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:

• Thob - Leader/Security/Outdoorsdwarf: Ambush 6, Axe 6, Armor User 10, Appraise 6, Judge of Intent 6, Architect 6
• Zan - Miner 10/Siege Engineer 10
• Urist - Mason 10/Stone Crafter 10
• Sodel - Armorsmith 10/Leatherworker 8 /Armor User 7
• Iden - Weaponsmith 10/Cook 10
• Atis - Mechanic 10/Brewer 10
• Asob - 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.)

The Leader/axedwarf will add in unskilled woodcutter, herbalist and animal trainer, and cover all the outdoor duties with a few wardogs in tow (until they're assigned elsewhere). The miner will do nothing else but mine, all hauling turned off until they have a solid replacement (and they themselves are Legendary+, hopefully with some monster Strength/Agility for hauling in wood and then moving those siege parts). Almost everyone else will be furnace operators, to cover than as it comes up, and almost everyone except the cook will be a butcher/tanner, to cover those duties asap before anything rots (the cook will cook what's butchered, oddly enough). The Weaponsmith/cook will add Carpenter, and cover those duties as well for now.

The mason/stonecrafter will have their hands full at first, and I'll sometimes wish they were two separate dwarfs (been there before with this mix), but after a few seasons stonecrafts will only take a few weeks out of the year, and at some point a mood will create a legendary one while this concentrates on mason. The Gemsetter is a long plan - personal pref.

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".
• Miner has just made High Master skill level.
• 4/4 fire imps deceased, butchered & skins tanned. 4 stacks of 3 meat, 5 stacks of 1 meat, about the same mix of bones stacks, 2 fat becoming tallow, & 3 skulls. For a x10 value creature.
• 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
• Created Wealth: just over 8000.

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. Created wealth is only accidental so far, mostly from architecture.

Month 3 - settling in

01.03.08
Now Grand Master Miner Zan carved out the 4 dozen stones in good time - the magma is tapped, and begins flowing toward where the forges will be carved out. Meanwhile, a temporary mason's workshop produces the doors for the forges while clearing out the obsidian while the magma flows up to a stable level 4, to power the new facilities.

1.03.12
The first door is detoured and used to lock in the fickle and easily distracted mason, one Urist, to do the job needed. 15 doors and 2 clear workshop spaces, coming up! A temporary craftshop (probably the first of several) is designated to be set up a level below that, next to the proposed site for the Trade Depot. A second bronze pick has been forged before the old conventional forge was broken up, and we look for a volunteer to wield it...

1.03.20
A week of widening tunnels into halls, carving out future work spaces, and clearing the never ending stone from them. Some cooking and brewing, five beds in place (ample for 7), a dozen bins made. And a bucket. Released the mason to go eat after 8 doors (one exceptional), and designated the first magma smelter and forge. Installed a door to separate the towercap excavations, and that is slowly progressing, training and building attributes of Sodel, the Armourer/Leatherworker, who was the first one idle. Sent Zan to find the underground river, shown on the rough map - 4 shafts spaced 12 tiles apart along that area block boundary, and nailed it on the second try! (Long sucker, too - 3 1/2 pages of unpleasantness, including 5 cave crocs.) Now, to set up some flood control, irrigate that area and get all that started...

End of Spring summmary

• 5 dwarves are "quite content", with 1 ecstatic, and 1 "just fine".
• 1 (unlabeled) miner, 1 Legendary+ (Mighty, Very Agile)
• Old Buildings: Carpenter, Mechanic, Kitchen, Still
• New Buildings: Butcher, Leather, Mason, Crafts, Kennels, Tanner, Magma Smelter (the first of several), Magma Forge.
• Temporary: AG: Wood Burner & Smelter, mason, AG butcher
• 6 UG plots (3 spring crops planted)
• 2 AG plots (no seeds - moderate priority)

UG: 2 masons (both in own obsidian fields)

• 3 wardogs attached to Leader/Outdoorsman
• Dining Hall - 3 tables, 3 chairs, no complaints
• Wall - no imps, no improvement.
• 3 anti-rhesus stone traps in narrow part of hall. With a single bolt as bait.
• Towercap farm: est 350 tiles excavated so far, 2 doors for flooding in place, mechanisms assigned but not installed. (This will require more miners - keeping fingers crossed for Winter.)
• ~40 drink, ~20 food, not including the most valuable (forbidden for now) - this is perfectly acceptable.

• Created Wealth: just over 22,000 (7+ in architecture, 2+ in furniture, 8+ in "other". Haven't even gotten started.)

Summer - month 4, Hematite

01.04.01 Time to get some wealth, gotta impress the merchants if we're going to grow.

Exploratory mining just started, planning to punch shafts down thru the center of each area block to see what's down there, layer by layer. Started first today before nap time. Found several colorful but valueless stones immediately below the forge area, but several layers of olivine - and that means platinum, and my gabbro layers. And MUCH more exploration, but good to know.

