I've still been playing Dwarf Fortress, and it recently got a nice spread in Games for Windows magazine.
I'm on my third fortress right now, and this time I decided to go all-out and head straight for the magma so I could easily make steel. Heck yeah. My fortress is huge and awesome, and none of the various monsters have been able to touch me yet. I'm still waiting for a goblin siege or some magma men, but so far nothing!
Here's my current fortress Ducimalis. This is the first time I've made it to the magma, and I dug straight for it, getting my magma smelter up and running during my first winter. So far the chasm and river monsters haven't caused me many problems, and I haven't seen any magma men. My economy is booming, and I really need more dwarves to help me expand further!
(HT: Ellipsoid and the Wandering Pocket and Dubious Quality, two other DF bloggers.)
I'm to the magma on my second fortress, but it took a long time to find any iron. Is there any special purpose behind the north and south tunnels to the edge of the map?
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "north and south tunnels". Do you mean the chasm near the middle of the map that does north and south from your fortress and consists of gray "#" marks? If that's what you mean, then yeah, monsters can come out of it.
No, I mean on your map, you dug two-space tunnels all the way to the top and bottom of the map, between the chasm and the magma. You didn't expand the tunnels to pursue gems or gold veins, so I'm wondering why you dug them.
I dug them to find ore veins (that tend to run diagonally). When I need a certain type of ore later in the game, I'll know where to look now.
Also, I'm expanding them now to give me more living space.