User:Albedo

Okay, going to use this page as a log for my latest fortress. Which, with luck, will be the first of 5 I take to the end, without some fatal n00b oversight early, either by selecting a world without any challenges (no goblins) or traders (not even other dwarves) or without adequate resources (no flux, very little metal of any type), or just bad luck - namely, landing too close to waaay too much fun (for a beginner, anyway).

I tend to micromanage, and don't play marathons each day, and don't have a powerful PC that can crank through dwarf-seasons in a few minutes - and what this means is that this will go slowly, compared to some others.

And so it begins... (pre-embark)

The site

The chosen site is 6x6, with sand over flux (chalk) in 4 of the northernmost tiles, and a savage good biome on 3 of the western most - the two southern most, and 1 extreme NW'ern - trees in these 7 blocks are scarce, at best. It's almost flat, but mostly obsidian (treeless). Magma Pipe just off center to NE, long UG river across the southern half of the map, brook across the northern half near the sand. In lower layers we have more obsidian, some granite (nice!), some gabbro (also nice!) and a lot of diorite (yawn.)

Starting Seven

Screened my original seven slightly, tossing out the first couple groups - no cat lovers, no real slackers, no serious over-indulgers or quitters. The party consists of the following:

• Leader/Security/Outdoorsdwarf: Ambush 6, Axe 6, Armor User 10, Appraise 6, Judge of Intent 6, Architect 6
• Miner 10/Siege Engineer 10
• Mason 10/Stone Crafter 10
• Armorsmith 10/Leatherworker 8 /Armor User 7
• Weaponsmith 10/Cook 10
• Mechanic 10/Brewer 10
• Gemsetter 10/Grower 10

(These mixes were chosen with an eye to several factors, including future possible moods, time-demands of skills, and when the skill would be needed (sooner or later). I'm not perfectly happy with the mason/stonecraft combo, but for me, for my priorities and gamestyle, I like this mix far better than other, more conventional choices.)

In the wagon

Provisions chosen include:

(final numbers somewhat variable, depending on availabilities)

• 1 anvil
• 1 copper pick
• 4 dogs (not wardogs, just "dogs")
• 2 cats (to intentionally breed for leather, meat & bones)
• 1 each of every available fish/meat that costs 8 or less
• 11 turtle
• 2 cave lobster
• 11 plump helmet
• 49 alcohol

• 6 wine (first to make, and no one's favorite)
• 11 ale
• 2x 16 each beer & rum (of the 7 dwarves, 3 favor rum, 2 favor beer)

• 8 seeds for plump helmets & quarry bushes
• 4 seeds for cave wheat, pig tails & sweet pods
• 2 seeds for dimple cups
• 4 bauxite (there's sedimentary, but just in case, and for immediate fire-safe builds)
• 0/10 bituminous coal (not available - dammit!)
• 1 copper nugget
• 6 tetrahedrite (copper & silver)
• 3 cassiterite (to make bronze with the copper)
• 2 bismuthinite (for bismuth bronze, & for moods)
• 3 galena (for the silver)
• 5 wood
• 1 leather bag (for immediate seed gathering/storage)
• 3 leather (for a few more quick bags)

I intend to make my own axe for woodcutting and defense, out of bronze. Bronze is about one third better in combat than copper and actually takes less fuel (2 bars:1 fuel!). Bismuth bronze is more valuable than bronze for very little more effort and no more cost - and rare-ish, so I'll keep some for moods, just in case. (I considered Sphalerite, for zinc, but none is available, so that decision is made for me.)

Strike the Earth!

Day 1

01.01.01

(RL Day two - I started yesterday, but, predictably, the game crashed, unrecoverable. So, after re-genning the world and re-embarking, we start over... not auspicious...)

"...ere the beasts get hungry. A new chapter of dwarven history begins at this place, Dunatish, "RoughnessBars"..."

I am (once again) underwhelmed by the name. But you get what you get...

I wanted to dive into the northern sand (which is about 4x faster to dig, that much faster to train miners, and is where the flux is), and I land about 110 tiles south of there, on the other side of an open pipe with 4 fire imps plus a magma man. This will take some hauling...

I look for the exact spot to begin digging, my entrance for now, until I stabilize and then migrate back to the locale of the pipe. In the brook bed I can see obsidian and rhyolite alternating - large clusters, most probably, by their location on the map blocks. I try to take an educated guess to their exact extent of the low-value stone (a 20x40 oval, so not that hard), choose an entry point, and mark out some preliminary mining operations.

