Editing Do I really need wood

You may want to have a look at the [[Wood Industry]].

==Reasons you need wood==
*To build [[bed]]s
**Without beds your dwarves will get unhappy thoughts from sleeping on the ground
*To build [[axle]]s
**Without axles your ability to transfer [[power]] is severely limited.
*To build [[water wheel]]s and [[windmill]]s
**These are the only generators of [[power]]. Without them, you'll be forced to do everything manually.
*To build [[siege engine]]s and ballista bolts
**These can be very effective defenses when traps fail.
*If you want [[obsidian]] [[short sword]]s, they require one obsidian stone and one wood each (these swords likely consist of a thin wooden "paddle" with sharp flakes of obsidian forming sharp edges, like the ancient Aztec [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macuahuitl macuahuitl]).
**If you have access to obsidian, these can be a great source of quick weaponry early in the game, before any steel works are up to speed.  Even on a tree-lite map, each weapon takes less wood to produce than a steel weapon (unless you are using [[magma]] to fuel your [[smelter]]s and [[forge]]s and have access to [[bituminous coal]] and [[lignite]]).

==Reasons you want wood==
*It is simpler to make items from wood.
**For instance, it only takes one log to produce a [[bin]], [[barrel]], [[bucket]], or [[cage]]; but if you forge them instead then they'll take three metal bars.
*Wood can be burnt to produce [[charcoal]] and [[ash]], which are important ingredients in other tasks such as smelting ore, forging metal items, glass making, fertilizer for crops, and other uses.
*All metalworks ([[smelter]]s, [[forge]]s) and [[glass]]works are either wood-fueled or magma-fueled. If you are planning on having any sort serious metal or glass production, then you're going to need a lot of wood, or [[magma]] (and [[charcoal]] or [[coal]] for [[steel]]).

==Reasons you don't need much wood==
*Everything other than beds, axles, windmills, water wheels, ''obsidian'' shortswords, siege engine parts, and ballista bolts can be made without the use of wood.
*If you have [[magma]] then you don't need wood for fuel. If you have coal, you don't need (as much) wood to produce [[charcoal]] for [[steel]].  If you have both, you don't need wood to produce metal or steel products.
**([[Bituminous coal]] ''without'' magma triples the effective output of wood, [[lignite]] doubles it.)
*You can supplement your wood supply to a small degree via [[trading]].
*If you're lucky enough to play in an area with an [[underground pool]] or [[underground river]] then you can grow your own wood supply underground with [[tower cap]]s.


{{Wood FAQ}}