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[Red Dwarf]

Hi there!

New player here (and addicted ). I actually discoverred this little gem a few years back when it had the clifface and what not. I left it and now I'm back and really enjoying it.

This is my first game I did and "completed" if you will without throwing in the towel prematurely. I played with the Orc Mod and got my ass handed to me promptly on the Orksies' second siege.

I like building castles etc. and so decided to build a small castle instead of a fort underground. It took quite awhile because of the whole frikken mine for rock/go get rock/bring rock back/construct wall. Do the same for the top floor (and ground floor 'cause I like neat looking castles) AND take into account that I want a CONSISTANT fort (No multi-coloured walls please) and were talking seasons to build something decent.

The first siege for me was all panicky. 8 marksdwarfs vs. 16 orksies. I wasn't feeling to good about all this (read the thread about how brutal they are) and decided to draft all my remaining peasants into marksdwarfs and my 3 woodcutters into axedwarfs. Axedwarfs were suppose to keep the orksies busy while crossbowdwarfs did the actual killing. HA! My Axedwarfs were virtually non-existant, and my crossbows can't hit for shit and was using wooden bolts. And somewhere in the battle I ended up with a Hammerdwarf that's bedridden. I didn't even draft one.

Then 3 of my dwarfs start getting depressed because of "seeing death", "losing lovers", "losing friends" and any other excuse to have a red down arrow on their faces. Fearing sulking might turn into RAGE!!! I decided to lock them in their rooms and "forget" about them. After awhile I let them out 'cause I felt like an idiot. One went all rage-ness on me and was put down promptly by my military... in the garden... where everyone was having a party. More dwarfs went depressed 'cause everyone now suddenly knew him. The Fort did calm down after awhile and the dwarfs we were soon doing more boring things.

Then the second siege came. 34 Orksies vs 10 Wrestlers (2 elite) and 10 Marksdwarfs plus one Hammerdwarf. This should go somewhat better since they were broken up into two groups. The second (with an Axe lord) was the furthest. But it was not to be...

The first Orc group destroyed my wrestlers. There was NONE left! AND above all, my Marksdwarfs were running away... to get more bolts. OOOHHH Happy day! It's all quiet on the front. Except for the 5 Orcs running about after a few dwarfs who was totally oblivious to the Orcs and were now cancelling jobs left and right because of stupity. They eventually came in and tied my marksdwarfs down into melee combat (They ran outa ammo) and got killed. The second group came in and promptly wiped out my fort.

Now for a few questions:

1. Starting locations. I was somewhat depressed at the fact that fire cannot harm or set alight any wooden-constructions. I could just imagine what would happen when you start in an area with a lot of firemen, etc. and you try to build your fort out of wood only. So what I wanna know is how difficult is it playing on maps next to volcanos, deserts and glaziers? I was thinking starting my next fort somewhere on a glazier with absolute freezing temps and using only wood. Kinda like a Viking settlement out on the freezing glazier. Only for dwarfsies...

2. Nobles. When does these parasites arrive? I had about 65 dwarfs when the second siege wiped my fort. The closest I had to a noble was the mayor. Not even sure he IS one. I just wanna know when I must start construction on my Drowning-Chambers.

3. Concerning glaziers. If I choose to start on a glazier what is the chance to find magma? My guess is start near a mountain that is freezing. But I like open plains much more than high mountain peaks etc.

[Albedo]

This is my first game I did and "completed" if you will without throwing in the towel prematurely. I played with the Orc Mod and got my ass handed to me promptly on the Orksies' second siege.

That's hella better than most!

...AND take into account that I want a CONSISTANT fort (No multi-coloured walls please) and were talking seasons to build something decent.

We all choose our own handicaps.  But a fort of Color 1 w/ Color 2 towers and Color 3 stairs - or whatever - would have been much faster.  I find that stairs, particularly, help when I'm trying to see what's what.  Sometimes different colored tiles as marks on floors, too, or particular floors like for marksdwarves' stations.  ymmv.

And somewhere in the battle I ended up with a Hammerdwarf that's bedridden. I didn't even draft one.

"intentionally", ahem. 

