Bay 12 Games Forum

Frosthames in its 6th year encountered its first forgotten beast ( I usually find one by year two..) called Malolom. A gigantic flatworm with a shell and feathers. My lasher with its silver whip taken from a goblin squad leader was able to get it feeling pain even through the shell. Distracting it long enough for a steel spear and copper longsword wielding pair of fellow militia to finish it off. It is currently being chopped up in the butchers shop for plentiful roasts and soap tallow.

The housing for all project continues well. I have 4 mason shops churning out furniture, 2 carpenters workshops making beds and bins and an army of engravers smoothing the 3x5 rooms ready for use. Out of the forts 120 or so population 40 now have single bedrooms. I should have 120 houses by the following year and surplus rooms the year after at this rate.

I am mainly playing this to test the lizardmen and Orc civilisations I am working on. along with the usual goblins the lizardmen and orcs have both sent ambushes. Whilst the Lizardmen were tough but not nothing too dangerous for my militia. The Orcs provide a decent challenge for my militia. So far Orc ambushers have accounted for 3 fully armored in a mix of metals dwarves lives. Moderately trained. Though all that have come to Frosthames have been cut down. The militia commander accounting for 3 himself with his silver warhammer. Now clad in a full suit of steel armor with copper mask. Now having a total of 36 kills. With a second melee squad now in training. Compromising of 5  silver hammers, 2 silver flails, 1 copper longsword  a steel spear and a battle axe.

My leatherworkers made an artifact leather shield AND artifact leather armor. These were quickly assigned to the marksdwarf squad leader to maximize his effectiveness. I hope to get him an artifact crossbow some day. Till then its copper/bone ones.

I now have a breeding pair of cave crocodiles. I just have to wait till the eggs hatch in the locked egg laying room now for the first generation to be ready. I also have a giant olm and am hoping to get a breeding pair of these also. Once I have both species in decent amounts I will kill off the population of dogs present to save on fps.

Also a curious structure has been found. Full of zombie moosemen and zombie capybaramen. I'm quite excited as I rarely run into these and it has been a while. There is a magma pool as well on the 3rd cavern level that is now the garbage disposal. Lead doors have been built across the entrance to the exit from the staircase leading from that level to my fort. Though I know there will be much more preparation needed before dealing with the curious structure. Still no metal other than gold and galena.. I need to send a squad out on expedition it seems to fully chart these caves. Possibly the new militia melee squad..

So, I've been playing this game for many years now. Generally when I build a fort, its very labour-centric. I use large rectangular rooms with a single 'type' of workshop and a stockpile of raw materials.

So my question is, what simple fort designs does everyone use generally? When I say simple I mean.. basic. So no SDTs or megaprojects or something. Just to see if a design inspires me. I had a friend who used to use circular rooms and they did look nice.

My forts hallways are all 3x3 with 1 wide side corridors running parallel with them. This general principle lets mass traffic move and minimize distances between destinations in the fort. With a grand entrance hallway 5x wide lined with free standing pillars of natural stone leading up to what is usually the only entrance to the fort. If magma or water isn't hard to get  it usually becomes a magma/drowning chamber.

My dining halls tend to be large and high capacity. But with prepared food/booze stockpiles near them or on same level to save travelling distances. With entire z levels given over to housing and nobles estates. Usually the fort branches off the back of one or two staircases for ease of travel.

I just think that they are far to easy to set up for the amazing returns they give you. Live target training and proper use of schedules/training can get the job done and be much more entertaining.

Nisgakezum or the Frosthames finally plugged an aquifer. 2 levels through the stone and I have found gold. literally hundreds of it whilst carving a spiral ramp down to the caverns. The ground level straddles the edge of an untamed wilds Taiga. With moose and giant badgers aplenty strolling the taiga/glacier. The only casualty so far has been the carpenter falling in after dropping the plug to seal the gap in the aquifer. Though he had 2 broken legs and bruised organs he healed most of them in the space of a month thanks to his tough trait I guess. He drank some defrosted water, some booze and ate some yak meat and he only had a dented arm and bruising after finishing that meal. Now to get him to clear cut the trees in the surrounding area near my entrance.

There is an ad-hoc surface camp on the go whilst the excavations continue. My grower/brewer and cook/butcher/tanner have brewed all the plants I brought with me and slaughtered/prepared the 2 horses that came with the wagon. Whilst a breeding pair of goats have been temporarily pastured and 5 chickens a rooster have their own pasture near the new staircase until a spot underground can be made safer for them. At least they'll have all the food they'll need to last themselves whilst the base proper is finished.

I plan to furnish the main dining hall with gold furniture and gold well!

Make iron weapon traps with menacing spikes and serrated disks. They can be lethal. A few rows of them will take care of ambushes and the first siege long enough to let you train up decent military if you supplement that with cage traps.

Bring gypsum powder if you can. Soap is easy to make if your already setting up wood burning furnaces. Just make some ash and get the lye and soaper workshop made and get some treated animal fat.

Nice. I really want to use it for role playing reasons but I am playing the Fortress Defense Mod and not using traps bridges with a trench dug in front to prevent building destroyers so I really need effective stuff for my army.

Well the dwarf using that shield will have the best survival chances likely! Good luck.

Rooms. Bed + Cabinet + Coffer + Engravings on all the wall.  It's the best tantrum preventative that I've found.

Most definitely. Combine it with a legendary dining hall and tons of booze and food of high quality and not much will upset your dwarves.