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[Schmaven]

This is essentially the rebirth of my last fort "Taming the Terror" where I fully intend on making a reanimating zombie trap to deal with any invading force.  Idea courtesy of Meng Lolorked.

Wouldn't it be awesome to keep all dead zombified animals near surface behind a drawbridge, provoke war with elves (or anyone else), and then release "your" zombies at any invading force that arrives?

I additionally want to see if I can get simultaneous trading to happen in a single season.  This embark is primarily savage evil plains since I've never seen ogres before, and they only spawn in evil plains.  But to make the mass trading possible, 2 tiles in the bottom right corner of the 4x4 (16 tile) embark are savage good plains.  At least until there is a peaceful way to end a war and resume trading, having wars start from caravans being scuttled by undead giant eagle attacks really puts a damper on relationships.

Here are some images of the world map where the fort has been established:

Spoiler: Home Capital to South: Lividmachines (click to show/hide)

Embark year: 102 (I tried for 100, but the didn't time the pause right during world gen).  Not too many enemies nearby, but that's easy to adjust if needed.

Spoiler: Fort in Center of Map: Nňmasmel "Godlymerchant" (click to show/hide)

Nňmasmel

Spoiler: Annotated Map (click to show/hide)

The "Safe Entrance" in the tile of Joyous Wilds biome was quickly overrun by eagle and kea corpses.  A few dwarves hauling wood and supplies down to the fort were unfortunatly lost before it was even noticed that the birds had arrived.

Spoiler: Undead Birds (click to show/hide)

Many supplies were secured, and the main entry design can be seen taking shape while being put to all sorts of temporary uses.

Spoiler: Main Entry (click to show/hide)

Without having breached the caverns, the underground pasture hasn't grown anything for the alpacas to eat.  Pigtails were processed into ropes, since dwarves only feed their livestock when they are restrained.  One horse didn't make it to the rope in time and did starve to death.

Spoiler: Alpacas and Farms (click to show/hide)

On the 4th day of the 7th month, a siege of human necromancer experiments of some kind arrived, so the surface had to be sealed off just before the arrival of the first caravan.  As luck would have it, a giant peach faced lovebird corpse was sealed inside the fort as well - but quickly surrounded by dwarves.

Spoiler: 1 Giant Undead Bird (click to show/hide)

It killed the first 3 dwarves on the scene, but did take some good damage in the scuffle, so the remaining 8 dwarves were recruited and the miner was tasked to mine next to the bird to get his pick into the action as well.  In total, there were 3 weapons, the copper pick and 2 copper battle axes.  The only dwarf with fighting skills already died on the surface, and the only armor anyone has is simple pigtail clothing.

Spoiler: Rally Forth Dwarves (click to show/hide)

But pigtail clothing and no axe skill against the claw footed snatches of this Giant lovebird - that tore muscle and fat with each strike did not go as well as planned.  The farmer wielding the copper battle axe only caused slight bruising and tearing, but to his credit, kept at it until he passed out from overexertion, severing a few talons.  The other axe wielder had his lung punctured and passed out fairly early on.  The remaining troops punched and kicked until they too passed out from exhaustion and the bird raked them to death with its remaining giant talons.

While the giant peach faced lovebird corpse moved on to the upper farming level, slaughtering the rest of the alpacas; the last able bodied dwarf built a quick wall to reclaim access to the main food stockpile.  The only other living dwarf can be seen starving and dehydrating to death in the southern bed at the dormitory / "hospital"

Spoiler: 2 Dwarves Remain (click to show/hide)

All is not lost.  Simply a bit of a rough start is all.  The able bodied dwarf is Cilob "Lashedeyes" Mengker: a 63 year old Grand Master Miner; and currently at -6.1k on the stress scale.  It should be noted that he did not engage the giant bird corpse with the rest of the fort, but instead ran around in a panic.  He must have known how tough that bird was and didn't want to jump into the meat grinder with the others.  He is quick to tire and very slow to heal, so I doubt he would have been able to turn the tide anyway.

Since bringing water takes priority over bringing food, work has begun on tapping the aquifer to create a well.  Even though the dying dwarf has literally 0 skill with anything, having 2 workers would be nice.  Slab engraving for the others can hopefully wait.  I'm not sure how quickly ghosts can come back, but I'm banking on having at least enough time to dig a well before putting to rest the 13 brave heroes who gave their lives so this fort could have a beginning. 

[IncompetentFortressMaker]

Well! I see !!FUN!! is in order. Posting to watch, like I did last time.

[Schmaven]

Edit: I hate to save and quit right at a point like that in any fort, but I ran out of DF time.

While the miner was asleep, the caravan and 3 migrants arrived.  They were tasked to deconstruct the block wall in the service entrance to gain safety inside the fort.  All was peaceful and proceeding well until the moment the wall came down.  I have never seen any creature move as fast as Commander Zatametur's rotten corpse.  He friggin' sprinted to the gap from off screen in what seemed like 1 tile per tic. 

As he descended directly into the food stockpile, everyone including the 3 new migrants were recruited to a new squad and ordered to station back in the crafting area.  Commander Zatametur appears to be the only threat inside the fort.  A swordsdwarf who arrived with the caravan managed to slay the giant peach faced lovebird.

Spoiler: That one dwarf with fighting skills is back (click to show/hide)

If it weren't for the merchants arriving with their guards, I think the commander would have been the end of these dwarves.  The miner managed to stay out of the fray like last time.  Which is good, since all the other dwarves sustained many injuries. 

