Goblins have excellent timing

A bunch of goblins show up before the elves are even halfway to the fortress, lets see how this works out...

As my ranger legs it, he shoots an arrow and hits one of the goblins, I suspect that if my part time crossbowmen can critically take them on his own, they won't be much match for my marksdwarves and my secret weapon:

Uh oh, another ambush group jumps my wood haulers :/

Kill the elves! they are expendable. The ambushes take down a siege mechanic and one of my top metalsmithers, the elves scatter, some are committed to getting into the fortress, the rest turn and run.

A THIRD ambush at the very south, they chase the lone ranger who is out of bolts and running for his life.

The migrant axedwarf bravely throws her life away standing on the battlements doing nothing of note. Another dies because he ran too far away from his station (admittedly my fault for not changing the option).

Two of the goblin ambush teams are held off with one left at the south of the map regrouping for another assault. After killing another two marksdwarves, the last 6 remaining goblins leave peacefully (which is a good job as only one marksdwarf was still alive). There's a lot of dead dwarves. The elves didn't survive either.

My secret weapon never saw any use as the siege engineer died at the start of the battle and the other engineer was too far away to operate it.

Curse them!

Another goblin ambush shows up. Curse them!

Mobilize the troops! PULL THE LEVER!

My loyal wardogs hold the bridge, holding them off until the bridge can fling two melee goblins into the moat.

Unfortunately my brave kobold-crushing wardog Athelducim was struck down. With nothing else to do, the goblins unleash their rage on the family of cats living in the moat. The horror! These goblins truly are evil, thinking nothing of slaying innocent defenseless kittens.

A marksdwarf named Atir takes sweet crossbow vengeance on the heartless kitten-killers. The rest of the ambush is either crippled or running.

My mayor demands a green portal in his bedroom, luckily there is some sand hanging around on the top floor of my fortress, bag it and bake it!

Spring comes around, and some elves show up JUST as I start a major logging operation to replenish my wood supplies, how do they ALWAYS know? I should probably expect another monkey attack in the next few days.

Cats in a ditch

The cat that fell in the moat when it has the misfortune of standing on the drawbridge in the middle of a goblin ambush has given birth to 3 kittens and is living a nice quiet life in the moat.

The ranger was hunting a cougar that was harassing the woodcutters with his 3 wardogs, then randomly fell asleep just as he was about to close in for the kill. One of the wardogs spots a kobold, kills it, and earns itself a name: "Athelducim".

In the meantime, more migrants!

• Herbalist - Not really needed.
• Stonecrafter - I just built two more craft workshops, so he will have plenty to do.
• Peasant - Military.
• Mechanic - Still got to work on those siege devices.
• Peasant - Military.
• Miller - Pointless.
• Weaponsmith - Much more welcome.
• Peasant - Military.
• Potash maker - Guess I could put up an ashery.

At least there aren't any useless nobles.

I think its about time Devilhalls had a justice system. My limited research tells me dwarves need to be happy in jail if you don't want them to be permanently in a tantrum. The weaponsmiths are constructing some silver chains. I'll make some golden statues to give the prisoners something to look at.

I have designated one of the Peasants as the captain of the guard. This is the (almost) finished prison area with the captain of the guard's quarters nearby. I decided he might enjoy golden furniture and a golden sarcophagus.

The legacy of Devilhalls

Not much happening, one of the hunters (12 groundhog kills and 1 cougar kill) has gone in a strange mood, picked up some basalt, stibnite (of which there are two stones in my entire fortress, phew), some wood and some groundhog bones. I hope its something more useful than an earring.

This is what he created:

So Devilhalls will be remembered for producing an earring. While engravers were working on the mayor's quarters I also discovered this:

For god's sakes guys, its just an earring!

I got a random message saying my hunter bled to death, I can't find him, but I guess he took on one-too-many cougars. Autumn comes, the economy grows, armies of engravers are busy at work on the new area of tombs.

I'm surprised to find its been 6 months since the goblin ambushes and Dodok and Datan, my two surviving Elite Wrestlers, are STILL in bed with injuries. Datan has a mangled lower right leg and a moderately injured upper right leg, Dodok has a moderately injured upper left leg. I hope they recover soon, I'll need all the good men I can find if the goblins return... which seems likely.

Metalworking and Micromanagement

All metalworking-related storage has been moved down a z-level and to the south, with the magma forges and smelters a Z-level below that.

All these useless peasants and animal workers hanging around have been conscripted into stone detailing duty. As for everyone else, my economy is mostly ticking over, everyone is keeping themselves busy by either metalworking, creating practice bolts for the marksdwarves, creating new rooms for the migrants or stone detailing (and of course the tireless farmers). It's late spring, and my economy looks something like this:

1/4 of my entire Fortress' wealth is contained within that single earring. The human caravan just showed up, I'm going to need weapons... lots of weapons.

