Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Casp]

"Ooh, plenty of metal in this one! That's perfect for my fast military strategy! I'll go here!"

I go in, strike the earth like a pinata. Five levels down and guess what I've found:

Tetrahedrite
Gold
Galena
Cassiterite
Cobaltite
Malachite
Many, many, many assorted gems

Guess what's missing.

[Gizogin]

Ooh ooh!  I know!  I know!  It's microcline!

[Casp]

Ooh ooh!  I know!  I know!  It's microcline!

If only.

Guess again.

[ZeroSumHappiness]

What are you missing?  I see bronze there.

Oooh, are you missing goblinite?

[Casp]

Let's see. Copper, tin, silver, gold, lead, gems...

What is the one metal that is utterly vital to starting an early military?

[yamgrenade]

Coal? I don't know. I a noob.

[Casp]

IRON.

THERE IS NOT A SINGLE SPECK OF THE STUFF TO BE FOUND. I have literally every material except the one I actually need.


EDIT: And the bastards just struck native silver.

[ZeroSumHappiness]

Bronze, dude.  Even copper will last you the first early sieges when goblins are utter shite and in small numbers.

[Casp]

Bronze, dude.  Even copper will last you the first early sieges when goblins are utter shite and in small numbers.

Yeah, it really isn't that the situation is untenable as much as the insult of it. There is, quite literally, every material except Iron. And coal.

[Keeshi]

Well, atleast you found something! i say, gold swords for everyone!

[raptorfangamer]

you are either limited to goblinite and trade caravans, I say, find a way to not to lose so many dwarves or to use correctly every metal (like dense ones for blunt stuff... or something like that) in your militia, with the money you could earn from the metal though, you may get enough to sustain your military only with caravans, good luck, at least you are not at war with the hippies elves with only ores of nickel to be seen.

[SirAaronIII]

No need for coal, just use magma + charcoal for steel, and order iron everything from the mountainhome. Iron toys, iron armor, everything. Melt it down, then you'll probably get a few bars. Melt all goblin stuff down too, and that should give you at least SOME iron.

And bronze is good enough for most vanilla enemies, minus megabeasts and some FBs.

[simonthedwarf]

I started a new fortress too. After digging out the main dining rooms, a badger ate my hunter.

[BCPowers]

My most recent fort that rose and fell within 2 years didn't have any iron either, but the rise and fall is mostly do to my stupidity of not starting a military earlier or setting up some sort of defense. I may have not had any iron, but I did have adamantine and PLENTY. I was bathing in the stuff, however I had no military or defense to fend of the first siege and my fort fell.

[krenshala]

you are either limited to goblinite and trade caravans, I say, find a way to not to lose so many dwarves or to use correctly every metal (like dense ones for blunt stuff... or something like that) in your militia, with the money you could earn from the metal though, you may get enough to sustain your military only with caravans, good luck, at least you are not at war with the hippies elves with only ores of nickel to be seen.

In my case I started at war with the hippies elves, only to find that my Surface Metals consisted (at least on the surface) of ... zinc and galena.  ** sigh **

I started again, and now I've got small amounts of limonite, lignight and coal, and crap tons of tetrahedrite, and (iirc) sphalerite.  Oh, and chalk is a layer stone about three to five z-levels deep at the surface.  Of course, I've lost three dwarves to dehydration in the first winter, the broker prefered keeping the books (counting the four bins of craft goods, I guess), drinking and sleeping to trading for drink and other useful items, and my military might have time to train to novice with their weapons before the elves arrive (assuming I can make copper spears fast enough to arm them).  Such a nice embark and I had to screw some minor things up in the first spring/summer ... Good thing I have a decent defensive position set up.  This should definitely be !!fun!!

I started a new fortress too. After digging out the main dining rooms, a badger ate my hunter.

You mean your Hunted?