Before the extent of the injuries can be assessed -
Urdim Olinďlun: "I am your liaison from the Mountainhomes.  Let's discuss your situation."
Well Urdim, not good.  Our situation is not very good at all right now.

2 gems were traded for 1 piece of reindeer cheese as a show of future intentions.  A pear cut carnelian and a trillion cut blue jade. 

One of the stray cats, Bomrek, has been running around in terror this whole time since the giant peach-faced lovebird corpse bit her in the neck, tearing apart the muscle and shattering the upper spine's bone. An artery was opened by the attack.  A tendon in the upper spine was torn..  She is currently uninterested in finding a new owner.

Only 3 dwarves now remain.  The farmer Rakust spontaneously recovered from the hospital without water to help with the work.  Cleaning had to be disabled in order to accelerate work on the well.  I wonder if the miasma clouds will block their view of the carnage blood and gore left over from the attacks? 

Having tapped into the river instead of a light aquifer as expected, the water pressure regulator turned out to be a very good idea.  And now with Ducim Lertathastesh saved from dehydration, the two able bodied dwarves then turned some rock nuts into soap, make some pig tail thread and cloth, a couple splints, and got him resting on a freshly minted traction bench.  It seems now he just needs time to recover.  There are still 10 prepared meals and 120 drinks in the stockpiles, so rather than return to food production, what better time to start on the catacombs?

Spoiler: Farms / Medical Industry (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Catacombs (click to show/hide)

Ducim that lucky dwarf resting in traction right now happens to be a legendary weaponsmith who arrived with the fall migrant wave.  There are 8 iron bars already in the fort, so I'm thinking some weapons should be in order soon.

In hind sight, focusing first on farming rather than security might not have been the best plan.  But it has definitely proved helpful to have a decent stockpile of food and drink for times like these. 

[Schmaven]

It was probably the corpses and gore everywhere, but all 3 dwarves' stress levels began to climb.  The weaponsmith's condition continued to stabilize, so all the corpses got entombed properly.  And just then, 20 migrants arrive!  Fresh workers for the fort.  Since they're already on the surface, they were all tasked with hauling the remaining wood indoors.

This proved to be a terrible idea as a flock of Giant Raven Corpses found their way into the fort, killing 14 and landing 8 in the hospital.  While the ravens were chasing that 1 legendary miner who never fights up into the farm area, the other miner was able to wall off the fort again. 

Spoiler: Hero miner again saves fort one final time (click to show/hide)

There should be plenty of coal now to at least make a few sets of armor and a couple weapons.  The flux stone Dolomite seems to be the main stone layer the fort is in right now.  Veins of iron ore have already been found, so hopefully this is the last migrant catastrophe for a while.  There is however a notable shortage of soap which may be an issue.

Spoiler: Coal stocked: 57 bars and 37 logs (click to show/hide)

A couple animals were slaughtered to make soap since the Giant Raven Corpses have occupied the rock nut farm and processing stockpiles.  Pigtail plants were luckily down and inefficiently far from the farms in the walled off area, so cloth could be made for cleaning and bandages.  All but that old weaponsmith recovered.  The hospital zone was removed and the legendary weaponsmith was instantly cured.

While moving some of the bodies temporarily out of sight until more coffins could be constructed (to keep stress levels down), they were moved a bit too far down the hall, and into the reanimating part of the map biome.  The one dwarf now equipped with steel gauntlets, steel chain leggings, steel high boots, a steel helm and masterwork steal spear slept through the whole fight.  Giant Raven Corpses are definitely far more lethal than Nish Lolokabsam's rotten mutilated corpse.  No dwarves died, and only a couple dwarves were injured.  Panning upward a few Z-Levels, the entire area of what was going to be the main hospital is in the reanimating biome.  Given the nature of dwarven healthcare, I'm thinking converting it to a wood stockpile will be a better use of the space. 

-Eighteen Months In -
Population: 13
Drinks: 152
Meals: 22
No one has the appraisal skill so there is no data on created wealth, imports or exports. 

Spoiler: Progress So Far (click to show/hide)

[Schmaven]

Another caravan and migrant wave was nearly lost to the undead on the surface.  Lots of badger corpses are scurrying all over the plains.  They seem unwilling to cross the brook, so the migrants only had to face a couple dwarven corpses.  Their undead yaks and other pack animals did prove to be quite fierce however, and 6 of the migrants were killed.  The last of the migrants, Aban Eralágesh, a 24 year old peasant who dreams of mastering a skill; was temporarily locked out of the fort while a steel breastplate was forged for the commander.  Despite poor training, full steel gear kept the commander from any serious injuries while escorting the 1 remaining migrant to safety. 

Spoiler: Badgers (click to show/hide)

Group training commenced immediately.  Their barracks can be seen between the new hospital and marksdwarf bunker / food storage area.  Some bituminous coal was found, so she will also get a good set of armor soon.

Spoiler: Troopers (click to show/hide)

The outpost liason was ready to leave in the spring of 104, but opening the main gate was not timed well.  Two human corpses made it in with 8 Wolves of Eteido (Large feathered quadrupeds.  They have curling trunks.  Their charcoal feathers are long and broad.  This night creature was first created by the human necromancer Lomoth Rushstray of Treatedheat after horrible experiments.)  The pit trap is beginning to take shape, so the hope is that until then, the dwarves can maintain enough active cage traps to deal with the horrible lack of security. 

