You don't even need to get Cave Wheat. My fortress has survived for five years now using solely plump helmets and plump helmet ale. I even had to double the size of my food stockpile recently, as barrels full of plump helmets were cluttering the hallways.


Also, you *can* ignore nobles' requests, but that will make them become unhappy and start creating export bans. It would be better to just arrange some *ahem* unfortunate accidents if nobles start to pester you too much.

I like having two kinds of alcopops floating around. Prevents the "tired of the same old booze" bad thought.
EDIT: It also allows me to cook one. No more 800+ units of Dorf Wine floating around. Dorf Wine Roast [40] is the way to go!

For my "unfortunate accident", I have no magma discovered to date. However, I believe that the inbound nobles would like to visit McMao Urist, on the other side of the globe... via chasm.

Also, elves came in, with their little animals. Finding not one, not two, but three goblin ambushes. I lost a brave Potash Maker that day...

... and gained two camel-loads of Elven goods.

Goblins. Can't beat em, can't find magma to drop em in.

Gotta make due with spike traps then. Or water. I have a pressurized water tank that can flood my courtyard in a pinch.

Having only one kind of booze removes all challenge and challenge is what makes this game fun

Cooking booze is an exploit, but a magnificent way to get food. Minced dwarven ale.



Are you saying you wouldn't want a nice office made entirely out of bismuth?

Severely injured dwarves should be put into positions such as fortress/royal guard and justice noble positions.
Actual controllable military are better than guards and ambulatory justice nobles are rarely a good thing.

Just a heads-up on the state of things in my current fortress, just because it for some reason presents quite a lot of WIN/FAIL moments.

First of all, my dwarves' Mountainhome simbol is an engraving of an image of an image of elves. FAIL. (Yes, an image of an image.)
Then, there was this fey-mooded dwarf who decided that he needed a troglodyte skull to crown his artifact. That would be OK, if only he didn't run right into the troglodytes' lair to do it, both getting himself killed and making the cavemen turn their wrath unto my other dwarves. FAIL. (Later, though, I made him a nice tomb on a secluded cave with lots of stone age engravings and a few chained troglodytes to guard him, which was a bit of a win because of the irony.)
After that, one of my craftsdwarves made an exquisite weapon cabinet made of gold, silver, goblin bones and rare gems. It's name? The Humid Sword. FAIL.

And then started a WIN streak. I was already impressed when a miner with the Ultra-Mighty attribute used a mere copper pick to hurl a goblin weaponmaster into a bottomless pit a good 15 tiles away, but it was only when one of my blacksmiths beheaded a kobold thief with her bare hands and carved it's skull into a masterpiece totem that I understood something unusual was happening.

The latest (and most impressive) feat was when Urist McComatose, the one who had stayed unconscious for a few years due to a broken arm, snapped back into existence and ran straight into a huge forest fire (cursed fire imps!). As soon as I had finished screaming "NO! DON'T GO!!!", he burst back out of the flames, completely unscathed, carrying a caged horse, which was by the way the same horse that had nearly bitten his arm off five years before. I almost shed a tear.

My game hasn't been nearly as lulzy unfortunately. I have a total of 56 dorfs now, a good half of them newly immigrated and as of yet not very useful. Working entrance-flooding tank (which I may want to expand, it doesn't keep pressure for the entire courtyard) and a small army to keep the zombie goats off. Spent most of the last simulated Winter searching for more coal, I've only found one vein of it but more silver, copper, lead, and aluminum than I can possibly smelt. Quite literally I have a good 50x70 worth of stockpile space devoted to just ore.

So I decided to create a new world. But before entering the fortress mode, I decided to take a look at the legends record, and there I discovered the Barricade of Paper, a dwarven civilization. It had a really awesome record of wars won and megabeasts slaughtered, and was involved in pretty much everything that happened in the game. Even their weakest warriors had already slain a titan or two.

So, kinda obviously, I chose it as my starting civilization. I had already started building a fortress, when I suddenly remembered I hadn't checked who was the king of the Barricade. "It must be a pretty manly and dwarfy dwarf, to lead his civilization to such glory.", I thought. I then entered the civilization screen and checked it. Here is what was written there:

- Tholtig Monom, The Barricade Of Paper, Dwarven civilization
-- Ruler: Fìma Lamaamala, Elven King of Dwarves.



I leave it to you to imagine what I said (or rather, shouted) at that moment. I fear, good sirs, that we may have found Cacame Awemedinade's legitimate heir.

I lol'd.
How does that even work? More importantly, does this mean that before this king, the dwarves were all as flimsy as a paper barricade while the elves were the mightiest race in the land?

No, it means that Dwarven paper is made of steel. Or adamantine, depending on local customs.

^ This. Also, I did some Legends research on Fima, and discovered that he was the son of an elf named Cacame. O.o

There was also no mention as to how he became king. The game just says "In 158, Fima became an elven guard. In 159, Fima became the dwarven king." Apparently, he just said "I wanna be a dorf!!!11!!/!1" and became their king. O.o x2.

Maybe he overthrew the old king?

Perhaps. It doesn't seem so, however, since he was just a guard recruit from a small village that had been conquered by the Barricade a few years before. And two weeks later he was already leading the dwarves in a war against the goblins.

And, by the way, you do know what Cacame I am referring to right? That Cacame, the Awemedinade one.

The one who has an ore named after him that is valued over Adamantine iirc.