Bay 12 Games Forum

I usually go with pigs and sheep. Pigs don't need food, so you can stuff them into cages except for a breeding pair. Sheep produce wool but don't graze as much as other animals, so you can use smaller pastures.

If smithing doesn't work anymore, try to make separate stockpiles for smelters and forges. With the changes in this version several smaller stockpiles seem to work better sometimes.

You need a flux stone.

For steel, yes. But OP said he can't smelt anything, so that's not it.

The quickstart guide is a good place to get started.
Once you get the hang of it, it is not that hard. You'll still probably die countless times, but not because of the controls.

Actually that's it. Just checked, masterwork has gremlin civs. Gotta try that some day.

This one?

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=116385.0

4. If you make a copy of the region folder with you newly generated world you can use that blank copy to start a new fort in the same world at the same start date.
Alternatively you can export the seed information from legends mode and re-gen the same world as often as you want.
5. If you have the seed you can also re-gen the world and set the number of years to be generated in advanced world-gen. That way you get the same world but with shorter or longer history.

Are these 4/5 crutches all you have? Maybe you should try to make more crutches or set the hospital inventory to 0 crutches. Not sure, but it could be that the dwarfs want to fill the hospital stocks first before they hand out crutches.