User:LaVacaMorada

List of fortresses

Mörulkol

My very first fortress. It wasn't pretty.

Highlights:

• I chose a location with a stream, a mountain, some trees, and a temperate climate. Unfortunately, it had no flux, sand, magma, or any of the other things that I hadn't heard of yet.
• While learning the ropes, I came very close to losing this fortress four times - once when I lost my lone miner and pick to a cave-in, once to a goblin siege, and twice to famine. Somehow, I survived.
• A lot of this fortress was located outdoors. Once I figured out how to build defenses, I walled in a large area with several trapped entrances.
• I built a large underground aqueduct, connected to the stream and controlled by a lever and a hatch, to fill a cistern and irrigate some farmland. Unfortunately, I didn't understand water pressure, and I built the lever in a place where it could become flooded. Oops. I eventually managed to drain the lever room and close the hatch.
• My tax collector demanded a coffin in his dining room.
• I was attacked twice by titans. One of them died to a spiked wooden ball trap, and the other is now the main attraction at my zoo.
• I started a giant eagle breeding program, courtesy of the local elves.
• This fortress is now a Mountainhome.
• Shortly after the king arrived, I built a makeshift arena and ordered several goblins dumped into it. The king volunteered both to throw the goblins into the arena and to kill them afterwards.

Mözirolon

In which I tried to apply what I learned from Mörulkol.

Highlights:

• I found a suitable 4x4 location at the convergence of a desert, hills, and a mountain. It had some trees, sand, plenty of flux, and a brook.
• Early in the game, I discovered a chasm. There weren't very many creatures there; just a single giant bat, several naked mole dogs (all male), and some cave swallowmen.
• I made a lot more use of z-levels than I did before, making the fortress much more efficient.
• I was attacked by a titan with only one foot. I was hoping to capture her, but my lack of understanding of ramps allowed her to avoid my cage traps, and she was causing a lot of job cancellations as she limped towards the fortress. I sent a few of my soldiers to put her out of her misery.
• The mayor banned the export of rope reed items as the caravan was leaving with a few hundred articles of decorated goblin clothing, some of which had rope reed images. This resulted in a mass slaughter of my citizens by the hammerer, followed by a tantrum spiral that reduced my fort's population from over 200 to about 70.
• Of the survivors, about 60 were children, military, or guards (mostly champions). The rest were pump operators, who were isolated from the carnage both physically and emotionally. I retrained the pump operators and rebuilt my workforce.
• After I rebuilt, I got yet another surprise export ban, this time from the duke. In order to avoid another mass slaughter, I locked the hammerer in her room. I channeled out the ceiling and put a garbage dump there to give her food and alcohol. My bone carver has an outstanding sentence of 77 hammerstrikes and 1201 days in prison.
• I made several elaborate sculpture gardens, including waterfalls and very valuable statues (one was an artifact, and another was a masterwork native platinum statue with over 3 pages of decorations).
• I bred as many types of animals as I could. Most of them are in a cage weighing over 120,000Γ.
• Shortly after the queen arrived, I got bored with this fortress.

Interlude: Boldolxah

The next world that I generated had no goblins. I lost a couple of fortresses early on thanks to some aggressive wildlife, then tried adventure mode. I managed to get an adventurer to the ruins of one of my fortresses, where she picked up a masterwork obsidian short sword and enough mugs to trade for some armor.

With the help of this equipment, I completed several quests. I went to an elven forest retreat hoping to get a quest from the druid, but accidentally attacked one of the elves. Having incurred the wrath of the entire forest retreat, my adventurer managed to kill some of the elves, but a bowman eventually killed her.

Åmstâkud

In which I started playing with fire. And water.

Highlights:

• This fortress was in the same world as the adventurer above.
• I chose a location with an aquifer and some magma. There was also a flux layer and plenty of sand. Although the region was labeled as hills, it was completely flat.
• I lost a few dwarves early on because of fire imps setting the world on fire and my dwarves ignoring it.
• Using the bauxite with which I embarked, I tapped into the magma pipe from the side and used it to fill a part of the aquifer layer with obsidian.
• I was lucky enough to obtain an artifact chain and later an artifact bucket, which I used to build a very nice well in an obsidian room above the aquifer.
• I found lots of copper, but very little other ore. Fortunately, with no goblins in the world, the strength of my armor was not a major concern.
• The adventurer mentioned above managed to start a war between the elves and the humans. Although both of them got along with my dwarves, my human guild representative slaughtered an elf caravan, then died in a fistfight with an elf diplomat.
• The queen arrived, but showed up as "Friendly" rather than a member of the fortress.

Akmamthol

A fortress with some very unruly neighbors.

Highlights:

• For this fortress, I was looking for something a little more challenging. I found a 4x4 area rich in both resources and challenges. It had no magma, but practically everything else: a goblin fortress, an evil forest, a chasm, an underground river, and adamantine.
• A glance at the world history page for this world revealed only about 100 goblins in the whole world, a pretty small number given the large number of goblin fortresses. Converted humans, elves, and dwarves made up the rest. My "goblin" fortress had one actual goblin (not even the leader) and many dwarves with goblin names.
• To be continued...