Gaming O-F Dwarf Fortress Succession Game: Armorwad - Minotaurs! Goblins! Railguns!

[Quick_Nick]

Yeah, and I always do in single-player. The game becomes much more interesting when a large portion of your economy doesn't have to be devoted to frantically producing beds and food for all the damn immigrants.

Close the borders! Shut down everything! :lol:

 

[Izack]

Close the borders! Shut down everything! :lol:

You got it, Emperor Madagascar. :lol:

 

[Izack]

Alright, finishing the year today. Apologies for how incredibly long it's taking. The first year went fine because I started the fortress during an expected lull in workload. Then the schedule changed and the daily grind of reality ramped up to normal, and there have only been minutes here and there to click around the forum or play a simple game here and there.

Edit: And within seconds of loading the save, the Hill Titan Icemì Ociimaza Enefirifafa has come! A huge feathered sauropod. It has two narrow tails and it moves about carelessly. Its dark olive feathers are patchy. Beware its deadly spittle!

ARM THE BALLISTAE, ME LOYAL DWARVES.

Edit2: It's firing frozen extract of itself laced with water at a ranger.

Edit3: The Lone Ranger is tearing the guts out of the hill titan with copper bolts. :blink:

Edit4: He killed it!!

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Pictured: Rtyh-12.

Tetrahedrite! There's a large mudstone deposit at Z + 51. Hopefully it will have more ore deposits. Finally time to begin the arms manufacturing industry, even if it's only copper.

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The metals industry is about to start up - just waiting for these louts to carry the copper ore up to the smelters. One of the immigrant metalcrafters has begun a mysterious construction.

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A large, serrated silver disk which menaces with spikes of silver. Cool.

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Rtyh-12 has a 'major wound' status icon blinking on him, and has 'Pale' on his wound screen. I read that this means he is about to bleed to death, but I can't find anything in the reports screen. :idk:

Edit: He's collapsed in the dining hall.

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A vile force of darkness has arrived. The military is, naturally, unprepared.

Edit: FIRE AT WILL!!

Edit 2: Damn!! Only one bolt was fired before the siege operators abandoned their posts, and it ploughed into the wall immediately. The invaders are in the upper fortress now, and the main doors are blocked with hamster remains.

Edit 3: The carnage begins. Invaders have seized the upper fortress and are now slaughtering civilians.

Edit 4: Nooooo! I'm dead!

 

[Rtyh-12]

Rtyh-12 has a 'major wound' status icon blinking on him, and has 'Pale' on his wound screen. I read that this means he is about to bleed to death, but I can't find anything in the reports screen.

Edit: He's collapsed in the dining hall.

Well, I guess that's my punishment for letting Kuat get killed... But anyway, that was a pretty mysterious death. Did you check my wounds? Maybe I was attacked by a vampire? But the symptoms don't really match...

Still, it's good that we finally struck a more useful metal. It's not iron, but it's certainly more useful than the tons of gold and platinum we have so far.

 

[Izack]

Well, I guess that's my punishment for letting Kuat get killed... But anyway, that was a pretty mysterious death. Did you check my wounds? Maybe I was attacked by a vampire? But the symptoms don't really match...

Still, it's good that we finally struck a more useful metal. It's not iron, but it's certainly more useful than the tons of gold and platinum we have so far.

You made a full recovery after a week of being trodden on by rampant children in the dining hall, actually.

In the meantime, my character has died and the fortress is under siege by more than a dozen invaders, including an elk bird. Do I, um, pass the fortress on prematurely now or command the siege from the grave?

 

[Rtyh-12]

You made a full recovery after a week of being trodden on by rampant children in the dining hall, actually.

That's surprising. Still, nice to hear.

In the meantime, my character has died and the fortress is under siege by more than a dozen invaders, including an elk bird. Do I, um, pass the fortress on prematurely now or command the siege from the grave?

I say you continue. I did run the fortress while in a strange mood, so I think it's better to finish the year instead of messing up the whole schedule.

Maybe you could pretend that one of the migrants took up your role or that you have been replaced in some other way. It's a DF story, after all

 

[KuatYards]

YAY!!! LOTS OF !!FUN!! :lol::lol:

I found that cage traps lining the hallway mixed with rockfall traps make for a good early defense... and gives us plenty of test subj, I mean prisoners :lol:

(Put all the cats in a room with a single shoot leading in, drop goblin into shoot, laugh maniacally)

 

[Rtyh-12]

Seeing my designs in someone else's picture sure is weird...

You could try blocking off the still safe parts of the fortress, but, even if you manage to do so, there will probably be a huge tantrum spiral. In my experience, the spirals resulting from highly traumatic events are usually more dangerous than those events themselves. Perhaps you should give orders as soon as possible, before everyone starts ignoring all orders and killing others.

 

[KuatYards]

any survivors? have the goblins left yet? or are we all dinner

 

[Izack]

any survivors? have the goblins left yet? or are we all dinner

Most of us are dinner. Urwumpe on the other hand is hacking, slashing, drinking, and punching goblins in the eyes. She has been quite content lately.

