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[Nexii Malthus]

I have been getting so much bituminous coal that I am fed up of the stuff. My primary issue is that in two forts now I haven't been able to find any iron.

[Tai_MT]

To solve the "unending ambushes", it's been my experience that you have to completely wipe them out once or twice.  Then they usually stop.  You can also wall in your entire map.  I typically wall in the entire map except for the cardinal directions.  It doesn't stop flyers....  But flyers can't ambush you (or won't, in my experience).  Place some dogs on chains or ropes around too.  It'll keep the ambushers from ambushing your people and keep your animal populace done.

If you have dogs, you can train a ton of them to be war dogs and assign them to a military squad for your forays.  At the very least, the dogs can keep enemies busy and get them distracted enough that your solders can kill them.

[crossmr]

What does the "x" mean on items? I can't seem to find that, and it's damn near impossible to search. but if I have:
x fur hat x

It means your items are wearing down.

Ah thanks, they are items I pulled off random dead foreigners. I'll trade them out at the next caravan.
I've probably pulled about 100k in worth off dead foreigners/invaders to this point.

[crossmr]

I bought some anvils to melt down to get some iron to make steel..
I have tons of marble, I've got charcoal, and I've got about half a dozen iron bars.. yet I can't make pig iron??

[The Scout]

I've got loads of coal, iron, and adamantine in pillars all the way to the surface. But no flux.

[crossmr]

I've got loads of coal, iron, and adamantine in pillars all the way to the surface. But no flux.

trade you..this is really strange
I've got 12 iron bars
10 pieces of charcoal
like 200  marble
and the option to make pig iron bars at the smelter is red, it won't let me do it.
can you use charcoal to make pig iron?

[crossmr]

The answer is no.. you cannot use charcoal to make pig iron. I finally found magma, and when I built a magma smelter, suddenly I could make pig iron at it....
40 levels up I'd have to bring the magma..

[wuphonsreach]

If you absolutely have to have iron, copper, whatever...

Embark, "dfprospector -b", decide whether you want to stay or not.

(I won't stay at a location unless there is at least 3k worth of iron and 5k of either copper or silver.)

[randyshipp]

The answer is no.. you cannot use charcoal to make pig iron. I finally found magma, and when I built a magma smelter, suddenly I could make pig iron at it....
40 levels up I'd have to bring the magma..

This is absolutely not my experience in the latest version of DF.  I've never breached the magma, relying only on charcoal, and I have all kinds of steel.  I smelt magnetite for iron with charcoal, I make pig iron bars with charcoal, and I make steel bars with charcoal.

[crossmr]

The answer is no.. you cannot use charcoal to make pig iron. I finally found magma, and when I built a magma smelter, suddenly I could make pig iron at it....
40 levels up I'd have to bring the magma..

This is absolutely not my experience in the latest version of DF.  I've never breached the magma, relying only on charcoal, and I have all kinds of steel.  I smelt magnetite for iron with charcoal, I make pig iron bars with charcoal, and I make steel bars with charcoal.

Charcoal from wood, or coke from lignite, bituminous coal?it absolutely refused to make it on my regular smelter, and when I clicked it, it said "requires fuel"  but I had 10 charcoal, built the magma smelter, no problem, could make it instantly there.

[Qwicol]

I've made 20 sets of complete steel armor and wapons using only charcoal.

[Hoan]

As a possible solution for those whose charcoal does not get "recognized" i had something similar happen in "the perfect spot".
It seemed that charcoal in the wood furnace would not get accepted by the smelters until it was moved to a stockpile close to them.
Dont know whether it was the distance or stockpile or even some burrow-screw-up, but my short point is: try fuel stockpiles near your smelters.

[Lexx]

The (slow, but reliable) answer on fuel is to carve out your entire soil layer as a huge tree farm. And perhaps wall off a large section of cavern as well. With getting good metal, my only advice is that bauxite seems to coincide with iron / coal.

Definitely agree with this. You can also carve out and flood large rooms and trees will grow on the mud after you breach the caverns. This will let you have a safe tree source and extra food. Also import extra timber. Refine charcoal in large batches and stockpile it. Only use wood for bins and beds so you can have more for charcoal making.

[o_O[WTFace]]

Just bore down into the cavern layers and clear cut them.  If you can make some metal weapons you will have no trouble with regular creatures.  Be sure you can wall it off in case a syndrome spewing forgotten beast comes.   

[krenshala]

I've made 20 sets of complete steel armor and wapons using only charcoal.

Same here.  I've never had a problem using charcoal to make pig iron/steel.  Of course, as Hoan mentioned, I use a Bar/Block storage area near the smelter that only accepts metal and coal/coke/charcoal bars (I don't remember off hand which it lists as, but its in the same section as Potash and Soap for bar type).