Unfortunately the Wolves of Eteido are building destroyers and busted in on the commander asleep in the barracks.  The commander is only a novice spearman, but an adequate fighter and is described as quite durable.  This was not enough to fight off the 'wolves' however, as they are also trap avoid.  Their numbers quickly overwhelmed the commander who was pushed back into the bunker before falling to them.

Spoiler: Wolves of Eteido (click to show/hide)

Enjoying a false sense of security with the Wolves of Eteido walled off, the livestock and pets began to starve to death.  The main food stockpile was lost to the wolves, so caring for the yaks was not happening.  Some steel battle axes were hastily crafted and assigned to the remaining 3 dwarves as a horse corpse struck down the farmers.  The horse corpse however moved quickly and 2 of the dwarves were promptly kicked in the head and killed on their way to equip their axes.

The last dwarf is haggard and surrounded by the Wolves of Eteido in the main food stockpile.  She is 68 years old, tall and skinny.  Her very long hair is braided.  She has a round chin.  Her ears are extremely tall.  Her raw umber eyes are slightly rounded.  Her nose is somewhat long.  Her hair is charcoal.  Her skin is raw umber.  Her eyebrows are somewhat high.  She managed to equip the former commander's masterwork steel speer, a bronze cap and a bizmuth bronze mail shirt. 

Spoiler: Attempt to get food / pick (click to show/hide)

She too fell to the horse corpse.

Spoiler: Game Over Message (click to show/hide)

 

A reclaim attempt has been initiated.  All 7 dwarves given adequate discipline.  1 of them mining and dodging skill.  The other 6 are proficient armor users, novice shield users and adequate macemen.  Equipped with silver maces and bronze armor, they arrived to take back the fort but were quickly overrun by more giant peach faced lovebird corpses and yak bull skeletons whose goring attacks (while deflected) had enough force to tear apart spines and open arteries. 

A hole was hastily dug to gain safety, as the 22 war dogs immediately rushed off after the hordes of undead already closing in on the dwarves, but it was not enough.  They fought bravely, but fell one by one to the hordes.  A new suitable embark location will have to be located to continue implementation of the zombie pit trap. 

Spoiler: Reclaim (click to show/hide)

Well, more lessons learned:

• Do not open the gates without traps or a trained military ready, no matter how many migrants are on the surface
• Restrain livestock in non-reanimating biomes, or make a food stockpile for them closeby
• Smoothing stone can definitely wait, no matter how slow things seem at the time
• Do not give invaders a direct path into the farms before hitting the main defenses *facepalm*
• Make the fort easy to wall off sections in case of emergencies

Spoiler: Game Over Message (click to show/hide)

[Schmaven]

A couple new worlds were generated, but this old spot still has potential.  The previous 2 attempts, I just used the standard 1504 embark points.  But I had set the limit to 10,000 in the world gen settings, so it's time to take advantage of those possibilities.

Reclaim attempt 2: 6 dwarves with adequate discipline, mace skill, and a mix of armor user and shield user, with 90% steel, 10% bronze gear (I thought 10,000 would be enough for full steel gear, but it isn't):

Checking the units list right off, no hostile critters have wandered onto the map so far, that's a good start.  Some digging was designated, then the game was un-paused.  A water buffalo skeleton immediately ambushed and killed 6, followed by a rotten horse corpse killing the 7th.  Despite the Dwarves being immediately assigned a squad and to equip the armor brought with the embark, they did not even get a chance to put a single piece on before the slaughter.

Spoiler: Previous embark's leather seen scattered everywhere (click to show/hide)

104-05-25: "Your settlement has crumbled to its end."

Reclaim attempt 3: Prepare for immediate unarmed combat I suppose... All 7 dwarves proficient dodgers, the rest of their skills mixed as fighters, a kicker, wrestlers, biter, striker, etc.  No points spent on armor.  Instead 10,000 points were spent on 280 war dogs, 2 picks, 2 axes, an anvil, some liquor and seeds:

Spoiler: Large Pile of Dogs (click to show/hide)

11 FPS, 3 dwarves die almost immediately to the muscular water buffalo skeleton, "Lekadas Kastaz Thazor".  All were assigned mining, but none grabbed a pick to dig to safety - preferring to fight instead. 

The mass of dogs quickly became faint and overexerted, leaving the remaining dwarves not much of a chance.  Especially once the 3 giant raven corpses joined in the fray.

Spoiler: Tired Dogs (click to show/hide)

104-06-17: "Your settlement has crumbled to its end."

Reclaim attempt 4: All 7 proficient in discipline, skilled dodgers and novice miners.  1 anvil, 7 picks, 10 plump helmets, and 87 water buffalo bulls.  Let's Get Some!

The water buffalo bulls proved to be an excellent distraction for the undead on the surface.  Their heads not exploding from 1 kick like the war dogs.  Still, 2 dwarves fell as the rest managed to start digging underground.  Once the light aquifer was breached and stone was found, 1 of the 5 were put on hauling duty to get some supplies.  2 plump helmet spawn, 1 cave wheat seed, 1 rock nut, 1 sweet pod seed, 1 pigtail seed and 2 anvils were recovered before the heroic hauler was dragged into the brook and killed by a river otter corpse.  Hopes for at least 1 log were abandoned, and the surface was walled off for now. 

