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[TheOatmeal]

So, I embarked before really looking too closely, and it appears that the spot I chose has no wood. Even worse, there seems to be no path for a trade depot. Is my fortress doomed to quick fun? I don't want to put much time into building it up if it's going to be a wasted effort.

[Reese]

You can make a path for caravans (smoothing boulders) or build your depot close to an edge where there is a path.

If you're lucky, you might find some coal or lignite, and then you can at least get your metal industry running that way, you just need a way to keep people happy despite having no rooms and sleeping on the floor (legendary dining room and so on)

If you're really lucky, you might have an underground river and then you can start tower cap farming...

and magma makes everything better.

[denito]

Build a depot building outside and hit "D" to see if it's accessible.  If it is accessible, just request wood from the liason.  If it isn't accessible, I would abandon.

[Jude]

Even worse, there seems to be no path for a trade depot.

As long as you brought picks, this shouldn't be a problem. Remember what game you're playing. If you don't like the landscape, terraform the hell out of it!

As for the wood...might as well stick it out and see how well you can do.

You can probably buy small amounts from the traders, which is all you technically need - just enough for beds (don't even need one per dwarf, since dwarves dont' all sleep at the same time) and a couple buckets to make sure your wounded dwarves don't die. Of course, good luck getting anything resembling a half-decent metal industry going, since the skimpy amount of trees you can buy from traders may be enough to produce a few items, but definitely NOT enough for the repeated forging and melting and reforging process required to train your smiths to a decent skill level.

Worst case scenario, you have NO wood. Try playing the game like that and see how it goes. Dwarves sleep in the dirt and get bad thoughts; this could lead to destruction. Dwarves get hurt and die because they can't be brought water; this gives their friends bad thoughts, this could lead to destruction. Dwarves suffer from lack of decent weapons, armor and ammo, this could easily lead to destruction. Sounds to me like you should play it out!

Edit: like other people have said, obviously having underground water can allow you to have wood, and having magma means you're good to go on the metal industry. Or if you're lucky enough to find fuel underground but I've never had that happen.

[Rozenbuddy]

Reese, You  need fuel to burn coal/lignite, so if you don't have magma, you're pretty much going to have a fun time. And, with no magma there will be no obsidian. No metal/no obsidian = no weapons without traders. However you need something to GIVE the traders in return for your weapons. and with not trees, most likely comes with no farmland. Hunting is exceptional for bone crafts and good food. This all varies on what your fortress has. River = bone/food magma =  fuel/fun terribly terrible creatures = bad for hunting/fun abundant weak creatures = food/bone/leather/pets oh wait, but you need a cage to sell pets.

[Quatch]

Dont kill the elves. Sometimes they bring wood.

Stone trade goods still do work, even without obsidian.

A good animal/leather industry could do you well.

[Rozenbuddy]

No i mean, obsidian for weapo.... ohhh, right you need wood for that. never mind.

[Stargrasper]

To the best of my knowledge, there are only a few items for which you absolutely NEED wood.  This includes things like beds, axles, and waterwheels, as well as a few other things.  Note that none of these are actually REQUIRED for a fortress to survive.  One way or the other, you can get a metal bucket for wounded dwarves and they'll sleep on the floor just fine.  You don't actually NEED a waterwheel or windmill.  Basically, going woodless is just another DF challenge.  I would suggest going for it and seeing what happens.  Worse case scenario, you learn a few things about surviving without certain goods.  Heaven forbid you learn anything about game strategy.

Also, as mentioned, provided you brought a pick, you can MAKE a path for the trade depot.

Note the wiki entry on Wood.

[clc02]

Dont kill the elves.

I'm sure the dwarves would prefer elf torture to beds any day.

[Rijjka]

Dont kill the elves.

I'm sure the dwarves would prefer elf torture to beds any day.

So what happens when they run out of elves?

[Ubiq]

So, I embarked before really looking too closely, and it appears that the spot I chose has no wood. Even worse, there seems to be no path for a trade depot. Is my fortress doomed to quick fun? I don't want to put much time into building it up if it's going to be a wasted effort.

Really, all you need is two wood to get things started. One to make a bed with to designate as a barracks so that the dwarves will sleep indoors and one to burn for charcoal to produce some coke. Neither of those is really necessary either, but make things easier.

Far as the depot goes, it's pretty easy to make a path for the caravan by smoothing stones or building floors/bridges across rivers; worst comes to worst, you can just dig a tunnel almost to the edge of the map and build the Depot underground in a large room.

[Reese]

Reese, You  need fuel to burn coal/lignite, so if you don't have magma, you're pretty much going to have a fun time.

If you have coal or lignite, and you have your starter wagon, then you can make one charcoal to start off fuel production.  You can start coal production and still be able to make two beds and then hold out for traders with more wood.

[Derakon]

I've done treeless maps before. It's easier if you remember to bring some wood to get you started, granted, but it's not impossible by any means, especially if the surroundings aren't evil. Just get a route made for the caravans and you can request all of their wood types heavily; this can get you dozens of logs per caravan, which is plenty as long as you don't try to make too many bins/barrels. Remember that you can make metal bins and barrels out of junk metal, too (e.g. nickel).

Assuming you have magma, the only things you need wood for are:
 * Steel production, in the absence of coal
 * Axles, water wheels, and windmills
 * Beds, if for some reason you don't like sleeping on the ground

Everything else has a wood-free substitute.

[Skorpion]

My current fort had the same issue as a nasty surprise.
Thankfully, I'd packed a bunch of tower-cap logs, some charcoal, and a shitload of bituminous coal, and there was an underground river. I figured I could get by with trading.
Until the dog ate the trade liason and the humans sieged and cut me off.

But now, I get three caravans a year, all with SOME wood.


You generally need wood to get a fort working and happy. If you don't have wood, you obviously can't get it up.
Up and running, I mean.

[SquirrelWizard]

I'd suggest trading for wood (protect the human liason with your life. by increasing the priority of all the wood they bring you should get a decent amount of it)

if you find an underground river, make a tower cap farm.