So what I wanna know is how difficult is it playing on maps next to volcanos, deserts and glaziers?

No diff, moderately, and very.  Anything can be next to a magma vent (pool or pipe) - you can find lots of user-friendly forests or whatever, that's not a problem.  And since you can't embark on "all mountain" (not without a 3rd party utility), there will be some sort of "arable land."

Deserts can have water issues, both lack of surface pools and aquifers - but finding brooks/rivers and/or avoiding aquifers is not hard.  I'm on a desert now with a magma pipe and brook, no real additional challenge.

Glaciers are a diff matter.  Creating your own water from frozen ice, zero trees and shrubs, zero arable surface land, dwarfs getting frozen in ice, dying from extreme cold if they go outside - the challenges are many, and often fortress breakers. You need to search & read these threads and the wiki for all the info you can find.

2. Nobles

Different nobles show up at different triggers.  Some are not so bad. Read the wiki.

Mayors are "appointed nobles", and not the same.

3. Concerning glaziers.

  Glaciers.  Glaziers put windows into window frames.

If I choose to start on a glazier what is the chance to find magma?

Thin, but possible.  You'd need to gen a cold world and do a manual search for a site.  For whatever reasons, ice and the igneous mountain biomes don't tend to be found adjacent.

[Grumman]

3. Concerning glaziers. If I choose to start on a glazier what is the chance to find magma? My guess is start near a mountain that is freezing. But I like open plains much more than high mountain peaks etc.

If you want to do this, this location on this WorldGen might be suitable.

[Lord Dakoth]

-Starting location:

Volcanoes are really not that hard at all. The only extra effort you have to make is seal off the volcano from the rest of your fort to keep the fire beasties from setting fire to your booze stockpile.

Deserts are moderately difficult. As long as you can find a site with a stream or an aquifer, it can't be too bad. The biggest difficulty (for me) is a lack of wood. I'm on a desert map currently (no water, uggh) and I have to trade with caravans for all my wood. Still, I can trade for about 60 units of logs per year from the dwarves, elves, and humans combined.

I've never done a "cold" fortress before, so I couldn't give you any advice there.

Nobles: The mayor will be elected at, I think, 60 dwarves. Note that he is elected, and does *not* arrive in a wave of immigrants. If he/she is killed (cough cough) I'm pretty sure that the dwarves will just elect a new one.

Glaciers: No idea, really. I would guess that finding magma and ice on the same map would be quite rare.

[Puck]

nvm

[Grendus]

If I can make a few comments about your dieing to the orcs.

Orcs are dangerous, but yours sound... worse. Can I ask a few questions?

1. You make no mention of armor. If your dwarves were running around in their raggedy clothing, it's no wonder they got ripped to shreds. Did you just not mention it? By the first invasion you should at least have leather (heck, in a "survival" map I played - starting with an axe and two kittens - I had leather armor before the orcs showed up) and if you build fast you should be up to chain or even plate from whatever metals you've found.

2. Did you draft your miners? If you draft a miner and leave his weapon as "unarmed" he'll fight with his mining pick, and use his mining skill as his weapon skill. Picks may be puny weapons, but a legendary miner can easily cut a swath through the orcs if he's got some good armor, especially since miners tend to be strong, tough, and agile.

3. How skilled were your original marksdwarves? You mentioned you drafted your peasants as marksdwarves, but how skilled were your original 8? An unskilled marksdwarf with wooden bolts will be lucky to kill a kobold, let alone an orc, while a legendary could easily put a bone through an orcs eye from 30 paces.

4. Since you were building an above-ground fortress, why not just wall yourself in? It's how I usually survive the first wave of orcs, they go away after about a season.



As for your questions, magma's easy, deserts vary, and glaciers are tricky.

Exposed magma has a tendency to cause brushfires from the imps, but once you have some infrastructure it's easy. Just floor over it or, if you have a stream, pump water over the top of it to form an obsidian cap. Bonus points for carboniting an imp.

Deserts can be really hard or fairly easy. If they have saguaro or underground water, wood won't be a huge issue, otherwise you'll have to trade for it. If they have a stream, water will be a cinch, otherwise you should write off any wounded dwarf, though booze production will be easy enough. If they have magma, forge-craft will be easy, otherwise it will be nigh impossible (forget about steel, you'll be lucky if you can spare enough wood to make iron armor).

