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[DuckThatQuacks]

I'm quite liking the physician's perspective. I also like what you're doing with my dwarf. Well done, sir.

Edit: Added honorific.

[xczxc]

Duck is on the way of becoming epic

[squeakyReaper]

This fort and everyone in it is on the way of becoming epic

[Mzbundifund]

Sunshine? Damn, you'll spoil us!

My floor-art looks a bit nicer with a tileset on. Would you mind showing me the whole thing?

Every fort needs a little sunshine.



I use http://df.magmawiki.com/images/f/fa/720x225_SmoothWalls.PNG for my tileset.

Working on the summer update now.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Mzbundifund]

It was too much trouble to date everything exactly, so the following is in chronological order, but I don't remember exactly when in summer it happened.

Dear Professor,

No doubt you are impatient for an update after the letter I sent you in late spring.  Vengeance against the ogres continues on schedule.  A proper hospital must be run on schedule.  This includes vengeance.



Trade with the elves has gone well.  They have a reputation for bringing misfortune, but I have seen no statistically significant increase in accidents while they are within the fort.  We traded human clothing for exactly 100 portions of alcohol, and many kinds of fruits.  Our alcohol stocks are once more at a safe level.



Adil's mood has succeeded, beyond my wildest dreams.  I was too occupied with the trade negotiations to monitor which ingredients he chose for his artifact but...



Adil remembers nothing of his possession, and is rather embarrassed by his sudden increase in acclaim.  I have ordered the cabinet displayed prominently in the dining hall, no single dwarf should claim ownership over it.



DuckThatWalks has become extremely swift with his catapult.  Earlier I observed him drinking from a barrel recently purchased from the elves.  Although there is plenty of room in the food stockpile nobody seems to have gotten around to moving these barrels from the trade depot.  I cannot help but notice the depot is a mere twenty paces from his catapult.  Is this a coincidence?



I honestly have no idea why nobody has moved the booze, but Duck is taking full advantage of the convenience to speed his training.

I have gone to great lengths to honor our ancestral skills, and have set up a dedicated stockpile for our smelted metals, and am currently refining all the raw ore that litters our halls.  Perhaps after that I will have the halls cleaned of stone and smoothed.  I will leave no grand monument behind, but a fortress clean and clear is reward enough for me.



Oh, and lest you think I have constructed nothing, I have made some small renovations to the entry hall. 



Here you can see the refined results of all that worthless human equipment.  Smelted down and reforged into menacing spikes, the entire field is linked to a lever in the dining hall, directly adjacent to Spasmmurders, our adamantium artifact cabinet.  Simply setting this lever to repeat should grind invaders to mincemeat, although caution should be taken that the military is instructed to hold back and not engage the intruders until after they have passed the field.  Too many friendly injuries could otherwise result.

Galena is drawing to a close, and with it my term reaches its halfway point.  There is still a week left before the autumn turning, but things are quiet and I am confident we shall see the leaves turn as in peace.

Your student,
--Mzbundifund




Dear Professor,

Of course I was a fool to think summer would end in peace.



Professor I am forever in your debt for the masonry lessons you taught me in between nerve stitching practice.  This monstrosity even now flutters not fifty feet from exposed bedroom breaches I had walled off in early spring.  And they told me I was being foolish, cowardly, and overprotective.  Even as you read this I will be strutting up and down in front of the council singing the "I was right" song.



your student,
-Mzbundifund








meanwhile...

[Mzbundifund]

--- AUTUMN ---

Dear Professor,

While we could probably have stayed behind our walls indefinitely, that is a sad way for a dwarf to live.



I tried to advise the men as to which tendons would be most crippling to sever, and devised a 38-point assault chart to weaken the beast before going in for the kill.



It is hard when your lessons are not heeded, although I suppose I cannot be upset with the results.



