Thanks so much for the feedback! I agree that the difficulty ramps up probably a bit too much for the 3rd level (I guess I padded out the play time by making it so difficult). I tried to take some steps to fix this (increase the time that the smiths would wait, make each dwarf drink a little less), but it's still quite hectic at the end.
Here's some unasked for tips that might help you or others with the 3rd level:
- You only need to play the bellows and wood game once per level (you can often sneak these in at the very beginning).
- You can stand a bit to the left side of the toolbench when returning a tool, so you can often avoid dwarfs wanting to use the same toolbench.
- I have a hierarchy of chores that I take care of: Spills > Tools > Bellows > Wood > Smithing. Spills are the worst thing since any dwarf can spot them (they do have a grace timer though, so don't run in front of a dwarf who just caused a spill).
- You can wait longer to take care of the dwarfs who are waiting to smith. They won't drink while performing actual work tasks (just before and after), so they can't make your situation worse.