Glaciers are hard, your dwarves will freeze to death and if you have no magma getting water will be a problem. On the bright side, you can build a palace of ice, which is kinda fun. Ice is even considered fireproof (the irony) so you can build, say, an ice furnace.

[Hyndis]

In the .ini, adjust it so that you can see underground features.

Glaciers are actually pretty easy so long as you have a source of water. Easiest source of water is an aquifer, and with cold weather its easy to pierce through it to dig into the stone below. No wood, however, so you will have to import all of your wood.

If you're able to, try to embark on a mountain glacier. With an underground river. Glacier + water + wood!   

Bonus points if you can also find a magma pipe on this same sort of terrain.

[Jhoosier]

Wall yourself in?  Heck, if there aren't any snipers, just dig a channel.  Wherever you start, it's usually a good idea to channel around where you plan your entrance being, build a bridge and link it to a lever somewhere.  This will protect you from orcs/goblins, but also from scary (nonflying) wildlife like unicorns or undead carp that might already be on the map.

It sounds like the OP didn't really have any sort of defense between the dwarves and the orcs.  You should put your marksdwarves a couple z-levels up with fortifications in front so they can shoot out.  I usually don't bother with sending the melees out, cause they usually get mobbed while the other defenders go for a brewski, and then a tantrum spiral ensues.  Just tie a kitten outside to lure the orcs in.  If you go the channel/drawbridge route, you can have a 2nd one to keep them trapped inside there while your marskdwarves plink away.  You'd be surprised how much experience they get from a siege of just a couple squads.  And like I said, if there aren't any snipers, you could just have your dwarves stand on the other side of a 1-tile channel and shoot.

[Red Dwarf]

@Grendus:

1. I never got around to making armour simply 'cause I was focusing on planting crops (No hunting, no leather) and when I was trying to trade with a caravan I realized I had no road, thus the majority of the goods never showed up. I did get Iron armour after the first siege but never utilised it simply because I forgot about it. So yeah, my Dwarfsies went in with cloth.

2. Never drafted any miners since I, uhhhh... forgot about them too...

3. They werent all that skilled and was only Marksdwarfs. Maybe one or two was a bit higher, but I never really checked.

I didn't train them too high because I had everyone focus on getting the 2x2 rooms ready. I should've build barracks and save time but I didn't want too many tantrumming dwarfs. I will definitely start off with a barracks next time to be able to focus more on the important things.

4. I have a few restrictions I play with to make the game more challenging like not walling myself in, not using rat-runs, not using any drowning methods (unless it's for Nobles or prisoners), etc, etc.

The one thing I will do differently when it comes to defending is building fortifications on the walls which I totally forgot about. Yes, I'm forgetfull.

The Glacier sounds really fun so maybe I'll try that next time around.

Also,

4. When do dwarfs pick up the better bolts to use in the sieges? What I mean is when a dwarf is off-duty he's training with wooden bolts, but what about when I activate him for duty? Does he automatically drop the wooden bolts and pick up the iron ones? I noticed them running out of ammo and running to pick up the iron ones but never really knew if they were starting the siege with iron bolts.

[zooeyglass]

1. I never got around to making armour simply 'cause I was focusing on planting crops (No hunting, no leather) and when I was trying to trade with a caravan I realized I had no road, thus the majority of the goods never showed up. I did get Iron armour after the first siege but never utilised it simply because I forgot about it. So yeah, my Dwarfsies went in with cloth.

i don't think a road is necessary for the goods wagons to arrive - instead, you just need a 3 tile wide route clear from the map edge to your trade depot. less than three wide and packmules can reach the depot but the wagons can't...3 wide and you're set.

[Dareon Clearwater]

4. When do dwarfs pick up the better bolts to use in the sieges? What I mean is when a dwarf is off-duty he's training with wooden bolts, but what about when I activate him for duty? Does he automatically drop the wooden bolts and pick up the iron ones? I noticed them running out of ammo and running to pick up the iron ones but never really knew if they were starting the siege with iron bolts.

