After reading the saga of Boatmurdered I could not resist trying this game.
I did some reading untill I felt that I would be able to get started (playing 03.13.12b).
Everyone is saying Aquifiers suck so I set that to NO in the options and off went my dwarfs.
It turned out to be a really nice spot, a mountain with a brook running in the valley below
No sign of the fearsome carp.
My fortress quickly grew as I tried out many things. Getting the stairs to work took me ages (up was even harder) but eventually I understood the mechanics.
I did lots of things wrong and my fortress almost perished when my dwarves began starving en masse. I was farming all kinds of stuff but none of it was actually eatable. I didn't realize I'd run out of food as I had tons on booze and it was all stored on the food stockpile. When I seperated food from drink just 2 barrels of food remained for my 40 dwarves.
An emergency plump helmet production program and mass farmer training eventually reversed the situation (plump helmets coming out of my nose now).
I build my appartment complexes deep underground and then I decided to see if I could build an underground forest. During exploration I hit a damp wall.
Could this be the underground river I heard about ? I could use that to irrigate the forest level. Let's dig a hole and see...
Oh noes ! That is an aquifier !!! But I'd said NO in the options !? A torrent of water floods into my central stairwell while my miners flee for their lives.
Did I mention that I only had one central stairwell and all my apparentment complexes were on lower leves than the aquifier ?
Much FUN ensued as dwarves started drowning in their beds while I frantically started digging out the mountain in an attempt to lessen the flow of water so I could build a wall in front of my stairwell.
After a lot of FUN I got the wall build. Two of my appartment complexes are completely flooded, but one is only half flooded and the dwarves are refusing to leave their rooms.
I can't get to them as the stairwell is flooded up to exactly that level. Amazingly the dwarves that have not drowned are very happy due to the huge amounts of mist generated by the flooding stairwell.
A desperate effort is started to rescue my trapped dwarves. I dig another stairwell down from the top to -2z below the trapped level, then build a stairwell all the way down untill I hit molten rock. Then after a lot of trouble I manage to dig open the flooded stairwell from underneath. The water drops down the stairwell, hits the molten rock, and my dwarves are ecstatic once more as the stairwell is covered in mist.
The water in the half flooded appartment complex begins to drop ! Just before the hallway dries up the last surviving trapped dwarf dies from dehydration. FFFUUUNNNN !!!
After getting the fortress back in order I get flooded with immigrants and try to get the army set up which is hideously complicated. When I finally figure out how uniforms work it becomes easier. I don't dare train them for weapons that have no 'training' equivalent so 1 got 10 axedwarves, 10 marksdwarves and 10 speardwarves (pop ca.120).
I'm not sure what I'm training them for as nothing ever happ...
Uh oh...I think about half my military dwarves have any training at all, let alone equipment but as I can't seem to figure out how to get my bloody dwarves to stay inside the fortress I send out my army to attack the Hydra outside. By this time about 10 dwarves have been slaughtered outside.
FFFUUUNNN !!! My army gets slaughtered and I flee back after losing about 20 war dogs and 5 dwarves. Apparently 'wrestling' with a Hydra is not a good idea. Body parts and corpses are littered all over the mountainside.
I lost track of the Hydra and won't close the bridge with so many dwarves still outside. Eventually he runs into my fortress but walks into a Cage Trap.
Finally, a chance to rebui...
I frantically wall up all the entrances to the caverns. There's still an access by air but I'm hoping it can't fly so I'm leaving it for now as that stairwell is currently vital for smooth fortress operation. It seems I guessed right...still my hunter keeps capturing cavern animals but I can't seem to find the gap in my defenses.
I refill my military and when the Elves show up I attempt to sell the Caged Hydra to them as I have no clue what to do with it. The Hydra promptly escapes from his cage, slaughters everyone and runs into my meeting hall/dining room.
(X marks Hydra position)
FFFUUUNNN !!! Everyone and his dog ends up fighting the Hydra who, after killing or maiming the majority of my population and my remaining wardogs finally dies. He takes a LOT of killing.
(Page 2 !
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When the Hydra dies my fortress goes into tantrum spiral. Conveniently, everyone is close together in the dining room and armed so I lose another 10 dwarves to civil strife, aside from many acts of vandalism and cattle mutilation. It eventually peters out with 5 more dwarves dehydrating themselves to death next to a (working) well.
Right, let's get bac...
I close the bridge entrance of my fortress but I'm too late ! FFFUUUNNN !!! I totally luck out when a lucky shot from a Marksdwarf fells the Titan after it has done only light damage to the fortress.
I'm down to 85 dwarves now with a few heavily wounded that constrained to bed (never got round to setting up hospital). About 10 'walking wounded' and 5 wardogs. 20 of my military have perished. Three seasons migrants have not come to my fortress while I have 30 beds free
Current projects :
- Build a new mega dining room with waterfalls to lure new migrants.
- Continue the underground forest/farming project.
- Add a Jail and maybe a hospital ?
Questions !!!
- What do I do with those captured animals/monsters ? Also some cages have dead bodies in them.
- How do I get rid of refuse ? I build an Atom smasher but I can't designate the floor below the bridge as refuse pile. I dug out the ceiling but I can't designate in open space either...
- I can't seem to find Magnetite anywhere, all I find is gold gold gold. Around what level is it usually found ? I need iron something fierce !
- Half my fortress is a muddy and bloody mess. How do I get my chaps to actually clean up ?
- If I equip my soldiers with training AND real weapon will they use the training weapon for practice or will they hack each other to bits with the real weapons ? How do you do this ?
- Do goblins and kobolds show up if they are not in the civilization screen ?