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.

End of Year 2 overview

Wealth: Meals:1017
Kills: