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[Sirbug]

I decided to send my mayor to fight blind cave ogre. Somehow, mayor forgot his axe, so he's bashing poor monster with a wooden shield. At least we having a laugh

[Larix]

Alright, I have taken your suggestions... and summarily dismissed them. After my last fort went four years on a half-ocean embark without seeing a single sea creature I decided I'm not gonna mess with oceans anymore.

Arctic oceans are frozen year-round and all air-breathing animals of such a biome will spawn on the ice surface. Whenever i tried, i was getting tons of marine animals of various descriptions, all within easy reach of traps and armed dwarfs. It's a far cry from a normal ocean embark - those indeed don't provide much entertainment by themselves and are mainly good for self-posed challenges like building a bridge or underwater city.

[Shakerag]

Having recently updated to the newest version, suddenly everydwarf is vomiting like it's a supermodel convention.

So, obviously, the most ideal thing to do is have an "outdoors" meeting area. 

Progress is nearing completion on the "Brass Balcony".  Nearly 800 tiles of brass flooring jutting out from the side of the volcano that is Idoroslan ("Howlwinds").  The three sides of the balcony are completely clear glass, and since I really underestimated how much brass this was going to be, I've ended up making the ceiling for the Brass Balcony out of silver. 

Now my dwarves will have a clear view of any elven ambush parties on the right side of the map.  Which really means that they'll have a clear view of them getting pulped by hundreds of spiked iron balls. 

[Sirbug]

Wow, my attempt at assassination of vampire human diplomat gone wrong. His bodyguard swordsmaster doesn't die.

[pisskop]

Wow, my attempt at assassination of vampire human diplomat gone wrong. His bodyguard swordsmaster doesn't die.

Sir, you require but one door, three mechanisms, and enough blocks to make a bridge.

Or, a kobold shortcut.  A shorter path to [somewhere] that is blocked by doors on both ends and hooked up to fire automatically and repeatedly.  You can lock both doors to keep pets and most neutral visitor out, but kobolds will path into and die.  diplomats can see the door unlocked and also go.

[Sirbug]

Actually, he just died. That was nice of him

Is there a mechanic in place that makes it hard to fight in crowded spaces? Maybe I shouldn't have send all my forces into narrow corridor like that?

[pisskop]

Actually, he just died. That was nice of him

Is there a mechanic in place that makes it hard to fight in crowded spaces? Maybe I shouldn't have send all my forces into narrow corridor like that?

The koblold shortcut is based around the idea that kobolds can pick locks *and avoid conventional traps* and will usually take the shortest possible path.  Pets and Diplomats do not respect traffic orders or burrows, so the doors are kept locked unless you want something to go into the path.  Like say a siege.

To answer your question, it is advantageous for the defenders or a numerically inferior force to fight at a choke point or narrow path.  Especially if you line it with traps or otherwise prepare.  Which as both a dwarf and a defender you should do.

[wuphonsreach]

EDIT: Also, little advice please maybe? How wide of a paved road should I have outside my walls to prevent invaders from jumping over from trees? Or am I wasting my time on paranoia?

I suggest that your wall be 1-3Z tall, then a 1-3Z deep moat that is 2-wide (either paved / furrowed or trapped at the bottom if not on hard stone), then a row of traps (or paved/furrowed), then a 3-wide road for the wagons.

That alone would keep the trees at least 6 tiles away from your walls.

Looking at most of the mature trees in a forest, the biggest ones seem to only reach about 4 tiles wide.  So six tiles might not be enough of a gap and you might need to make the roadway 5-tiles wide, plus 1 tile for the line of traps, plus 2 tiles for the dry moat.

The advantage of the dry moat that is 1-2 Z deep is it adds a bit of complexity to something trying to climb up, now they have to ascend an extra 1-2 Z levels with more chance of slipping off.  But I always build my outer wall out of stone block and it's at least 2Z tall.

...

Starting a new world with DF2014.
http://blog.wuphonsreach.org/2014/09/df2014-emacamade-everlasting-realm-year.html

Of the four dwarven civs, two of them are refugee status with zero sites (but still embarkable) so my goal is to create one fort for each with 250+ dwarves in it on a remote island.  Once I have those mountain homes setup and impregnable to future "world" goblin invasions, I might have to go rescue the other two dwarven civs.

Or I'll carry the war to the goblins, not sure yet.

First I have to go from 7 dwarves, in a wooded biome, with a multi-layer aquifer to 250+ dwarves living in harmony.