(She? Whoops; sorry there.)

woo482, Rtyh-12, Artlav, and Urwumpe are all still alive.

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My God, Urwumpe is chasing a group of five goblins straight out of the walls, by herself.

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Alright, the siege is over. We're left with both our legendary miners and 88 other peasants in varying states of dismemberment.

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"Zefon Akrulnåzom, Soap Maker cancels Starting Fist Fight: Seeking Infant."

 

[Urwumpe]

My God, Urwumpe is chasing a group of five goblins straight out of the walls, by herself.

Sounds familiar. :lol:

(And no problem with the gender change. I always knew that my femine side must be pretty small, this dwarf is obviously all that there is.)

Didn't I say that I wanted to be a goblin law-giver? How many goblins did I now give some laws?

 

[Izack]

The dwarven cranium must be one of the most fragile materials in the universe. A berserk child has jammed skull bits through several other kids' brains. Population count is 87 and dropping.

Oh, okay. A swordsdwarf just stabbed the berserk child through the chest.

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Rtyh-12 has gone missing.

The fort is not a pretty sight...

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An armorer went berserk in the dining hall, nearly ripped a baby's arm off, got mauled by that tiger Rtyh-12 bought, and was finished by a farmer, and the signature dwarven attack: punch in the brain.

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Barely seconds later, a ranger went berserk, but Artlav tore him up with a copper pick before any damage was done.

 

[Urwumpe]

Ok, the defenses are pretty inadequate, by many factors. Starting by the fact, that it is not possible to reliable lock the doors. There are not even simple traps in the path for the intruders. Dwarfs have no short cuts. There is no inner and outer defense perimeter. The ballistas are not separated from the intruders by wide moats, so those cowards keep on firing.

Aesthetically, it also does not make use of the surrounding terrain.

The proper defense time line is like that:

0. Early warning prevents fatalities. Ideally have one squad on guard duty for one month in rotation. Children should not be permitted to leave the inner fortress.
1. Get all civilian dwarfs into the fortress as fast as possible, don't make civilian dwarfs soldiers, before they are inside. Same for all animals, unless you need a distraction.
2. Lock civilians inside. Close all short-cuts that you can still close. Alert all off-duty squads and let them equip.
3. If intruders came into your fortress already, lock as many enemies outside your fortress as possible and go hunting inside your own walls. Don't fight enemies inside and outside at once.
4. If all enemies are still outside let them enter the outer fortess, but lock the inner fortress and the civilian parts from it. Lock a manageable fraction of the enemies inside your outer fortress... divide and butcher.
5. Your fortress bookkeeper will recommend you: Get all enemies locked inside the outer fortress and take souvenirs. But that requires a good army.
6. Let Melee fighters enter the outer fortress only from paths that don't easily reach into the civilian part of the fortress. There should be only one way inside, so wounded dwarfs can reach safety and hospital.
7. Depots belong into the inner fortress. Unless you want an accident to your favor.
8. Goblins only reliably drown, if there is a ceiling or a bridge above their heads.
9. You can never have too much ammo. Even arrows are useful... for bow traps.
10. If the civilians are in safety, there is no urge to fight. Wait for favorable conditions or make them.

 

[Izack]

Ambush on the 20th of Obsidian. Urwumpe is dead by unknown means (can't find anything in reports or announcements), leaving only Artlav and woo482. I give up.

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https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26163846/DF/forum/Armorwad-Year3.zip

1 Granite, decimated population, bleak outlook. Good luck, next player.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Wow, just now to Rtyh-12's last year. Don't let me down!

 

[Izack]

Sorry about the great span of time it took me to finish this. I shouldn't have taken the third year in the first place. :facepalm:

 

[Rtyh-12]

I guess this isn't the best time to say that I suck at handling sieges...

 

[Izack]

I guess this isn't the best time to say that I suck at handling sieges...

The siege ended on the morning of 1 Granite. You're lucky.

 

[Rtyh-12]

I guess this isn't the best time to say that I suck at handling tantrum spirals... :lol:

Well, I'll do my best. I guess I can try to lock everything to ensure that another attack wouldn't be as damaging. Urwumpe's list of defense strategies is simply brilliant, and I'll do what I can to stick to it. That, however, might prove difficult, as the fortress isn't exactly in a remarkably productive state. We'll see how this works out.

And what if we lose the fortress? This is the outcome that seems more and more likely at the moment, so I propose we discuss it now. IMO the best thing to do would be to start a new fortress under the next player's control. What do you think?

 

[Urwumpe]

I always kept it like that: Dwarfs are stubborn and don't give up. As long as one dwarf is alive, the fortress lives on. It is hard and it means some really tough years of burying the dead, but it is possible to not die completely. what you need is a core of dwarfs that are not dropping into depression or berserk rage. I once lost all except 3 adult dwarfs, but I returned... the fortress had 200 dwarfs again, was defended stronger than ever (I had to learn as well, with every new feature in DF), and most important: Was one of the most legendary places in my world. It literally was reborn from the ashes.

What you now need for handling the tantrum spiral: Booze, Food, parties, booze and easy work.