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[Garath]

bridges:

best is to give every bridge it's own lever so you can controll precisely what bridge goes up or down. Note that you can NOT have a lever raise one bridge and lower another at the same time. It doesn't send a switch signal, but an up or down signal. (b) (g) selects the bridge, waxd selects which direction to raise, s sets is to withdraw (nice for pits sometimes). I make bridges as wide as the corridor they need to block and 2 tiles long. Why 2? well, 1 would do, but with 2 it's easier to see quickly if it's up or down. Longer bridges are only really needed to span pits or for atom smashers


My farms are 2x3, about 15 plots in total, plus above ground farms, also 2x3, 10 total. 2 make plump helmets, 2 pig tails, 2 cave wheat, 2 whip vines, 2 sun berries and 2 strawberries. That is all I need to feed a 120+ fort and keep it boozed up, but I got pretty good farmers. Fiddle around with it yourself, if you get too much, you can always make meals. My advice is to keep plots small so you can switch to different crops as you want. 4 3x3 plots is the same as a 6x6, but easier to split up to diverse production

caged prisoners can be disarmed by (d), (b), (c),  (that is actually the default), then (d), (b), (d) to dump them, then make sure the cage itself isn't dumped, (k) if it's in stockpile or (t) if it's constructed. When you construct a cage, you can put as many prisoners in there as you want by assigning them. Thieves are supposed to have an escape chance, but everything else should follow the dwarf in charge docily. Prisoners make a good training for militia, as they skill up at least doubly as fast actually fighting than other ways

Thieves I usually scare off, not really worth getting upset about

And yes, it's worth upgrading armor. Iron is good enough for pretty much everything, steel is for if you can afford or make it, gives you a huge advantage, but isn't actually required

idlers:
First of all, set people to work at jobs you want them to do, not what they seem to be good at.
Second:
some people hate them, for one reason: they make friends so when they die, lots of bad thoughts. They are your ambush/siege cleaners, stone haulers, lever pullers, stockpile haulers and all that.

My young forts usually have no idlers. Growing forts have 10% idlers occasionally, developed forts have 20% idlers, big ones 30, mature 40 and my most developed forts can have as much as 75% of the population idle (at that point everyone is on military training). Most developed means that aside from industry to keep everyone clothed, boozed up and fed, nothing really needs to be done anymore.

Consider removing hauling jobs from master crafters, especially weapon makers for example. One of the cheesemakers can carry the axe he made to the stockpile, you want him to focus on making more masterwork axes

[Noobazzah]

If you have immigrants with completely useless skills, get them to train a little in more useful ones, so that each has only one useful skill. Once they get a mood, they'll be probably doing something related to that skill, and become legendary in it afterwards. That is, unless they were possessed.

[Berlioz]

Two farmers are enough, but have a third as backup/trainee. So set three dwarves with farming as their only occupation. Don't mind when they idle from time to time.
Constructing drawbridges is a little strange, after b-g you have to use umhk to make it bigger and wasd to change it from retracting to raising. I had to cancel several bridges because I forgot the raising part. To be able to build a raising one you need solid ground at one side. You can link several bridges to one lever or pressure plate, but usually it is not necessary, just build bigger bridges.
The caged prisoners can be atom-smashed or magma-melted, but I found the best solution to use them for live target practice. Disarm them and pit them in a prison.
The top level is an animal stockpile (disallow empty cages) with 4 (or any number you want) channeled holes with hatches. Under it is a prison room with fortifications to shoot through and a wall grate to collect the dead prisoners. Make the whole top room a pit zone and disallow animals in your other stockpiles, but activate empty cages in one.

Code: [Select]

top level
########
#      #
# H  H #
#      D
# H  H #
#      #
########

bottom level
########
#      F
#      F
#      F
#      F
#      G
########
Now your cages will be brought here, you can dump them in the bottom room and your archers can use them as practice dummies, which is by far the best way to train. Empty cages will then be hauled back to your main stockpile.
Military can be send by s-k to kill something, but thieves are fast, I usually either kill them with marksdwarves in a tower over my entrance or let them run free. Sooner or later they'll step in a cage trap and there's no way they can get past my wardogs. Steel > iron/(bis) bronze > copper, but if you're low on iron it's better to use it to make steel. Upgrading is highly recommended for your melee dwarves, but train your smith first with cheap metal.
Excess population should be used to make your fortress more efficient. Use dedicated dwarves for the most important tasks like planting, brewing, weaving, etc. It doesn't matter that they have some spare time, as long as your important jobs get done in time. Usually I have a dedicated weaver, gem cutter/setter, clothier, threasher, brewer, cook, carpenter, etc. Use several mechanics, masons and miners to accelerate those tasks! Often I have 12-15 miners. As soon as your metal industry starts have several furnace workers to melt down useless stuff and have your smith supplied all the time. One task per dwarf may seem ineffective, since they'll have spare time, but skill increase and availability more than compensate.
Since your workers are doing the same thing over and over they will level up quickly and work faster with better results. You'll need a lot of haulers to get things from place to place, so everyone should be occupied. Usually I train around half my military and let the rest haul or operate pumps. With 15 miners you'll have a lot to haul. Set new immigrants to haul only unless you have a really talented one or an opening somewhere.
Some people like to have several rock crafters to turn excess stone into wealth, but stone crafts are cheap, so you'll need a lot of them, which means much hauling. I think it's ineffective, there are better ways to increase wealth, if you really want to, metal crafts and metal weapons for example or gem setting. Even undyed simple clothing is more expensive than rock crafts.

Edit: Corrected minor spelling errors.