I'm pretty sure when you set them to marksdwarf, they'll go grab a quiver and put good bolts in it.  So whenever they're activated, there's no pause for them to go get the good silverware to put out for the guests.

[(name here)]

Always wall yourself in for the first orc battle, or you'll just get slaughtered. Rather like you did, actually.

[Grendus]

If I could make a few suggestions then.

First, getting farming started is very fast, unless they attacked you the first season. I usually get them by the fourth season, enough time to build a wall (if it's not, I magic them away with DwarfCompanion), dig some channels, or build a small military. Embark with some leather, designate a hunter, or bring a breeding pair of animals, leather armor is incredibly easy to make. If you really can't be bothered to deal with it, bring along the armor premade. It's much more expensive, but takes some of the hassle out of it.

Second, it sounds like you embarked with untrained miners. That's the only reason I can think of for it taking you so long to get your farming and housing going. Farms should go up within the first season, worst case second if you have to muddy stone. Housing can go up before or after, but usually I have beds made while the rest of the fortress is being mined out. Don't worry so much about your dwarves tantruming, many fortresses only have designated sleeping quarters for nobles and have all the commoners sleep in a giant barracks, and their dwarves are perfectly fine. Hell, my dwarves usually sleep in the dirt for two or three seasons, and they're fine.

Third, if you're not going to use walls, pits, or traps (orcs are [trAPIMMUNE] but not immune to things like atom smashers or spikes) you will definitely need a trained military. Orcs are not for the faint of heart, they're pretty brutal enemies, a truly dwarvish challenge. Unskilled marksdwarves are only useful for taking sucker-shots at melee enemies from behind walls. As for your ammo question, I believe dwarves will default to the highest grade of ammo when put on active duty, meaning steel over iron over bronze/bismuth bronze over copper over wood/bone. They refuse to train with metal bolts, so only the cheap ammo will be used.

Sounds like you just had a small number of mistakes adding up. Losing is fun though, no better way to learn.

[Albedo]

You can always go the "Ambusher w/ free crossbow, steel bolts & leather armor" route - I find I have room for 1 with no problem, and 2 wouldn't be hard to squeeze in.  If they had some marskdwarf/wrestler/hammer skill, so much the better.

And/or one (or more) "outdoor/security" dwarfs, axedwarfs who are your woodcutters/plantgatherers when need be, or just are full time military from the start.  While a wrestler might eventually take out a single opponent without a scratch, a trained axe will do it FAR quicker, and then move on to the next.

Once you step up to orcs, it's not all hugs and bunnies anymore, and your embark and early build strategies have to adapt to the new (and less forgiving) challenges.

[Red Dwarf]

I couldn't exactly remember when the first orcs hit me. I think it's somewhere after the first winter. All I know is that it did feel like enough time and I wasn't having a "OH SHIT" moment when the orcs arrived, in terms of time. It was just I felt I wasn't being very productive. Thinking about it I will definitely be able to get a decent military going next time. I'll just have to be more thoughtfull... and remember some things...

You see, I took along 2 picks, 2 axes, 240 +- meat and 240 +- beer so I could get my fortress up quickly. I thought that with all that stocks I will have enough time to get my fortress up whilst not having to worry about food for some time. It was my first encounter with the Orcs so I wasn't sure what to expect exactly. I'd probably lose most of the food and beer next time in favour of getting my farming going as quickly as possible giving me more points for other items.

Second, it sounds like you embarked with untrained miners. That's the only reason I can think of for it taking you so long to get your farming and housing going.

My 2 miners was trained and I had 3 dwarfs building the castle (they didn't have the masonary skill. I used it on other things like brewer, etc) whilst the other 2 farmers (with Plant Gathering and Farming) was running around like maniacs trying to get some aboveground plants to eat and to use to plant crops. That was slightly a hassle.

I realize my mistake now in that I should have NOT taken all that food and instead just keep Gathering Plants outside. Not only that, but I can't figure out why I took 240 +- meat just to have my 2 gatherers gathering plants the whole frikken time! Stupid moment for me.

Lessons learned. And besides, it's kinda fun seeing your whole fort getting slaughtered!