User:Squirrelloid/Udirthocit Urdim Datan

Fortress: Udirthocit Urdim Datan, Blackspike the Tower of Iron Group: Umommamgoz Gomath, The Dark Dragon of Legend

Goals

Turn the center of the map into a tall tower with its entrance at the bottommost z-level. Channel out everything else. Flood the map with magma.

No really, its that 'simple'. Along the way I want to extract the mountains mineral wealth.

Map and Settings

Virtually every tile on the embark had * for its relative elevation, which means great fun. There's a magma pipe, flux (marble), and lots of igneous rock... yeah, I may need to 'import' (ahem, kill bunches of goblins) most of the iron. There's also an underground river and pool to the south somewhere (ie, far from where I'll be starting), and a peat layer in the north.

Area is 4x4, pop max is 40 (to hopefully control lag), and I'll probably use Reveal.exe to reduce lag from hidden tiles. There's no secret fun stuff (I could have, but it would have required 4x6), so at least one major source of lag won't be present.

Build

2 picks, axe, bunch of alcohol, food, seeds, etc... No anvil - i'll trade for one in the fall. Also some random materials for any moods I might have.

I don't normally like starting with a miner, but I figure I have a lot of digging to do before I get to where I want to live, so I'll need to have someone I don't have to worry about changing professions to miner on me. Which mostly leaves it a question of what other profession to make him. I go with carpenter as I really would like the beds to be decent quality... Actually, lets make our 'dedicated' miner Mason/Carpenter since he'll gain miner skill quite quickly anyway.

Mason 5/Carpenter 5
Armorer 5/Negotiator 1/Intimidator 1/Appraiser 1/JoI 1/Pacifier 1
Brewer 5/Cook 5
Metalsmith 5/Grower 5
Mechanic 5/Building Designer 5
Weaponsmith 5/Furnace Operator 5
Metal Crafter 5/Furnace Operator 5

Yes, I know, no anvil. Do note that 6 of the 7 have valuable mood skills, and a sixth can be dabbled in one. Of course, dwarf number 1 is actually going to become a miner before he ever gets a mood - and that's actually ok.

From the start I'll rotate non-miners into the second mining 'slot' while the brewer/cook brews all the plump helmets and cooks all the food.

As I normally start with an anvil I have a crapload of money leftover to spend.. I load up on bauxite, tower cap logs, coal, and iron bars. I may be keeping my wagon for awhile with 128 coal...

And absolutely no animals... unless the elves sell me something awesome like a giant eagle. There will be a pet death trap.

Log

1st Granite, 51: We thought we were arriving down near the magma pipe but a freak thunderstorm caused us to get hopelessly lost. After the wagon broke an axel we decided we were there, and when the clouds cleared we noticed we were a few hundred feet above the magma pipe. A quick scan of the cliff face revealed an abundance of malachite, native copper, and hematite (bless our late geological advisor), a little bit of aluminum, and large amounts of valuable obsidian. It was an auspicious start.

Then we noticed the 5 fire imps in the caldera... at least there was nothing else threatening to be seen... assuming the local groundhogs weren't threatening.