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[edhe]

I'm a relatively new player, and I've always had trouble getting a foothold in a fortress, and end up restarting - either because I feel I haven't progressed enough to defend against a raid or because a raid has torn through my fortress, and there's no point in continuing.

But the game I'm currently playing is going particularly well.

I started out by digging into a mountain and blocking off the entrance with walls and a hinged Drawbridge (so I can accept merchants), and was able to survive quite comfortably.

Up until my first Goblin raid. Though I made every effort to lock down my fort (by removing all hills to the upper meadows where I identified any sort of defence compromise), the buggers (all of them crossbow users, btw) shot at my peasants from above.

I mobilised my infantry squad (Steel axes, chainmail, breastplate and about 500 combat related xp between them) and pointed them towards the invaders.

I killed just 1 goblin before the group of 6 were chased away, but suffered two fatalities and a very mangled squad.

I got straight to fortifying the upper meadows by first building floors over the holes, then changing my mind after about 5 had been laid (and anticipating how long it was going to take) and then deciding to build makeshift walls around the openings instead.

Luckily, my medic was able to patch both the soldiers' broken limbs into something that may swing an axe again (albeit, one with lifetime gripping issues), and continued with my den.

I built my first well (so my peasants won't have to go outside any more) and several other rooms before I was paid a "visit".

"Osmuth Alásubi Atupkasumci" - a seven headed Hydra arrived. I wasn't going to mess about this time, and locked down the fort's main entrance - the Drawbridge out front.

"But what's this? Urist has been interrupted by a hydra. The stupid sod must have nipped outside before I raised the drawbridge. Where is he...?"

[checks Urist's whereabouts]

"(AARGH! There's a hydra in my base!!)" (He got in through the easily accessable staircase I forgot to account for)

I sent my squad of 8 moderately armed, lightly trained infantry after him, and lost 2 in quick succession. My dwarfs were getting stuck in, and were able to fell the beast with a third fatality from attrition. A fourth soldier of the squad was critically wounded (her right lower leg was yellow, while her whole right arm is absent), and proceded to pass out where the hydra dropped for 2 months or so.

She came to, but wouldn't visit the hospital, but she seemed happy to start hauling rocks around, but I think she deserves better than that. So I made her a farmer.

Now I have to build up my militia again (and look into a crossbow/bow squad), but I'm happy to say I've successfully defended against a small raid and a (lets be honest) fairly unspectacular great beast without my fortress descending into total anarchy.

Some of the dwarves did get a bit upset after seeing a dwarf's child/sibling/random aquaintance littering the halls, but I was a bit busy trying to repel a hydra to worry about bashing out some coffins.

Next time a raid or Great beast turns up, I'll definitely prepare some coffins.

[Zrk2]

Next time a raid or Great beast turns up, I'll definitely prepare some coffins.

Ok, you now understand the basics of DF. The learning cliff is a bit less steep now.

[NewSheoth]

One thing you can always rely upon in any situation in DF, even if all else fails:
The answer is magma. Well, and walls.

[Canalan]

Lately I have been enjoying the company of two of the nearest gobbo civ's local leaders and master crossbowgoblins.  I keep them in one of my unused arena complexes with the other "important" prisoners, those being goblins with impressively long names.  My question is, does keeping these seemingly important goblins alive and captive increase the amount of attacking goblins?  If so, I need to get more, and possibly ignite wars with the humans and elves.
As a side note, I keep them attached to a lever that, if pulled, will also release my hoard of named war dogs and cat from the cage in the center of the room.  I like to think that, if any enemies get into the fortress and attempt to liberate their leaders, they will all get angry war dog (and cat) to the face.

[NewSheoth]

An angry warcat certainly sounds like bad news.

This is a good defensive measure for such situations however. The goblins start chasing all the new targets and become easy prey for whatever defenders still live.

[shlorf]

After a few failures this fort finally made me an artifact axe. Worth 1,7 mil encircled with some wood, bone, leather, white opal and star ruby and a picture of my favorite (dead) adventurer Reg Slingwrung the Livid Gladness of Tempests in star ruby (and one of an artifact spear from the same fort in kimberlite). I'm up to 112 dwarves again (pretty much everyone still has fb crap on his shoes tho and it's everywhere outside still despite abusing dfcleanmap).

[Mechatronic]

Last spring an elven ambush led by a princess caused some mayhem, some of them running past my military squad and into my fortress. I threw all my civilianss into squads but lost about fifteen dwarves. Happily the civilians managed to kill the princess. A moderate level of tantrums followed but nothing too worrying. I decided to actually build something resembling a fortress, at least it has walls and a roof, which has now seen off a pair of goblin sieges.

During the last siege my military squad, the Maw-Sacks of Theater, had a 300 moment. Melee goblins emerged from the north, bowgoblins from the east and trolls from the south. The Maw-Sacks are sent north and clean up the the melee goblins, then sent to station back on top of the fortress. They take down the troll squad on the way back and then dutifully stand on the fortress waiting for the goblins. The bowgoblins ride their giant toads up about five tiles away from the wall and start showering the Maw-Sacks with arrows. This has no effect, and the Maw-Sacks simply stand at their station point, presumably laughing at the futility of the goblin archers and waiting for some worthy opponents. Two goblin squad leaders clearly think themselves worthy and advance towards the fortress. The Maw-Sacks are sent down to meet them, and the militia commander, Tholtig Actionwinds, the Righteous Gem of Princes, sticks her axe through the Axe Lords brain then scratches out the Master Lashers brain.

[Urist is dead tome]

I finally have a glacier fort up and running. It's haunted too. Lost some dogs to the ice wolves. And a cave gator came up and bit someone's head while they were sleeping. Luckily it's teeth were corked. Just a warning gator.

I got a bad feeling about this.

[Urist Imiknorris]

**LOTS OF IMAGES**

Spoiler: I have this many invaders left to kill (click to show/hide)

**BIG IMAGE (4x4 embark)**

Spoiler: After killing thiiiiiiiis many. (click to show/hide)

Almost all that blood is fresh.

[Urist is dead tome]

I never killed that many elves.... Sigh....

[Urist Imiknorris]

That's just this year's batch. It's the biggest group I've had to fight yet, almost as big as the first two years' forces combined.

And more are still showing up.

[Urist is dead tome]

I demand an official count!

[Urist Imiknorris]

I'll get a full count of elven fighters killed in this fort's lifespan once they've all finished dying or running away. This will include unicorn mounts and war animals.

I'm listening to this while I watch.

EDIT: Another princess showed up. All three of them are male. I knew it.


EDIT2: TOTAL ELF-RELATED KILLS
207 Unicorns (all mounts)
104 Elf Spearmen
96 Elf Swordsmen
70 Elf Bowmen
32 War Grizzly Bears
31 War Jaguars
26 War Leopards
14 Alligators (all mounts)
8 War Giant Tigers
4 Elf Elite Bowmen
4 War Elephants
5 Elf Spearmasters
3 Elves (all princesses)
2 War Gorillas
1 Elf Swordmaster

Heavens, that felt good.

[sammiched]

This is what's going on in my fort...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'll let you connect the dots

[Urist Imiknorris]

A fell dwarf murdered a ghost?