01.04.01 Sleepy time again, 5 of the 7 all at once. This time with (just enough) beds.

01.04.15 - Pull the lever

A long delay while waiting for a door to separate the very different tasks of the Legendary miner and the now Proficient miner #2 - and for him, reaching the end of his stint. Exploratory shaft... more colors, that tell me nothing I didn't already know - negative. Decided to go for the exposed vein of hematite that's about 50 tiles from the entrance - less than a season to go, and counting.

On the home front, my now-so-called-Adept Mason is not impressing me - lots of -well crafted- dreck for the merchants. Hope they bring a lot of ore stones with them.

But with no new secondary miner in training we order the lever pulled on the tower cap farm to get that process started.

01.04.17 That was fast - too fast. The exposed vein was badly eroded - just over 40 ore, and that's at a 100% recovery rate. Weak.

01.04.21 In true DF fashion, the long-forgotten lever finally gets pulled, now that two new miners are in the area - the Gemsetter and the Mechanic - both are Very Agile Tough, and I wanted a bit of Strong before they hit the hauling. Not worried, it's separated from the main fortress by hard walls and an AG access, there water flow is small, and they can waddle to safety, I just didn't plan it that way...

01.04.23 Slightly worried. Everyone is on break or across the board, giving me (and the now-lone dabbling miner) the big DF finger. Water varies from 1/7-3/7 over a 500 tile area. My leader chooses to come from the far side of the map to pull the lever. My hero. On the plus side, there's a steelhead trout in there. :\

Ah well, we'll just close the doors and mine a little extra to expand the water, instead of flooding to fill the area... yeah, that was the plan all along...

01.04.24 My leader forgets what the plan was. I've had enough, and order that newbie miner to cancel all duties. With nothing else to do, they deign to pull the lever. The water settles out just under exatly 2/7, about 50% more than what I had planned, but not catastrophic - just needs a lot more mining before it will begin to evaporate.

But I have a feeling that meeting my goal of 125k created worth for the caravan arrival, with ample trade goods, is going to be tight...

A very wet and muddy cat has trout for lunch. Everyone is drinking or on break. They all love me, really they do.

Month 5 - Malachite

01.05.01 And the game loves me.

I've got my first iron bars - and can't make pig iron. Plenty of flux, unforbidden - and it's not showing up as an option, not in two different smelters.

And that's a good point to end tonight, right after a quick post on the forums...

...

...and that's a good reason not to play when you're tired. I need coke.... wait, that sounds bad... I need "refined coal" for the pig iron and steel! (sheesh) Well, at least I realized it on my own, before posting. I was exploring the chalk for coal veins... back to that particular mine.

I've previously sunk 2 exploratory shafts to the bottom, dead center in area blocks, one conveniently near my fortress, the other on the far side of the towercap excavation. Looks like maybe 6 layers of chalk, and 3 area blocks adjacent to the north - nice. With luck, I'll hit something coal-like sooner than later. Just as soon as my ace miner gets off break...

Struck petrified wood in my 3rd area block shaft - never actually seen that before. A completely meaningless change from generic colored rock.

Half way to fall and the caravan soon thereafter, and still a long way from high gear. One Craftshop over-full of mugs, built a second and third adjacent to the Trade Depot - not enough bins, not enough wood in this desert. Towercap cavern expanded to about 600+ tiles, but that'll have to be put on hold just as soon as we can get 'er in gear. Created worth is under 35k, but that's meaningless until we try.

01.05.15 - Coal, finally

mid summer's day

5 shafts in the chalk, on a grid 6 tiles apart, and also 6 deep - as deep as the chalk goes. Nothing but white - then SCORE! 6th chalk shaft, bituminous coal. And close to the forges, or close enough. And so my miner decides it's time to go drinking. Well, we found it, so we gear up for pig iron and steel production. No way charcoal was going to cut it in this desert.

Low on food, under 20 - hope the crops come in soon, or I'll have to open up the expensive meat sooner than planned. With the last of the expedition plump helmets brewed, drink is holding at around 50 (tho' I suspect it's under rather than over.)

01.05.19 It's always something. Now everyone is asleep except for one drinking, every last one, and 1 without a bed - what're the odds?

01.05.22 Back on the horse, and everything's hummin'. 3 magma smelters operational and manned - er, dwarfed - producing iron and coke. Zan, the legendary+ miner, just hit Mighty/Extremely Agile - he'll be doing a lot of the coal hauling, I just have this feeling.

On another front, the 3rd miner-trainee, Atis, the Mechanic/Brewer, just hit bauxite in the 4th center-block exploratory mine, so we're covered for magma if and when. Been at Skilled Miner for a while, Very Agile/Very Tough, so about to hand the pick off to the next trainee and put those attributes to good use. And then he hit a magnetite pocket! It's about a 90 tile walk from the forges, but it's there when those few dozen hematite run out. (Gotta plan what I'm going to make with those I have... a quick selection of steel weapons, and then plate and chain armour for the value.) Atis, the one non-sleeper from earlier, now takes this opportunity to fall asleep in the shaft he's digging, simply because I locked him in there. I am not impressed with his dedication.