[Naglfar]

I feel that I have finally gotten the hang of the basics of this game. I have a 100-dwarf fort running strong on plump helmets. I also have an army of 10 legendary ax lords. Since I embarked on a calm surrounding, sieges have comprised a few goblin marksmen. Sadly, I have no access to metals, so I have been melting useless steel items. I breached the cavern and found some adamantine. I do not know how to get to it, nevertheless. :-(

[Mentalpatient87]

Ah, I see. So I'll probably just make the wall 3z high. Blocks of course. I've already used a buttload of logs to make a 5 tile wide road around the whole thing. That should cover it, I hope.

Anyway. We're most of the way through year two at Glovedmobbed. We started in mid-Sandstone, so the calender is a little screwy. Still waiting on our second caravan as we are running low on food. I'm hoping I can make a pump system to stop up the river and air-drown a page and a half of carp and milkfish. Not only to stop them from multiplying exponentially, but to butcher a good number for food. We're up to about 40 citizens. Labor is starting to pick up. I'm doing my best to produce some green glass for trap components. We've got all the iron in the world right there on ground level. Hell, we've only had to dig downward to make a well so far. That's going to change soon since everyone needs bedrooms.

So my laundry list of projects includes:
Finish the defense wall.
Plug the river.
Start a military and make their barracks.
Start a residential layer for bedrooms.
Start splitting up the workshops into relevant rooms and stockpiles.
Learn to make farms that don't just run out of seeds and give me cancel spam.
Get the glass industry running smoothly so I can butcher anything that comes to siege me.
Grow/kill enough food to keep everyone from hunting vermin.
Build wood roads to the map edge for caravan convenience.

EDIT: Is there an easy way to tell which way my river is flowing? I'm not sure if this part where it "fans out" is the source or the end of the flow. This is slightly important for knowing where to start my pumping experiment.

EDIT again: It seems that milkfish and carp can pass through fortifications. So now my well is full of fish. If I dig an offshoot tunnel and designate it as a fishing zone will my fisherdwarves use that instead of the river? Maybe reduce this blooming population that is going to be an FPS problem by year 5? It would also have the benefit of being nice and safe in the fort.

[wickys]

My fortress has now reached its 10 year anniversary!

I'll give you the short version: Had a great military, killed ettins, a dragon and a roc and tons of goblins and trolls. One day another attack comes but my soldiers have cave adapted. Proceed to go outside to fight, vomit everywhere and get slaughtered. Around 100 dwarves tantrum spiral. I manage to isolate the duke, the champion, woman and child and some guy. Duke got killed, champion got killed, child got killed. Woman and man are the only remaining dwarves. Need to rebuild everything until migrants arrive.

Yay for 10 years of survival!

[Boothby]

4 of my dwarfes are randomly sitting outside, apparently stunned and starving to death/dying of thirst, with no signs of injury. My expedition leader got caught in a cave-in and lies in the hospital, unconscious but showing no wounds. I want to go poke all of them with a stick.

[slothen]

I sealed off my area of the third cavern layer.  There is a wall 3 blocks high separating me from two forgotten beasts.  A towering alligator with spittle and a feathered serpent with poison gas.  My militia of 6 bronze clad axelords is assembled should they climb over the wall.  Behind them is my mayor, who is in a fell mood and working furiously on an artifact.  Beyond that lies a bridge leading to the main fortress.

The beasts are fighting each other.

The feathered serpent was protected by its shell for quite a bit, and bit off a few of the alligator's toes.  It inflicted some serious damage, bruising the lungs and shattering some limbs.  The alligator fought back, became enraged.  They traded an eye for an eye.  But the alligator caught the serpent in its jaws and began shaking it around.  Ultimately it "scratched" at the neck while clamped to the head, decapitating the unfortunate gigantic serpent.

I hoped the alligator would bleed out, given that its neck was "gouting" and its legs were "gushing" its blood.  But even as I write this the beast is beginning to heal and the bleeding is slowing.  However the beast is also numb and drowsy from the poison gas of the serpent.  I'm hastily unblocking the wall so I can finish it off while its damaged.  However its a big gamble, if the mayor or several military dwarves die now, that will start a tantrum spiral for sure.

The mayor has completed a masterwork dwarf bone hammer Othashmilolebal, "The Ungodly Messianic-Reverence."  My mayor was very unhappy, mostly from consoling so many upset dwarves (some people dont like being haunted the dead).  Now she's ecstatic and can cheer up my other dwarves, so I've got that going for me.

