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[crazyabe]

i build a blood "room" that is a room filled with real AND training spikes then burrow gay, "useless", and "noble", dwarves in there set one lever to repeat and wait a month then i let out all my new legendary dodgers and kill the unstable dwarves (rare) in the room filled with gem covered spikes,  just like day care.

[Wheeljack]

In the beginning of my forts, I limit my pop cap to 30. Anymore than that while I'm setting up is too much to micromanage, though I do allow births after that number by setting the strict pop cap to the 250. These first 30 dwarves are treated like kings. I never use furniture that is less than exceptional. The crap gets sold to the caravans while the good stuff is set up in rooms. This starting force basically become my noble class later on down the line. Once I'm set up and confident I can handle more dwarves, I open the flood gates, so to speak.

Useless dwarves usually get thrown into my Hauler/Engraver squad. Dwarves with good physical stats that can handle stress, get thrown into my military. There are some professions I never use, but most others get at least 1-2 dwarves assigned to them. If its something I only use sparingly, they're also co-assigned to the hauler/engraver squad. I find just dabbling in almost everything gives the fortress a nice busy feeling even when I have 50+ dwarves idle. I know some people hate idlers, but I find if I want something done RIGHT NOW, idlers are a godsend straight from Armok.

Of course, this kind of activity used to overwhelm me. I got sucked into the mentailty that idlers = bad when I first started a few years ago. Every time I mentioned having idle dwarves someone would inevitably come along to tell me I wasn't managing the fortress right. So I played with ONLY 30 dwarves tops for a long while. I'm much more knowledgeable and secure in how I run my forts now, though. Don't feel like you have to have a certain number of dwarves or do things a certain way just because the mojarity do. Once I started playing MY way, I had scads more fun. Repelling the old goblin sieges with only 5-6 military dwarves was something, let me tell you! XD

[Robsoie]

A good way to not get lost with too much randomly named dwarves that name is odd enough so you're never going to remember is to actually give them nicknames.

Press U for your fortress the unit list , look at your citizen list , select a dwarf and press V
Now press Y to customise
Press N to customise the nickname


It's much easier to remember that Chuck Norris is your best bone crafter instead of that Thikut Stinthadiklist that you never remember when you're looking for him
And it's much more fun too

[MobRules]

A good way to not get lost with too much randomly named dwarves that name is odd enough so you're never going to remember is to actually give them nicknames.

Press U for your fortress the unit list , look at your citizen list , select a dwarf and press V
Now press Y to customise
Press N to customise the nickname


It's much easier to remember that Chuck Norris is your best bone crafter instead of that Thikut Stinthadiklist that you never remember when you're looking for him
And it's much more fun too

I take this a step further, and give my dwarves nicknames like "Archer", "Archer-Captain", "Mason", "Bonecarver", "Armorsmith", "Axedwarf", and so forth. Even when this means that more than one dwarf has the same nickname.

Dwarf Therapist becomes mandatory when you have two dozen dwarves or more.

[Chief10]

I always play with a 40 dwarf pop cap. This way I usually have 0-5 idlers, and am intimately attached to every single dwarf (I nickname every one). This way I don't have to deal with too many dwarves, FPS is higher, and I actually feel an emotional response when one of my bearded friends die.

Edit: I change the raws so that sieges come after 30 dwarves.

[Psieye]

I take this a step further, and give my dwarves nicknames like "Archer", "Archer-Captain", "Mason", "Bonecarver", "Armorsmith", "Axedwarf", and so forth. Even when this means that more than one dwarf has the same nickname.

Dwarf Therapist becomes mandatory when you have two dozen dwarves or more.

When therapist isn't available (i.e. when a fresh version has just come out) I can't micromanage as much but I can still have some degree of control over a large population. It really comes down to nicknames: my system compresses as much as possible: "Lmb)Wep-!" means "can cut down trees but that's switched off for now, is a weaponsmith currently and has no hauling enabled"; "MsnEng-F" means "the primary mason and engineer, only food hauling"; etc

Once the population gets bigger than 10, a growing number of dwarves find they're all called "D" for drone. Drones have some 30+ labours enabled, all of which aren't important. Another batch of dwarves find they're called "R1" for Recruit in Squad 1, etc.

[darkflagrance]

They breed in my dining rooms. I actually like maintaining a vast supply of idlers as haulers and military reserves. The only downside is the FPS drop.