I have started up a new fort, Wealthlantern. It's supposedly in the middle of a temperate shrubland/grassland (I forget which) biome and a temperate ocean biome... but I was expecting to see an actual coastline and some ocean water, which I don't in this zone. Weird. There is an area of pebbles and driftwood in the west, but it's solid land on the far side of it, not ocean. I don't get it.
A river empties out into said ocean... well, somewhere, apparently outside the zone. The climate is warm, so snow isn't a problem. The site has magnetite and entire layers of marble, so forging steel isn't a problem. No aquifer. The site has both sand and fire clay... and I have a Legendary Glassmaker. Good times. If I can only manage to get a Legendary Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, and Mechanic...
I have an artifact green glass throne. I bet the dwarven queen will like that, if this fort lasts long enough.
I'm trying out the 'three bridges' defense strategy in the wiki,which I haven't attempted before. It looks like it'll be nice once it's completed. Unfortunately, I spent time fiddling with that instead of properly armoring my first squad of speardwarves. Results: one speardwarf instantly killed by a headshot, as well as various other dwarves injured by arrows. I don't have a hospital yet, either. I'll have to churn out steel armor faster... My first two goblin ambushes came in the form of crossbowmen, bowmen, and lashers. Ouch.
I would like to capture some emus for meat and egg production. This biome certainly has enough of them. I've already captured some rattlesnakes, which I haven't really figured out a use for yet.
The caverns don't even start until Z-level... -50 or something ridiculous like that. If I want magma, we're talking Z-level -100 ish.