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 Hunt
ed?