The kill goes to one Tholtig Edimshem.  A relative newcomer to the fortress who cut his teeth on the human invasion last year.  He is a worthy warrior.  In fact the only casualty to the fight was a single donkey that by some bizarre chance wandered out into the battlefield.  Perhaps Gongith had a taste for donkey flesh, but the beast ignored our warriors and attacked the donkey alone.



As for what was done, with Gongith's remains... well...



We are a frontier fort, and I don't like seeing anything go to waste.


Not five minutes later the late Xczxc's widow was struck by a bolt of inspiration.



We had to scramble to get her her requirements but soon all was well.





The rest of the season has closed quietly.  I have been forging more adamantium equipment for the military to replace any less powerful pieces they are wearing, and as part of my attempt to clean up the fort somewhat, have had our expert gemcutter see to all the raw gems lying around the place.  The metal ores have all been smelted and stockpiled, and the I am slowly converting to strands.



My tenure as an overseer has been a peaceful one.  One season remains, and then I will be glad to pass the reins on and retire back to the hospital.

your student,
-Mzbundifund









meanwhile....













meanwhile again....

[Dignato]

I don't want a turn or anything, but I would love to be dwarfed. Preferably as a Mechanic or another Siege Operator.

No rush or anything 

[Mzbundifund]

I'm sorry but the fort's ridiculously mono-focused siege operator quota is full.  Mechanic it is!

EDIT:  Our best mechanic is also an expert carpenter.  So you get two skills.

[Mzbundifund]

---WINTER---

Dear Professor,

Our newest forgotten monstrosity seems content to flit about over our subterranean lake.  I see no safe way to get at it, so I have left it there.  It has so far shown no interest in invading our fortress.  Besides, it looks quite inedible.

I was strolling the parapets earlier when I saw none other than our resident 'siege operator' DuckThatQuacks.  He was hauling his dismantled catapult to the upper fortifications and reassembling it there.  When I inquired what he was doing he stated that soon all would hear of DuckThatQuacks, the legendary seige operator.  I agreed to let him keep a small stockpile of 'ammunition' on the roof, after confirming with the architects that the extra weight would not be an issue.



We were harassed midwinter by a few harpies, but as before, the only major casualty was an unfortunate animal.



One of our lower caste was there as well, and made a surprising account of himself before the military arrived.



At some point a buzzard managed to land on one of our cage traps.  I am informed that they are untameable, but the dwarves seem to enjoy looking at it.



It was in late winter that the strength of my tenure was finally tested.  An ambush of crossbow goblins was spotted near the fortress entrance, determined to shoot our badly injured watchcow.  What does the world have against our draft animals?



Professor I confess no small amount of glee as I ordered the nearest peasant to pump The Lever as fast as he could.



Unmitigated success.

All was not well however.  DuckThatQuacks informed me that he was 'On Break', and thus our military moved in to mop up the crippled survivors without seige support. 



A second group of hammergoblins, laying in wait, ambushed them as they decapitated the spike-incapacitated crossbowgoblins.  With our military currently on the spikes, I did not dare pull The Lever, so we engaged them face-to-face.  It was a slaughter, except for poor Momuz.



Accounts show he was wearing his adamantine breastplate at the time, so I cannot understand how the goblin was able to somehow attack him only through his cloak.  Perhaps the breastplate does not cover the back...?

Regardless, I am needed in the operating theater.  I now cede control to my successor, FlyingDwarf.



Bellwaxed Year 5

Overall I had a relatively peaceful turn. 
Major goals accomplished:

- Brought food/booze stockpiles up to a good level.  My successor should have enough booze to last for almost his entire year.  Food is good for several years.
- Started a magma industry.
- Secured the fort.  All holes to the caverns have been walled off, and the front gate has been fitted with the ever-hilarious repeating spike field.  I replaced the killed watchcow with a puppy.
- Trained Duck up to legendary siege operator.  We still have no siege engineers, so his catapult is base-quality though.  It's now stationed on the roof with ~25 spare ammo
- Cleaned up a lot.  All the raw ore and human equipment lying around has been smelted down and stockpiled near the forges, all the rough gems have been cut and stockpiled near the trade depot.  Much of the raw stone has been quantum-dumped near the masons/mechanics workshops.  There's still some loose stone in the bedrooms though.

