So I just moved up to .21 and chose a nice easy temperate embark to play with some clay and suddenly winter comes around and the rivers freeze. I didn't think rivers froze in temperate environments?
Even in .18, I'm always cautious about Temperate embarks and plan on the river being frozen for at least part of the year. I've had a few where it was frozen most of the year, and others where it freezes once in a blue moon.
I always try to quickly carve out a 11x11 room underground near the river, and put a floodgate at the far side away from the river in a little 1x3 corridor. That lets me get 11x11 worth of water underground before the snow starts falling in late autumn and any above ground water freezes. Once the floodgate and fortification tile(s) are in place, I can flood it by digging out the channel tile. Later in the winter I can then tunnel towards the floodgate from the other side once I design my water system.
[floodgate] -- [fortification] -- [cistern] -- [fortification] -- [stairs up] -- [channeled tile] -- [river]
I've done small cisterns that are 5x5, but go down a few Z-levels, or I've done the lazy 11x11, single-depth. Multiple Z-depths are ideal, especially if they get smaller as you go down to the next Z-level. So 9x9 on level 140, 7x7 on level 139, 5x5 on level 138, 3x3 on level 137 with at least one 2-3 tile long tunnel with a floodgate at the end.
The fortification tile is to keep any nasty critters out of the cistern. I will almost always put fortifications on both sides of a floodgate. It should also deal with building destroyers that would like to destroy those floodgates.
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Topic: River freezes over in temperate embark? (Read 11698 times)