Remember the fallen

Magma is flowing directly to fuel my workshops, things are looking good.

After finally remembering to allow dwarves outside, I figured out why my injured soldier wasn't being given water. He should pull through, but one of the brave marksdwarves took a bad hit and needs to rest too. If the goblins come back before the end of the year, there will be some serious problems.

Some much welcomed migrants:

• Hunter - Useful.
• Peasant - Military.
• Glassmaker - I have some sand, and some magma, might be time to make some glass.
• Another Peasant - Military.
• Weaver - Already got one of those, still haven't set up any clothing production.
• Siege Engineer - Bout time I built something to keep invading goblins away.
• Soap maker - Ha, yeah right. Military.
• Axedwarf - YES! finally someone who knows what they are doing.
• Gem setter - All my gems are rough, glad to have someone to smooth them.
• Peasant - Maybe he will work in my metalworking industry.
• Ranger - Another slacker who claims he 'works with animals'
• Miner - I have two competent miners and two trainee miners, this one will probably struggle to find much work.
• Another soap worker - Really?
• Weaponsmith - Ah, nevermind about that last peasant.
• Peasant - Don't have anything for him to do yet.
• Dyer - Another part of my non-existent clothing industry.
• Peasant - ...
• Animal Caretaker - More uselessness.
• Milker - Don't have any cows.
• Another Peasant - I don't need anymore peasants!
• Trapper - or useless animal dudes.
• A Mule

This is the biggest wave of migrants I've EVER had on Dwarf Fortress, I wonder if these goblin attacks have anything to do with it. Lor the woodcutter has announced he is now the mayor, better carve out some decent quarters for him.

I'm sure they were thrilled when they saw dwarves corpses scattered amongst the remains of two goblin ambush parties.

On a more sombre note, I've set an area for burial chambers. So far every dwarf that has died has been a true hero, one legendary miner, four heroic wrestlers and that fisherdwarf, though the only useful thing he did was make an expensive earring.

Return of the Goblins

After all that action, time to get back on track. The elves are still here, so I'll see if they have anything useful.

Wood and cloth, so, no.

For fucks sake. More fucking goblins.

They catch the fisherdwarf (the same that created the priceless earring) and slow him with a well placed bolt and proceed to dog pile him. I have sent out the order: PULL THE LEVER.

Unfortunately the fucking stupid Clerk decided now was a good time to go for a stroll and was hurled into the air by the retracting bridge, along with his pet cat. The clerk is now unconscious on the wrong side of the moat, with his pet cat stuck IN the moat.

If this Clerk actually survives, I might be impressed enough to promote him to leader, or I would if it wasn't his own fault.

Since the goblins can't get into my fortress, they direct their rage onto a bull that had the misfortune to be grazing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

One of my wrestlers who sustained a pretty severe injury in the previous attack is thirsty but I can't leave the fortress to collect water without having to face the goblins. Problem. At least the Clerk is still alive and on the run, I think he might actually survive.

The goblins leave after two marksdwarves fend them off from the other side of the moat, I'm sure they will be back. Amazingly the Clerk survives, he was running away from a goblin wrestler for the entire duration.

The magma forges and smelters are almost up, I just need to create some anvils then let the magma flow!

Devilhalls stands against the evil invaders!

Shit kicks off outside. Goblin ambush!

I order my military to meet them head on, and all my dwarves to stay indoors. I seriously hope I'm not spreading myself too thin with the fire imps and magma forges and now this.

Shit, Cog goes down to a hail of crossbow bolts, Zulban her right-hand man goes into a trance, and with the help of Meng (Cog's sparring partner, also a Champion) they take down all the melee goblins, unfortunately they are both destroyed by bolts.

Zasit, the last of Cog's elite wrestling squad goes down to more crossbow fire, but not without spilling a lot of goblin blood.

One crossbow goblin is left with a minor injury on his leg, he hobbles off, presumably to warn everyone about how much of a bad-ass fortress Devilhalls is.

When I check the unit screen, theres still one Goblin wrestler left, he fell into my moat amongst the carnage, i'll send my leftover crossbowmen to deal with him.

Losing 4 of my highly trained dwarves is quite a blow to my defence, I badly need some more migrants to restore its power.

The goblins used the high ground to the north-east of my base to attack from, If I remove all the ramps there, I'll have the high ground advantage next time.

Magma problems

Er... shit.

A fucking fireimp jumps out of the magma and burns my best miner and knocks him into the newly-dug channel where he proceeds to die a bloody death. An innocent kitten bystander was also caught in the flames. My trainee miner legs it as the Imp hops back into the magma.

The other Legendary miner calls a party in the great hall, what a callous bastard.

