Forty Fort (5 megs of shame)
After about 15 false starts (starting on incredibly high skill levels; flooding the whole map; starving everyone; trading everything by weight instead of value) I finally settled on a strategy.
I opened with 1 Proficient Miner (one pick) and one woodcutter (one axe), a bunch of barrels of booze (for the free barrels!) and a loadout set with one thing in mind:
Burrow my way to cross the river, setup a small farm, and churn out as many rock crafts as I could while building my way to the magma.
I made my dig 3 squares wide to house a temporary Mason's (who worked on blocks for bridges/trade depot), Crafts, Carpentry, and Mechanics shops (for the floodgate farming I'd be doing). I kept everything very minimal - beds in the hallways all the way up to winter.
After I got the initial farm setup, I focused entirely on magma. I had my wood furnaces going and I was smelting coal bars in preperation. Then I hit a snag.
I couldn't find iron ore.
As you can see in the map, I sent out mining expeditions to all corners of the map, and of COURSE the last place I look (very far bottom right) is a HUGE gold seam which distracted me (I had to dig it all up - it was sparkly), followed by a medium sized platinum seam. then a few screens below that, the iron belt.
I have a huge net worth now, 10 barrels of exquisite crafts and several Legendary dwarves. All my furniture is amazing. All my carvings are brilliant. My original lone miner - who is superhuman in strength and speed - chews through ore faster than my new peasants can walk!
I love how people post pics of their fort and others comment on it/give suggestions. I'd love to get the treatment 