I order the wagon deconstructed for the wood, mark the sites for a wood burner and smelter, and a stone stockpile to get my copper and cassiterite ore (for bronze) moved to where it will soon become an axe. Wood too. And establish a Restricted "no go" zone around the pipe - don't need to get anyone torched in the first few days. We'll need a wall asap. (The Weaponsmith/Cook gets designated "Carpenter", on the theory they'll have some amount of spare time on their hands.)

For now, a ramp down (will become 3 wide by Fall for the caravan), a hall (that will get trapped) about a dozen tiles long, a 90 degree turn to a hall half that (where dogs will be waiting, with military if necessary), and then open an area for immediate storage of everything - we'll sort it out as we go, but right now, underground!

A white sand, obsidian, and alunite jumble. Not going for value, not for permanence right now, so sand is fine for everything but the dining hall, which I want as impressive as possible - center it there, where I can see obsidian on the surface, and see what we get around it...

Day 10 - meet the neighbors

01.01.10

One and a half weeks - woodburner is operational with 2 charcoal scheduled (one for smelting ore, one for forging axe), and the smelter is being designed. Slow going - the long walk back and forth to the landing site delays everything. Dogs (and cats, and the horse, and the camel!) had all been nosing waaay too close to the magma, so I ordered an emergency mason shop built above ground, and had a table set up asap. No one has taken a break yet, and I've ordered only alcohol brought in for now, hoping to keep the drinkers all in one spot after their last hauling job, but we'll see...

Below ground, the mason has just achieved Adept skill (10 days, not too shabby). The entry hall is mostly 2-tiles wide for better traffic flow, there are 3 empty 3x4 stalls (earmarked for carpentry, bowyer and mechanic, all near the entrance) and the first exploratory excavation of the kitchen areas has begun. Guessing soil/stone boundaries from the surface has been fairly accurate, and helped with the overall planning. The 6x7 Dining Hall has been designated within the pocket of obsidian, so I'll wait for a bit more skill in my miner before diving in there, to get the most out of that stone. First, farm plots...

Hmmm... was checking on my animals, which had not yet all congregated around the table, and found there's a dead fire imp. Torn to pieces - 11 by my count (how many "chunks" does a size 3 imp have?!), strewn near the exposed pipe. And... yep. One of the dogs has a wound, a light grey front leg... <squints> ... I hope that's light grey... (never can tell...)

Giant Eagle on the map, too, but on the other side of everything. If it doesn't bother me, I won't bother it... for now... So the question is... do I want that fire imp carcass?... and the answer is... hell yes. But not quite yet - there's time before the season changes and wipes it clean, if I remember... need that wall up...

Oh, and good news - a herd of wild horses. My draft horse is female, so it's likely a breeding program will get a jump start.

Day 17 - Strike the Keg!

01.01.17

6 of my 7 dwarfs are hitting the bottle, so it's time to take stock of where we are. In good shape, I think. Farm area is carved out, kitchen area (kitchen, still, farmer's workshop, storage, UG & AG farm plots, & inter-access) is laid out and miner was about to start on Dining Hall when this smoko struck (miner is long past Expert, Professional can't be far). 2 bronze bars waiting, temporary (conventionally fueled) forge is laid out with fuel waiting, will get built as soon as mass parch is quenched, and then the axe (finally!) gets made. MUCH later than projected, but the other 3 imps have calmed down, after threatening (within 20 tiles!) of AG work/entry area. <Ending day 2 of play, several hours scattered> Have moved 9 barrels, 6 of 6 seedbags, 3 leather, and the leather armor, crossbow & bolts UG. About a dozen ore to AG area. Still have about 3 dozen(!?) barrels waiting, plus a very few ore and wood - 1/3 done? At 110 tiles away, knew it would be a slow bitch.

(day 2 ended, several scattered hours throughout the day)

(Oh - btw - the dog is fine! Any dwarf in armour would have lost a leg - the dog walks away clean. No 3-legged dog jokes here!)

Day 25 - Punitive Action

The fire imps, however, are getting pushy, and waaay too close to the haulers, and need to be spoken to harshly or it's not going to be pretty. And when they aren't, the tomcat keeps thinking about visiting them, and I'm a ways from the butchery for him. Axe was finished - it's ≡exceptional≡! Exceptional bronze... which makes it the close equivalent of a standard steel axe for combat purposes. Well, I'll still take it and run.

The Leader, Thob (sexy name!), gears up in leather and axe (two skills she actually has!), and the Very Agile Mechanic/Brewer grabs the crossbow. I give the miner a nice task (start the kitchen storage cellars), detour the mason to produce a front door and kitchen surface hatch and start the privacy wall, and we're goin' on a fire imp hunt!

