

If it's a raising biome, turtling can be more dangerous as it means when your rooster dies your dwarves will have no where to escape from the resurrected corpse

Knew I forgot something.

You will want to make sure that your corpse/refuse stockpiles are secured. It can somewhat be managed through liberal use of doors and cage traps. The doors can be locked, which will slow the zombies down, though locking must be done manually.

Keep a butcher, a tanner, and a farmer's workshop nearby as well. Butchering alone will not keep you safe. Hair and skin can be raised from the dead, and are both products of butchering. The moment a creature is butchered, you will want to queue up a spinning job at the farmer's workshop, as unlike tanning it isn't started automatically, making it a hazard.

[Fat Friar]

Good idea. I figured I'd atom smash, and later incinerate any livestock and refuse, but I'll still need containment while my dwarves complete the dumping orders.

As for avoiding clouds - I suppose a civilian alert in an airtight burrow would be the most reliable? Can clouds go through doors and hatches?

[BlackFlyme]

Good idea. I figured I'd atom smash, and later incinerate any livestock and refuse, but I'll still need containment while my dwarves complete the dumping orders.

As for avoiding clouds - I suppose a civilian alert in an airtight burrow would be the most reliable? Can clouds go through doors and hatches?

Not if they are closed.

Just make sure that all parts of your fort have a roof and that your dwarves have no reason to visit the surface. Clouds should occur about once a week, if the embark has any.

[Fat Friar]

If it's a raising biome, turtling can be more dangerous as it means when your rooster dies your dwarves will have no where to escape from the resurrected corpse

This made me nervous. I guess I could keep my usual pair of cats pastured on a cage-lined food stockpile, but maybe I should just leave them back at the Mountainhomes.

[TurboSlug22]

I understand that you'll want to have a way to keep contamination from getting into your fort as well.. just a reminder : )

[Fat Friar]

So, I rolled a world with the evil square count throttled up and hoped for a super murderous volcano. Got one!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(Uh btw, I just joined tonight - is there a way to post these as smaller thumbnails?)

Often I use dfhack to prospect a site before embarking, but in the spirit of adventure, not this time. If it's galena all the way down, so be it! Unfortunately cassiterite, lignite, and bituminous coal weren't available to my civilization, so smithing supplies were rather expensive. I'd better drill down to that cavern as quick as I can, these logs won't go far.
Also brought some thread and cloth for moods, two sands to make magma-safe pump parts, and some magma-safe stone.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Harpies, huh? Cool.

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So, here's our seven lucky coffin stuffers.

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Leader and general laborer.


Doctor/broker, chosen for his energetic nature.


Grower/mechanic




Two miners. Maybe I shoulda ditched the doctor for a third.




Two hammerdwarves, chosen for their physical stats. Didn't really get an amazing batch of dwarves in that regard.

Ah, scenic Sugarlamb. Looks like I've got stone and water nearby, which is handy. Using the corner of that magma pipe as a reference point...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I think I'm gonna dig in here, the southwest corner of the map, two levels below the top of the mountain. And hey look, copper! Looks like I'm all set for crossbow bolts and spiked balls.

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Assuming the local wildlife doesn't take objection, of course.

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Unfortunately, I have work in the morning, so I'll have to unpause and play with the birdies tomorrow. Maybe I'll escape their notice long enough for someone to bang together two wooden shields, or even some iron mail shirts if I get super lucky.
Thanks for the advice!

[Meneth]

(Uh btw, I just joined tonight - is there a way to post these as smaller thumbnails?)

It's possible, but full-size PNGs in spoilers seem to be forum standard. IMHO, that system is better; no need to open extra tabs.

[ZzarkLinux]

Giant Zombie Birds are much more challenging
I prefer bladed weapons over blunt. Two dwarf arms is much easier to contain than a whole dwarf zombie that runs around and brains people. Also husks are immune to blunt weapons. Blunt weapons probably best for tiny zombies and forgotten beasts (because forgotten beast heads are as strong as the whole beast but a fraction the size).
 Good luck.

[greycat]

In v.34 the undead have a hitpoints system, so they will not be as sturdy as they are in the newest version, though they can still hit quite hard. If it is a raising biome, then you will want to bring blunt weaponry, and not bladed weaponry such as axes or swords. Severed limbs will just make more zombies.

Crossbows have an edged attack, but the contact area is slim enough that it is unlikely to sever a body part, and has the benefits of being able to attack at range and the fact that bolts in flight carry a lot of power.

This.  Crossbows with metal bolts rip the hell out of undead in 0.34.  This is due to a combination of the undead HP system used in 0.34, and the extremely high velocity of crossbow bolts in 0.34 (which has since been reduced).  1-2 hits with metal bolts should take down almost any undead creature, without splitting it.

Undead in 0.40 are very, very different....

[BlackFlyme]

(Uh btw, I just joined tonight - is there a way to post these as smaller thumbnails?)

It's possible, but full-size PNGs in spoilers seem to be forum standard. IMHO, that system is better; no need to open extra tabs.

If you click an image with an altered size, it should resize it back to its original size within the post. It does that for me, anyways.

To alter sizes, use this code below and add in the height and width that you want.

Code: [Select]

[img width=### height=###][/img]
And for an example:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Though large images may get squished or lose quality when shrunk. You could also use an image editing program to crop out parts of the image.

[Melting Sky]

My advice is to figure out as soon as you can what flavor of evil weather or reanimating effects you may have to deal with on this embark. Once you know that you can figure out how to deal with it. Evil biomes vary greatly in difficulty level from a very slight inconvenience to almost certain doom. You could have anything from rain that makes dwarves slightly sleepy to a reanimating biome with husking or flesh melting clouds.

Also which version are you playing? That makes a huge difference as to the strategy you should employ. If it's DF2012 then the undead are pretty easy pickings so long as you aren't in a reanimating biome. Crossbows will utterly destroy them as can moderately well equipped and trained melee dwarves. You should not try to use magma or fire to destroy them. Once you have a decent military, if the weather isn't particularly dangerous and you aren't in a terrifying biome, you can actually get away with not sealing off the outside world permanently. You just have to be careful about it.

If you are playing DF2014, crossbows will be utterly useless against the undead and all but excellently equipped legendary melee dwarves should avoid direct combat with them. Magma and fire are quite effective. You will most likely have to turtle even if the weather wouldn't otherwise warrant it due to just how dangerous standard zombies can be. If you do allow some surface activity make sure you limit it and keep a very close eye on things while you do it. Undead giant animals should be given the utmost respect. Even a single giant zombie should be considered a potentially fort ending threat if not dealt with properly. Bladed weapons work much better against zombies unless you are in a reanimating biome in which case you may wish to consider sticking to good blunt weapons.

[LMeire]

Leave small, weak animals like a rabbits or cavies outside to test the evil weather, if they get caught in a cloud/rain you can see exactly what the local syndromes do and determine whether it's safe to go outside/let migrants in without a thorough rinsing/how best to weaponize the weather/etc. They also make good necromancer-detectors, being that rabbits breed like rabbits and there's always plenty for a clumsy evil wizard to accidentally step on. Should they happen to get zombified, their small size should make the rabbits easy to pulp.