Bay 12 Games Forum

I was playing last night.  New fort, not even a year old yet.  Got a message that a Carp gave birth.  I haven't played in a long time.  I just assumed in was a new thing we got notified of now.

So here is my attempt to document the lives of my dwarves.  I hope to keep this up until the 'fun' gets unbearable. I apologize in advance if I post a few times and then disappear.  Anyway, lets begin.


The Journal of Marius Gusillegon, Expedition leader and current manager of The Just City, 12th Galena 253.



Only four months ago did we celebrate the coming of age of Melinda Umeravuz and today she was elected our first mayor.  Never have I heard of one so young being elected to such a position.  I scoffed when I first heard she had even been nominated.  I've put in a lot of work to dig the foundations of this new settlement these last two years and didn't see her as a suitable replacement.  But I was in the running for mayor more because being expedition leader it was expected by many that I be considered to continue in such a leadership position.  However, I did not campaign much.  Honestly, I was not that interested. 

These days I am much too busy with my stonework and administrative duties.  Keeping the books and managing the workshops keeps me enough in a leadership role without having the responsibility of the whole fort on my hands as well.  Anyway, our first mayor is a 12 year-old party-goer.  She is friends with half the fort if not more and I swear she is always throwing a party.







We've done great things here and I hope this young girl doesn't throw it all away.  Our proudest achievement to date was piercing the aquifer we found when we arrived here.  Finding it was unexpected and greatly delayed our reaching blessed stone.



I suppose as I come to my last hour as leader here, I'll document all we've done to this point.  We have a robust number of fisherdwarves and hunters.  Food is abundant.  We've built farms above the entrance to our fort along as sheep pastures.  We are steadily growing the number of our flock and hope to have a strong wool industry up and running soon.




We found a complex of caves as we dug down to forge our new home.  We broke into them while digging out a storeroom for rock goods.  We quickly walled it up, though we made sure to maintain the original design of our storeroom.  One day we will explore the caves more fully, but we have yet to form much of a militia.



Since we have a limited access to the stone below (unless we want to organize an additional breech of the aquifer), we built a track down into the stone so we can easily transport all the goods we collect from the surface.  Our first area under the aquifer is a large stockpile and trade depot.  The stockpile will take everything from the surface and sort it for delivery to the proper areas in the fortress below. 



Our last completed project was the carving out of a kitchen and main dining hall.  It includes another rail track that brings meat and fish from the main stockpile down to the kitchen stocks.  The dinning hall hasn’t been completely smoothed yet, but it will be done soon.  We are in the process of carving out facilities for processing wool and plants for dye and cloth. Finally, there is a rock processing center where we take the blessed stone and turn it into blocks and furniture.  My favorite place, I might add.





That pretty much sums it up.  We have had several thieves and snatchers show up, but our large number of hunters typically prevent them from leaving with their lives.

Is there a way to give equipment to your companions?  I'd love to toss them a few pieces of armor.

My current fort I embarked with one dwarf who had some military skill training. Weapon, armor and shield use and teaching.

I brought a Silver Hammer, and a few pieces of bronze and copper armor.

After the first migration wave came, I set him up in a squad with one other dwarf. This particular dwarf had a bit of training already.

When the first caravan came, I bought a few more pieces of metal armor.  By the time the first ambush arrived, those two dwarves were skilled enough to take them all on by themselves and never be touched. They dodged or block the few hits that came to them and massacred the goblins. They did it again with the next two ambushes. 

Now I have them separated with one new recruit each to train. I still haven't set up a metal industry yet, but I've bought a few more pieces of good armor and acquired many mail shirts, helmets and shields from the goblins.

Oh, and I had those two dwarves training one a 3 month on, 1 month off schedule.

As a side note, one of those dwarves didn't have a real weapon for a while, and I neglected to give her a training spear either. (she had some initial training in spears.) The first few thieves and baby snatchers that showed up were just pummeled to death by her shield. To me, it seems the 'fighter' skill is most important to a military dwarf.

To un-arm him without moving him:

First hit 'd'
Then 'b'
Next 'd'

This brings up the 'designation' screen, selects for mass designation for forbid, claim, dump, etc.

You will need to set up a dumping zone:

Hit 'i'
Drag out a one square zone
Activate it as a dump zone by hitting 'd'

Finally, hit 'k'
But the cursor over the cage the goblin is in.
You will see that the cage is marked to be dumped by the pink 'd' in the top right corner.
Hit 'd' to turn this off.
Now, everything inside the cage is set to be dumped, but the cage will not be.

Your dwarves will come and take the goblin's equipment away and put it in your dump zone.  When they stop doing that, his 'd', 'b', 'c' and then select your dump zone.  This will mass claim everything there, giving you access to the goblin's former equipment.

You now have his stuff and he is naked in a cage.

I figured it out. Its my fault. I didn't have anyone set to dressings for med. Though he no longer needed it, I'm sure he was waiting on someone to come tell him that.

Anyway, he got up, and started working again.  Of course, he found the first and only black bear to visit my fort so far and got mauled by it. Tore his arm up pretty bad before he got away. Now he is in the hospital for a good reason.  LOL  :-)

Nearly a year ago, before my hiatus from DF for a while I had a real nice fort going with an impressive military. I had each squad set up with their own barracks for sleeping and storing their equipment. All of the barracks were near their training sites as well as the front gate.

It really helped with their ability to form up at the gate quickly when an ambush was spotted or if there was a siege to repel. Also, when I had them on guard duty, it reduced the time it took for them to go to sleep and then wake up and return to their post.

I think in the right situations it can be really beneficial. However, it isn't necessary.