Spoiler: Surface Sealed (click to show/hide)

The 3 seeds in season were planted in the slightly overkill farm area.

Spoiler: Farms (click to show/hide)

So far just the 3 ghosts of the current embark party are haunting the fort, but extra slabs are being produced just in case.

Spoiler: Slab Production (click to show/hide)

Gonna have to safely acquire a log at some point.  Hopefully the lack of beds won't be that big of a deal for the 4 remaining dwarves.

[NordicNooob]

...and 87 water buffalo bulls.

How many water buffalo bulls?! Either food for days or an unkillable zombie swarm depending on if you got most of them inside, eh?

[Schmaven]

...and 87 water buffalo bulls.

How many water buffalo bulls?! Either food for days or an unkillable zombie swarm depending on if you got most of them inside, eh?

Unfortunately only 1 of them made it inside with the dwarves.  Checking the units list, there are A LOT of undead war dogs on the surface - 3 pages or so.  50 of the water buffalo bulls have died already, but only a few have reanimated so far.

Definitely makes gathering wood a bit more of a challenge.

[Schmaven]

There are still 2 full pages of undead rotten dog corpses and undead dog skeletons roaming the surface.  188 undead in total.

The first attempt to get wood resulted in the miner getting killed as the undead immediately breached the gap and chased him back into the tunnels.  His body had to be sealed off so the 2 remaining dwarves could have a chance.  Unfortunately the miner and mason were not discovered to be lovers until after the accident.

Spoiler: First Attempt on Right (click to show/hide)

The second attempt was a success, and the log immediately burnt to coal, firing up the smelters to process a few hundred or so bars of fuel.  4 full sets of steal gear were crafted along with 4 silver war hammers.  Good to have some spare gear in case a migrant or 2 does manage to make it inside one day.

Spoiler: Log Acquired (click to show/hide)

A necromancer showed up with a migrant wave, and is immune to all undead hostilities on the surface - even the giant peach faced lovebird corpses left him alone!  He was put to work on the surface in the rain of human blood - chopping down trees and sealing a pod of featherwood logs off for the 2 dwarves below to access.  Before the pod could be sealed, he got locked up trying to attend a meeting.  Appointing him expedition leader after several months of just sitting there "attending a meeting" got him working again.  Stress levels above 25k though.  Having sealed the featherwood log delivery, he was tasked with building more walls to work toward controlling some of the undead surface traffic.  Before too long, he was simply announced missing for a week. 

Spoiler: Wood Delivery (click to show/hide)

On the bottom edge of the screen, an Echidna can be seen swarmed by undead.

The old fortress was breached so the necromancer could delve down and get some stone to make mechanisms to link up some of the surface bridges.  The necromancer however had succumbed to madness before any mechanisms could be constructed on the surface.  At least nothing has emerged from the original fort so far.

Spoiler: Original Fort Opened (click to show/hide)

In the early winter of 109, the first siege arrived.  It met the same fate as all of the migrant waves and caravans before them.  Not more than a few steps into our domain before the undead cattle gored everybody to death.  Refreshing to see enemies killed for a change.  It's turning out to be a nice unkillable zombie swarm so far.

To prepare for long term combat training, a hospital was set up, and a few hundred Urists of prepared meals and drinks were brewed up.  The 2 remaining dwarves remain around 0 stress, slightly below 0 at times, and are both kindred spirits.  Every previous attempt to welcome migrants has resulted in a net loss in population, so before any further surface activity is attempted, both will be well trained and armored.  There is a chance the two could have children as well, which may be the fort's only hope.  It's beginning to feel a bit like no country for old men.  The farmer already has 100 strength, so naturally he was appointed as military commander.  They both have accomplished their dreams of crafting a masterwork and creating a great work of art, and neither have a propensity to go berserk when things get tough, so this is a good start.

Spoiler: Temporary Fort Area (click to show/hide)

The field of memorial slabs is mostly from migrant and trade caravan attempts.  Though several performance troups also joined the field before the tavern was restricted to citizens only.  Definitely the main driver for mining out such a big room, and also a good deal of work for a fort of 2 to fit into their normal work schedule.

[Schmaven]

111-01-01
Food: 116
Drink: 583
Hammer Skill: Both 7 "Adept Hammerdwarves"
Armor Skill: Both 1 "Novice Armor Users"
Dodge Skill: Both 5 "Proficient Dodgers"
Shield Skill: Both 2 "Adequate Shield Users"
Strength: the Widow 70, the Commander 98

4 months in, they had to break to make a slab to put down a ghost and craft some fresh gloves, hoods, and cloaks so the acquiring something new need can be fulfilled.

111-09 was taken off to catch up on praying and socializing.  But without un-designating the barracks, 21 days of individual combat drills took place.  Now in mid-winter of the year 111, the commander is on a prayer bender, while the widow is trying to socialize in the tavern alone.  Small fort problems...

Their personal dining rooms were removed so they can hopefully get more socializing in at meal time.  It turns out meditating is a higher priority job than hauling (in green text not the purple urgent version).  I previously thought it was more of an idle time thing.  All meeting zones except for the tavern were erased.  Now the two are socializing and exchanging poetry.  On 111-12-01 training resumed.

