I found myself making the same exact fort with very few deviations, having the exact same economic tactic (selling stone trinkets) over and over again. So I decided to shake things up for Steelflags and go buck wild on the design and taking the cheesiest easiest income tactic, copious amounts of roasts. I use wooden bins to store those. I have no metalworking of any sort at the moment.
So there was a giantess who decided to attack just in the right time (for me) and human caravan guards take care of her. Then the caravan couldn't move because her corpse was on the way. I buried her beneath the perimeter entrance with a bit of channeling and woodworking. Though, this isn't the main story. Just a tidbit I wanted to get out of my system before we get to the real deal.
Anyways, the elves arrive with their wooden shoes and splints and crutches. I care not for their obsolete armor and useless trinkets. I am interested in only two things they offer; the veggies and the giant animals. But there is a problem. There is no way of individually selling items contained in barrels. And the barrels themselves are from wood. So I halfheartedly sell them the few dozen stone cups the fort had (immidiately order some more to be made ASAP), along with bins of stone blocks (which was a giant pain to select individually since to the bins being all wooden too). Due to the combined effects of the cheapness of my products and the abyssmal weight capacity of elven caravans, I only manage to buy a measily few bananas, apples, plums and dates. Five each. I cringe. I'll have to gather plants to make more roasts I guess. Not dwarfy at all.
But just a moment after I close the trading menu, a minotaur arrives and briefly chases after some giant flying squirrels before heading to the fort. As it approaches, I check its inventory. It's completely empty. This bull-headed moron plans on using just its fists to fight. So I watch it beeline inside the wooden perimeter and just as it steps into the walls and the people take notice, a harmster thief is spotted, who quickly bolts to the gate, but is prevented by the minotaur and the elven merchants, the broker (who is also the mayor) and the passerby dwarves, who are approaching the said semimegabeast.
A fight starts and a pack of giant keas join in the carnage midfight. I do not know what exactly happened there (it was too quick and everyone piled on eachother), and I am unwilling to try and piece it together from that one hell of a combat report spam. But in the end, the minotaur, the elven merchants, the harmster thief, the mayor-broker and some giant keas are dead. So the elves' entire cargo of useless grown wood stuff is, well, mine now. I win in the end. The mayor was a total snob anyways.
The giant animals I wanted just because they had the word "giant" in their name turned out to be a giant cardinal and a giant wombat. Not even 50 meat in total...
DAMMIT-