User:Squirrelloid/BL Survival Challenge

First attempt ended when my stupid military dwarf wouldn't move to a new station despite being told to do so over a month ago, lost his dogs to harpies because of it, and threw a tantrum killing most of my fortress. Fortunately, it was still spring, so i get to try again. (Seriously, military dwarves should not be able to refuse an order to station somewhere, that's really annoying - i mean, i accept my dwarves will be stupid, but having no control of a military dwarf whatsoever is aggravating).

Second attempt made it to autumn after some risky plays. Images coming in the not-too-distant future.

Townblows

Isn't that a great name for a settlement?

Starting build:
2x picks
2x axes
booze/food (21/21/11/11 booze, 16 turtle, 1 ea. other food)
seeds (1 or 11 ea - 11 for pig tails, rock nuts, sweet pods)
6x bauxite
20+ wood
20+ bituminous coal
random assortment mood items (leather/cloth/gems/metal)
5x war dogs

Prof Wrestler/Prof Axedwarf (wrestler for dodge, not sure if/when i'll ever have great armor, so...)
Prof Weaponsmith/Nov Appraiser/Nov JoI/Nov Persuad/Nov Negot/Nov Flatter - leader
Prof Clothier/Prof Weaver (year 2 plan)
Prof Armorer/Prof Mechanic (hopeful + mechanisms)
Prof Mason/Prof Architect (standard)
Prof Cook/Prof Brewer (team food)
Prof Grower/Prof Dyer (team food)

Year 1

Spring

Quickly delved some storage and workshop areas, immediately started planting. Unloaded my wagon with a large pack of Beak Dogs literally half a screen away. They never seemed to notice me, so yay boulder field and blocking LoS!

Used my military dwarf as a miner because he was going to be useless if they did come after me, and I needed all 7 dwarves working to get things done quickly. Got some traps in my entrance way shortly thereafter to discourage aggressors and soften them up for draftees. Put some beds near the farms since that's where there's space right now.

Ended the spring by delving a spiral ramp down to what will be my Depot level.

Summer

Smoothed Depot area, dug out the start of my main stairwell, built Depot and what will ultimately be goods storage above it (but is right now extra workshop space mostly). Got my mechanic working on cleaning up all that stone.

Farmer is running three fields now. The job queue is getting kind of long from brewing and cooking and harvesting, but i just need to accept i can't delve very fast. Cooking is going to produce most of my value year 1 anyway, so not a big deal, and I have more than enough space for my current purposes.

Finished the season by hollowing out the first of my living quarters. Figuring I won't need to house *too* many dwarves before this is over, so... movement efficiency over housing efficiency.

Autumn

Putting some fire under my workers to clear up the order queue before the caravan arrives, to not much avail. But I have stuff to trade, so at least we're open for business.

Caravan arrives safely. I ask for bars of metal (esp steel), cloth/thread, wood, and coal. Trade mechanisms and stone goods for an anvil, metal bars, booze, high-quality foods (cheese/milk/flour/etc..) and dye, as well as some dimple cup spawn.

Shortly after the caravan leaves we have migrants! 8 of them! Excellent. I need some actual dedicated miners, a leather worker, a dedicated engraver, another food prep worker, and a second Mason for any megaproject aspirations. Start delving stairs downward, and doing some soil excavation for mining xp.

Praise be the miners, my stair delvers found adamantine! Hmm... to find or not to find some HFS, that is the question...

After the migrants are in, I lock the doors for the winter.

Winter

Working on setting up some underground water supplies, making goods, getting the area i've delved squared away and my miners trained. While rearranging work orders I finally notice what my military dwarf's squad name is. The Balls of Steel. Classic.

Also shown: top floor temporary structures. Hasn't changed too much, but in case you were wondering...

So, I decided I'd rather know where the HFS is than not know, so i pierced it on the lowest level by guestimation from where the adamatine veins were. Hmm.. if i'd been a little farther north I'd have ran my stairwell right into it! From the looks of the engravings, i know what kind of HFS it is, and am somewhat disappointed.

Overview, End of Year 1

Kill Count: 2 (Beak Dogs, to traps)
HFS: Found, not cleared
Popularity: 15 (15 dwarves, no dead)
Wealth: 116525!
Meals: 394!

Year 2

Spring

Seasonal summary same as year end summary above.

