I mean, wow, it's just getting ridiculous. Five attempts to get through the same year, and they've ALL been met with complete destruction before Autumn. (I've put TL;DR s for all my tries).
So here's the story: It's the 8th year of my fort, doing quite nicely (even got a few bits of cotton candy, which I turned into a sword and an artefact earring (huzzah ¬.¬)). Currently at 100 dwarves (still only a mayor though, and no other nobles...). I've got autosaves on, and these all begin from the start of the year
Try I: Sometime during late spring, I'm halfway through building my cistern and grave-spire, when I get a few messages about job cancellations due to a giant lion. No biggie, I thought, assuming it was referring to the river on the other side of the map to my fort. Then the messages come. Somehow the lion had gotten through my 3x10 row of traps from my ONLY entrance into the fortress, went down past both my stockpile levels, through my industrial level, where half my of my dwarves were working without giving any warnings, went straight down three more levels and straight into my meeting hall. By the time my lone militiaman got down there, about 20 dwarves were killed by this monster. The resulting tantrum spiral didn't start off too bad...but then my militiaman went into a tantrum. She had full steel, and the adamantine sword. I have never seen so many dwarves die so quickly. ~20 in 6 seconds. Say goodbye to attempt I.
TL;DR Lion bypassed my entire fortress, killed a load of dwarves, tantruming cotton-candy-wielding legendary finished off the rest.
Try II:My mayor, lazy sod he is, and avid fisherman, went off to the other side of the map to fish. I get an interrupt "An ambush Curse them!" about 6 gobs. Not to hard, I think, so I send out my commander to fight them. Commander rushes over to the now-exhausted mayor. "An ambush! Curse them!" another 4 goblins appear right next to the first set. 1 v 10. Might be a little tricky, I say to myself, but whatever, let's do it! She starts fighting, kills about two or so..."An ambush! Curse them!" eight goblins suddenly rear-end my poor commander. Within a few short frames she is brutally stabbed through the head, along with the mayor, and they start making a beeline for the fortress. Okay, I can just lock them out, and quickly draft and train some militiamen to fight, right? Kobold thieves is the answer to that, discovered by a cat, their fleeing UNLOCKING my doors and preventing me from closing them. The gobs swarm in (utilising a captured door to the currently open-air gravespire, bypassing the traps) and there goes attempt II.
TL;DR Multiple ambushes kill military, double-teamed with Kobold thieves to make me defenceless.
Try IIISo I'm going about my merry business, and as summer kicks in, I get a nice little announcement about migrants, and sure enough, here they come, down from the top of the map. And then I get interrupts. Forgotten Beast interrupts. One of my two local FBs somehow managed to path through solid rock to get up to my exploratory staircase purely for the sake of perpetuating the fact that, yes, my save is cursed, and yes, it wants to ruin my day. Really badly. Beware Oxut Acmot Epo, a forgotten monster whose deadly attack was effectively throwing exploding frozen shit at high velocity, which it used to turn one of the new migrants into offal-covered giblets scattered within a 30-square radius. My militia commander eventually killed the excramental FB, and started going back to the meeting room. Carrying a syndrome. Despite all my orders (even to go to a new burrow) she refused to listen, and went straight into population central. Say hello to instant brain neurosis, hope you like miasma!
TL;DR Shit-flinging forgotten beast.
Try IV"A vile force of darkness has arrived!" is the nice message I get during early summer. About 20 goblin archers come out near my fortress entrance. Thinking quickly I lock the doors (gravespire is currently walled off). Now while my above-ground farm was abandoned (along with a few trapped farmers - they were good temporary militiamen), I have a nice under-ground farm complex, which can supply enough food to last us indefinitely (including making booze). Now, the gobs are all outside my entrance, so I'm definitely trapped (past experience dictates that my militia commander WILL die), and slowly but surely my dwarves start to get a little bit unhappy. Then one of them goes for a quick swim under my magma forge. On fire, he decides that he needs a drink. He somehow ignores the closer, larger booze stockpile near the meeting hall, and instead, goes for the still....across my farm complex. He then hits my still, and all my booze and seed barrels. Now I don't have enough food to feed everyone, and the resulting tantrum spiral as a result of one dying of thirst killed everyone.
TL; DR Goblins forced my dwarves underground, food and booze supplies lost to insane dwarf.
Try VGoblins 3: Raid Hard with a Vengenace! Not only do thirty of these guyes turn up this time, but they're all riding giant bats. realising there was nothing I could do, I waitied while they flew over my gravespire, went down the internal set of stairs, and made a beebatline for the meeting room. In a heroic last stand, I ordered everyone into the militia, choosing their own weapons (they mostly chose some steel spears I'd been manufacturing for a migrant killing sorting machine). The battle was glorious, and it looked like we could turn the tide (~60 armed, pissed dwarves against 30 bowmen at close quaters) but my militia commander got shot through the eye halfway through, and then it all went to pot (looking through the logs, the militia were kill-stealing), with blood and carnage all about. A lot of decapitated babies too, oddly enough. So there went try V.
TL;DR Flying goblins bypassed entrance, glorious last stand. Decapitated babies.
So, as I warily begin attempt VI, I ask this: Is my fortress doomed to die? I can't help but to get the feeling that somewhere, within the magma-covered depths of the game code, Armok is laughing at me. I am making a plaintative gesture.