Can't hurt to have 30 turkeys stashed away in a cage in the panic room every 8 years in case of Successful gobbo raid leading to a retreat and full fort flood.
And hey it sounds like your in a mostly metamorphic layer region i believe. Lots of gold and possibly Galena/tetrahedrite? Either way, Goblins are the fourth iron ore should be harvested accordingly. Bonus points for cage trapping soldiers, stripping them of armor and weapons then tossing them into a gladiator arena.
The chance of the fort being overrun by goblins is nearly zero, thanks to the airlock system I'm using at my gate. The chance of a FB overrunning the base is a decent bit higher (for now), but I'll deal with that when the time comes. As for the goblinite, that's nearly exactly my plan. Cage traps -> strip of weapons (and armour early on) -> pit system -> holding cell -> gladiatorial arena to train military = goblinite. Goblinite + fuel (charcoal. Coal isn't on my map, and trading for it gives me too small of a supply) + flux (marble. It's everywhere.) = OMGZ super dwarves!
My map is mostly made up of igneous intrusive and extrusive layers, with some metamorphic. There aren't any sedimentary layers as far as I can tell, in any of the three biomes. More exploratory mining should help to determine whether this is the case. In terms of ore, most of the metals are shallow, usually being no further than twenty-five Urists down. The one exception I've found to this is Sphalerite under the narrow biome that is the entire eastern part of the map. The primary ore (likely 10k+) is Native Gold, making this one of the wealthiest embarks I've ever had. The base value of a Gold Statue is 750 Urists, with Masterwork being worth 9k Urists. That means I could be sitting on over 90 million Urists worth of gold (assuming one bar per statue. I'm not sure if that's actually the case).
The second most common ore is Tetrahedrite. The copper from this is likely going to make up the bulk of my gear until I get larger goblin sieges and can more efficiently harvest the goblinite. The third most common ore, Galena, provides me with lead for bins, with the silver from it and Tetrahedrite also providing me with a large supply of wealth. Most of what this silver is being used for are Spiked Silver Balls, with a base value of 1,260 Urists each (15,120 for Masterwork). I'm not sure if I want to trade non-Masterwork ones away, or just keep them for the dodge-me trap. Either way, there's a -very- good chance that I'm looking at about 150 million Urists of shinies here, just from the metal.
As for the Sphalerite, since I don't make brass items (what's the point when I can just use the copper for bolts?), it's essentially worthless to me. Maybe I could turn it into bins or something. *Shrug*.
My military will soon consist of my three Legendary +5 Miners equipped with steel picks and shields, and bismuth bronze helms, caps, breastplates, mail shirts x3, greaves, high boots, and gauntlets, with leather mittens, hoods, and cloaks. Whatever socks they want to wear, they'll be allowed to wear. I only had enough bars of tin and bismuth to make 24 bars, which works since each dwarf needs 9 bars of Bismuth Bronze and 2 of Steel. Once I get a Weaponsmith up to Legendary (maybe higher) by giving him the job of making tons of copper crossbows, I'll be ready to start up the military. For now, my defenses consist of the airlock system, magma bridge, cage traps, and untrained dogs (just in case). It's rather less than what's needed to defeat a siege (one of which is just outside my doors), so my entire base has been sealed inside for the past three months. Not a big deal, since it's completely self-sufficient as long as no one gets hurt and needs water.
Most of what I've been doing for this year has been mining out the native gold (nearly a thousand ore dug out so far), making copper cages, picks, and crossbows, forging lead bins, and stocking up on food and booze. I also dug down to the second cavern layer, but didn't find anything good there other than the gems and Sphalerite. I'll dig down further later. My workshops still mostly consists of vital industries to keep my fort running, and most of my dwarves are farmers, cooks, butchers, brewers, miners, and haulers. I actually need to assign a couple more to be mechanics, but that'll slow down the hauling (vastly needed. I have about fifteen miners, and they make one Urist of a mess). I finally have a grate for the cistern, so work on that can continue once I link up the bridges and end the siege / ambushes. I have the dodge-me trap partially dug out, though it'll need a good bit more work to make it deadly (optional. Retractable bridges means I can make a non-lethal holding cell). Work on the building destroyer holding cells is coming along nicely, with three rooms dug out, meaning I can hold three FB's for bio-weapons testing. The reverse battlement for archers is also coming along nicely, and it looks like I have enough room to make it a cave-in trap over the main entrance in case something goes horribly wrong. My meeting hall has about twenty-five or thirty dogs now, so once I get a kennel set up I'll have a decent supply of war dogs.
Projects to work on for this year (will expand if I get good suggestions):
Complete the cistern.
Expand the farm system.
Equip my first military squad.
Get a decent dodge-me trap set up, with a temporary holding cell. Low priority. (Waiting for masterwork spiked silver balls and masterwork mechanisms for this. Probably a project for next year).
Set up a large number of cage traps to secure goblinite without having to fight goblins. High priority.
Train migrant dwarves with useful skills and increase the number of haulers. Population is currently 76 (it was 81, but five dwarves were trapped outside when the siege came along).
Continue digging out shinies and turning it into shinier things.
Expand the tree farm.
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Topic: The Island of Socks - My new Dwarfy fort (Temporary hiatus) (Read 9927 times)