No migrants or merchants attempted to visit in 111

112-01-01 Training continues
Food: 96
Drink: 543
Hammer Skill: 13 "High Master Hammerdwarves"
Armor Skill: 4 "Skilled Armor Users"
Dodge Skill: 6 "Talented Dodgers"
Shield Skill: 6 "Talented Shield Users"
Strength: Widow 78, Commander 94
Stress: Widow -25.8k, Commander -34

112-06-15 Pigtails planted to increase booze variety from 2 to 3.  Some quarry bushes and cave wheat also planted to replenish the prepared meals stockpile and some more fresh clothes were made to replace the gloves and hoods as they wear out.  The various plots were marked to make locking doors for directing work a smoother process. 

Spoiler: Marked-Up Farms (click to show/hide)

Just a handful of Dwarven merchants tried to get through this year, but stumbled right into the undead war dog corpses and died fighting in the brook.

Spoiler: Merchants (click to show/hide)

No attempt this time was made to rescue the merchants, but instead the dwarves were put to work milling and processing plants for the kitchen.

Spoiler: Food Prep (click to show/hide)

113-01-01 Training Resumes
Food: 162
Drink: 678
Hammer Skill: 17 "Legendary +2 Hammerdwarves"
Armor Skill: 5 "Proficient Armor Users"
Dodge Skill: 6 "Talented Dodgers"
Shield Skill: 7 "Adept Shield Users"
Strength: Widow 81, Commander 97
Stress: Widow -32.8k, Commander 0

Their uniforms were updated again and now consists of:

Head

• Steel Helm
• Pig Tail Hood

Upper Body

• Steel Mail Shirt
• Silver Flask
• Steel Breastplate
• Pig Tail Coat
• Pig Tail Cloak

Lower Body

• Steel Greaves

Hands

• Silver War Hammer
• Steel Shield
• Pig Tail Gloves
• Steel Gauntlets

Feet

• Steel High Boots

They refused to equip mittens over the gauntlets, and when given socks, would sometimes go with a sock instead of a high boot, and sometimes both, sometimes just a high boot, so socks and mittens were not included. 

Is all this training necessary?  The 2 are to tap into the original fort and clear it out on their own.  So I'd say yes, it's necessary.  Relying on traps alone is what dwindled the population to 2.  They have hundreds of undead to potentially fight soon, so maximum coverage and protection is the goal.  With that pretty much covered now, the training will continues.

113-06-26 the Widow names her finely-crafted steel shield Ganadimush, "Specialdikes"
113-11-19 the Commander names his finely-crafted shield Nȏnublorbam, "Punchstandards"

No merchants nor migrants attempted to join the fort this year.

114-01-01 Training Continues
Food: 144
Drink: 638
Hammer Skill: 20 "Legendary +5 Hammerdwarves"
Armor Skill: 7 "Adept Armor Users"
Dodge Skill: 8 "Expert Dodgers"
Shield Skill: 12 "Master Shield Users"
Strength: Widow 77, Commander 100
Stress: Widow -56.3k, Commander -2.9k

Their first test was killing that walled in zombie Ineth Dodódoltar's mangled corpse.  It missed every strike as they skillfully bashed it with their war hammers. 

114-06-01 the Widow names her finely-crafted silver war hammer Nĺzom Ilrom.  It has 1 kill, that zombie dwarf.

Time for some action - the 2 were sent out to identify the corpse of Nishamem's lover.  Immediately charged by the undead, they killed 7 before retreating, including 2 undead waterbuffalo (the greatest threat so far, as they've been observed exploding knees through steel high boots).  The skirmish, brief as it was, left the Widow Nishamem "Tradedcurls" tired.  Presumably due to fighting with heavy steel armor as only an adept armor user.  More training looks to be in order. 

Spoiler: Lover Avenged (click to show/hide)

No merchants nor migrants attempted to join the fort this year either.

115-01-01 Training Continues
Food: 115
Drink: 550
Armor Skill: 8 "Expert Armor Users"
Dodge Skill: 8 "Expert Dodgers"
Shield Skill: 13 "High Master Shield Users"
Strength: Widow 77, Commander 100
Stress: Widow -67.8k, Commander -526
Kills: Widow 9, Commander 2

115-02-02 the commander names his superior silver war hammer Nelesomet "Strappedflukes" with which he has 2 kills so far, a zombie goblin and a zombie water buffalo cow. 

[NordicNooob]

Is all this training necessary?  The 2 are to tap into the original fort and clear it out on their own.  So I'd say yes, it's necessary.  Relying on traps alone is what dwindled the population to 2.  They have hundreds of undead to potentially fight soon, so maximum coverage and protection is the goal.  With that pretty much covered now, the training will continues.

Noo, don't do it!

You will have significant trouble doing anything military-wise with only two soldiers, no matter how skilled they are. I made a similar blunder a while back: I sent in four soldiers (each of which had like 10 years of training) to fight 500ish undead (not all one clump, but still a decent stream for most of the time). They took like 200 out before succumbing to exhaustion, and half of those were miscellaneous crundle bits, so taking out a hundred zombies that are of actual size (I'm assuming its a lot of dwarves, dogs, and some water buffalos?) is not going to go well.

