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[Jackrabbit]

See my fortress is just getting off the ground. it survived its first year and really starting to find my feet save for one thing. metal. no metal no weapons and many other important aspects of dwarf life. my mining operations are underway and making progress but i am worried that i may stumble across a chasm or similar and be beset by beasties and i have three axes and one bloke who knows how to use one. how likely is this to happen and where is metal normally found when you dig right down. please I don't want to be unprepared when i am attacked by batmen.

[Aqizzar]

Sorry to let you down, as I wish it were so, but it's highly unlikely you'll run into anything dangerous underground.  If you check the bottom of the stocks screen and find any corpses or bonepiles you can't account for, there will be a cavern or river, but even this is of little concern.  As for the really nasty stuff, well, unless you go actively looking for it and cheat, you're almost guaranteed to not find it.

As for finding metal, yeah, that can be problematic, especially finding useful metal.  Some maps just seem lacking, and there were times I'd kill for even copper.  The best strategy is to dig exploratory tunnels, hallways 1 or 2 tiles wide, spread in square patterns a dozen or so tiles appart on each z-level.  Straight up and down stairs have little chance of finding anything, beeing so small.

And even an untrained, unarmed dwarf, let alone one with an axe, can take on almost any ordinary beastie and come away fine.  They'll just run around like headless chickens until you actually draft them to fight it.

[Skanky]

A bigger problem will be being attacked by goblins later on. If you spam weapon traps at the front entrance of your fortress, even that should be fine. Failing that, a bridge to block off access to your fortress can help. But then, losing is fun. It is also a good learning experience.

[Jackrabbit]

Certainly is. thanks for your help. oh and sharpenable stone? enlighten me.

[Omega2]

Certainly is. thanks for your help. oh and sharpenable stone? enlighten me.

Obsidian. Cuts like steel. 

Sad it's hard to find unless you're near volcanoes or the like.

[Jackrabbit]

Cool and a bit of a happy joyful update? I just tripped over the biggest pile of iron you are likely to come across. so thank you all of you for your help. WOO HOO!

[coldstone]

gotta love finding that iron in the mountain right near the fort.

good luck making enough charcoal to smelt it without pissin off the elves

[Kazindir]

Pfft, why worry about annoying the elves, they're like tabloids, they'll be outraged at something no matter what you do! 

[Jackrabbit]

the elves have a problem i will just retract my bridge. ha ha ha. ah...

[ShadowDragon8685]

It dosen't matter. They won't do nothing anyway.

You can Isengard your fortress environs, channel their caravan through a ballastae-lined death-trap, or simply sieze everything, and they'll come back next year and the worst they'll do is give you some harsh language.

[Jackrabbit]

Oh. Hello! If you are reading this then you have been trawling through my posts. You really care! Aw... now, I've recently been deleting some the stupid things I have said since I joined the forums. Because, really, I wrote like a five year old. Tch. Anyway, praying to God that editing a thread doesn't bump it. Let's find out together!

Oh. It didn't. Hooray!