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[Lielac]

City Laborfords, Late Winter 240; 136 135 beards, 1 berserker

So much fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun

Much less worried about the continued survival of the fort now that I know dwarves who've made artifacts are immune to insanity. Unfortunately, the Avatar of MrWillsauce did not have time to make an artifact and is now melancholic. Ah well!

And the berserker is fresh. Haven't even unpaused from the recenter announcement.

[CompleteJack]

Well, I've just started playing DF this week, so I am still working with 7 beards to desperately avoid any fun. I've managed thus far to be lucky, but I don't know if my small farming operation will be enough to feed my dwarves through their first winter. Fingers crossed. Any suggestions?

[Lich180]

I typically have a decent sized farm underground AND above ground, for variety. You really don't need a massive farm, because with legendary growers (and optionally potash) you will be SWAMPED with plants for brewing and cooking. I usually use a 3x3 plot for each crop, and that plus caravans plus above ground plants is usually enough for me to last off of for years.

I've read other people have more efficient methods, but that's what works for me

[fortydayweekend]

Well, I've just started playing DF this week, so I am still working with 7 beards to desperately avoid any fun. I've managed thus far to be lucky, but I don't know if my small farming operation will be enough to feed my dwarves through their first winter. Fingers crossed. Any suggestions?

Butchering the 2 wagon-pulling animals provides a lot of food.

As does foraging for plants on the surface.. which they can do even if the grass is covered in snow. Either let them eat the plants, or brew them and plant the seeds.

Hunting is probably the best though, a hunter or 2 can often feed an entire fortress. You just need a crossbow and some starting bolts, then use the bones of animals killed to make more bolts.

[CompleteJack]

I've already managed to have fun. Some kobolds attacked and my puny crossbowmen weren't enough.

Time for some new fun.

[CompleteJack]

How do you set hunters to hunt automatically?

NEWB ALERT!
I know...

[Lolfail0009]

How do you set hunters to hunt automatically?

NEWB ALERT!
I know...

They do automatically, automatically. They just need a crossbow, some bolts, a quiver, and some wildlife (trust me, you'll know when one of those things are missing).

It's also best to have them know Butchery.

[the1337doofus]

Oh look! Let's make a list of the things that are currently going wrong in the fortress of Crystalglazed:

-The steel clad military, made up of 3 squads of spears, hammers, and swords, respectively, was slaughtered by a nasty FB who wandered back into the caverns
-The replacement squads refuse to wear their uniforms
-Most of the farming population is in constant tantrum due to deaths among their ranks
-We're extremely low on food
-The hunters got gored by a pack of badgers
-Same goes for the cat population
-Our only weaver went insane, so no nice clothing
-Nobility is making demands which can't be meant, so incoming unhappiness AGAIN.
-And the undead are, as always, knocking on the door like a pack of ravenous Jehovah's witnesses
Yep, everything's routine as always in Crystalglazed. Oh what fun, it is to run, a fort full of stupid dwarvesssss....

[CompleteJack]

Well, I had fun... .
Kobolds attacked my fortress and killed everyone inside.

Starting a new fortress today, hopefully with a stronger military.

Wish me luck, and tell me if I should write a daily journal for you guys.
I'd be glad to.

Hoping for the best, and maybe a little less fun
Jack.

[Knick]

One of my melee fighters gave birth... to triplets! 

While I am sure the doting mother is very happy, I am somewhat concerned about the effects of charging into battle with three babies will have on Mum and Dad when the inevitable happens.

Perhaps I should rotate her out of the militia for a year.  On the other hand, combine the triplets with her steel armour and shield, and she will be the best armoured dwarf in the whole fortress.

In other news--will magma work on a vampire? 

[PDF urist master]

I had just learned that the artifact floodgate had caught fire during the siege of hell and is now producing an endless amount of smoke. I have no idea what to do with this smoke generator and I can't move it.

[callisto8413]

I decided I wanted a well in one of the lower levels.  But outside of wells I make inside the surface level of my Fortress, most of my other wells end up flooding my floors.  To be honest I have gotten to work ONCE.  So the later failures were due to me THINKING I knew what I was doing.