...and so they tried to torch the tomcat, within a stone's throw of my front door. Even as the two are gearing up to stop exactly that. Now I'm just pissed... it's not that losing the male cat would be a big loss at this stage - he's (it's a safe bet) done his job, and was toast (metaphorically speaking) as soon as my butchery was up. It's the principle of the thing! This... is war.

3 imps shift about 20 tiles away, and begin to flee as the two approach - ha! One dives toward the safety of the magma, but two are separated from that haven - them! One is surprised as it comes over a ridge, before it can breathe fire - two bolts and one axe swing later, and it falls, a leg flying one way, the head the another, but there's blood on the ground, and the imps bleed "goo" - the Mechanic with the crossbow has a light wound to the chest. The imp's partner is above on a wide plateau - the squad of two dwarves doesn't want to face that fire, so they wait, and catch it coming around a corner - an axe blow sends it flying about 10 tiles - three of four down. The light wound is already gone - painless.

The hunt's lasted 3 days already, the end of the month is here, and the 4th imp is still in the magma pipe. The decision is made to continue the punitive action at a later time...

(Update - after giving the squad of 2 order to re-locate back to the Dining Hall where they'd then be decommissioned (and drop all their gear), the imp poked his head out of the magma. One lucky cross-bow bolt, and we're imp free. Snapshots rule. <shrugs> )

2nd month - end of the beginning

01.02.01

Still 2 dozen items left to haul, and now the fire imp carcasses and parts on top of that, but things are starting to look like... something. Not a fortress, but no longer just a badger scrape, either. And only about 4 have been hauling the last week or so - the mason and miner have been doing their thing, and the leader and mechanic were detoured for just cause.

But before those bodies rot, we need to deal with them. A quick AG butchery (until the UG one is carved out and ready, but more in case of fire), a tannery soon to follow, and designate the jobs to... someone...

01.02.05 Everyone goes on lunch break. For the day.

01.02.09 And more drinking across the board. Leaving an imp carcass sitting in the butchery. Which gets hauled back to the stockpile, in a rare and completely ill-timed instance of efficiency.

01.02.14

Built the AG butchery, and a good thing. Fire imp fat doesn't explode every time, nor with equal violence in each instance, but when it does - BOOM! (stand by for screenshots...)

People starting to fall asleep. Everywhere - half way back to the wagon, in the butchery, where ever. Priority has been to get that food underground, so haven't stopped to make a Carpenter's workshop, much less any beds for them - they'll live through it the first time. (If someone had been injured, that would have changed.) 11 barrels & 1 (empty) bag to go. All fire imps accounted for except 1 arm & 1 head.

Started to rain, harder now than earlier today, and fill some of the dry holes in this desert. This will make my dwarves extra happy - sleeping in the dirt (or maybe mud) in the rain. Bonus. The still has been designated to be built. Begin long task for clearing cavernous UG towercap forest - our miner reaches Accomplished and is going through sand like a termite on speed.

01.02.19 Tanning begins on 4 fire imp skins. 01.02.22 Butchery done, even on last head and arm. Last tanning job in progress. Score.

01.02.25 - finally

Last item is being hauled in - perishables are inside! The ore is still on the surface, but being walled in to the enclosure, dimensions of about 20 x 25, and about 25% done so far, just in the mason's spare time.

Designate everything urgent that we've been putting off...

01.02.28 As Slate, month #2, comes to an end, we enter stage two, a bit late, but alive and kickin'... We take stock of achievements, landmarks and goals...

• 5 dwarves are "quite content", with 1 ecstatic, and 1 "just fine".
• Buildings: Carpenter, Mechanic, Kitchen, Still, Tanner.
• Temporary (above ground or in misc. open area, to be moved) Forge (underground), and Wood Burner & Smelter (above ground). Also AG mason, AG butcher & UG leathershop.
• Dining Hall (3x3 for now), 2 tables
• Excavated: 7x7 plant storage, 7x7 barracks, 18 tile-long entry hall, 6 6-tile farm plots, barrel storage, plus ~200 tiles for Towercap farm.
• 30/90 wall completed
• front door in place.

Yeah, when I start counting the "front door", I know I'm scraping the barrel. 5 permanent workshops plus as many that need to be replaced - this is not impressive, to me at least. That long distance hauling hurt, and hurt bad - but it's over. Time to get a 2nd miner on duty in the towercap farm while the #1 miner excavates what will be the magma feed for the forges and glass workshops. Plus a Trade Depot, craft shops, permanent mason and etc, traps for the hall... yeah, stage two.