Starting off with a bang, killed 3 harpies with a recruit after they got stunned by some stonefall traps.

My miners are horribly overworked, but i have other needs, and dropping the ceiling on the HFS isn't something that needs to happen immediately. Besides, my fuel is precious to me, and making metal bars means not making adamantine wafers down the road!

Got an immigrant wave of +20 dwarves. Go go massive population boom! I'm going to have to think about chopping wood for beds soon... Made most of them military or masons - there will of course be a mega-project! Training them up on stone block carving, as I'll want a *lot* of marble blocks before i'm done.

And there's a beautiful first artifact.

Summer

Mining work on project:armageddon commenced rapidly. Soon the weapon was ready. In late summer on the 24th of Galena the dwarven expedition leader gave the order, and they cleared the HFS with no loss of life (although one dwarf did get knocked unconscious from *4* floors above the top of the dropped rock mass due to the shockwave). But let me let some pictures do the talking:

All told about 6 levels of stone was dropped on the HFS. Total overkill =) So do i get to count the underworld elves/dwarves/etc... as kills? =)

Other kills over the summer: a harpy, a kobold, and 3 snail men, all with soldiers (although the harpy softened herself up by running into a stonefall trap).

Autumn

Began work on my mega project.

Another handful of migrants brings me up to 42. Caravan and I do business without incident.

Excitement. Artifact throne worth over 1.2 million dwarfbucks. Now that's beyond quality!

Some harpies sneak in at the last moment and kill my marksdwarf. My marksdwarf who absolutely refused to fire bolts at them as they approached... Wrestlers dealt with the problem for me. That's +3 harpy kills for the season.

Winter

Except for 2 more annoying harpies, the winter is pretty uneventful. Oh, and a crappy artifact...

Producing a legendary *gem cutter*. Yeah, he shouldve been a gem setter, but he was behind on his setting relative to his carving at the moment he got the mood. Also, jewelers are awful for valuable artifacts, but i made sure he grabbed the best gem i had. At least its furniture...

End of Year 2 overview

Popularity: 40 (41 alive, 1 dead)
Wealth: 2,446,046 (~440,000 without artifacts)
Artifacts: 3
Meals:1017
HFS: Cleared
Mega Project: Started
Kills: 42(51), 29 named

27 frog demons (all named) - collapsing roof

2 beak dogs - traps

1 kobold - recruit

9 Harpies (1 named) - recruits/military

(9) Underworld Denizens - collapsing roof

3 Snailmen - military

Year 3

Spring

Start of spring overview same as end of year overview for year 2 (above).

Goblins ambushed me at the end of the first month with *3* goblin bowmen. A civilian got hit by a stray shot, but otherwise my wrestlers came out with reasonably minor injuries. Now they just need some decent armor... They discovered a kobold while fighting, so scratch 6 goblins and +1 kobold.

The king arrived, preceeding a pile of migrants (now 64). Time to delve him some better rooms... a third artifact piece of furniture would be nice...

Speaking of artifacts...

Yum.

And about that mega project... progress thus far:

Images 1-5 follow the Exedra up from floors 1-6 (ground level being the temporary fortress area). Image 6 is the nave and narthex area at ground level. All of its permanent structures are thus far constructed of pure marble blocks (except the 3 gem windows, of course).

Summer

Two goblin ambushes in the first month, sheesh. Also, the human liaison got killed by beak dogs without even being announced, so its not like i had any opportunity to do anything. Killed all four of them (one named for his foul deed) in retribution. Merchants made it in just fine...

King's quarters is nearing completion. The engraving quality is bad because i haven't spent much time training my engravers, meaning i need to find some way to make up the extra value. Maybe one of my many masons will take a mood and give me some more artifact furniture... In the meantime, mood-biasing someone in blacksmithing by making a platinum statue, because i can, and it will be worth a good chunk even with crap quality.

Autumn

Caravan comes in no problem. No more liason because the king is here. I guess I won't request and trade for a ton of blue diamonds before year 5 ends... hmm.. making my gem windows just got trickier... Time for some massive gem mining operations and see what colors i can turn up... Did buy a full suit of platemail so i can equip at least one soldier with quality armor...

Began work on the water portion of my mega-project - no megaproject would be complete without a massive waterfall. And i can cleverly conceal the screwpump assembly in a flying buttress!