I'd most practically suggest a minecart crusher. They're annoying to make, but it's mostly on your part (meaning minimal dwarf-labor) and they can bring some serious hurt to anything that wanders in them. They won't jam in most cases (I might suggest two crushers in case the first one somehow gets stopped by the hordes of water buffalo corpses, but that's unlikely) and are persistent dealers of blunt damage, so what they kill they'll keep dead. Impulse ramps are your best method of powering it, but make sure you have some way to turn the crusher off. Plus later you could use the crusher as a siege remover and just in general route whatever big ugly hordes of enemies you come across into it, since it doesn't look like you'll have the dwarfpower to do much with your actual goal for a good while.

Giving your last chaps some training is never a bad idea though. I'd make sure everybody gets some training and light armor coverage (just like helm + mail shirt, I'd say) to protect them against various zombie outbreaks. Whenever you can actually get more dwarves, of course.

[Schmaven]

Is all this training necessary?  The 2 are to tap into the original fort and clear it out on their own.  So I'd say yes, it's necessary.  Relying on traps alone is what dwindled the population to 2.  They have hundreds of undead to potentially fight soon, so maximum coverage and protection is the goal.  With that pretty much covered now, the training will continues.

Noo, don't do it!

You will have significant trouble doing anything military-wise with only two soldiers, no matter how skilled they are. I made a similar blunder a while back: I sent in four soldiers (each of which had like 10 years of training) to fight 500ish undead (not all one clump, but still a decent stream for most of the time). They took like 200 out before succumbing to exhaustion, and half of those were miscellaneous crundle bits, so taking out a hundred zombies that are of actual size (I'm assuming its a lot of dwarves, dogs, and some water buffalos?) is not going to go well.

I'd most practically suggest a minecart crusher. They're annoying to make, but it's mostly on your part (meaning minimal dwarf-labor) and they can bring some serious hurt to anything that wanders in them. They won't jam in most cases (I might suggest two crushers in case the first one somehow gets stopped by the hordes of water buffalo corpses, but that's unlikely) and are persistent dealers of blunt damage, so what they kill they'll keep dead. Impulse ramps are your best method of powering it, but make sure you have some way to turn the crusher off. Plus later you could use the crusher as a siege remover and just in general route whatever big ugly hordes of enemies you come across into it, since it doesn't look like you'll have the dwarfpower to do much with your actual goal for a good while.

Giving your last chaps some training is never a bad idea though. I'd make sure everybody gets some training and light armor coverage (just like helm + mail shirt, I'd say) to protect them against various zombie outbreaks. Whenever you can actually get more dwarves, of course.

That's a good point, eventually even the best mortal dwarven warriors will eventually tire from combat.

I've never used mine-carts as a weapon before, nor have I tried impulse ramps, but the Wiki has some good info as always.  Still, I lost track of how many iterations it took to get the grinders working properly.  Derailing became an issue, but I take that as a good sign since only very fast minecarts can derail.

The widow "Tradedcurls" created 2 copper statues and placed them on the tracks of the grinders to encourage enemies to spend the most time on the grinders rather than just taking the shortest path through the trap assembly.  The third was commissioned out of vengeance.

Statue 1:
This is a copper statue of 'Widow' Tradedcurls.
This item is an image of 'Widow' Tradedcurls the dwarf and 'Miner' Bigdyes the dwarf in copper by 'Widow' Nishamem.  'Widow' Tradedcurls is embracing 'Miner' Bigdyes.  The artwork relates to the romantic relationship between the dwarf 'Widow' Tradedcurls and the dwarf 'Miner' Bigdyes in the midsummer of 107.

Statue 2:
This is a finely-crafted copper statue of 'Miner' Bigdyes.
The item is a finely-designed image of 'Miner' Bigdyes the dwarf and Jumplovely the dwarf in copper by 'Widow' Nishamem.  Jumplovely is striking down 'Miner' Bigdyes.  The artwork relates to the killing of the dwarf 'Miner' Bigdyes by the zombie dwarf Jumplovely in Godlymerchant in the midsummer of 107.

Statue 3:
This is an exceptional copper statue of water buffalos.
The item is a rendition of The Authority of Shields, an image of water buffalos and a minecart.  The minecart is massacring the water buffalos.  The image was commissioned by the Folded Rocks, a local dwarven government.

After working tirelessly on an impenetrable series of 3 minecart grinders, the surface was opened up.  The first wave managed to clog all 3 minecart grinders.  I'm not sure a single zombie was killed by the steel minecarts. 

Spoiler: First Wave (click to show/hide)

Having just gored a badger sow to death, a water buffalo bull corpse then charged through the minecart grinders, previously disabled by the first wave of undead.  It must be a big one, since atom smashing it spontaneously deconstructed the drawbridge.  A single water buffalo bull can feed 7 - 14 dwarves for an entire year when butchered if that's any indication of how big 1,200,000 cm^3 is (the size above which a drawbridge will deconstruct if operated with such a beast on it).

Spoiler: Big Water Buffalo Bull (click to show/hide)

The water buffalo seem to mock statue 3.  Of all the creatures, I did not expect the lowly water buffalo bull to be so much trouble.

But this is what the dwarves have trained for these past few years.  The widow was first on the scene to engage the beast with several war hammer blows to the head, the commander arrived next and scratched it in the head so hard that the skull was fractured (100 strength is indeed unbelievably strong), then finished it off with a single blow from his silver war hammer.

Spoiler: Bring-it (click to show/hide)

Time to re-arm the minecart crushers for round 2.  I'm thinking it must have just been a very large animal that jammed up the crushers in the first wave.

