I made a proper hash of my first attempt to vampirify the entire fort, I'm afraid. We still have no hospital or easy access to water, mostly because there have been half a billion other things to do, from mining out huge new living areas to redesigning the fort every three minutes to constructing the massive lower base area which serves as the defensive structure for the fort. There are two entrances: one is the caravan entrance and can be shut off via drawbridge; the second is a split path over a long drop on which I intend to put weapon traps, when I have the materials to do so. I'm thinking serrated copper blades or some such. Something to make my opponents dodge or get sliced apart. There are ballistae mounted to fire down the line of advancing enemy troops.
The population explosion I experienced in the first year has complicated things. The third migrant wave held 39 new inviduals, and another 30 or so showed up shortly afterwards. We're sitting pretty at 117 right now, one of whom is a vampire in the hospital who shall eventually be given a chance to make herself useful by infecting the whole fort with her blood. Until then, she's a useless lump of flesh who doesn't bleed copiously enough to satisfy me.
The greater part of our fighting force is well advanced in its training, although it's quite small. We've fended off attacks from four ambush squads so far and two of those were ranged goblin forces, so things are going fairly well. Despite having no real armor yet aside from parrying with their weapons and blocking with their wooden shields, my forces have suffered no real injury except for an arrow to the thigh and one unfortunate axedwarf who got his skull knocked in somehow. The arrow chipped a bone and rendered its victim crutchridden, which isn't really a big deal at all.
I don't really understand how to pace myself in DF and how to adapt to changing situations. I hate the feeling of digging away material as an irrevocable change. And when I make a mistake and start a fort in the wrong spot - high up on the freaking mountainside, this time, instead of in the middle of the plain, which would be more sensible - I feel like I can't adjust without undoing all of the good work I've done. Rehashing building plans is a pain in the ass.
Ah well. The fortress shall either rise to become the new vampiric Mountainhome, or die trying. For Armok!