I would like to present my current project (mini-mega... neat but not EPIC)
Lightlance!
The fort is built on the plateau of a mountain.
Map advantages:
- abundant iron and coal
- natural waterfall
- adjacent non-mountain biome for farming and forest
Disadvantages:
- building on the top of a mountain limits potential z-layers for upward construction
- no flux - all steel is traded
- no magma
- no HFS (at least to my knowledge)
Viewpoints:
Overview shot
The shallow large buildings on the right are the statue garden and well. The smaller rooms on the bottom are zoos. The small upper rooms are trash compactors (a necessary evil). The midsize biulding attached to the wall is my barracks. You can see a trap gauntlet extending to the left.
Street view (from trade depot)
The ziggaraut on the right is where my artifacts (and a masterwork, decorated dragon skull totem) are kept. Made entirely out of cow tallow soap. To the left is my cathedral / throne room.
Inside throne room
Tombs, beds
Larger bedrooms are for nobles and legendaries. In the distance you can see the natural channel for the brook. All dwarves walk through waterfall mist to get to their bedrooms. Not efficient, but effective.
Oddly enough, the brook above the waterfall flows faster than the brook below the waterfall. I caught this early in the game and installed floodgates to prevent cataclysmic flooding.
Distance view
This is what trading caravans see approaching lightlance
This fortress is fully alive and functional in all ways, so there are only a few miners and masons. This view is shown after 11 years of construction. Entire seasons of building time have been lost cleaning up after sieges, but to date I have only lost 5 dwarves (2 sparring accidents, 3 caught by ambushes). Several hundred goblins and a dragon (and a human caravan - trading during a siege? not the brightest maneuver) have fallen to champions and traps.