Progress report on Allaszefon, whose name in translation I momentarily forget.
The fort has been transferred to 40.19. My herbalists are once again gaining skill points.
We had some problems with wereopossums, but that seems to have died down now. Presumably they kept coming my way, I kept killing them and (fingers crossed) there are no more left.
Now for my game goals.
New fortress in 40.16. Still on a learning curve; this fort's objectives are to learn more about the military (managed to get a decent military up and running in the last fortress, but want to make sure it wasn't a fluke), raids and sieges (only had titans and FBs so far), glass industry (think I've got ceramics down fairly well, and glass is more useful overall), traps (related to the desire to see some raids), and dfhack/workflow (starting to work this out, but I had problems with stoneware/fire clay in my last fort, and I think shearing, milking and the like will still be problems for me).
Military, raids and sieges: think we're probably there. I'm waiting for the elves to come a-calling again, at which point I shall attempt to pee them off royally and see whether my five highly-trained hammerdwarves can successfully dispatch whatever they want to throw at me. I shall blame Thisfox if they don't, since her advice is that their all-steel armour should be more than sufficient. I haven't yet taken on any FBs, since the two which have arrived have been knocking seven bells out of anything they can find and making the caverns an orgy of dead bodies and miasma.
Glass industry: definitely a convert. I have managed to build
so much stuff out of green glass, it's wonderful. Blocks mean glass bridges, glass walls, glass floors; I can make windows which allow me to increase the value of rooms (dig out the walls, smooth & engrave, then put windows on top); vials for my soldiers' drinkies; trap components; doors which can be used to control magma flows... the list is seemingly endless. And it makes me wonder what I'm keeping my stone for. Magma-safe mechanisms, sure, and then what?
Traps: I built one. It has been consistently guarding me against the foul and invasive plague which menaces my doorstep: cavies. Wonderful, such a boon to dwarfkind. Actually, they are kind of Tribble-like, so it's probably better than I think. Anyway, I should put in more before the elves come asking for trouble, since it would be nice to see the traps take on a weightier target.
Workflow: tick! This is fantastic, I'm using it for almost anything appropriate. It takes all the micromanagement right out of the production cycle, freeing me to focus on the fort's overall strategy. Most of the time, I feel like I have very little to do, in a good way.
Bonus: ostrich taming has been a great success. The eggs seem to be taking quite a while to hatch, but autobutcher takes most of the strain, and each hen produces 10-15 chicks
per annum, which makes for a far healthier meat industry than sheep. (Which are still my favourite animal.)