In other news, the fisherman has created a wooden earring. Great. It has a value of 52800 though, so... yeah.

The elves arrive, my trader takes a break. I don't blame him. I am almost ready to allow magma to flow beneath my forges, This may end badly.

Stonesense & MAGMA

On a bit of a sidenote, here's what my fortress' entrance looks like on Stonesense

The monkey in the moat is causing issues, he keeps interrupting people (must be screeching at them or something) I've set some bolts to be constructed by the metalsmith. I've got a few steel crossbows that I'll equip on Cog's militia that should deal with him nicely.

Meng Umstizlokum has become another wrestling champion, she will lead my second squad.

The annoying monkey will interrupt no-more. It goes down to a hail of wildly inaccurate crossbow fire.

I receive a VERY exciting message:

It's discovered 3 floors below my great hall down one of my exploratory corridors. It looks like its a few floors up.

Just as I'm carving out channels for this magma, My fisherdwarf gets possessed, maybe this will mean he will actually be useful. Whatever he's making needed two pieces of wood, a basalt block and a sardonyx, I hope its not a gem studded willow cup.

Cog Ardeszefon sees some action

Cog Ardeszefon is now a champion elite wrestler, she will be my leading swordsdwarf when battle comes.

Time to put her to the test, here come a shitload of monkeys.

None of the squad led by Cog actually have any weapons (I haven't got round to making any) lets see if that wrestling has paid off. Cog enters a trance and gives chase. The monkeys sense the only thing they will get out of this assault is a leglock so they run.

The monkeys divide up, sending 1/3 of the forces to destract Cogs lackys, probably a wise move considering how much of a wrestling legend Cog is.

She easily dispatches 3 monkeys before the rest give up and run, her underlings killed another 3.

Monkey blood stains the ground, however two surviving monkeys see an opportunity, they circle round and head for the courtyard. One of the monkeys is killed by Cog as she returns back to the barracks, another accosts a hauler who is bringing back wood on the bridge, hilariously he shoves the monkey into the moat where he's stuck, unconscious.

I guess he'll make a good guard.

Second wave of migrants

Nothing much is happening in Devilhalls, A lot of golden crafts are being produced, people are being reassigned to make fortress life more efficient. There was a tense moment where the fortress' Drink supplies went down to 4 barrels of dwarven wine, but some quick reassigning kept everyone from getting too sober.

A new project to wall off the upper part of the entrance has begun construction.

Eventually that high ground to the north east of the entrance will have a tower constructed on it with some fortifications for marksdwarves to use.

More migrants:

• Furnace operator - I'll dedicate this guy to wood burning.
• Woodcutter - woodcutting has been sluggish, he will be useful, more space for wood piles will be needed.
• Clothier - Maybe some cloths production could get going.
• Engineer - My towers and battlements will need catapults, he will be useful.
• Peasant - Military.
• Pump operator - I don't have any pumps. Military probably.
• Another Peasant - Military again.
• Metalcrafter - The more the merrier.

Thats it for now. Winter is upon Devilhalls.

Fortress update

Its Autumn year 2 and the title fight for the Devilhalls championship wrestler belt has begun in the barracks, my 3 militiamen have become wrestlers and are duking it out.

I'll use this post to show what my fortress actually looks like now.

Below is Z-level 143, decidedly outside, that open space is my courtyard, and the bit below is the ex-pond with a sparring yard below, and an archery range above (plans for a tower have been devised)

Next is Z-level 142, the first level of my fortress containing all my food production and storage, trade depot, and military. That lever in the barracks is going to be attached to the bridge. That tunnel to the left leads to the limestone mine.

Next is floor 141, This contains all my main economy, that empty room on the left will be turned into a custom stockpile for gold ore, and changed as my metalsmith plows through it. 3 of the cages on the animal pile have monkeys in them. God knows what i'll do with them

The living quarters are on 140, the great hall and a bunch of bedrooms, more are being carved out, the luxurious quarters at the bottom are for the Peasant-turned-Book-keeper.

There are two levels of just up/down stairways (one of which some dwarf randomly dumped gold ore on) surrounded by alumite. Then we come to the fabled BASALT MINES OF DEVILHALLS.

Floor 137:

Floor 136: This is where that excellent gold seam is.

Everything below this is just stairs (one of which I discovered some gems as I was constructing) down to level 127 where I couldn't dig any further.

flux capacity

Its still early summer, and a human caravan has shown up, hope they brought weapons, especially crossbows.

As I was outside because of the human caravan message, I assign some more trees to be cut down to the north west, and realise, what's that white stone on the floor? LIMESTONE. What an idiot. It took me this long to realize I've had limestone right next to my entrance all this time and haven't even noticed.

Gah, So I sent my dwarves mining away below the surface, hopefully I'll find some iron ore too, unfortunately leading the digging is my newly appointed miner who hasn't even been upgraded from 'Peasant' status, a crippled cat could mine loamy wall faster than this guy.

