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[de5me7]

I found a map with magma, gold, silver, emeralds, iron, water and soil on it.

I struck the earth

then some @!$£^!!!ing resus marques made off with all my food at the turn of winter.

my dorfs didnt last the winter as i was slightly slow in getting food production running (too much digging out foundations of grand fortress design.)

so i abandoned and then reclaimed. only due to the value of (presumably the emeralds and gold i discovered) the fortress the reclain team was 70 dorfs strong. On my first attempt i foolish only brought two picks which made further digging very slow.  I didnt anticipate how difficult starting a fortress with 70 would be. feeding them hard. One starved to death. Because all the dorfs in the reclaim team are 'friends' they all get un happy thoughts from this single death. combined with a food shortage and a less than glamours barracks many of them started tantruming. of the origninal 70 about 10 went insane. a few went berserk. I watched the chaos for a bit before abandoning and trying again. 70 new dorfs. only this time i didnt check the map over. and one beserk farmer was inhiding. he killed one of the new 2nd wave reclaimers, and all his firends (almost the entire group) started throwing tantrums. (once again many went insane).

many mad dwarfs later i went into adventure mode to pick up the emeralds and kill the damn beserk farmer.

my question is this

is it normal for reclaim groups to all be friends and thus highly suceptable to tanturm sprials, and thus insanity. Is there a remedy beyond  dont let any die. and is there nay way to reduce the number of dorfs in a reclaim group.

[Albedo]

Reduce? No.

All friends? Yes.

Remedy? Make them as happy as possible so a death isn't a dealbreaker.  They'll get depressed, but not tantrum.

then some @!$£^!!!ing resus marques made off with all my food at the turn of winter.

Um...

There are so many things wrong with that that I really don't know where to begin. Briefly:

1) Get your food/booze/valuables inside asap. Protect them, protect the dorfs that will use them.
2) RM's show up in packs of 10 at most - if you only had 10 food items, you were in trouble already.
3) Monitor the creatures on your map. Regularly. Religiously.
4) You should have been growing your own long before then. Enough to get you through.
5) Once that was gone, you stop EVERYTHING and forage for food. Make some barrels and brew Strawberry Wine (5). It's survival time.
6)If you've got macaques, you should have been able to hunt as well.  Even a wrestler can take down most animals, and an axe almost guaranteed.
7) You should have traded with the caravan for far more than that much.
In short, Infrastructure first, fun and games with projects second.  Wait for some immigrants.

Also, read wiki "food", then "farming".  Really, both, do it.

[Creaca]

is it normal for reclaim groups to all be friends and thus highly suceptable to tanturm spirals, and thus insanity. Is there a remedy beyond  dont let any die. and is there nay way to reduce the number of dorfs in a reclaim group.

Make sure you make them some coffins ASAP, being properly buried gives that Dwarves friends a Happy thought to help offset the Death of their Friend. Make sure you try and make your Dining Room fancy (Do some quick engravings after embark, you can have your legendary engraver make a new royal Dining Room for an even better happy thought after things settle down.)

 If something happens to your original food stockpile, don't threat! To help keep your fellows fed, remember your not only forced into farming. Get some Hunters and Fisherdwarves out there! You just need to last until that next caravan, or at least until your plant gathers get some local herbs (Which give you seeds after eating.) And start some above-ground growing operations.

Edit: Oh! And don't forget to embark with some cats and war-dogs. (4 of each should more than suffice) Cats breed pretty quickly, and their delicious succulent kittens should help keep the fort fed and clothed toward the start. The War-Dogs make puppys like a normal dog, and can be assigned to Dwarves that have to go outside to do dangerous things to help keep them safe.

[Kravick]

Cats breed pretty quickly, and their delicious succulent kittens should help keep the fort fed and clothed toward the start.

When our feline overlords finally take over the world you will be the first to perish. 

[Creaca]

Cats breed pretty quickly, and their delicious succulent kittens should help keep the fort fed and clothed toward the start.

When our feline overlords finally take over the world you will be the first to perish. 

I will not go gently into that good night!

((Not without a full stomach anyway.))

[SquirrelWizard]

and if worse comes to worse, make a cage and toss the furry little buggers into it, and bam no more problems with the cuddly wuddly syndrom. You may want to keep one or two wandering around to deal with pest though.

[Albedo]

Cage the females on birth, let one male run loose. If/when you need another, let loose another male. If you need more cats, let a female loose for a moment, then recage and let them give birth from the cage.