[Schmaven]

In the process of reloading the minecart grinders, the commander was hit by 1 of the steel minecarts.  Fortunately the impact was deflected by his steel left gauntlet.  An undead dog and cat were then promptly obliterated in the restarted grinders.  Echidnas however are invulnerable to minecart grinders.  Despite pages and pages (46 pages to be precise) of the steel minecart striking the echidna corpse in the upper body, slamming it into the wall and keeping it pinned in the corner, it only managed to tear apart the hair and bruise the muscle.  The grinders had to be suspended so the atom smasher maze could eliminate the little zombie.  Still 177 undead remain on the surface, but unable to ford the river.  So it appears that the small corner of the embark with access to the surface has finally achieved some modicum of safety.  A bit too late though, as there haven't been any migrants or caravans in years. 

Spoiler: Surface Situation (click to show/hide)

Fresh waves of kea corpses and other undead wildlife keep testing the minecart grinders.  They seem to be very prone to jamming.  I thought it was going to be overkill, but 3 grinders in series seems more like a minimum for somewhat sustainable operation.  However, it does take constant vigilance to keep the dwarves out of the grinders.  They keep trying to recover fresh corpses, or store random items, despite mass forbidding everything not in their safe zone. 

The flow of undead slowed significantly, and 2 of the 3 minecart grinders are still ready for action - so the 2 dwarves were sent into the original fort on a scouting mission.  First the old farms were breached, followed by a hasty retreat in case there was a zombie horde to contend with.  Better to let the grinders soften them up first.  Especially since that wolf of Eteido head feather was able to chase them around, totally invulnerable to any hit by a silver war hammer. 

Spoiler: Old Fort Reclaimed (At Last) (click to show/hide)

Though the fort is certainly a disastrous mess having the contents of the whole first fort, plus 4 reclaim attempts worth of stuff scattered everywhere.  If their sanity holds, it can all be sorted out.  Some plump helmets are still ripe for harvest.  Not sure how they didn't rot over the years, but I won't argue with yet more good luck.  Armok knows this fort needs it.  Delving deeper into most nooks and crannies of the original fort, not a single undead was discovered. 

Spoiler: Messy Catacombs (click to show/hide)

The occasional giant blue jay corpse or dog skeleton still manages to find its way inside, but the many years of training and decent quality steel gear has given the dwarves a good fighting chance now, and with that they have had no trouble contending with the sporadic "visitors".  But still, the surface has been sealed off for now so the tidying of countless bodies and proper reclamation of the fort can be accomplished.  The commander remains at a balanced 0 stress, while the widow is ecstatic at -73,700.  The widow being the oldest at 74 means there's still many years of work possible here.  The minimum age of death due to old age (according to the wiki) is 150 for dwarves.  As a comparison, it's 800 years for trolls and 60 for humans.

Spoiler: Main Fort (click to show/hide)

On a somewhat unrelated note, I'm not sure if it's just my computer configuration, but all my screen shots have been appearing just a bit blurry.  I can still make sense of the tileset, I just can't really post any in game text and expect anyone to be able to read it.  I'm thinking it's either my imprecise use of the windows snipping tool, or the image hosting site I've been using.  Maybe a combination of both.  If anyone has any ideas for how to get clearer images, I'm all ears.

[Schmaven]

Currently 127-09-19
There were a few seasons where migrants arrived in such force, and close enough to the secret entrance, that a good number of them actually made it in!  The commander was sent out to fight back the giant undead birds, and despite some serious cave adaptation, managed to safeguard the passage of 37 additional dwarves into the fort.  Probably 200 or so other migrants were killed to get these 37 in, and no migrants have tried in a few years since that burst of seasonal waves.  He ended up haggard, 48k stress, throwing tantrums, and killed a couple of the new-comers.  But it was worth it to speed up the progress.  More dwarven labor to tame the land. 

The widow, now a legendary miner, has been able to set down the pick and again don her steel battle-dress as the leader of a new squad of recruits.  The commander's stress levels have leveled back off around 0 after some good R&R, but he's been put into his own personal reserve squad for now.  To be sent in only when times are desperate.  That 100 strength combined with all the years of training make him a good last resort option.  But being quick to stress out to the point of tantrums means regular service is out of the question.  In the meantime, he has singlehandedly cut every gem in the fort, going from 0 to professional gem cutter. 

After another caravan was swiftly decimated at the surface, the minecart grinders were opened up again.  Despite setting restricted traffic settings, watching the undead on the surface for just a few seconds was long enough for the Widow to rush into the grinder for some reason.  She got banged up pretty good, but had all her armor on so she just jammed up 1 of the minecarts and was able to walk away.  Another dwarf tried to run through while gathering provisions but was stopped by a freshly locked door.  All the undead on our side of the river all wandered into the 1 remaining spinning platinum minecart, so the remaining doors to it were also locked for safety.

Spoiler: Minecart Grinders (click to show/hide)

I suppose I should have taken her second charge into the grinders as a sign.  Looking away again briefly (I should stop doing that really), the Widow charged out to the surface alone, rather than wait with the rest of her squad safely stationed inside.  Maybe it was the cave adaptation?  Or maybe the fact that she neglected to bring a weapon?  But after 5 pages of shield bashes, she passed out from exhaustion, followed by 20 pages of 2 giant peach-faced lovebird corpses snatching at her steel helm as she bled to death before the rest of her squad could reach her.  At least she can now be with her lover in the afterlife.