01.05.25 Bituninous vein was about 10 dozen. I had missed it by 1 tile with my 2nd shaft - meh, but I found it, that's what counts.

01.05.28 - month end

At minimum 1 month, but probably 5-6 weeks until caravan. While digging connecting tunnels to remove the coal, Zan struck aluminum - only 5 nuggets, but got 5/5. (Legendary Miners rule - I think he missed only 1 of the 10 dozen coal.) My mason has been crappy, turning out drek regularly - not sure I want to turn him loose on that, but I may have no choice - that's close to 20,000 in value if the statues are decent. And found Tetrahedrite toward the bottom of that other shaft - nice bonus - silver practice weapons guaranteed.

Now, if I only had two months to make use of all this that I'm now finding before the caravan assessment...

Oh, and no migrants this season. No surprise there.

Galena, month 6

A half-dozen towercap sprouts in the caverns. Hopefully more dense as time goes on.

01.06.14 Half way thru the month, maybe 3 weeks until caravan. Steel industry only just now hitting pace. Ordering first weapons made, 1 each steel axe, spear, and hammer, and an obsidian shortsword when mason is free. Let's see if we can't attract some military in the first migrant wave.

3 aluminum nuggets are in a lockable mason's workshop, and the mason claims to be Talented - let's see him live up to that. 3 aluminum stone statues, coming up.

About 2 weeks behind desired schedule. Hoping to have armour, weapons and those aluminum statues all covered and in hand, and working on details like gauntlets for the armour users and finishing the AG compound wall. Bleh.

Have widened the entry hall to allow passage of the wagons, and 3 staggered rows of stone traps (so cages can be added up front later without removing all of them!). They're enough, but all for now. Cages will come with trading, not enough wood to spare to build any. For now, 100% focus on wealth, weaponry, and some throw-away workshops to lure desirable migrants. Bowshop, loom and clothier, and jeweler's shop, specifically. Maybe a glass furnace if there's time, make some early glass pumps for training - but I'd bet against it.

☼01.06.15☼

HOLY SANDBAG! I take it all back. A ☼masterpiece aluminum statue☼, right out of the gate. First masterpiece on site, even with one workshop cluttered with mugs. After producing those trinkets, plus 3 dozen real pieces with almost nothing better than +fine+, where did that come from? 12,000 dorfbux - that helps. Maybe the curve will even out here.

01.06.17 And the next two were *superior*, at 4k each, plus a superior obsidian shortsword. That'll do. Now - get back to making mugs! Time is running short, I can feel it...

10 days before Autumn - fortress is becoming a machine, just hope it's not too late to impress the merchants. The 3 statues have now been installed in the now-Royal dining room, everyone is ecstatic (literally, 7 for 7!), and the other two aluminum nuggets moved to the lockable mason's shop (as opposed to the three temporary ones each in their own obsidian fields, ahem.) AG statue garden on the horizon.

01.06.21 Last week of summer. Two axes (to get a decent one, they'll both get used), one spear and an exceptional hammer, and now the armorer has taken over the forge, where they'll park for a while. 4th smelter built, and 3-4 smelters working full time to provide all the steel he can use.

Exceptional plate armour, and two more superior - 42k. See, that's what happens when you choose an armourer who likes steel. (What 'til he gets around to making steel gauntlets!) 125 k? pffft. Passed 133k created wealth, and haven't even started on chain mail. (Okay, an unexpected 35k in aluminum statues didn't hurt, aluminum being about 10x the value of obsidian.) Everyone's going on a drink break... and I'm okay with that.

End of Summer summary

Wow. The difference between prepping and producing has been huge. I'm having trouble grokking the final numbers, so I'll break them down at the bottom...

• 7 dwarves ecstatic.
• Old Buildings: Carpenter, Mechanic, Kitchen, Still, Butcher, Leather, Mason, Crafts, Kennels, Tanner, Magma Smelter (the first of several), Magma Forge, Craftdwarf.
• New Buildings: 3 additional Magma Smelters, Bowyer, Loom, Clothier, permanent Butcher w/ carcass air-lock, accessible Trade Depot
• Temporary: AG: Wood Burner & Smelter, mason, AG butcher, 2 extra mason's, 2 additional craftdwarfs.
• farmplots - no change
• 4 wardogs attached to Leader/Outdoorsman
• Dining Hall - "Royal", 5x5 wxcavated, seats 5, inc. "meager office" for broker.
• Wall - no changes
• 3 rows of stone traps
• Towercap farm: est 600 tiles excavated so far. 16 sprouts visible so far, plus some plants(!?). Not "dense", but hella denser than the desert above it.
• ~100 drink, 14 food, not including the most valuable (forbidden for now) - this is acceptable with the caravan on the horizon.
• Created Wealth: ...(wait for it)...almost 160,000 (32k in architecture, 33k in furniture, 42k (so far) in armour (a new category), 6k in weapons (likewise), 26k "displayed" (also new), 21k in "other".)

And yet, with all the delays, I can't help but think it coulda been a lot more. Meh, we'll see what the caravan thinks... I count on the second week in Fall...