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[MuseOD]

I've got a great location, plenty of iron, beachside, lots of game to hunt, a constant source of food due to turkeys and farming, and about ten working dorfs. I'm just setting up the boxing-in of my fort, using walls and a bridge to build an impenetrable entrance, have dorms set up, and the first floor of Greek-cross style dense housing. One of my immigrants is a medical dorf, whose skills are in wound dressing and surgery. I'm not sure what to do with him, because he can't diagnose. I've hit the caves, and am planning to build a well to get dat clean water. But I'm not sure what to do next.

[StagnantSoul]

Start four-five smelters pumping out coke, iron, and steel, with the last one of them pumping coke and non-iron based metals, like gold and silver.

[MuseOD]

Thanks! This is so that I don't have to do this sort of thing later?

[StagnantSoul]

Yeah, an efficient smelter setup close to an ore and economic stone only stockpile, with a metal bar only stockpile nearby needs little management besides mining. One smelter isn't enough to quickly get stocks up to fortress needs.

[MuseOD]

Awesome. I'll set my Great Milker to work as a smelter...or a wood furnacer.

[Quartz_Mace]

Make a military. Have a crossbow squad with shields, heavy crossbows, mail shirts, and helmets. Have a fully equipped melee militia with. For armor, use a mail shirt, helm, high boots, and gauntlets. For weapons, axes or swords will do for now. I'd go with swords because they can slash and stab, while axes only hack. Granted, axes are better for chopping things off, but you don't need to chop an enemy in half to kill them.

[MuseOD]

Is there a distinction between heavy and "light" crossbows ingame? How many soldiers per squad?

[StagnantSoul]

Heavy crossbows are metal ones, light crossbows are wooden. Only difference is weight and effectiveness in close combat. Copper is the best crossbow.

[Quartz_Mace]

I'd say 5 melee and 10 ranged. And yes, copper for crossbows if possible. All shields should be wooden to decrease weight. You might want the marksDwarves to be heavy enough to not run into a fight and light enough to run out, which they should be with this.

[StagnantSoul]

Mail shirt, helmet, copper crossbow, wooden shield, leather armour, leggings, high boots, and gloves.

[Quartz_Mace]

Mail shirt, helmet, copper crossbow, wooden shield, leather armour, leggings, high boots, and gloves.

If you want to include the leather, you may, but the metal suit alone covers the whole body. The extra layers might provide a bit more protection against slashing, but if you don't have much leather you can skip them.

[SixOfSpades]

Start four-five smelters pumping out coke, iron, and steel, with the last one of them pumping coke and non-iron based metals, like gold and silver.

HOLD UP! Enemies are attracted by the wealth of your fortress. Smelting tons of precious metals that you're not going to get any real use out of is an engraved invitation for the goblins (and much, much worse) to come a-knocking. Have fun driving them back with your whopping TEN dwarves. Wait until you get more migrants, some of whom will already have military skills, before you work with gold or the like. (Even *mining* the ores & gems adds to your wealth.) You might even want to hold off working with steel until you've got a really good Smith: Steel is worth exactly as much as gold.

As for your doctor, just enable ALL of his medical labors. It doesn't matter that he has no experience as a Diagnoser: Skill in the medical professions has zero effect on how well the job is performed, just on the time it takes to do it.

Don't put too much value on having copper crossbows--that's the best allowed material for them, yes, but as far as melee weapons go, ALL crossbows suck goblin vomit. Keep your marksdwarves out of melee if possible, unless you find it amusing to arm your troops with wiffle bats.

[Quartz_Mace]

Start four-five smelters pumping out coke, iron, and steel, with the last one of them pumping coke and non-iron based metals, like gold and silver.

HOLD UP! Enemies are attracted by the wealth of your fortress. Smelting tons of precious metals that you're not going to get any real use out of is an engraved invitation for the goblins (and much, much worse) to come a-knocking. Have fun driving them back with your whopping TEN dwarves. Wait until you get more migrants, some of whom will already have military skills, before you work with gold or the like. (Even *mining* the ores & gems adds to your wealth.) You might even want to hold off working with steel until you've got a really good Smith: Steel is worth exactly as much as gold.

As for your doctor, just enable ALL of his medical labors. It doesn't matter that he has no experience as a Diagnoser: Skill in the medical professions has zero effect on how well the job is performed, just on the time it takes to do it.

Don't put too much value on having copper crossbows--that's the best allowed material for them, yes, but as far as melee weapons go, ALL crossbows suck goblin vomit. Keep your marksdwarves out of melee if possible, unless you find it amusing to arm your troops with wiffle bats.

*Pictures an army of Dwarves marching to war with wiffle bats*

[Art]

Yeah I would get a full iron squad up before anything. Have them start training right away.

Later replace the iron weapons with steel ones. You don't really need steel armor so don't worry about

As my fortress grows, I like to find ways to make my food/booze production as efficient as possible, so that almost all my Dwarves are in the military. MIC for the win!


Once you have a functioning military, then start producing wealth through trade goods. You don't really need a huge amount of wealth, but it is fun to attract attention.

PS - The best weapons to start with are steel or iron spears, IMO, but you can mix it up for funsies. Silver/copper/iron warhammers are good if you can't make steel. I would avoid maces, they are the weakest weapon in all situations.


PPS - Once you are strong and mighty enough to defend yourself from sieges(They get harder and harder). Try digging deeper too. There are usually multiple cavern layers that get progressively more dangerous, then something far more sinister in the great depths...

PPPS -  Don't forget that this is a sandbox game. There are many ways to have fun if you are creative.
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Megaprojects

[StagnantSoul]

They're the best undead fighters though.

And, I'd go with swords. Stab, slash, and side whack attacks. They can cover all three major weapons to a percent. That's why swords were such a widely used weapon, they filled many roles.