Completed Year 10. This summer was a doozy -- through my own fault, haha.
The year started out pretty quietly. I started sending raids occasionally against the closest goblin-held forts and locations, but nothing much yet.
No issues with the winter siege. Spring came, and a war dog died of old age. Kea-people continue to annoy me (seems to be every Spring and Fall) and I kill them whenever I can. The elves came with nothing special (I have plenty of animals now, probably too much haha) but they're good for augmenting the clothing supply. Seven migrants came (5 adults, 2 children, and their pets alpaca and cavy) bringing the total population to 87 (out of a cap of 90).
Even the forgotten beasts seem to have slowed down, perhaps... this was the only one to arrive this year.
I managed to raze and destroy one goblin-held dwarf hillock in Spring, and I already had all my tributes ready for Fall. Sooo... at the end of Spring, I sent out another raid on the goblins.
Big mistake.
I didn't even think about the summer goblin siege. But as soon as my raiders (all my steel military) left, the season changed to summer. A few more days and.... Goblin siege arrived. And all I had to fight them off was my 'stress squad' - six poorly-equipped (I'm talking leather and wooden shields; no weapons, even) dwarves that wanted military training but were extremely prone to stress from actual fighting, including my Duchess.
I suppose the smart thing would've been to (try to) get everyone inside, close the drawbridge, and wait for my army to come back while letting my giant guard cougars and dingoes take the brunt of the attack until then. I, of course,
did not do the smart thing.
No, instead I was like, 'Oh, my army should return any time now, let's station the stress squad out there, get them some experience. They can hold off the siege alongside the animals until the army arrives.' I'm sure you can guess where this is going.
On the plus side, we won. Not the usual three, but FIVE snatchers, and eighteen goblin fighters (most of which were bow- and crossbow-gobs). All dead or fled (mostly dead), no children stolen. But on our losses... several giant cougars and dingoes, a war dog, and Kol's remaining war grizzly (remember, Kol was the dwarf that died in the parley-siege last year alongside his first grizzly -- this was his second one, left behind no longer). And three dwarves from the stress squad. Among them the squad leader and a fave of mine, Zas Floorcrystals. You may (or probably may not) remember her as the super-stressy child and young dwarf that I was always yelling at for sleeping on the floor when she had a perfectly good bedroom. One of the first migrant children, and one of the dwarves I actually know by name.
At least she went down epically. She went into a martial trance, absolutely destroying goblins with her shield until it literally broke in her hands, then punching and biting and throwing like a whirlwind. The gobbos continually shot arrows at her but everything missed - not even blocked by the shield, but
missed. The trance ran out and she passed out from exhaustion, and they
still couldn't hit her. (I like to think the others in the squad protected her until she got back up.) But get back up she did, and took out even
more goblins, yanking off goblin helms left and right... and finally took the one and only hit she got in the fight - an arrow through the neck. And
still kept fighting, taking down one more goblin before she finally succumbed.
Hers wasn't the only epic bit of the fight, but there were so many notifications it was the only one I managed to follow all the way through. Other notable moments included Sazkul her uncle literally
caving in a goblin skull with a sock that he picked up somewhere. (No it was not his own sock, and yes Sazkul survived, though injured).
And then the fight was over. Three dwarves including Zas dead, the other three stress-squaddies including Sazkul and the Duchess surviving but wounded, limping back to the hospital. The Duchess was fine for the most part, but the other two were deep in the red, stress-wise. All I could do was give them the best care I could.
So of course, NOW is when the steel-clad army returns. And to add insult to injury, they don't even bring back any loot from the raid, lol. And while they're still trickling in...
Yeah, she was no problem. A spear dwarf gutted her and then stabbed her through the head before she even got close.
Amidst all of
that... the human caravan came. Seemingly unperturbed by all the chaos and cleanup and mourning, they just traipsed right in. I offloaded most of the goblinite on them.
Four migrants arrived - three to replace those that died, plus an extra -- who arrived 'Drowning in Sorrow!' and happens to be Zas's aunt, and sister-in-law to another dwarf that died. She went straight to her sister (the wife of the dead dwarf) and cheered up with 'joy at reuniting with a loved one'. I'll choose to ignore the fact that the widowed dwarf and their one child in the fort don't appear to notice that he's dead yet. Population is now 89 out of 90.
So, since the summer siege was over, in revenge I sent out my soldiers again to raze that goblin hillock... and succeeded. Two goblin-held hillocks destroyed this year.
And so Fall arrives and with it the caravan from the Monarch... Next year they want goblets and crowns (not that I ever seem to pay attention to that). Though I recall that armor is one of the things they want this year... well I still have a bunch of goblinite to get rid of, so that's fortunate.
Tribute was delivered -- 27 silver chains, 38 bone crossbows, 114 microcline boulders, 46 copper maces, and a very annoying 162 raw meat (mostly from my turtles). That gives me all five base rewards (I'll just do +5 rep)
and all five bonus rewards which total out to +10 popcap and -5 impatience. Three artifacts for +3 rep. Once the caravan left, I was at 163k exports, up from 152k last year, for +1 more rep. I lost those three dwarves, but it was all due to siege so I think no penalty there.
Goals for Next Year:- 117 meals -- biscuits for -2 imp
- 31 mini-forges -- all glass for -2 imp
- 64 soap -- 3x for +5 popcap (I prob won't do this bonus)
- 49 metal bars -- all billon for +5 popcap
- 34 large pots -- all glass for -1 imp
Final Status for Year 10:- Impatience = -15 (was -10; -5 from bonus rewards)
- Reputation = 63 (was 54; +3 from artifacts, +5 from base rewards, +1 this year exports)
- Population = 89 (cap 100 after bonus rewards)
- Available workshops =
trade depot, still, farmer, magma kiln, magma forge, craftsdwarf, kitchen, carpenter, smelter, stoneworker, wood furnace, soap-maker, siege workshop, screw press, regular forge, mechanic, magma glass furnace, quern, ashery, loom, jeweler, clothier, butcher, fishery, regular glass furnace, leatherworks, regular kiln, tanner, bowyer, magma smelter
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I've been poking around in my random generator looking to add those extra/random goals we talked about. Nothing functional yet, but I got the option added. I'll link it up again when I have something to show. xD
Author
Topic: Against the Storm inspired challenge (Read 4642 times)