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[DarthCloakedDwarf]

The cave lobsters in the caverns, though...

...are redundant. 

[stormyseasons]

embark in a glacier instead. more fun. If shells are absolutely required, mod in shells on your dogs or something. easy supply of shell with a few lines of tags.

[Hamster Man]

embark in a glacier instead. more fun. If shells are absolutely required, mod in shells on your dogs or something. easy supply of shell with a few lines of tags.

... wow. I never even thought of that. That's sheer GENIUS!!

FEAR MY TURTLE-DOGS! (not to be confused with turtle doves)

[troodon]

I never embark with a woodcutter.  The skill is easy enough to raise.  The skill doesn't effect value of the logs, just the logging speed.  You can give any friendless peasent an axe and have him go chop down trees.  That way when he is ambushed you loose nothing.

On this note, why ever embark with a woodcutter, or a miner, or a stonecrafter, or a dwarf with any other skill that either does not affect item quality or is essentially free to train?  I start with a carpenter, a weaponsmith, an armorsmith, a metalcrafter, and maybe a bone carver and a leather worker.

[Hamster Man]

The primary reason is that it takes alot longer to raise from Dabbling to Novice than it does to raise from Novice to Adequate (or whatever the next level is). Dunno why but that's how it goes.

[Quatch]

Why embark with any skills? The migrants come with High Master whatevers

A doctor, a grower, and 5 peasants will see you through, but don't stop there. All you really need to bring is a training ax. You can hold out until the caravans with that, or less.

[Hyperturtle]

I don't even bother with the doctor at first.  It took a few years before anyone generally requires a visit from a medic.  Unless you are aggressively exploring, of course, but I guess it depends on  how you spread out the risk.

I generally start with dwarfs that are expert liars and negotiators and get nothing done.

[ohgoditburns]

embark in a glacier instead. more fun. If shells are absolutely required, mod in shells on your dogs or something. easy supply of shell with a few lines of tags.

I prefer adding the [shell] tag to chitin, (or to hooves if I'm feeling elfy)

[slink]

Hooves and horns make nice shell items.

[Dave Mongoose]

Surely tundra is actually harder than a glacier? You can melt glacier ice with magma to get drinking water for a well, but tundra doesn't even have any water unless a river runs through the site...

Then again, if you're playing the new version then the surface biome doesn't make much difference since there is almost always access to water, plants and trees once you reach the caverns.

why ever embark with a woodcutter, or a miner

I would start with a miner because it means you can start digging out ore earlier - I don't like to lose half of the ore pieces from a vein because the miner wasn't skilled enough, and training first takes too long if you want metal ASAP.

I don't even bother with the doctor at first.  It took a few years before anyone generally requires a visit from a medic.

The doctor skills are hard to train (since it's difficult to control your 'accidents') and waiting for an immigrant with the right skills could take years, so I would at least have a diagnoser/wound dresser to provide basic treatment. Fixing broken bones is a bit buggy at the moment, but that might be useful as well for the inevitable cave-in injuries.