No real megaprojects although the spike field took a lot of work since it required the full magma industry to get set up first.

Good luck Flyingdwarf!

[DuckThatQuacks]

While I like my position on the ramparts, I feel it is my duty to point out that siege engines can only hit targets on their z-level -- from my spot on the walls, I can perhaps shoot down flying creatures approaching our fort, but I can't hurt anything on the ground assaulting the gates.

Still, great turn.

[Argembarger]

Solution: A section of the path in front of the fort could be raised up to force enemies to walk around on the same level as the catapult for a time.

[Mzbundifund]

Moving the catapult would be simple enough.  The problem is having the enemies be far enough away that the siege operator doesn't panic and abandon his post.  Siege operators are technically civilians after all.  I've never had much luck with siege weapons.

I'm afraid the next guy is going to have to deal with (or ignore) the new heap of goblin equipment lying outside the fort.  I've got a stockpile near the smelters set up to only accept iron and bronze weapons/armor, and not allow use of bins, so hopefully it should be as simple as un-forbidding the dropped gear, letting the dwarves cart it down there, and then mass-designating it to be melted down.  We've got eight magma smelters and about 15 furnace-operating-enabled dwarves so smelting should be quick.

Bellwaxed map archive

[DuckThatQuacks]

Moving the catapult would be simple enough.

But moving the path, as Argembarger suggests, would be much more dwarven.

With respect to siege weapons: I've found them quite useful for dealing with human sieges. Unlike goblins, humans tend to camp out near the edge of the map instead of rushing blindly into the teeth of the fortress's defenses. This makes them good targets for siege weapons.

[SethCreiyd]

Thanks for a great turn, Mzbundifund.  No worries about Momuz. If he gets infected, we have our first volunteer for solitary cavern exploration.

Moving the catapult would be simple enough.  The problem is having the enemies be far enough away that the siege operator doesn't panic and abandon his post.  Siege operators are technically civilians after all.  I've never had much luck with siege weapons.

If the spike lever is pulled on repeat, the invaders should linger by the outside gate just out of harms way.  Of course, they may just move to the side when the engine starts firing.  Fine work with Duck, though.  I've never even seen a legendary siege operator before.

Spoiler: HFS (click to show/hide)

If we go to You-Know-Where in our search for You-Know-What, then Duck can help protect us from You-Know-Who.  I also hear that a field of cage traps can capture You-Know-Who if you tie a Giant Cave Spider nearby, since the webbing sort of knocks them unconscious, unless I am mistaken and it just slides off.

[Mzbundifund]

Thanks for a great turn, Mzbundifund.  No worries about Momuz. If he gets infected, we have our first volunteer for solitary cavern exploration.

I actually think the diagnosis finished on Obsidian 29, I remember he needed sutures and a splint.  Some far-thinking overseer had stocked the hospital with everything required, including soap, so I have high hopes for his recovery.

If the spike lever is pulled on repeat, the invaders should linger by the outside gate just out of harms way.  Of course, they may just move to the side when the engine starts firing.

That problem could be solved by just extending the funnel walls another 5-10 tiles or so.


If someone is willing to burn 30 logs or so on practice we can train someone up to a novice siege engineer and build at least a -good quality ballista-, although it takes a crapload of practice logs to get enough skill to build +fine quality+ or better.  Still, Duck's such a skilled operator that even -good quality- should be accurate enough to shoot right down a nice long hallway full of clowns.

And yes the giant-cave-spider-webs-on-cage-traps trick works on anything, even forgotten beasts made out of fire.

I forgot to mention that we've got some 15 more +bronze menacing spikes+ lying around if someone wants to extend the spike field or make a new one somewhere.

Thanks for the game, it was a blast!