So...my first succession game. Stepping in on the first day of summer, I see we have six surviving dwarves (one lost to a flooding accident), a path has been dug to the river, and an extremely fertile farm has already been set up and is seconds away from harvest. I notice also a construction obviously intended to be an enclosed irrigated farm, but the design seems...well, dangerous to me. Finally, though not immediately obvious, there is also a good quantity of furniture built, but stored in workshops rather than stockpiles.
So, my first priority is to, well...decide what to do. I can see what my predecessor had in mind: quick and dirty, lots of food, and probably alcohol was the next thing to do. Perfectly good plan, but the fortress is sorely lacking infrastructure. There are the early makings of a complicated moat/irrigation system, but I don't feel we're ready to tackle that just yet, nor have we the need. Otherwise, there's hardly anything tunneled out except the main tunnel to the river. Unfortunately with only one miner it's going to be difficult to dig enough tunnel in one season to make any layout plan I set up is going to far enough along to make any sense to my successor. So, unfortunately, probably the wisest thing to do would be simply to make small changes here and there, stockpile food and alcohol for three months and let my successor implement the basic fortress design.
Not a very exciting season, but the alternative is to start grandiose plans and risk putting my successor in a position where has little choice as to his survivable options.
So, I set up a temporary still in the hallway, generally expand stockpiles, and settle on small incremental changes:
* Some stonefall traps (elephants on the map)
* A bridge across the water
* General cleanup and stockpiling of things
* Start building barrels, as we seem to be in very short supply
* Begin brewing alcohol
By the time our metalsmith arrives, our lone miner has yet to get off from his nap-drink-eat-break that he began within the first minute of my reign. I relegate the smith to Chef and Brew duty, and then am plagued by five minutes straight minutes of general anarchy during which dwarves constantly refuse to do their assigned jobs, ignore food in the fields, and get confused about stones.
Eventually it does clear up, mostly, and we resume our efforts. Our miner begins digging past the river and almost immediately (half a screen width?) hits chasm. It looks like this fortress will be placed near the magma. I generally prefer between river and chasm, but summer is now at an end, so it will be for my successor to handle such affairs.
Sadly, my reign was neither glorious nor exciting, but I believe I have at least made life somewhat easier for those who are to follow. Our food stores are somewhat larger, or alcohol has more than sextupled, and as soon as the first wave of immigrants arrive we should have sufficient manpower to actually begin the construction of the Fortress proper across the chasm.
A few final notes: I have left my predecesors irrigable farm design untouched, and simply worked with what was available. In my estimation it is not of the best design, and I strongly advise building something else to replace it between river and chasm. As to the current mess in the main hallway, yes, the structures are all temporary, and should be scrapped and moved inward once space is available.
May Armok be with you
First of Autumn, 1051
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So, that was fast. PTTG, you're next, I think. Care to PM me an email address to send the save file to? Kein, I'll send you a copy as well.
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Topic: Ladies and Gentlemen, It is 10:39 (Read 1982 times)