Autumn also apparently brings goblins - no less than 3 ambushes all one behind another. Oh well, no archers means absolutely no risk to my military, who is treating the front of my cathedral as a barracks for the time being.

And artifact #5 is also a success, despite being a bone carver mood. Legendary bonecarvers are useful for... uh... something... maybe i'll make bone armor, just because i can...

And had yet more migrants, bringing me up to 70. Almost a Barony =)

Winter

Two more goblin ambushes and 6 beak dogs kept my military occupied. Lost a random peon to one of the ambushes mostly because the peon was stupid.

Dug out and claimed the magma for a forge and smelter. Good times.

Water power is just about ready to go as soon as I'm ready for it. It's a totally excessive number of water wheels, but since when is that a bad thing?

Mega project is coming along, will have more pictures when the scaffolding comes down.

End Year 3 Summary

Wealth: 6,942,048
Meals: 1237
Popularity: 69-3 = 66
HFS: The magma is mine!
Total Kills So Far: 122(131), only 2 killed by traps

7 kobolds

18 beak dogs

12 harpies

52 Goblins

27 Frog Demons

(9) Underworld Denizens - collapsing roof

3 Snailmen - military

Year 4

Spring

Start of spring same as end of year 3 (see above).

Construction is slowing down a bit as i need to quarry more stone, and also as i get to some of the more material-intensive portions of the project (floor/ceiling). Over 2200 blocks of marble used in the building thus far.

Desperately exploring for more gem material as well. I have some 70 gem windows to build, and am short on the necessary gems, especially as color matters!

Late spring brings me a moody dwarf and a ton of migrants, plus the dungeon master. Another mason, sigh, why won't one of my dabbling armorsmiths get stricken by a mood so i can make some masterwork adamantine plate mail... Well, i've got 2 years yet... And masons mean artifact furniture!

Only a single goblin makes an appearance, and nothing more exciting than hoary marmots and mountain goats, making this the most boring season ever!

Summer

Get my first siege about the 13th of the first month, which means no caravan for me (not that the humans carry anything I want right now...). Then the sieging force just *sits* out there instead of moving towards my wide open gates... what do they want, an invitation?

Here's their invitation, signed, sealed, and delivered. +11 dead goblins.

Now that's what I'm talking about. About time one of my dabbling armorsmiths was in the mood. mmmm... legendary armorsmith... Time to do some subsidiary training on iron chainmail level items before cranking out the adamantine platemail.

My king's completed throne room. Its not showing up as well as i would like, but you'll note the battle axe - the blade is rendered in adamantine. The open wall overlooks the nave of the cathedral.

My miners have gone looking for interesting colored stone and gemstones. Would really like some gabbro layers so i could go looking for kimberlite (dark blue would be nice). Alternatively, some dark red stone *anywhere* near my cathedral would also be nice. Oh well, looks like my floor murals will be done in yellow, green, and light blue (and metallics).

Autumn

Hmm... sieged by humans late on the 14th of Autumn - i guess that means no dwarf caravan for me either, huh? Sieged by two whole people? What kind of fricking siege is that. I think its time to axe them a few questions...

Nevermind, there's some more of them. Well, still planning on doing some axing around... I'd love to know why they're mad at me.

Ok, I managed to kill them fast enough to still get a caravan, from which i bought a bunch of stuff I may or may not use.

I've certainly had interesting luck with moods, seeing as mostly they've gone to really unlikely professions. Well, I have a whole *1* child in the fortress, who is the *least likely* (no moodable skills) dwarf to get a mood, and he gets the mood. I almost contemplating forcing him to fail it, but he grabs raw adamantine right away, so i let him work.

Now i have a matching earring to go with my bracelet and ring!

Winter

Construction is coming right along on the cathedral. Little short on red and yellow gems at the moment, but i'm scouring marble layers looking for more. That i'm only short 15 specifically colored gems at this point is something of a relief - i thought i'd be a lot farther away, and red and yellow are both common in marble. The above picture is the nave at the same level as the throne room (seen earlier). There's some flooring yet to do along the side, and a little scaffolding to take down yet.

As of the end of winter, the major stone construction remaining is the ceiling and the main floor, the latter of which i'm using to make mosaic images. Hopefully they'll come out well enough to be comprehensible... The above image is a look at some of the roofing construction - finishing off the major structural elements before laying 'flooring'. Compare what z-level its on with the other image to realize just how high this goes.

