Bay 12 Games Forum

managed to make a few dwarves survive, and then a vile force of darkness arrived and they were in no position to defend.

Appears you missed the "A lovely force of magma has arrived." message that should have generated earlier.

I solved it all!, i simply embarked with 4 proficient miners 


i had to make a new fort for... well certainly no reasons involving pumps, magma, and overlooked diagonal hallways near the main dining room...


seems the best solution is just to dig a small meeting area w/ farms, then dig like mad to the bottom of the map, built the entire fort on a "coastline" of sorts.
the nobles even have some nice windows looking into magma. took a damn lot of pumps to get the Moses effect going long enough to build the windows.

Sounds like a FUN solution.

I once got the announcement and received the entourage but no king. Then I checked the 'c'ivilization screen, and saw that my civilization had no leaders of note.  Then I was a sad panda.

Though you did get an entourage that probably had 3-4 legendary armsdwarves without getting an extra noble making mandates.

The one king I got identified as a "peasant" in the lists since he wasn't trained in any skills.  I promptly made him a farmer and then cross-trained him for a few levels in a lot of areas to make him a true dwarf of the people.

I use long access tunnels with drawbridges to trap siege squads like Urist da Vinci mentioned above.

Inner side of the tunnel are a few grinder set-ups and then some cage traps.  High dodge skill leaders sometimes clear the traps and get caught in the cages.  Otherwise, they tend not to go down until the grinder.  And their squad ends up hanging around in the grinder as well.  Once the goblins are in retreat mode an open gate on the inner side continues to draw them in.

And once they're chewed up the militia sorties from the inner gate and mops them up.

Note: the outer hatches on the grinder set-up are screened by two squares of lever-operated spikes.  This is used to deal with the building destroyers that go after the hatches.  Also helps soften up the goblins as well.

Final bit is a few weapon traps on the tunnel just outside the grinders.  These soften up attacks and also deal with thieves and invading wildlife.

               ---Grinder---
             |                 |               
Gate- C- + Gate ----- + T ------------ Gate
             |                 |
              ---Grinder---

C - Cage Traps
T - Weapon Trap line
Gate - Ditched drawbridge
Grinder - Pad triggered hatches and more weapon traps

So interesting

So the basic value of golden salve is 2500. But how do I trade it? I can't find it under "extracts" on move items to depot screen

Look at your vials on the trade screen.  The real valuable ones are the ones containing the salve.

Alloy Kitten Cuteness with Dwarf Beard and that would be a hammer to be feared.   

I've not been a fan of the long-maze defense plan.  My first "training fort" eventually had tunnels with windy paths and piles of traps.  I discovered that these tended to actually be dangerous to my mechanics who would go to reset cage traps at the drop of a hat and thus charge into goblin sieges (Note A).  And that using single-width tunnels led to congestion when cleaning up afterwards.  And if I put in short-cut tunnels to aid access I had to make sure the entire tunnel was secure before opening these up - which led to further patrolling, issues with securing exits (Note B), and losses of civilians who would go into tunnels and discover goblin ambush teams the hard way. (Note C). 

You also get the problem with an early trap killing or caging a squad leader, after which the whole group "camps" in the tunnel until they get very bored, you chase them out with your militia, or a dragon appears and flames them for you.

A - Burrow issues here. I've since made each access tunnel their own burrow and can thus keep the civilians out of them during alerts without a great deal of fuss.
B - Doors work, but trolls stop and destroy them, and goblins seize control of them.  I've also used drawbridges with pressure pads - but these kill dwarves now and then.  So now it's drawbridges connected to levers and ditches at the end of access tunnels to act as seals.  Can keep goblins out, and also keep them in.   
C - I tend to put animal watchtowers at tunnel entrances, and also post watch animals partway down the tunnel for early warning.

My current preference is having my trade depot at the intersection of 2-3 tunnels that lead from the fort fairly close to the edges of the embark.  The tunnel exits allow for migrants or trade caravans to get underground as soon as possible and into a "controlled" environment.  Multiple tunnels are used to allow for entrance from different directions, and also for tunnels to be closed for cleaning, maintenance and upgrading, or holding enemies in place.

The tunnels are 3-wide to facilitate traffic and being used for temporary storage (Note D).  Drawbridges are located at either end for sealing, and generally also a third drawbridge seal to force traffic into narrow trap corridors (Note E).  The main corridor is also trapped - cage traps as a last line of defense and some weapon traps towards to outer edge to deter wildlife and kidnappers.  The inner part of the tunnel and the trap corridors are overlooked by fortifications that the marksdwarves can use.  I have also added pit traps and dodge-me magma pit traps to a few of these.  The latter are also useful as temporary dump points for cleaning up if you do not want to save non-iron goblin gear.

D - In wooded regions a lumbering expedition out of a tunnel entrance will initially stockpile cut logs in the tunnel.  Once the civilians are done cutting the outer door is closed and the haulers can safely move the logs to the main stockpiles inside the fortress.

E - These corridors are "grinders" were pathing gets blocked and attackers end up repeatedly running back and forth over a set of weapon traps.  The hatches used in this are protected from trolls by a few sets of lever-operated spear/spike traps.

If the tunnel is long enough 2-3 squads of a goblin siege can be lured into a single tunnel and sealed in.  None of them get out, and the wounded eventually path back in towards the fortress since that is the only way "out" after the outer drawbridge is closed.

It's something that you have to accept as "character" for your fortress in the current version.

One of my forts has a ghost that can't be settled.  Was a caravan guard who dodged into a magma trap while fighting a goblin siege that arrived at the same time as the annual caravan.  No body to recover, a tomb won't work, and not on the list as a memorial candidate.  He flits about haunting this or that dwarf to give them bad thoughts.  So he is a bit of a fortress mascot.