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[Gentlefish]

I want to embark on an evil area, but with the new corpses and rains and clouds, I'm having trouble even digging a hole to hide in without everyone dying. I want to embark there mostly for the corpses - I want to create a dwarfy arena that feeds itself for the goblin invasions - if they make it to my fort.

So what would you guys reccomend? Three miners, four hammerdwarves? Two miners, two workers, and three wardwarves? Bring wood? Bring little to nothing? How're my chances on bringing a breeding pair of dogs and birds for food/extra padding/zombies?

[Gentlefish]

Also, would burrows force the dwarves into my hovel quicker? I would imagine they're a little more effective than simple meeting areas.

[Sutremaine]

How big's the hole you're trying to dig?

[Gentlefish]

I channel down one level only - the problem is, I'm usually attacked by all sorts of nasties. The first fell to giant zombie thrips, the other one... Well, my laptop decided it would be a good time to be touchy so it happily broke that fort for me.

[DavionFuxa]

Generally, there are a few things to do that will help you out on a first time embark in an evil biome (or anytime embarking in an evil biome really) -

*Embark in part of an Evil Biome, not completely in the Evil Biome.
*Make sure there is no Aquifer, trying to tunnel through those things takes too much time.
*Have at least a little soil or clay - it will cut down on dig time.
*Immediately dig yourself a temporary underground area for your supplies.
*Don't have any Dwarf work outside or capable of going outside.
*Gauge when to let Migrants in and leave them out in the cold.

Having more Picks, Weapons, Armor, and Dwarves with Mining Skill, Military Skills, and Good Stats can all help too if you use them right. But generally you should be fine if you don't take any and quickly wall yourself in before stuff gets in.

[edgefigaro]

The startup- 3 miners, ~50 logs, ~20 stones.  Rest is up to you.

Things to do immediately-
Make a masons shop and 2x stone blocks.
Cave in the wagon two stories.  Bonus points for not killing a miner while doing this. 

Things to do next: Build a bridge over the zlvl -1 3x3 hole that you dropped the wagon into.  Deconstruct your mason shop and bring your extra blocks and such into a room on zlvl -2 that you connect to the wagon room.  Pasture your animals in the room and bring in all your dwarves.
Wall off all outside passages.
Breathe.

This is the fastest way i have been able to get to ground.  I tried digging a hole a hauling everything inside, but bad things were happening to my dwarves.  The next task is usually getting a deep (~15 zlvls) pit/dump to chuck things into. 

Also, build cage traps all over the place in your fortress.  Butcher shops should be surrounded with them.  Hospital should have em.  If you have a grand stairwell like most people do, all important floors should have cage traps in the stairwell.  If you ever have to shift your staircase to breach the caverns, throw some traps on the hallway. 

Nothing teaches you how to build an airlock to the outside like an evil embark either.

[Sutremaine]

I've been able to get underground pretty quickly by digging a small shaft to dump the contents of the wagon down while the miner digs out a little space for a meeting zone that won't see the pack animals kicking someone's head in (assuming it's not a reanimating biome. Otherwise, pasture them outside and leave them there).

A U-bend and a 3x3 room coming off it will take less than 20 tiles of digging and can be sealed off with two pieces of building material.