Winter brought with it another siege - those pesky goblins again. That's three sieges in as many seasons! Unfortunately, they brought an expert marksgoblin with them, and the Balls of Steel has been vanquished. He's been given a nice tomb inside the main cathedral area, and is the fortress's patron saint of daring - what else would you expect for a truly legendary champion with balls of steel? The above image shows the hero single-handedly killing the other group belonging to the siege, shortly before he took an arrow to the lung against group two.

And finally, as winter closes I compiled this image to show you what my Clothier has been up to. He's made nothing but robes the entire time. My dwarves have sworn themselves to a life of poverty in the service of their religion, so of course they each get masterfully woven/dyed/stitched robes as part of their initiation. Some brothers are getting jealous of the legendary armorer however, who forged an adamantine robe and immediately put it on. (Adamantine clothing, a great way to destroy wealth! 56k in cloth -> 15k robe?...).

And my military is now clad in the finest adamantine armor. May it turn every arrow!

Year 4 Overview

Wealth:19,698,433
Popularity:87 (91 alive - 4 dead)
Meals:1608
HFS: Made arrows from their bones! And decorated them!
Mega Project: 6 months to go, tops... then i have to clean all the vomit off the tiles...
Kills (summed total): 196(205)

90 Goblins

30 frog demons (must have miscounted before... or found new bones?)

(9) underworld denizens

17 harpies (1 named)

9 snailmen

9 humans

11 kobolds

18 beak dogs (1 named)

6 dark gnomes

5 mountain goats

1 giant eagle

Notes: Ok, I've tried to keep careful track of my kills, but i noticed in autumn a bunch of dark gnome corpses laying about not too far from my entrance, and it wasn't too hard to figure out what happened since my military hangs there. I also noticed them killing 3 mountain goats on the way to kill the human siege force... i'd been trying to be nice to the local wildlife, really! So, there's never been an attack on a caravan (the human liason got ripped apart screens away from the caravan), so i'm just going to count corpses and discount the ones that are in the pit/pool since I haven't really entered there.

All kills are by the military except 2 beak dogs (traps) and most of the demons (dropped a ton of rocks on their heads)

I could have a lot more prepared meals, but I've been preferring to focus on the megaproject, so if that total is even competitive then I'm wondering what the heck people are doing...

I'll try to factor artifact wealth out of the total when i finish year 5. A substantial portion of that can't possibly be artifacts - I only have 8, and even at 1,000,000 apiece that's less than half...

Year 5

Spring

As usual, start of spring stats are in the end of last year's overview.

Most exciting artifact yet... and its a weapon rack. Now my king has an artifact for every room =)

And my baron decides to arrive. He also becomes a count by the time the immigration wave has ended. In total, I have 118 dwarves.

Otherwise, spring is pretty boring. The elves have nothing interesting, as usual, and so work proceeds on my cathedral, finishing everything but the main floor by the end of the season.

Summer

Sorry about being 7 days late in the screen shot. Fiddling with mega-construction building caused me to miss the season announcement. (That and getting my new nobles rooms in order).

The countess has demanded a clear glass item. Best of luck to her, but i don't think its going to happen.

And another mason produces an artifact, this time a millstone... Don't really want to have to lay the materials necessary to power that at this point, so i build it in the cathedral as an object of worship. Contemplating killing the creator so i can entomb him next to it...

And the humans siege me again, but make no attempt to approach. Since the three groups are about as far from each other as possible, i teach them the value of interior lines of communication. Many humans and their horses die this day. Why can't they just tell me what they're upset about? (Its hilarious to watch dwarves in full platemail run down humans mounted on horses, btw.)

And the cathedral is finished. See its own section below.

Of course, now that my mega project is finished, what do my dwarves *do* for 6 months?

Autumn

Having finished their great project, the dwarves hold the inaugural prayer over the future tomb of their king.

And a dwarf gets inspiration to make a crown suitable for the king.

Excitement - first megabeast. By the time it dies its got something like 60 enumerated injuries. I love wrestling.

As the season starts to turn, I get a surprise announcement. Encased in ice? awesome.

