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[SlyStalker]

Almost every time I embark, all I get is silver ore, and maybe some gold, too, but everyone knows that iron is best! I set the mineral settings to frequent on world-gen, so is that related to the problem or am I just unlucky?

[Boltgun]

You are unlucky, but with access to fuel you can still make it. Ask for hematite from your trade liaison and buy all the iron and steel items from your caravan for melting. Using prepared food for trading will net you plenty of metals.

[LMeire]

Iron/steel aren't the best for everything. Silver is actually really, really good for blunt weapons due to it's weight being slightly higher than steel (though it's slightly lower than copper).

Luck probably has a lot to do with your issues, but I'd bet at least a little is more about the kinds of rock you're digging in. Mineral veins/clusters don't just spawn randomly or evenly through the map, they're based on rock layers.

[taptap]

Soldiers are overrated thread with the some really neat trap designs: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=149115.0

[SlyStalker]

1. Haven't seen bituminous coal or lignite for a while now, sadly.
Also,
2. At the moment I'm playing with the idea of having minimal traps (cages allowed, because they're fun) and just using a small core of professionals backed up by a horde of conscripts, Soviet Russia style. Those traps are interesting, though. Maybe I will give them a go on the next fort.

[Eldin00]

I rarely find a lot of coal on my embarks, but in the current version, using charcoal as a fuel source is at least somewhat practical. Or you could just go digging for magma ASAP, and get some magma smelters going for the useful metals you can acquire from caravans or fallen invaders.

If you're really needing iron, it's easy enough to request bars and each type of available iron ore from the liaison each year, along with buying out whatever steel/iron goods they bring for melting. It's not hard to have a fairly robust metal industry just on caravan metals, but if you want a steel industry, not having flux can be a killer (getting enough flux from the caravans to process all of the iron you get from them into steel generally isn't possible).

[angelious]

i had the same problem with my earlier forts.


nowadays its something of a tradition for me to have my military full of silver hammer lords. and i decorate my forts with silver.

[Pearofclubs]

Could be a lot worse. Imagine getting nothing but zinc or tin!
Anyhow, silver really isn't so bad a metal to work with. You've got some seriously powerful hammers you can make with it, and a couple silver spiked balls can buy the whole caravan out. And silver bolts are pretty effective, so you can arm an effective ranged squad with silver bolts, organic armor, and bone/wood crossbows. Mind, you DO want to upgrade that armor. Definitely want to prioritize some iron helms and shirts.

But learning to work with what you have makes you appreciate it more when you have everything you could possibly want.