The catacombs have been the main focus so far.  The Widow's memorial slab stands prominently visible in the central corridor.  The current layout matches roughly the shape of the good biome on the surface - after some issues in the past with coffins constructed under the reanimating part of the biome: As soon as a dwarf was entered, they would reanimate and kill the morticians.   

Spoiler: Catacombs (click to show/hide)

The masonry level was another early focus.  Doors, rock pots, blocks, and mechanisms seemed to always be in short supply.  As you might suspect, he first 2 guilds to get guildhalls were the stoneworker guild and the engraver guild

Spoiler: Masonry Level (click to show/hide)

One of the stonemasons was killed by an insane dwarf that had starved to death in the guild hall, then reanimated as a ruthless undead killing machine.

Some progress has made digging out the pit, but there are a number of access ports and levers to link etc. that have to be prepared before it's ready to go live.  The hospital stock of cloth, thread, etc. has been moved back to the main ward; and the new well has just been filled.  Everyone has mostly been sleeping in the dormitory for now. 

Spoiler: Main Level (click to show/hide)

Out of the blue, suddenly and all at once, all the undead dogs across the river figured out how to swim as a fresh wave of unfortunate migrants arrived.  They seem to all be fording the low part of the river where it drains off the map.  The last operational platinum minecart took out 126 of them before jamming.  The rest were handled by the atom smashers, except for 3 yak bull corpses which the commander was called into service to deal with.  Only 14 dog corpses remain on the surface!

Spoiler: Invasion (click to show/hide)

The food production area / dining hall currently has plenty of excess capacity in anticipation of another lucky streak of migrants one day.  There have been 3 new births recently.  Maybe some more down time should be in order soon.

Spoiler: Food Level (click to show/hide)

[Schmaven]

Thirty five years.  Thirty five long years barely hanging on by a beard whisker - but the zombit pit trap is finally ready and has received its first batch of zombies.  They weren't anything special, just some spare caged zombies laying around, waiting to be sent through the platinum minecart grinder.  The first run was not smooth at all.  Firstly, these zombies were very fast.  Secondly, the dwarf locked in the lever room by himself fell asleep exactly when he was needed.  Thirdly, one of the zombies got stuck in the fortifications instead of dropping into the pit.  A few dozen ballista bolts were fired, and 2 passed through the same fortification tile, but made no contact.  Having passed by the pit completely, doors had to be locked, and a bypass tunnel dug to get them to path back over the pit.  But at last, the pit has zombies!

Spoiler: Zombie Pit; and Upper Trade Depot (click to show/hide)

A passing army triggered the siege warning, which in turn revealed several more vulnerabilities in the design while preparing for the trolls.  But luck was on our side.  An artifact steel crown, "Releaseworry" worth 128,400 Urists was created by the marksdwarf captain as he awaited his barracks to be set up.  It seems to have been a sign that there is nothing to worry about.  Some doors have been replaced with walls, and another bridge was added to assist enemy pathing; as the goblin army wandered off screen. 

Spoiler: Marksdwarf Barracks; Main Lever Room; and Pit Bottom with Steel Drain-Bridge (click to show/hide)

The caverns were briefly breached and a small patch of mushroom trees harvested for wood before a towering T-Rex forgotten beast that spits webs came by.  The name "theropod" to me sounded like a little caterpillar or something.  I had to look up what it was after it 1-shot killed 10 of the best trained warriors.  With a massive need for fuel to both create steel, and also replacement armor and weapons - magma was harvested using minecarts.  I've always used pump stacks in the past - as previous forts tended to need a lot of magma right away.  But in a fuel shortage situation, I'm seeing the superiority of the minecart method for getting the forges going.  The military was put to off duty work to make it happen.

Spoiler: Minecart Magma Filling Station (click to show/hide)

This has lead to the development of the royal armory.

Spoiler: Armory; and Power for Forges (click to show/hide)

And just below the surface you can see the access tunnels just finished to help future caravans and migrants quickly get underground to safety. 

Spoiler: Access Tunnels; Farms; Water Source; and Minecart Grinder / Atom Smashing Maze (click to show/hide)

137-11-17

Spoiler: Fortress Z-Screen (click to show/hide)

Almost ran out of booze there!
And the entirety of exported wealth is probably 1 donkey's worth of old clothes.

I was already familiar with very large creatures causing lowering draw bridges (dwarven atom smashers) to deconstruct, but did not expect a retracting bridge to not drop such a creature.  Well, what better time to test the ballista battery?  It's fine for trained operators.  But trainees can't shoot straight.  There was 1 corner in particular where most of the untrained operators' arrows would hook to the left and not fall 1 Z-level into the recovery pit - that had to be re-done.  Also, when the training bridge was lowered, it provided another location for bolts to be destroyed rather than drop to be recovered.  Soo many destroyed steel ballista arrows...

Spoiler: Target Practice (click to show/hide)

I thought I could time the firing of a volley at the giant in between construction of the new training barrier bridge...

Spoiler: I was wrong: (click to show/hide)

It turns out steel tipped ballista bolts are lethal.  An unarmored dwarf isn't much of a target, but a 1 shot kill is still impressive.

Spoiler: Unfortunate Dwarf (click to show/hide)

It finally feels like the fort doesn't have to struggle to survive.

Edit: Almost forgot the magma forges

Spoiler: Forges (click to show/hide)