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[goge]

How do you start it? When do you start it?  Do you dig down to the magma sea in the first year and start a magma furnace industry or do you start as soon as you find coal and iron containing ores?  Or do you hold off until the rest of the fort is matured?  If you get to the magma sea right away how do you do it, with a single up/down stair stack or an elaborate ramp spiral?  How do you get the materials down there?  If you run a coal based industry how do you have your supply chain setup?  How many smelters per metalsmith do you use?

Yea its a lot of questions but I'm not looking for an answer to all of them, just how you personally go about setting up your steel industry.
Thanks!

[Sphalerite]

First, if I plan on a significant steel industry, I pick an embark site with the right raw materials.  Some trees on the surface, flux stone, and stone layers likely to contain coal and magnetite.  I don't start working steel immediately unless I have a desperate need, instead spending the first year or two building my food chain and relying on walls and bridges for defense.  When I decide to start metal production I send down exploratory tunnels to map the caverns and find the magma sea.

Once I map the magma sea I dig out a large chamber just above the magma level.  I typically use a three-wide ramp corridor to connect the surface and the magma production floor.  In the production room I create individual stockpiles for coal, iron ore, charcoal/coke, iron, pig iron, and steel bars.  I create a handful of magma smelters and forges too.  I don't need to specifically prospect for ore and coal since my excavations near the surface should have already hit several veins.  Once the ore/coal stockpiles in the smelter room have a reasonably amount stockpiled in them I start processing coal, smelting iron, and making pig iron and steel.

[blue emu]

I start forging as soon as I find Ore.

With the high early immigration rate in the latest versions, I like to start my Steel industry and Military Boot-Camp as early as possible. Lately I've started trying out Embark Templates which include:

one Dwarf with Mining (1) and Weaponsmith (5)
one Dwarf with Mining (1) and Armorsmith (5)
one Dwarf with Teaching (4), Axedwarf (3) and Dodging (3)... notice, he has no Civilian skills.
one Dwarf with Cooking (3) and Brewing (3)
one Dwarf with Grower (5)
one Dwarf with Mason (1) and Architect (1)
one Dwarf with Mechanics (1) and lots of Social skills (Broker, Organizer, Judge of Intent, Consoler, etc)

I've even been thinking or replacing the Mason with a Marksdwarf/Teacher.

[goge]

Interesting, the first two replies with two different and opposing strategies.  I'm trying to find my sweetspot.  When I tried for late production it takes too long to get an army up and effective.  Twice when I tried getting to the magma sea right away and focusing on steel production the fortresses died of thirst :\  I think I need to find a middleground.

[Foehamster]

First I pick an embark location with lots of limestone and forest (prefferably over white sand.) I tend to take a weapon and armorsmith,  but since immigrints are skilled now this isn't as necessary.

Winter of the first or the second year is when I start production. Digging out the fortess provides ample flux and with the high ore content of 2010, lots of limonite, hematite, and magnatite.  All that remains is to clearcut the map for charcoal.

Assign noncritical sorts to wood burn and furnace opperate and the only issue is when the elves send their negotiater.

From there I recomend abiding by the hippie's requests and importing wood until your defenses are built and have access to subterranean wood.

[blue emu]

...  Twice when I tried getting to the magma sea right away and focusing on steel production the fortresses died of thirst :\

What sort of Embark Profile do you use? I'm not sure how a Fort can starve or die of thirst if you start with a max-level (skill-5) Grower and a high-level Cook/Brewer among your founding seven Dwarves.

[Alastar]

I don't usually make steel a priority.

Bronze is enough for my military needs: Both deflect goblin blades and projectiles nicely, neither protects reliably against the better blunt weapons. Both cut through copper well enough, both struggle with iron armour. Copper is usually plentiful, cassiterite is cheap and bronze itmes take far less labour... the time saved can go into general fortress design (and possibly traps).

Steel can wait until I have legendary smiths and magma; the same goes for civilian applications.

[Tsarwash]

Usually I tend to set up the steel industry as soon as possible. But firstly I secure my fortress with walls and drawbridges and traps. Then I build a farm and still and kitchen. Then you should be able to safely set up a steel industry. In my current map, there is no coal, iron or flux. So large scale steel production is out of the question. I like it though, because it has forced me out of my comfort zone, and I have had to build a quite different fortress then I usually do. Magma forges thirty levels down, weapon and armour production in the first cavern ten levels down. Lots of exploritory mining looking for copper and tin.

[Kolbur]

In my latest fortress i had 3 stages: I started to produce steel very early to outfit one dwarf by using coke as fuel. No problem to set it up but a waste of coke. I then dug my central spiral stairway down to the magma sea and set up magma forges and smelters down there. It was very inefficient because the hauling distances are looong. That's why it was only temporary until my huge 100 z lvl magma pump stack was finished. After a long time i could finally set up my final metal works area I think in year 6 of the fortress. That's when the real steel production could start. It can be done way faster but i had several other projects running at the same time. I actually don't have many metal workers, only 3 in fact. 2 furnace operators and one legendary armorer, who's also professional weapon smith and furnace operator. They produce more than enough for my military needs. One of my docs is also a blacksmith but doesn't see much work (after finishing the iron pump stack of course;)).

[slothen]

I start forging as soon as I find Ore.

With the high early immigration rate in the latest versions, I like to start my Steel industry and Military Boot-Camp as early as possible. Lately I've started trying out Embark Templates which include:

one Dwarf with Mining (1) and Weaponsmith (5)
one Dwarf with Mining (1) and Armorsmith (5)
one Dwarf with Teaching (4), Axedwarf (3) and Dodging (3)... notice, he has no Civilian skills.
one Dwarf with Cooking (3) and Brewing (3)
one Dwarf with Grower (5)
one Dwarf with Mason (1) and Architect (1)
one Dwarf with Mechanics (1) and lots of Social skills (Broker, Organizer, Judge of Intent, Consoler, etc)

I've even been thinking or replacing the Mason with a Marksdwarf/Teacher.

i always give each dwarf 10 skills, but I used to do the miner/armorer miner/weaponsmith.  Then my legendary miner/talented armor smith got a mood, and i was disappointed to learn mining is a moodable skill.  Now I make sure to make my smiths  have non moodable skills as their secondary.

[goge]

...  Twice when I tried getting to the magma sea right away and focusing on steel production the fortresses died of thirst :\

What sort of Embark Profile do you use? I'm not sure how a Fort can starve or die of thirst if you start with a max-level (skill-5) Grower and a high-level Cook/Brewer among your founding seven Dwarves.

Mayday's with an anvil or the start now profile.

It seems it takes more then an 8x8 farm plot to feed/fill a fortress now.  especialy when the migrant waves double the fort each time.
I think I'll have to plan more carefully.  (Is that a pun O.o or pun phrase or something?)

[Hyndis]

The first 7 are all builders. Miners, masons, engravers, and engineers. They build the starting fortress. Then later migrants are used to get the metal industry up and running.

I just use vast amounts of charcoal, clearcutting forests again and again and again.

[blue emu]

...  Twice when I tried getting to the magma sea right away and focusing on steel production the fortresses died of thirst :\

What sort of Embark Profile do you use? I'm not sure how a Fort can starve or die of thirst if you start with a max-level (skill-5) Grower and a high-level Cook/Brewer among your founding seven Dwarves.

Mayday's with an anvil or the start now profile.

It seems it takes more then an 8x8 farm plot to feed/fill a fortress now.  especialy when the migrant waves double the fort each time.

You should set up and save your own profile. At the very least, bring along a level-5 Grower. He makes each Farm plot produce four or five times as much as it would if planted by a level-1 Grower.