Lol, all untrained workers are immediately drafted into my military. Has anyone messed around with screw pump gyms before? You get really strong dwarfs that way.

Peasant to soldier manufacturing procedure:
1. Pump screw pumps until super strong
2. Change to unarmed soldiers
3. Let them wrestle 'til very skilled wrestlers (for evasive ability)
4. Give them hammers
5. Spar 'til very skilled
6. Crossbows (crossbows in melee = hammers)
7. Shooting range

This way, you get snipers who are also mad skilled at melee.

Ooo, nice. If I get a fortress fully running, I'll have to look into that...

If you make them super strong and THEN make them spar they probably will tear each other to shreds. I think you mean pump screw pumps 'til super tough.

I just got to the Mayor point in the immigration cycle.
Set up an above ground, walled in fort in a valley, with a brook running through it. Natural cliffs that I removed the slopes from, and cage traps all around.
Had a good hunt/butcher/bone bolts/food system going, until my hunters all stopped hunting. And 2/3 of my miners died, one from mining a small pillar above ground, the other Channeling himself into a corner while I was flooding my underground farm, from Murky pools. No unhappiness, no tantrums, no crime, and all invading goblins (who ambush past the nearly-completed walls) are mopped up, stored in refuse and then bolted.
All 16 of my troops, across 4 squads, are Champions from spar-wrestling, and I have about 10 puppies, and 10 war dogs, from starting off with 6 dogs. Some were butchered along the way, for hunter armour, after a Cougar bested my man at wrestling.
Caged goblins are in storage right now, but shall be dealt with once my miners get down the 10 Z-levels, to the bottom of the pit I made for execution.
I have Bauxite, two types of iron ore, a copper ore, and flux materials. And goblin gear, for iron melting. I'm made, armour-wise. I just need to make some steel.

Been playing a week. Think I'm getting the hang of it. Not had any seiges yet, and I 'had' to river-flood an earlier fort due to a tantrum spiral.

You don't get any sieges until your fort's population rises above 80.

I do believe that your wealth factor affects whether you'll be sieged as well as how many jobs you've assigned and completed in crafting, forging, smelting, and masonry to name a few.

Only lame people play without the Orc mod.

Mods are for squares.
So...

What is this Orc mod?

It's a mod that adds orcses. Some people thought goblin sieges weren't painful enough.

Thread here.

I only employ the toughest. The weak take their place as stepping stones for the strong.

Will you still be saying that when your legendary wrestler gets brained by your novice axesdwarf?

My wrestling is on top of a 10 z-level tall 5x5 tower, with an armor stand in the middle.

People fall down a lot.

Natural selection.

dropping unconscious goblins from a 20 tile high platform, just to see their body parts splattering 3 tiles up from the ground.. Ah i love DF :d

I just started playing, and have (basically) figured out how a fortress works. I engraved every surface of my building, and on my second year got 30 immigrants. I have no clue what to do with so many people >.<

Colosseum, draft them as wrestlers, wait for siege, release hoard or sweaty dwarfs to the goblins, and watch goblin parts flying few tiles.