I set up some limestone excavation to dig some out and look for iron ores (along with some sardonyx), and will probably stick a stone pile for limestone next to my smelter, I may have to put down a couple more smelters. Perhaps the fabled magma pool is a few levels down.

I traded some tat for an iron crossbow, shield and buckler, also some iron bars, hopefully I'll be able to create the rest of my army's weapons myself. Pretty soon my 3 man militia will be ready for anything.

The human merchants are gone and now not much is happening, I'm going to carve out some more bedrooms, preparation for nobles.

I set my masons onto engraving the main hall, to see what exciting events were worth recording, they engraved images of "a horse" "three dwarves" "some mountains". As I thought... my dwarves are as bored as I am with this dull hole-in-the-ground. I think in future I'll go into less detail on the dull stuff.

Rifotidek Isholminbaz - Blockedbrain the Frigid Enchantment - a Willow Cup

As I was micromanaging and ensuring all the new migrants were busy, the Trapper migrant had a fey mood, I hope he doesn't kill anyone important.

Luckily all he wanted was 2 wood and a basalt rock, I think we can accommodate that.

Summer in year 2 of Devilhalls begins.

I set all the Peasants with nothing better to do stone detailing, one of them will probably become a full time engraver, we shall see, the great hall is looking nice though.

After a lot of fucking around, my metalsmith finally builds another copper pick for one of my peasants to become a miner, the next on the to-do lists is:

• Deck out my army, two of them with crossbows one with a sword - I guess I'll need a bowyer, fuck knows where I'll find a decent sword and shield from, but once he gets it, that dude will be a champ.
• Find iron ore and flux! - there must be some SOMEWHERE, I asked the traders to bring me some if this fails.
• Build a shitload of expensive crafts from that gold and aluminium I have lying around.
• Expand living quarters.

The trapper finishes his epic willow cup, I assigned him to wood and stone crafts since I realized the fortress was lacking anyone dedicated to crafting.

Back to the micromanagement.

Ask an thou shalt receive migrants... LOTS of migrants

The elves leave and my miners uncover some gems, I'm considering setting up a jeweler who can encrust gems into our crafts, they aren't worth very much at the moment.

GOLD! Time to build a forge. Ah ha, some tetrahedrite, now I have some copper, silver AND gold, all I need is some tin and I could host the Olympics.

FINALLY some migrants arrive, lets see what we got.

• A Metalcrafter - useful for our precious metals production.
• A Peasant - I'll turn him into a butcher, brewer and a cook.
• A Cheese maker - Well, it looks like he'll be doing a lot of jobs he's not trained for since we don't need any cheese at all.
• Another Peasant - See if I can find a pick for this guy and get him mining, its either that or the military.
• Thresher - Not sure what he'll do, probably military.
• Planter - Never can have enough farmers, though it looks like we will struggle to get through all this food.
• Animal Caretaker - Could turn him into a hunter maybe and get some meat for a change, or at least get him to train some war dogs.
• Another Peasant - Military or jewelry.
• Weaver - Useless, maybe I should set up some clothes production.
• Another Peasant - Military.
• Bowyer - Convenient as I was just setting up an archery range in my outdoor barracks area.
• Another Peasant - Maybe I'll just leave this guy as a peasant, can't have too many haulers.
• Lye maker - We currently have very little need for lye, I doubt we will need his talents.
• Another Peasant - I could make this guy a book keeper.
• Another Animal caretaker - He's going to be a hauler probably.
• Another Peasant - They just keep coming!
• Furnace operator - Hope he likes burning wood.
• Fisherdwarf - He's got a long way to walk to do much fishing.
• Animal dissector - lovely.
• Trapper - He might be useful against all these monkeys.
• Miller - Fuck knows what he'll do.
• Woodworker - Could use some more woody goodness.
• 2 Cows
• a mule
• a kitten

Holy shit thats a lot of migrants, better get to work.

Monkey-elf Alliance

Spring!

I've carved out a LOT of space 2 floors below the dining room, still no flux or gems, but some aluminium and useless yellow and white rocks.

The elves show up from the north and walk directly through the area I marked for deforestation... awkward. Maybe if I piss them off something exciting might finally happen.

It appears the elves are in league with the monkeys, they must have brought some magical pixie dust or something because as soon as they arrive at the depot all my dwarves suddenly go off to their bedrooms for naps, including the broker. As soon as the elves are finished unloading, a bunch of monkeys come and steal the steel bolts that none of my dwarves picked up outside my entrance.

Damn Monkeys.

Ah ha, hang on a minute!

You have GOT to be kidding, he just turned around? Well, at least he won't steal anything. The elves didn't even bring anything useful.