Ok, it doesn't work, but I think that could be remedied by whacking in the new files for kobolds and their new weapons like the chopper and shovel and stuff, but removing them as a playable race.
I'd recommend testing this in a fresh version of DF so you don't break anything.
I think that's what I did. It was rather tiresome moving all those files though so it was the only Dwarven fort that I reclaimed as kobolds before I changed my approach a bit. Meaning, make a flier itemthief civ that had the same ethics as kobolds did. It was still surprising the first time they arrived with merchants though.
Anyway.
I figure that I finally get why I never got any other nobles than a Dungeon Master and a Philosopher. Although I should have gotten to this conclusion faster, it's because of that itemthief tag that they never showed up.
So I decided to mod a bit, and removed the itemthief tag from kobolds, and replaced it with babysnatcher. Assuming that all goes as it should, the current camp should eventually get some kobold nobles to show up and start acting like the jerks they are.
For maximum fun though, I play with kobolds, and the Civ Forge mod, so there are, what, 18 races at the moment in the game, all but one hostile towards kobolds. This results in sieges happening every few season, and to this point, the silver xelics have never failed to ambush the camp in the following season from the creation of the new camp.
So I have been forced to do a bit of things, as in using Dwarf Utility to give my trader a dabbling skill in Mechanic, and build a few stonefall traps in the entrance to the fort. Along with surrounding the camp with walls, except that one place where the merchants can walk in.
However, things still don't go exactly as planned. From most camps I've made in this setting, the xelics always arrive, attack, and kill a stonecrafter. They must have something against artists, or something. At that point though, the miner always walks in and slaughters them with his/her shovel.
It's fun, although sad. They try so hard just to survive, and always someone walks up to their camp with genocide in mind.
Good thing whenever a Dungeon Master shows up, I can get some metalwork done, if no migrants with those skills have showed up. And those Philosophers... sure, they don't do anything, but at least they make friends fast. Mostly with kids. Makes me wonder just what do they talk about.
"Ah, life. What is it, you ask? Well, to put it simply, life is cruel, then you die."
No wonder kobolds get so upset during camp creation. I had a farmer go insane because a stonecrafter died. Sure, it was her husband, but you'd think that a kobold would be able to handle death a bit better, since it is the final destination for them all.
Still, it is helpful that when kobolds have kids, they have a bunch. In a fort of 275, fourth of the population was in the military, 90% of them were champions. Whenever a siege arrived, I was able to steamroll them with wave after wave of angry, "earned" iron weapon wielding kobolds. Goblins are the least of my worries, really. They always tend to lose their cool when the guy first in the line bites the dust when some champion stabs through their face with a spear.
Orcs however... now those are a real threat. Yet to lose a camp, although Frost Giants once destroyed half of my troops before I managed to get a true kobold-army going on. There were 20 champions. 8 survived.
That day I also learned that you can't crush Frost Giants with a drawbridge. Seriously, I didn't see that coming, even when they were supposed to be giants.