"Palaceblowing", my Underworld Challenge fortress continues, although slowly. I have only two more levels to mine, and then some tidying up to do. The delayed release of the next version is allowing me time to complete this fortress, otherwise I would really struggle to resist upgrading. And am I looking forward to a new world, I seem to have generated one with low populations of Humans and Elves, as I have not had a fort yet that ever traded with them.
Anyway, had the regular Spring Seige, to which I lost a couple of champs. They are fine fighting the goblins, but just get tired, even using obsidian swords. But I drafted some replacements, who will be Champion Wrestlers, and handy swordsmen by next year.
And then got a Summer Siege too...
For the second time, I really feared for the survival of the fort. A couple of champions popped up the main stair, and watched as the first wave main their way accross the shallow row of stone fall traps, and smiled as the leader, on his beak dog, got cut in half by the single *Giant Circular Saw* trap on the bridge (I dont usually buy trap components from the caravan, but this was money well spent!)
I lost one champ to bowmen, and another fell two storeys into the 3x2 embark tile underground lake. Down to only a couple of unwounded Champs now, and maybe four unwounded Fortress Guards. Who came to the rescue again. I have seen bodies sent flying before, but when the FPS is down to 6, they really seemed to rocket accross the screen, flying across the lake, and exploding off the cavern walls. Limbs, goblins, Beak Dogs, all over the lake. It means now, a couple of months later, the cavern is filling with Miasma, but thats cool.
And the champ who fell into the lake? Swam all the way around the a ramp, and climbed out. He then walked through the fight, and back to bed, but at bast I might get him back in a few seasons.
What made the whole thing worse was I got a couple of cave in messages during the siege, which was surprising. They seem to happen if a square is left as a 'pile' then undermined. Can happen if I was not careful in clearing the floor before mining the next level, but it was in a corner of the cave where I hadnt made temporary stores, or so I thought. I cleared all piles again, just to be safe, and quickly went back to watching the battle above. When it happened a second time, I investigated some more, and it turned out I had designated two layers of ramps dug, one beneath the other, and they were undermining the upper level! I lost a couple of legendary miners to this, which hurts when your FPS is down to 6-10! The game is slow, but legendary miners race through the rock, so it sort of balances out.
Between that error and the siege, I ended up with a lot of unhappy dwarves, and a couple of tantrums, which ended in dwarf justice, and a couple more deaths. All in all, I lost about 15 dwarves, but things seem to have calmed down now. I just need to get some more coffins constructed to get them buried.
I also really need the injured swordsmen and Champs back now, my Military screen looks more impressive than the situation really is. Most aredown to single yellow wounds, so hopefully they'll be up soon.
I have also cancelled all the masons and craftsdwarves from using up the stone on the cavern floor, Ill just melt it in magma, and have set them to haul as there is junk scattered all over the place, especially tons of gold ore, which I want store away safely before I release the magma.
I can see that I will get things dug out, then have to let it run with everyone set to haul for a while, just to tidy up. If the next version gets released before Im done, then anything left will get sacrificed to Armok. There might be resulting tantrum spirals, but once the plans are up on DFMA, who cares...