So I did a study of the design of wells and water pressure.  Reading the DF wiki.  Watching DF videos.  Planning it out carefully, with zigzagging water ways and everything.

End result.

My well is dry.  There is water under it, but winter came, froze the rivers, so I barely go any water into the tunnels before it got cut off. 2/7 and 1/7 mostly.

I guess I will have to wait till spring to see if I got it to work or not.  But the water 'tank' is slowly filling up and there is still water draining in from the tunnels.  So I may find out how effective it is before spring returns.

Oh, and now have a HUGE amount of meat.  Got attacked by two more Forgotten Beasts and one of the bodies disappeared on me.  Later I found the kitchen had a ton of Forgotten beast this and that.  So my cooks are working overtime.  Plus my hunters are finding more game in the caverns than on the surface.  Elk Bird stew, Crundle Biscuits, and Drasomethingoranother...grazers of some kind.

I kept getting thieves but they are having a harder time getting into the civilian areas and the goblin ambushes have been supplying me with iron and copper.

Others would call my Fortress boring but I just find myself enjoying the projects I give myself.  Once I get a King I will seal it up and try to see if I can live as a closed society. 

[CompleteJack]

Dear diary,

The first spring and summer of our fortress building went splendidly. By the end of the summer we had a constant supply of game from our hunters and more than enough ale brewed to last the winter without having to risk the outside world for herbs.

The armed forces are equipped with crossbows and enough wooden bolts to last years, but there is still work to be donebefore armour can be manufactured. Still no sign of metals, although the miners have found more than enough gems to satisfy our first trade caravan. Life is good, and the fortress hums along smoothly, I hope for the best, and ccan't help but smile as I see that our number has grown to 15.

THREE DAYS LATER:
Oh the humanity! The trade caravan arrived and we displayed all of our finest jewels and crafts, but the merchants only offered us a handful of good in return. We tried to bargain and they offered us even less! Whispers shot through the fortress like wildfire and the next I knew I heard conflict from above! I raced up the stairway to discover a mutilated mess where the caravan had been.

Our leader decided that if we couldn't trade decently with these folk that we should sieze their goods by force! What he didn't expect was the merchants to fight back. We lost six brave dwarves, and our numbers are now a mere 9 as the winter sets in.

We have more than enough supplies to last us several years now... but at what cost? I pray that we may be forgiven this terrible deed, and that no more will I have to see my kinsmens' blood spilt.

~Urist

[Sutremaine]

I pray that we may be forgiven this terrible deed, and that no more will I have to see my kinsmens' blood spilt.

It is the duty of all fortress dwarves to enact vengeance upon those who slay their kin from the Mountainhome, and it is the duty of all fortress dwarves to punish those who slay a fellow fortress-dweller.

[Larix]

There is no forgiveness for high treason. If all those who wrongfully took up arms against their countrymen were justly slain by the caravan guard, then the crime has received its dues. But you may not be so lucky...

Chamberivy, a fortress divided:

We got sidetracked for much of the previous year since we had to exchange all the clothes of the secluded fort, all from pig tail grown in that year, and needed to set up the proper dwellings so we could accept the barony. Only little on the actual project was done, but this year, we were free of distractions and could properly work at it.

It was a long time coming, but after some serious revamping of the total layout, the digital air mail system has passed its first preliminary test: a blood thorn minecart was launched after accelerating through a ~30-impulse-ramp linear accelerator, travelled to the secluded fort on a ballistic path with an apex at z+17, eased properly into the catch track, hitting the ten weight-sensitive pressure plates in sequence opening all the doors it was supposed to pass, touched the output plate, went over the return launch ramp sending it back out on a shorter hop with a mere 7z rise and then found its way through the cart-sorter to return to the hatch cover it started from. There's still a fair bit of work ahead, but it looks like we're going to get there within another year or two. And one of our jewellers got moody and made a spiffy light yellow diamond coffin. It was only a possession, but he's Master or High Master already, so it's not too tragic. The coffin was installed in the meeting hall and set to allow burial of pets only, which means the legendary clothier's pet ewe is going to occupy it once she passes over to the happy grazing grounds.