The beast is continuing to heal but very drowsy and numb.  Its eye is completely healed. The BronzeGuard assembled, the wall is down.

Charge.

The beast is asleep, and is quickly hacked to pieces.  One more notch in the =bronze battle axe= of my militia commander.  Now there shall be *forgotten beast roasts* for all !


PS:  As a cherry on top, two of my dwarves instantly ran out into the caverns to clean up the pools of forgotten beast blood, spittle, and extract.  All hail Toady for making this miracle possible.  And the dwarf that got turned into the Hammer was just reported dead.

PPS HOLY FUCK the dwarf that the mayor turned into a hammer was the MAYOR'S MOTHER.

[Mentalpatient87]

We're right on the edge of year three and just got our first human caravan. If we don't get any sieges or ambushes by the next one I'm picking a fight. I just finished kitting out a squad of five in all iron and they're bored. Food stocks are going well. Drinks are plenty. Gonna have a lot more once I trade with these humans. I had a vampire drain some useless schlub. Turns out he was the mayor. Now he's my captive bookkeeper forever. I've closed in the defense wall and am well under way on layer two of it. Bedrooms are mostly dug out, mostly smoothed, and mostly furnished. Two moods have produced a throne and a chest, great for the king when I have his green-skinned ass usurped. That will work, right? If I just waste him when he shows up one of my dwarves will take the crown? I hope so. This "dwarven society with a goblin government" thing feels icky.

We broke through to two different cavern layers. Messed up walling them back off and had a Giant Toad harass a woodcutter. It was summarily beaten to death by a hastily assembled military and a couple other dwarves who were just nearby and I guess wanted to hit something. I'm going to have to start some restructuring efforts. All of my workshops and stockpiles are crammed together on the same z-level. I'm never sure how to go about this. My best idea is to give every different industry (metalworks, leather/cloth, etc) their own z-level with the central stairs right in the middle. The aquifer doesn't span the whole map, but it does go pretty deep in some places. This makes digging out spaces a bit tricky.

Still have a gross overpopulation of useless fish. I think a second squad made of marksdwarves will be my solution. Hunters have killed a couple, but there are so. many. goddamn. fish! I'm still unsure what I'm going to do with all the ones in the well. I was a fool and broke the lever that turned the water flow on and off with a bridge. There were hippos on the map when I first showed up, but I haven't seen them since. All I get is wild boars, the odd pangolin and weasel here and there, a tiger every once in a while, and so many stupid fish I just want them dead...

EDIT: Aaaand despite being locked away in a room with no access the vampire was just re-elected mayor. Luckily I can replace him, but I guess I'm just gonna have to deal with that until everyone forgets about the charismatic bloodsucker locked behind a wall.

Inevitable EDIT2: Welp, a Giantess just showed up. Hope it isn't too crazy fast and my beards can run inside and shut the doors. Or else I hope it's not too crazy powerful and my five iron-clad warriors and the caravan guards can wreck her shit.

EDIT3: And the caravan had to take care of it. Which totally fucked my trading with them, and probably diplomatic relations. Turns out dwarves love to party RIGHT GOD DAMN NEXT TO the lever that would keep us all safe. So now I'm three dwarves down, including a replacement mayor and had no chance to trade with the humans. The best part? One of my macedwarves actually showed up to the fight.... and watched from a couple tiles away despite his kill order. Great job, buddy. Way to make the fortress proud.

[MobRules]

The human caravan arrived. I was waiting for them to finish setting up, as dwarves brought in the trade goods. I was looking forward to a fresh supply of leather and thread.

Then, before they had finished arriving, wagons started leaving. Wha?

So then I notice a blood smear in the next room. I check the combat logs.

Apparently a troglodyte baby appeared in the next room (how, or from where, I have no idea. I don't *think* I have any unsealed entrances to the caverns, and they are a LONG way away from here, anyway.) One of the merchants shot it with a crossbow bolt, it went unconscious from pain, and my militia captain then bludgeoned it to death with his crossbow.

I knew the caravans were much more easily freaked out into leaving now, but one troglodyte baby? It didn't even attack anybody before the human merchant took it out with a crossbow bolt! True, my militia captain may have been a bit excessive in his enthusiastic bludgeoning of an unconscious baby, but if that were the problem, the human wouldn't have been trying to kill it himself.