I'm not very good at building, and don't know how the military works. Which is exactly why I'm so worried. Also, I don't have any chairs for managers, and my population is too high to build anything without a manager. That fortress is gonna get abandoned, I think.

I'm gonna miss this place, my mason had several masterpiece engravings, because I engraved every wall in the fortress.

I'm starting my next fort...now.
My new fort is rich in kaolinite, a cool red stone. I shall make the Hall of the Blood God, a trap-laden passage into my fortress!

Edit: Can anyone teach me how to make spike traps? I had my moderately skilled carpenter make 10 wooden menacing spikes, and want to set them up, in case of sieges or cats.

b > T > S

I think. That's a upright spear/spike. You can operate it by a lever. If you want it to be automatic, then use b > T > w and set the ten spikes as the weapons.

Teehee... This is gonna be funny, I need to get some more weapons, too. I plan on just using a ton of traps, with one or two marksdwarves, for troublesome enemies. I kind of have a final plan for the Hall of the Blood God. It's gonna be a long 3-wide hallway, with a pressure pad halfway through that seals it in, and a ton of spikes and such in it. Maybe I'll set up grates on the floor for draining...

Yeah, I found the perfect spot as soon as I started digging, check it out.

And I lied a bit, I've been playing this fort for a few hours today.





Edit: Heh, one of my dwarves got stuck in the middle of a pond I was having a channel, and my mason built a bridge so fast, it wasn't even funny.




Edit Again: Okay, I now have 26 people, which is more than I know what to do with. I have 5 marksdwarves, and some spike traps, so I think my military is fine for now. Anyone have any ideas?

more military. Wrestlers, extra super dwarwenly strong, then make them axedwarves
Or make some cool traps. Like.. Death-pit 'o doom with upward silver spikes... or something

My best army was 2-3 (cant remember) legendary wrestrels that had their patrol route in a river so they became darn good swimmers :3

Also, i had one miner in coma for 3 years, it was hard to do anything for 3 years without a miner :/

I had a fort with two miners, but only one was ever active it seemed, one would get injured and be in the infirmary for months while the other became the better miner, and just as the injured one recovered that one would get injured and have to rest for months.

here's my bedroom design, it is designed to have two empty spaces and a bed, cabinet and chest so that each item can be accessed from an empty tile (though they can climb over all of those three items).

My dwarves always end up in overly complicated multi-bunked dormitories.

Because fractal bedrooms are for losers.

I don't think my design is fractal I was just trying to make a bunch of 5 tile rooms tile efficiently, because I find more fun is designing stuff like that than just playing the game with a loose design. though sometimes trying to design a way to power all your screwpumps can be frustrating and time consuming

I'm more talking to the people that use the wiki-posted room designs. I sort of like yours, although I have a love of open floorspaces and do more horizontal than vertical work. Exceptions being grand ballrooms or theatres or such.

That's pretty good.

Wha?...

I made modded super dwarves and they're... hibernating.

Is it bad that I've sealed myself up, don't accept trade caravans and have cagetrpped everywhere, so nobody bar sneaky kobolds can get in?
I can make everything myself, no problem, bar the pesky shells that 3 of my worked have mood-requested. They all went starkers.

In later game, you will eventually get bored. And if you've sealed yourself up, but sneaky kobolds can still get in-then you haven't really sealed yourself up, have you?

They can't anymore. It was only while the wall was semi-complete. As soon as I hit the Underground Lake/River I know is somewhere, I'll never need to leave my walls (for the wood). The only two entrances are caged up and a 2 second walk from my barracks.

Also, an Elf trader was at the edge of the map, just spawned, immediately went berserk and killed his cow.
My dwarf goes to harvest the cow, gets chased by the trader, who is killed by my ever-training Wrestlers (who have recently all got shiny Steel axes and chainbodies). Why did he 'zerk right after spawning?