This year, I sent my only squad of almost unskilled soldiers out to hunt some wildlife... while running down some badgers, they encountered a giant jumping spider. The superdwarvenly agile speardwarf got there first and entered an interesting fight. He stabbed the spider a few times, but then got his right hand, left foot and right leg ripped off (in that order) before he bled to death. All of this happened before the rest of the squad arrived at the scene
He was the first dwarf to die in this fort and got a grand burial for his efforts. The axedwarf who finally got to kill the spider is now the new militia captain and leader of a pack of even more useless migrants.
With this fort I'm trying a to keep a story going. It's a military outpust at a site with a lot of iron and silver. Iron weapons and silver crafts shall be the only exports to the mountainhomes, as they don't have any iron themselves. Humans can have some random armor and weapons from invaders, if they bring something useful in return, and elves get weapons, too - pointy end first. If the mountainhomes demand any kind of weapon or armor, I spend the next year making only those and export everything with the next caravan, no matter what I get in return. If I have to trade 100k worth of battle axes for a few bags of sand and some wool cloth, it's my problem - basically I serve the mountainhomes as an arms supplier. If they don't demand anything of military value, I can do whatever I want for a year, but still need to make military goods if I want to buy anything from next year's traders.
Also, every male dwarf has to serve in the militia, unless he's a skilled metalworker. All the industrial production and expansion of the fort is done by the dwarven women. I hope to avoid a few tantrums because of lost babies that way.
I expect the elves to declare war after a few years of killing everybody. The embark screen also said, there was a "Tower" civilization nearby... I guess, that means a necromancer visiting some time soon. There is no true locking mechanism for the whole fort, so we'll have to fight, when it happens. There's only one circular room (61 tiles in diameter) with a water source and muddied ground that can be locked completely to keep the civilians safe if nothing else can help. Danger rooms and excessive use of traps are also not allowed, along with other exploits. I will try to have a working "burn the world" device in a few years, though.