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[noodle0117]

I consider myself an experienced (although not yet amazing) dwarf fortress player. I've played in a few succession games as well as a lot of games on my own. I've made quite a few successful forts in some of the calmer regions, so I decided to challenge myself by settling in one of the haunted places. At first I was like "COOl, gonna kick some evil ass!", but before my first season even ended, I lost a dwarf to werewolves while others sustained numerous injuries from harpies. I survived until summer, but then 2 giant ogres came and took out another dwarf. With only 4 able-bodied dwarves left, I was uncertain whether I could handle the ogres or not, so I gave it a shot.

The results were rather pitiful.

So anyways, how does one go about surviving in the dark evil wilderness?
I've gotten about 2-3 wardogs with me, but they still can't quite make a good enough defense.
Should i start out with one of the dwarves as a dedicated fighter?
Maybe all of them with several points into fighting?

help appreciated.

[Shrugging Khan]

I've never had a problem with evil or savage biomes, so if you just want to follow my example: Go underground right quickly, only go to the surface once you've established some manner of safe perimeter, and embark with a dedicated axedwarf and a skilled hunter/marksdorf.

[noodle0117]

ok, but what do you do when you see two giant ogres standing in front of your fort?

[Shrugging Khan]

Drawbridge: An item providing limitless safety, requiring no more than 5 pieces of rock to construct complete with a matching lever.

[Liwjatan]

Designate one of your starting seven to protect your fortress at the beginning;ie at least adequate weaponrank and fighter/shield-user at your own leisure.Don't forget to bring along his equipment;At the very least Copper mail shirt, a copper buckler and,of course his weapon,also copper to save as many embark-points as possible.If it is in the dimension of your embark-points,bring along additional armor to increase his chances of survival (Usingthe standart ~1274 and removing buckets,threats,splints and cloths doing so should be possible).

If you don't want to do that,dig a moat,add a drawbridge early on,however the probability is high that you have to draft your entire starting seven every now and then to beat up a wandering undead/otherwise predatory creature which came to close to your starting location.

[leftycook]

have a one-tile wide entrance, and make it a priority to make a couple of cages and mechanisms, then fill the entrance with cage traps. Should work a charm.

[doctorspoof]

Give your woodcutter a few points of Axedorf skill, draft him when required.
Of course, making him remember not to drop the axe when drafted is another matter.

[The Yellow Peril]

Yeah, nothing in the game can get past a raised bridge. The only difference between playing in a calm or hauted region is that in the haunted one you'll have to rely entirely on the caverns for wood, and you might have some trouble receiving migrants and caravans.

[Smew]

Yeah, nothing in the game can get past a raised bridge.

Unless it's a building destroyer, or can fly, or, god help you, a flying building destroyer.

[Blackdutchie]

Yeah, nothing in the game can get past a raised bridge.

Unless it's a building destroyer, or can fly, or, god help you, a flying building destroyer.

solution to both those problems is digging into a hill and building the drawbridge into the mountain, while also digging a channel in front of where the raised part will be.
this will take care of flying creatures, as there is but 1 z-level to block, and the channel will prevent building destroyers from being next to your raised drawbridge. (on the outside, if they got in already there's no point in raising the drawbridge)

[Quadricwan]

Yeah, nothing in the game can get past a raised bridge.

Unless it's a building destroyer, or can fly, or, god help you, a flying building destroyer.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that even a building destroyer 2 can't destroy a raised bridge.  They can destroy lowered bridges, but once a bridge has been raised, it effectively becomes a constructed wall.

[breadbocks]

Do what I did in soapscum. Dig a little hole, build a table, (or bring one) build in in the hole, deconstruct the wagon, and all should head inside.(to make sure, designate a burrow, and set an alert) You can then wall yourself in until you are more ready.

[Kietharr]

Get underground ASAP, build some stupid furniture outside for the undead to waste time destroying. Build a trench and drawbridge, get doors installed ASAP, an airlock style entryway is ideal with some space between the drawbridge and the door, fill the airlock with spikes to skewer stuff.

The only thing you need to go up for is wood. Even then, you can secure an underground source somewhat easily depending on the features you've got and it's not essential for much. Eventually you'll be able to get some good military dwarves trained up and you can then start exorcising the undead little by little. IIRC you can wipe them out like you can any animal if you kill enough, or you can at least whittle down their numbers to the point that most of the map is fairly safe.

[87]

for me it was always a struggle until you got a few migrants.  Then just train a massive military and have them rape everything.

[melomel]

I start with 2-3 "woodcutters".  They get axedwarf/armor/shield/dodge skills; swim if the map looks watery.   They never have skill in woodcutting--it's a freakin' tree, you hit it with the axe 'till it falls over; how hard is that to pick up?!--but they always get a point something useful & moodable.  (Weaponsmith, armorsmith, mechanic, whatever suits their preferences/your needs.)  Weaver might not be bad dual-class for your military if you're harvesting silk--same with mechanic, if you like to use a lot of traps.

Take an anvil, a bunch of tetrahedrite, and at least one point of armor- and weaponsmithing somewhere in the embark party.  (Trick stolen from the tower-of-babel succession game, afair.)

On embark:  Secure the perimeter after excavating the emergency bolthole.  Sequester squishy dwarves and make armor/additional weapons.  Trap the bejeebus out of danger zones.  Curse as the traps get wasted on zombie marmots and skeletal mountain goats.  Watch as your poor "woodcutters" stop caring about anything any more.

Oh, and cluttering the map with eighty crap-quality statues to distract building destroyers?  Incredibly effective.

Give your woodcutter a few points of Axedorf skill, draft him when required.
Of course, making him remember not to drop the axe when drafted is another matter.

You, sir, seem to have felt my pain.  I've found that waiting until your woodcutters are accosted and just letting them flail about in blind civilian mode for a bit instills the proper survival instincts.

Yeah, nothing in the game can get past a raised bridge.

Unless it's a building destroyer, or can fly, or, god help you, a flying building destroyer.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that even a building destroyer 2 can't destroy a raised bridge.  They can destroy lowered bridges, but once a bridge has been raised, it effectively becomes a constructed wall.

Hunh...  really?  I've been playing so far under the assumption that BD2s could knock out anything except constructed walls/floors/ceilings/etc.  I guess that explains why the FB hasn't charged through my obstace course to the waiting military yet...