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[iPhoz]

Hi guys!

Im new to the forum so this is my first post.
I've been played Dwarf Fortress a couple of times now and I feel like I got the basics, but still a long way to go.
2 minuts ago I had 23 dwarfs in my "fortress" and I feel it that there was a great balance BUT!?
Then a new migration wave came bringing 28 new dwarfs!
I have no idea how to manage that and what assignments to give them and where I should get enough food.

So my question is:
What would you guys suggest I do now?
How do I continue from this?

I am willing to take chances because I don't mind starting over.

Hope you can help me.

[Naryar]

Make and build some spare beds (no need to have one bed per dwarf if you don't make rooms, 20 beds should be enough for 50 dwarves. Grow some more food (make more farm plots, assign more growers) and make more booze (assign more brewers even if unskilled, maybe build another still if you have only one. Dwarves don't need anything more than booze, food and beds.

It's not an issue if some dwarves sleep on rock a few times, but avoid it.

Do you have an inside meeting zone ? If no, then do one.

Then you will have to worry about how to employ them and not have useless dwarves milling about and becoming mayors.

[iPhoz]

How should I go about the farmplots?
I have build 2 as big as they can get but they are not fully used.

A good advice on making booze?
Right now I just have 1-2 guys collecting a few plants and the brewing them, but the plants rot a few times.

Thank you for your answer.

[Astrid]

1 5x5 plumphelmet farm + 1 still running nonstop is enough to keep 80+ Dwarfes fed and drunk, that's my experience.
So if you have more you are all set.

[greycat]

How should I go about the farmplots?
I have build 2 as big as they can get but they are not fully used.

Classic new player mistake.  You don't fully appreciate how efficient dwarven farming is.  A max size farm plot can feed an entire civilization.  Well, a small civilization.  A few cities.

I personally make 2x2 farm plots.  I start out with just 2-3 of them, and add a couple more when population grows.

A good advice on making booze?
Right now I just have 1-2 guys collecting a few plants and the brewing them, but the plants rot a few times.

If your plants are rotting, it's because you don't have enough stockpile space for them, or enough hauling labor available to get them to the stockpiles.

One of my initial 2x2 farm plots is always plump helmets, so those will always be available to brew.  I dedicate another 2x2 plot to booze variety plants (sweet pods in spring, cave wheat in autumn, either one in summer).  My pig tail plots can't grow pig tails in spring or winter, so I usually stick sweet pods there in spring and plump helmets (or fallow) in winter.  Since that gives me a bunch of extra sweet pods, it makes more sense to have the variety plot do cave wheat in summer.

So, my brewing crops are plump helmets, sweet pods and cave wheat.  Those get stockpiled by the Still, and brewed.  Any random plants that I gather with herbalism, or trade from the caravans, just augment the booze variety.

[Aachen]

Plant gathering can provide a supplemental source of food and brew-input. However, if you've no one skilled in the labor, you must begin training posthaste. Unskilled workers pretty much produce nothing.

[iPhoz]

Thank you so much guys, this really helped me a lot!! 

[wlmartin]

Hi guys!

Im new to the forum so this is my first post.
I've been played Dwarf Fortress a couple of times now and I feel like I got the basics, but still a long way to go.
2 minuts ago I had 23 dwarfs in my "fortress" and I feel it that there was a great balance BUT!?
Then a new migration wave came bringing 28 new dwarfs!
I have no idea how to manage that and what assignments to give them and where I should get enough food.

So my question is:
What would you guys suggest I do now?
How do I continue from this?

I am willing to take chances because I don't mind starting over.

Hope you can help me.

