Yesterday I played a whole game of Dwarf Fortress in less than half an hour, and that's without abandoning.
I embarked on a terrifying mountain with a bit of marshland biome. The only immediately visible creatures were four beak dogs. I was happy to see them, because they looked like great target practice since they were separated from my dwarves by 5 z-levels of sheer cliff.
Feeling safe, I set some orders for my dwarves and went to browse the forums while they're doing their work. I checked on them now and then, and everything was running smoothly. But then I checked again and noticed a canceled job, the cause being interruption by a grimeling. Now, I've never seen a grimeling before, but the name didn't sound too scary (you just can't sound scary if your name ends in -ling). I did want to see what it looks like, so I scrolled around to catch a sight of it. You can imagine how surprised I was to find five dwarven corpses. Only the miners were still alive, so I drafted them and sent them to face this monster. They sustained minor injuries before killing them.
Now, I was down to two tantruming miners, but I was determined to keep this fortress alive. The game had other plans, however. I barely finished burying the fallen (in a graveyard stockpile, without proper coffins) when I got another job cancelation announcement. This time, it was caused by a harpy. I remembered reading that harpies are weak, so I drafted my miners and sent them to fight the flying menace. The miners went separately, and were promptly slaughtered before inflicting any injuries upon the enemy.
Anyway, this game must've had the greatest fun/time ratio of all the games I've played. So now I'm looking for similar games. I'd especially like to try taking on ogres, so any tips on finding them are more than welcome.
