-9- [Ironchapel] (4) How I stopped worrying and sacrificed half the population

We haven't heard from aghastamok for a while, so I've stepped in instead. If you are aghastamok, you should comment on the successors list.

I'm playing my turn using 0.34.07, I didn't upgrade. But here's a discussion about whether we should upgrade our forts. I'm also using the Phoebus tileset for your viewing pleasure, but I usually use the real ASCII shit, so if I don't see something, hey, I'm doing that for you!

Alright, let's begin with the carnage! EDIT - this turn has ended. Download links are at the bottom of the post!

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Spring - Picture album - Download

Oh. My. God. Our current population is 43 dwarves and 102 zombie-invaders. This could be problematic. We don't even have a manager available, so I persuade our mayor to do that. It's surprisingly easy to command people around when we are on the brink of a zombie fucking apocalypse.

Of course our fortress is locked in a beautifully nonexistent way. There is a bridge near the entrance, let's find a lever that raises it. Hopefully there isn't an instant-suicide one. There are two levers in the dining hall and one outside. I order the triggering of each one and hope for the best. I also order the construction of a wall behind the bridge and tell the mechanic to put down a new lever in case the levers don't raise the bridge.

Later... This does not work. Our masons want to construct SOMETHING, but definitely not the wall I demanded. This is Very Bad.

I tell everyone, including our "military", to get the fuck into the dining hall. I need to get order into this mess if we want to stand a ghost of a chance against those zombies. This also allows me to see who is actually able to do work.

Later... Success! One of the levers actually managed to raise the bridge! I'll figure out which one it was, but that's definitely good!

Slightly later... It was the top one in the dining hall. I placed a note next to it for future poor souls. I'll let the outside civilians in and then close the bridge again. After that, we should be able to do something about the siege.

Later... It gets too dangerous outside. Have a nice death everyone outside. I end the alert and try to get order into this mess. 24 citizens. Our Armorer seems to be the best farmer around, so I order him to do it.

Later... Our mayor, questionquality, has fallen victim to the zombies. 15 citizens. On the other hand, I've created a masterful plan for dealing with the besieging zombies: Wait.

Later... Oh no. Also, 13 citizens, and a new mayor. On the upside, the new farm plots are done. Also, I took the job of our late (is that term appropriate for zombies?) beekeeper to prevent the hunger death of our colony.

Later... The citizen-counter seems to be stable at 12. Safety! Even better, the necromancers are gone (possibly killed by the speardwarf that ignored the alert earlier and stayed outside), leaving only the (200) zombies behind. Let's see if he can dispose of them too. Go, Nish Kendodok!

Later... Nish Kendodok really wants to be thorough.

A few seconds later... He died. 11 citizens. Made the fish dissector do the brewing and cooking.

Later... I'm going for the magma sea in case the undead (270 and counting) won't go away. Alternatively, I order the construction of some cages and mechanisms. I disband the military and use the only remaining fucking militia commander as a carpenter/woodcrafter and the diagnoser from my squad as mechanic. I also remove the coffin-forging tasks. Priorities, as always.

Later... 268 enemies, the two missing ones were probably slaughtered by the zombies. So, we are making progress. Also, beautiful view from above. That, and I drop the cage-trap thingies for something better.

Slightly later... SCREW YOU

Later... 10 citizens? Not sure who died. But this is bad. On the upside, only 214 enemies. This is progress, damnit! Need to investigate why spike balls don't get build.

Summer has arrived on the calendar, to be continued...

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Summer - Picture Album - Download

Alright, if Abraham Lincoln can do this, then this should be a piece 'a cake for me. Thanks to our ingenious philosopher 'postal83' we have come up with an even better defense plan: A drawbridge. I've also noticed that the placement of the staircases is somewhat inefficient. I persuade our miner to stop searching for the magma sea and carve new staircases. He is not amused. I also give Mestthos Zesoddom Talin Tetthush another pick. He gave me a pretty scary look, but he knows what's on the stake.

Later.... The staircases are finished. I tell the miners to mine out some space where underground trees can magically appear.

15th Malachite, Doomsday The bridge is ready and linked up. I order the lever to be flipped as fast as possible. Let's rock!

Forgot that we have cage traps outside. Also, one of our useless children ran outside to pickup his equipment. I have no idea what he wanted to pickup, but he'll sure regret it.

Slightly later... This is not going as planned. Two dwarfs ran outside... doing... something, dying in the process. Set off another civilian alert to prevent this from happening. The zombies are up to something else, but they seem to be able to smell the danger inside... Bad.

A few tenths of a femtosecond later... The microcline smasher fucking WORKS! (Here's a movie with all the goodness - extract into your data/movies folder, then press ; while in-game). 10 zombies already gone in the first few seconds of operation! I'm going to let that run for a while.

Later... FUCK. Oh, it's only zombie/atom smasher food.

Later... The goblins and the smasher are really efficient. 16 wild zombies and 17 goblins left!

Autumn has arrived on the calendar, to be continued...

So far, so smooth. Thanks for postal83 for the drawbridge idea!

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Autumn - Picture Album

I order the drawbridges to be closed and end the civilian alert for a while so our 7 happy starving dwarves, including myself, can get some booze and food. I order the refuse from our mysteriously deceased brother, now identified as Bembul Catteniden, to be hauled deep below the surface so we don't have to endure the smell of his corpse anymore.

Later... The undead are now gone entirely, leaving only 17 marksgoblins behind.

Later... To improve the morale in our fortress, I tell the others to place the zombie-cages into our dining hall. This should give my friends something to admire. Once the cage traps are reset, the drawbridges will be engaged again.

Later... What??? On the other hand, living population is starting to rise again.

Later... The besieging goblins have departed! Ironchapel is open for business once more!

Slightly later... Or so i thought. He looks trapped, so no further action is taken.

Later... But... how? I ask our other miner to get him out.

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Winter - Picture Album

Still with 7 dwarves in total, we are kinda low on dwarven resources. My fellas are happily hauling stuff around, so I am looking for the graveyard to dispose bury our fallen brothers and sisters.

Later... Found it. It's in the dining hall. Unfortunately, it is not possible to install more coffins without breaking symmetry, so I tell the others to place the remaining coffins beneath the fortress.

A month later... Progress is going rather slowly. I trigger another civilian alert and close the drawbridge to prevent the idiots from going outside.

Later... I order the construction of some stone slabs to satisfy our ghosts.

Later... A thief has stolen a steel spear, probably from a destroyed zombie.

Later... Engaging drawbridge in 3... 2... 1...

Later... OH COME ON DIE ALREADY

MUCH later... Finally. I end the hopefully last civilian alert this year and allow everyone to get back to work. BUT BUT BUT the ambushers have killed the last zombie, so we are officially siege-free now!

And just in time, because Spring has arrived on the calendar!

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That was a very Fun turn! If I had set off the first civilian alert a little bit sooner, more dwarves could have survived, but that's fine. Could have been much much worse. Here are the final download links: Dropbox or DFFD