Address their basic needs first and go from there

The 3 Bs

Breakfast, Beer, Beds - those are the basic needs
- Without Breakfast, they will start hunting for vermin
- Without Beer, they will run to the river all the time to drink
- Without Beds, they will sleep on the floor - not a massive deal but hurts productivity/mood

These guys can satisfy most of these needs themselves
- if you need more beds... task them to gather logs and build beds. Just because a guy has 0 skill in carpentery doesnt mean that you can't battery farm 30 carpenters to get the job done making just 1 bed for themselves and then collapsing the workshop down
- if you need more food... task them all to gather plants
- if you need more alcohol... make more beer. This is harder because a lack of plants/barrels can hurt this task, it can involve more complex tasks to get this done but its all possible even if you have no logs, barrels, plants or spare drink... 30 woodchoppers (make logs) > 30 carpenters (make barrels) > 30 gathers (get fruit) > 30 brewers (make drink) --- sure its unskilled and takes longer but im thinking the volume of workers would do the job


If you dont have the infrastructure to support the new guys, you can build it USING the new guys.

If you still get stuck, try creating burrows where burrow 1 = regular fort and burrow 2 = new guys. Then just treat them like its a new embark, set them up in their own camp and then when they are self sufficient (which takes like next to no time) you can integrate them. This step is WAY overboard but is a practical way to deal with it if you want to completely zone-off your dorfs and don't want them to eat away at your existing infrastructure

[greycat]

Breakfast, Beer, Beds - those are the basic needs

Beer, Breakfast, Bridge

• Beer is the fundamental need.
  
• Breakfast because dwarf cannot live on beer alone (though many have tried).
  
• Bridge is how you seal yourself in, so the goblins/zombies that arrive after 6 months don't tear out your liver and prevent you from drinking beer.

[wlmartin]

Breakfast, Beer, Beds - those are the basic needs

Beer, Breakfast, Bridge

• Beer is the fundamental need.
  
• Breakfast because dwarf cannot live on beer alone (though many have tried).
  
• Bridge is how you seal yourself in, so the goblins/zombies that arrive after 6 months don't tear out your liver and prevent you from drinking beer.

Doh! /facepalm

I knew it was another B... Bridge, of cause!

Only problem I have with a bridge is that I build it either far too late or build up a resource gathering system that has my guys are so far across the map that I have problems closing the bridge.

The setup I like is one bridge that leads directly to your Trade Depot and that you have cutoff from your main area with traps/internal bridges.
It only ever opens when the caravan arrives and closes immediately once it is docked inside
Once the caravan is in, shut them in to prevent thieves from getting in and when done open it up to let them out

Plaster the area with RESTRICTED TRAFFIC tags so the only time your dorfs will even come down to the Depot is on hauling jobs, not to use the backdoor

Then set your main entrance for your actual dorfs somewhere else, perhaps somewhere that isn't so accessible to a Trade Depot and one that you can adequately mine with traps.
A trade caravan makes you think that because they have to come to your front door and you can't mine traps in front of them, you are stuck.

But just put the entrance for the depot somewhere else out of the way, somewhere you can open up only when they are on their way.

Then for your other entrance, make it an absolute minefield ... b-a-utiful!

Then the rest of your

[Deboche]

I don't know if you have dwarf therapist. It makes everything much easier.

Just assign:

1 or 2 miners(more if you still have a lot of digging to do)
1 carpenter(more if you're building a wooden wall or need lots of bins/barrels/buckets/beds)
1 mason(more if building stuff or need coffins, tables, thrones, etc)
1 animal trainer and carer
1 hunter maybe
2 or 3 farmers
1 detailer
2 plant processers
2 weavers
2 clothesmakers
1 for each craft
1 mechanic(more if you need to make lots of things)
1 for each smithing stuff, 2 or 3 wood burners - make the smiths you're not using at the time furnace operators

2 cooks
2 brewers - I like to have two of these because sometimes you get distracted and let it run out and one of them might be on break or sleeping

and so on

some jobs go well together like milker/cheeser and spinner/shearer and even cook/brewer

When you have free dwarves with nothing to do, if they're female, replace them with a male with a non-important job. If they're male, put them in the army

I like to dig out 3x3 rooms for all the dwarves with a door, bed and cabinet. Cabinet is the least important thing. It makes dwarves very happy, you can smooth it all out to make the fortress more valuable and it doesn't take long to do with macros.