User:Romeofalling

Whoa. What happened to the old URL? I had some funny stuff there. ~shrug~

Here are some notes in hopes of making a coherent Early Game Military Screen walkthrough.

Daggerverse, home of The Big Dagger

My first fortress since the release of DF2010. Since magma has been nerfed, my usual glass-centric ways are useless. Instead, I picked a location that had lots of obsidian layers, and high rainfall. I did not remember to pick a location with thick trees to make up for the lack of early-game magma. Which is ironic since I've since found more metal veins than my sand-centric maps had back in 40d.

The Expedition

"Potions" Keskalrithlut

• Novice in all medical skills
• Novice Record Keeper
• Competent Brewer

She'll get her own little medical aid burrow near the barracks, with a Still and stockpile in the corner. This might make it easier for me to brew a wider selection of alcohols, too. During the initial phases, I'll make him a miner, for the exercise and help.

Potions loves giant bat leather and floodgates, among other things. We'll have to look into putting some of that into her office.

"Boss" Vabokgasol

• Novice Wrestler
• Novice Miner
• Adequate Appraiser
• Novice Organizer
• Adequate Negotiator,
• Novice Judge of Intent
• Novice Conversationalist
• Novice Flatterer

Someday, I'll prove the value of all these social skills. The basic gist here is that Boss OrbBreath has the skills to be the Expedition Leader, Manager and Broker. When not doing that, she epitomizes the dwarf lifestyle by cracking rocks. I gave her a level in Wrestling, too, with the intention to train that further, since the leadership position is one I want to keep alive.

"Elfboy" Lornokzan

• Proficient Carpenter,
• Skilled Gem Cutter,
• Novice Gem Setter,

Oh, look at the girlydwarf, playing around with her wood and gems.

"Woodsy" Taronastesh

• Novice Axedwarf,
• Novice Armor User,
• Novice Wrestler,
• Proficient Wood Cutter,
• Novice Animal Trainer,
• Novice Bowyer,
• Competent Ambusher

Woodsy likes to kill things. Trees, goblins, birds. You name it, woodsy wants to put an axe through their chest. She'll be the head of the military and hunting parties. Giving her Animal Trainer, Bowyer and Ambusher may have been wasteful, in retrospect. The high Ambusher gave her a complete set of leather armor and a crossbow,

"Stones" Ustuthrodem

• Proficient Mason,
• Proficient Building Designer

Makes doors 'n' stuff.

"Tinker" Athalolor

• Proficient Stone Crafter,
• Proficient Mechanic

In charge of making debris useful to the fortress

"Fields" Tenshedkol -

• Novice Butcher,
• Novice Tanner,
• Competent Grower,
• Proficient Herbalist,
• Adequate Leatherworker

Fields starts the game gathering herbs 'n' stuff, until we get the farms built. He's also in charge of the livestock.

Fields likes traction benches. I wish I'd noticed that before I assigned skill points.

Migrants

Udil Rigothsanreb, Weaver

• Talented Weaver,
• Competent Grower,
• Novice Suturer,
• Novice Flatterer

Man, anybody who shows up with an entire skill level in kissing ass has got to be put to good use.

Ushrir Asmistem, Farmer

• Proficient Milker,
• Talented Dyer

You really have to wonder why he fled whatever town he came from originally. Milking and dying? o.O

Making a Militia

Note that this is not really a "walkthrough" since that implies these are an intelligent set of steps to follow. Rather, this is more of a series of Field Reports, describing my thought process and attempts to understand the differences between 40d and DF2010.

Commentary and Discussion Encouraged

At Game Start

Before I even unpause the game for the first time, I activate the nobles screen, and assign dwarves to all the positions: Potions becomes my Chief Medical Dwarf and Bookkeeper, Woodsy becomes the Militia Commander, and Boss OrbBreath gets all the other positions except Sheriff, which I leave unfilled.

Being somewhat familiar with the game, and needing more wood than meat in the beginning, I make sure that Woodsy's Hunting labor is off.

Having learned my lesson during 40d about creating defensive strategies in layers, I spend some time checking out the terrain to choose a suitable fortress location, and plan out several stages of defensive preparation which have successive completion stages. I pick a location which has a small nearby hill, which I can later turn into an archery tower, and lakes nearby and above, which can be redirected into moats and waterfalls . I then build a long, 3-tile wide front hallway which leads to 2 5x5 rooms. The first room will be my Trade Depot, the second will start off as my Dining Room, and later become my barracks.

To the east of the dining hall, I build my Medical Burrow. I choose a 6x6 room since I have no idea what that all really requires, a 3x3 room for the Still, another 3x3 room for the Office of Records Doctoring, a bedroom, and a stockpile room for the Still.

During mining, I discovered a metal vein leading north, which I mine out and turn into a refuse room. Otherwise, I keep the north side of the main entrance untouched. Later, I can add additional defensive features, like a series of arrow slits behind a moat, or maybe add a U-turn with ballista.

South of the dining hall, I build another long corridor wide corridor. Off of it, I build a barracks/dormitory, 3 workshops (initially Carpenter's, Mason's, and Mechanic's), and several 5x5 rooms (a mistake, based on 40d farming habits). Behind the workshops I put in a large stockpile room. It just happens to be adjacent to the still's stockpile room, so I merge those two rooms. Later, I'll move the Mason's and Mechanic's room down below, and replace them with a Bowyer shop (since my bowyer is also a woodcutter, this makes it convenient for him) and a Jeweler's Shop (since my jeweler is also my Carpenter).

At the end of this 2nd corridor I put a set of stairs down to my workshop area.

This makes a good initial defensive layer, since the 1st attacks will confront the caravan guards, and one which can be augmented in the short term with stone-fall traps, outdoor training areas and bunkers, etc. In the long term, I can add the ballista hallway or arrow slits, moats, the archery tower, etc. This additional features can also be adjusted to include happy-makers, like a pleasing waterfall, or extending the archery tower to wall in an "aboveground" farm.

One Season Later, The Military Screen

Woodsy has cleared out a lot of trees in the immediate area, and seen some tasty horses wandering around. My 1st two (2) migrants have arrived, and both of them are parts of industries that I haven't built yet. It's time to start thinking about my military, maybe even designing a hunting party.

Somewhere along the way, I built 2 training axes. I also have the crossbow from having an Ambusher. What I don't have is bone bolts, extra armor, or any understanding of the new military system.

I want Woodsy to train another axedwarf, and I want to put that crossbow to good use. I also want to further Boss OrbBreath's wrestling career.

Reviewing the info on the wiki, this sounds like 3 squads to me:

• Axedwarves: Woodsy and Asmistem. I'll need a set of leather armor for the ass-kisser.
• Marksdwarf: Elfboy, since there are so few trees on this screen anyway.
• Wrestlers: Boss, and some others. I'd prefer this to be a larger squad, but everybody is doing important work right now, so I'll just use the two Farmers, until I get the farms set up.

Maybe alternating schedules so that Woodsy is chopping trees while Elfboy is practicing with his crossbow. The wrestlers are a reserve force, and so I'll try to get them to train 1 month out of three. I need bone bolts, armor, and to swap Potions out with new miner.

~Documentation pause as I try this out~