If I were going to do an above ground embark within range of a tower, I'd dig in basements first and set up a thriving underground site and then build up from there. Just vault the damn thing, considering Dwarves have below ground crops to start with. And I always get screwed over by "common houses" they take too long to set up when you'd do better to set up the farm houses first, then the construction ones, and set people to work in their specialized fields pronto. That way you can trade a little in the first year, or the second.
Yesterday I did a no-points embark and it forced me to deal with the military system in more depth. I was building a storage shed out of a walled up canyon, and needed a guard to keep thieves out. So I set up the patrol route and scheduled a crossbow general. The Kea people showed up as the caravan did, and since I didn't have a Depot up, the caravan sat there and helped my crossbowman keep the keafolk occupied.
Observation: During the battle my crossbowman never abandoned bolt shooting. A few times the keas got real close, and he only shot them, didn't charge. One got right next to him while he was retrieving bolts from the shed, and he still shot it. Not once did he go melee.
Hypothesis: Using patrol routes instead of direct orders might help maintain battle discipline in crossbow soldiers.
Alternate Hypothesis: Humans are more disciplined than Dwarves.
If someone else using Dwarves will try out using patrol routes to get people to the battle, we can test whether it's race based or not. I'll do it on my side for ten battles, and then switch to ten battles using stationing and kill orders. We might be able to find a workaround for the whole "Leeroy Jenkins!" attitude people have in this game.