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!

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...