A miner has an 'unfortunate' 'accident', killing himself. AKA I needed another saint for the veneration of the masses. He is entombed in a cathedral chapel. Yeah, it'll hurt my popularity, but i need saints for my theme.

There were also some back-to-back ambushes which were dealt with trivially.

Winter

I get lazy and don't bother to make him use raw adamantine. After I see its a coffin i'm sad i didn't - oh well, it's still better than what i'm currently using for the king, so now the king has a suitably impressive coffin.

Apparently a dragon has heard of the wealth of the dwarven cathedral. It knocks over some waterwheels, but my military quickly puts it down. Two megabeasts in two seasons is rather cool. My cooks decide to celebrate:

End of Year 5

Noble satisfaction:

The others are similarly happy. The king has at least one artifact in every room he requires.

Raw Wealth:40,960,444
Artifacts: 12

Regkebon, adamantine bracelet, 733200

Shedimsebshos Enen, raw adamantine throne, 1225200

Nerridanban, topazolite grate, 48000

Stesokvuthil, adamantine ring, 769200

omgasis Zammuth Anil, cave lobster shell idol, 799200

Ngarakgasol, raw adamantine door, 1332000

Egur Arist, adamantine chain leggings, 1034400

Nosimshen Abalkogan, raw adamantine earring, 708000

Suvaskez Fidgam Urrith, raw adamantine weapon rack, 1951200

Nirselen, raw adamantine millstone, 966000

Faktangath Rath Balad, raw adamantine crown, 1536000

Keshanmuzish Udushul, marble coffin, 246000

Artifact Raw Value (sum above): 11,348,400
Artifact Display/Wear Value*: 6,802,800
'True' Wealth (minus total artifact value): 22,809,244

• all worn or displayed (built furniture) objects count their value twice, once for the item itself, and once for the wear or display value.

Meals: 2301

Raw Kills:

1 Dragon

1 Hydra

102 goblins (2 titled + 2 other elites)

37 human siege forces (1 elite)

29 horses they were riding

2 cave swallowman (both named)

30 Frog Demons

1 Demon

13 kobolds

1 Giant Cave Swallow

17 harpies (1 named)

18 beak dogs (1 named)

(12) snailmen

(1) giant eagle

(8) mountain goats

(6) dark gnomes

Popularity: 120 (125 alive - 5 dead)

HFS: Cleared summer of year 2, specific date given in appropriate year summary.

Mega project: Finished and abundantly documented

Megaproject: Cathedral

I've uploaded composites of the first 3 layers below, and some 3dwarf shots followed by some Visual Fortress shots. In total, the cathedral required 4780 stone blocks, most of which are marble (ie, everything except the colored blocks used in the murals).

Design of the cathedral is inspired by real cathedrals in part, and by ancient temples like the parthenon (eg, the front face). These dwarves engage in ancestor worship, of course, so the main dias has the king's tomb, and the shrines along the side are tombs for worthies. (Dungeon master, countess and consort, and others reserved for warriors. Famous warrior Unib "Balls of Steel" Dodokoth Aluthalod is in the 2nd tomb from the front on the right side.)

You might also notice the waterfall on the right.

The first floor has 3 major images on it. In the NW, a dwarf with a pickaxe. In the NE, a dwarf with a battle axe, its blade resting on the ground before him. And in the south a glass of ale running over. To the W of the ale is the date of the cathedral's completion.

The king's throne room, in the exedra on the 2nd level, is situated in the middle of an axe mural as shown earlier.

All windows are gem windows - which should be obvious considering my total lack of glass industry. There are 57 such windows, requiring 171 gems, mostly red and yellow (red and yellow glossulars and topazolites making up the majority of them).

(Unfortunately, there's a lack of darkly colored stone types on this map - even the red was far removed from my fortress though ultimately i did make blocks specifically from the bauxite for murals. Thus I apologize for how hard it is to see them, but i could only work with the colors i had - desperately wanted kimberlite).

Unfortunately, it was hard to get good shots in 3dwarf because it didn't render far parts of the cathedral if i got too far away. My mega project is apparently too large for it to handle? Here's the best images i got.

If i had it to do again, I'd redo the flying buttresses. But i think getting them to look the way I want them to would require another story or two on the cathedral, which, while i do have 6 months left, I don't have the gems to make that many more gem windows!

Now with Visual Fortress Images!