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Author Topic: A Few Lessons Learnt After Years of not Playing  (Read 3086 times)

Sadrice

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Re: A Few Lessons Learnt After Years of not Playing
« Reply #15 on: March 04, 2012, 06:07:51 am »

Tetrahedrite and galena aren't actually that bad for kitting out your millitary.  Copper isn't all that great, but copper armor will keep your dwarves alive a bit longer while training your armorer, and silver makes excellent warhammers.  Alternately, turn mineral scarcity down.
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LordBucket

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Re: A Few Lessons Learnt After Years of not Playing
« Reply #16 on: March 04, 2012, 06:14:13 am »

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The location was a brook-valley between two separate mountain biomes

I find that starting on a relatively flat plain greatly simplifies defense.

 * It's easier to see. With lots of z-levels, it's difficult to see where the incoming hordes are and how numerous they are. Sure, you can look at the creature list, but being able to tell at a moment's glance exactly how many siegers are where is very convenient, and minimizes the need to constantly check above and below every few seconds when maneuvering your troops.
 * Your miners won't need to spend years smoothing out the surface. That's time that they can use mining out a useful fortress and defenses for it instead.
 * It simplifies line of sight for archers and ballistae.

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Two miners, a carpenter, a mason, two growers and a trader.

Two growers is a bit excessive. A trader isn't very helpful. A cook and brewer would be far more useful, making high quality food both for trading as happy thoughts. A dwarf with medical skills is also potentially useful. If you'll be using traps extensively, or building a danger room, a mechanic will speed up production. Also, buildings that require an architect receive a quality bonus from architecture skill, so it can help happiness levels to start with an architect and have him build everything that requires it.

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I usually don't know what to do with the excess start up points anyway

Unless you're starting on a resource-scarce site, points are probably better spent on skills than an extra 50 units of food/booze/etc. Weapon/armorsmithing/leatherworking skills are reasonable choices, to boost early production before higher skilled workers show up, and to increase the chances of one of these skills being chosen for a mood, giving you a free legendary in a useful skill.

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Well, at that point I had created something that was neither aesthetically pleasing nor
particularly efficient. What happened was that the further I dug into the earth, the
more spread out and decentralized my fortress became.

There are lots of options here, but I find that once I settle on a design that works....I use it pretty much every fort. Just some general tips:

 * Remember that you don't need to go underground. A couple masons on a flat embark site can build an aboveground enclosure large enough to hold several years worth of dwarves long before any enemies arrive. These can also be temporary structures that can be easily dismantled at a later date, giving you time to decide on aesthetics, and to deal with unexpected underground caverns that might otherwise destroy a good design.
 * WHen in doubt, open space is generally faster, simpler, and easier than more complicated layouts. You can, for example, simply dig out a massive empty space in a layer and deposit everything haphardly into it. Put bedrooms on one side, workshops on the other and stockpiles in the middle. You can always build walls later. A sol layer is especially good for this as it allows you to farm underground without irrigation. Two miners and a soil layer and you can move everyone and everything underground within the first 5 minutes of embark.
 * Use z-levels. Build lots of redundant stairs. Don't use a single centralized stairway. Dwarves look into z-levels when finding objects, and it's extremely innefficient to have dwarves in workshops near the outside rim of a fort have to go all the way to the middle to the stairs, then back out to the rim to get an object that was above them. Have one entrance from the surface, with lots of defenses and an aboveground keep, but use stairs liberally throughout the underground. It will be far more efficient.

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I desperately started searching all the Z-levels for iron ore and coal
so that I could start making some steel equipment.

Steel is good, of course, but it's not really necessary for the first few years. Even using a mod like fortress defense, it's entirely possible to build a fully functional military using only wood and leather. An excellent quality shield with leather cloak and tunic on trained dwarves is plenty to repel your first couple sieges. Trade with caravans for metal weapons. Or bring a few bars of copper. Or worst case, give them high quality wooden spears. It really doesn't take that much.



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tons of silver ore

If you have silver, use silver. Not everything has to be made of steel. Silver makes perfectly good war hammers. In fact, according to the wiki silver is just as good for blunt weapons as steel.


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Should I have been taking the trading opportunity to stockpile on foreign foods and drinks?

May as well. Personally I tend to buy up all foreign food and drink just because I can, and for the extra variety and additional training for my cook and brewer. Also, caravans usually bring enough to almost completely supply a fortress, and trade is very easy, so I tend to do take advantage of that for the first few years and focus on other things. An extra 2 masons is much more useful to build a potent defense than 2 growers.

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On cloth and leather so that I don't have to bother with making a new industry to acquire those raw goods?

Leather, definitely yes. It's much faster, easier and cheaper in the first few years to trade for a massive pile of leather and equip your military in that rather than waiting for metal. In the early part of the game it can take years worth of smelting just to convert enough ore into bars needed to even partially equip a tiny militia. Give a proficient leatherworker a big enough pile of leather and he'll have a full suit everything for everybody in a few months.

Leather is not a good late game material. But it's a great early game material.

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I enlisted my miners, woodcutters and rangers to go wipe up the last of them. These guys had no actual experience as I had never put them in squads before.

I still had over 70 dwarves in my keep

You had 70 dwarves and no trained miltary? What were they all doing? It only takes about 20 dwarves to run a fortress. You may as well put the rest in the military. Personally, I put dwarves into the military starting with my first wave of migrants and by the time I had 70 total, I'd usually have about 3 squads of 10, and maybe a few with legendary skills.

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God knows I had the idlers to fill the rank and file.

Exactly. Unless you're building a megaproject, there's really not much else to do with them anyway.



LordBucket

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Re: A Few Lessons Learnt After Years of not Playing
« Reply #17 on: March 04, 2012, 06:16:48 am »

edit: double post

Loud Whispers

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Re: A Few Lessons Learnt After Years of not Playing
« Reply #18 on: March 04, 2012, 08:24:49 am »

Well Kudos for having more planning than I rarely do ^-^

Still, you don't need metal to have a military - I find metal as more a supplement to a military. Have several squads of wrestlers sparring non stop, you now have something to deal with ambushes. Deal with ambushes, you now have weapons to give your wrestlers.

miauw62

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Re: A Few Lessons Learnt After Years of not Playing
« Reply #19 on: March 04, 2012, 08:56:53 am »

-snip-

God, you should write a wiki guide.
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