Most of our humans were rather busy cutting trees, mining, farming, and fishing. Though we could start a military in the second year we have enough population that we can have a military. The only threat we have seen are snatchers who managed to get a single child.
Lets see. I started our stone and metal mines, dug out a general tomb space which has two occupants already from a contruction accident. We have draw bridge covering a two level drop only two spaces wide to protect the entry into the hill fort. Currently all of the workshops are in the fort as are the public dinning and rest halls. A large public space for sleeping and eating outside would be a year long goal.
In order to ensure we could rapidly build our initial housing I set everyone to carpentry and masonry otherwise they still would be waiting to be built. Once we have enough housing built we can take them off of it and assign the most skilled in those fields to those jobs.
The fort is fed through a fortified water way so the fort has a water supply.
We have a manager, broker, and book keeper. We have two carpentry and two mason shops to help grind out furniture, blocks, doors, and coffins.
The climate is warm and there is no snow or freezing in the winter so we have food and water year round. We have walled in farm plot which is doing decently and providing materials for booze, food, and some plants for textile industry. I haven't quite gotten the textile industry going but the basics are all in place to start it.
We have lots of sand and the trees grow back quickly so we can easily set up a booming glass industry without having to delve down to magma. There are plenty of emu for animals. We have pike in the river and ravens flying around. We get a fair bit of shellfish from the river we should also consider setting up a second fisher shop so they can process fish faster.
So far it is a quiet fort but we can easily attract a lot of bad attention. Since we are next to a river if we fortify a box we can really ensconce our selves securely.
I will name a few dwarves, upload it to the depot and set the link out after I get home.
edited 9th May '14 4:23:15 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?Whoever goes for active defense, we can keep most of the nasties at bay by creating a dry-moat and fortifying the top of the wall for archers or crossbows to fire from.
When we get into active weapons and megaconstructions, we can play with aqueducts and mechanics to make a water weapon for striking against any dust wielding Titans. After that only the flying things will be an issue.
I forgot. The fort name in the save is Tatoo Paints.
Tatoo Paints Save file
When I am done with my paper work tomorrow at work, I will do a write up.
edited 9th May '14 11:31:04 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?It depends entirely on how we handle ourselves. During this era of warfare, bunkering down inside castle walls was the way to go, and you'd shoot siegers from the tops of walls.
If we can load up on wood ahead of time, and block off the mine in a way that gives us access without allowing others to use it, we'll be fine.
It took Tuefel two or three times to get this far. It's a learning experience for everyone.
Sometimes what I do is pop into Peridexis LNP, use Startdwarf to embark with thirty people, and use the custom world gen options to jack up the embark points to 10,000. 7,500 of that goes to stone so I can get enough stone to not need to mine for a very, very long time and I just get to work cranking out a castle.
At that point you start off with four wagons and eight animals, and you can center the castle itself on the wagons.
The Mine is already protected by dint of being inside the fort due to limited space to dig into. The only weak point into the fort is the outside farm access point. It is walled in at the level the farm is on and walled in on the cliff above to prevent easy access into it. The ramps may need to be cleared back because I forgot to do that.
A wall by the road with a draw bridge should easily defend that spot. There are hill/cliffs to the south but it would be easy to build a wall that runs up to the river. Need to wall in the rest of the cliffs of the fort to keep invaders from dropping into it from the hills above.
Who watches the watchmen?Yeap. The hill the fort burrows under is also under part of said road. We could quite easily park a military on the bridge and road if we so chose to. The bridge is not a standard retractable/draw bridge but solid pre fab of some sort. We could easily change that if we chose to.
The fortifications I have put in are minimal those were suggestions to hem in some outside space and protect it. It would be fairly easy to do. The big challenge will be building living spaces for the humans to be outside in. I gave them 3x3 huts. right now they have just beds. I wanted to put more furniture in them though.
Wood is not a problem. I have yet to have to go far from the forts starting area to find wood. There is plenty north of the road and across the river.
Who watches the watchmen?Don't breach the circus. That just kills the FPS hard and fast. You really shouldn't be delving into the caverns to begin with. We really don't need anything from them and the focus is on a surface civ with the limited underground space being for burial, a bolt hole, and graves.
Who watches the watchmen?We can breach the caverns if we want to but for the time being we have no shortage of wood. There is so much it will take us a while to really whittle down the stockpile far enough that we will have to worry.
Maybe for the monsters coming up from below for some added challenge but I would I dig a shaft separate from the mines that lets them up onto the surface for that.
Who watches the watchmen?One of my favorite defenses is a retracting draw bridge that drops invaders about 12 z levels onto hard ground. They have an "exit" to the surface that comes out by the pit but to get through they have to go over a patch of weapon traps and then some cage traps. If they are stuck due to injury or make it through the military usually mops them up.
One of the previous forts had the kill tower. You stacked assorted items above and then pulled a lever dropping a big pile of stuff onto the offender below crushing them to death.
Who watches the watchmen?Yeah, the only reason to breach caverns is to get F Bs to come to the surface. It's reason enough later on, but we're nowhere near there yet.

It only takes a year to train up legendaries if you catch them soon enough and get your hands on the right weapons.
The tutorial I read for dwarf mode said to create a one or two man squad right at the first migrant wave.
Yes, I know we need resources for buildings. I was just still going by that old tutorial.