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1-2

32 (25.6%)

3-4

49 (39.2%)

5-6

19 (15.2%)

7-10

15 (12%)

10-15

10 (8%)

Total Members Voted: 125

[TrombonistAndrew]

I've been going with one pro lately. I haven't had to get very many right fro the get-go because I rarely embark in truly dangerous areas where I'd need to establish the fortress right from the start.

What I do that is noteworthy, though, is to not bring any picks; I bring the raw materials to make them. Saves on the points making it easier to make better trained dwarves.

Of course, the embark site can influence all of this.

[Tevish Szat]

I embark with master and apprentice (one dwarf with nothing but mining skill, and one who mines on the side).  Sometimes, these will sustain the mining needs of the fortress for quite some time, but usually I need a couple more when I start major mineral extraction or deep mining, to keep things running smoothly.  Generally, "a couple" is what I'll get in migrants.  I'll take up to the 6-8 bracket.  After that, I start disabling mining because none of them will gain skill with more than that.

[Wannazzaki]

My starting composition is usually universally

5 skill miner
5 skill miner
5 skill woodcutter/stonecraft
5 skill carpenter/bonecarver
5 skill farmer/butcher
5 skill brewer/cook
This last spot is either going to be a Hunter (Marksdorf, ambusher, 10 point spend) or something else like a smith or furnace operator to get a head start in my smithing industry for the first migrant waves consripts

[UristMcHuman]

My oldest fort (only two years in) has three miners. One has been employed from a migrant wave, and my other two are close to Legendary (high/grand masters).

Otherwise, I'd take two miners, and employ 2 or three more from a migrant wave.

[Particleman]

Usually 3, but recently I've been trying out using 5. Makes things go faster. I don't dig a lot, though.

[SenorOcho]

I start with two, and take whatever I get.  I can come up with digging projects large enough to accommodate.

[AWellTrainedFerret]

I bring 3 dedicated miners and a 4th pick for the leader on embark. After the underground farm is set up, then it's just 3 dedicated miners until I get one from migrants. From then on, it's just the 4 miners...unless I have to breach the walls of a magma spire to drain it. Plenty of peasants around for that duty.

[ASCIt]

Miners never cease to amaze me. I just breached the curious spoilers, so I had my little militia go and take down the zombies and stuff, leaving me with a final body count of two. Unfortunately, all of the stuff was enough to start a miniature tantrum spiral. In the end I've lost all of my miners to infection or insanity. One of them is melancholy, but was still able to beat down a berserk woodcutter.

[geoduck]

I only bring one along on embark, and put my doctor/mechanic to work digging as well until there are traps and wells to install. Someone from the second or third migration wave gets assigned as his replacement. As noted, digging skill scales up pretty fast, especially when you're chewing through soil.

How many I eventually end up with depends on how elaborate my digging gets. Four or five is usual.

[person012345]

On the game on this computer (population 96) I have 5, I usually just assign the migrants with the skill but will sometimes assign extras, especially if I'm doing intensive digging work, and they remain miners afterwards.

[jcnorris00]

I bring a proficient mechanic, three peasants, five stones, and 20 pieces of light wood.  The mechanic turns the stones into mechanisms, and the peasant with the most appropriate attributes turns the wood into training spears.  Then I build an impromptu 1x2 danger room in a convenient little box canyon, and train the other two peasants up to legendary miner status before they every lay pick to stone.  I hate losing ore and gems to inexperienced miners, and I hate micromanaging their digging.  I wish there was a "do not mine valuable stone/gems" option, but there isn't.  Later on I add to the mining crew as a acquire more picks.  I sometimes end up with more than 10, but they double as soldiers so that's okay.

[krg]

i generally run specialists.

1 miner
1 woodcutter
1 carpenter
1 mason
1 grower
1 doctor
1 admin

points left over will determine what rank they end up as. minimum of novice though.

unless i dont have trees, then i find something for the other two.

dont bother with a second miner until one shows up. dont think i have ever had three.

[Varnifane]

I typically start with 4 and add another six before I get to 100 pop. Once they are all legendary I start a second squad of 5.

Squad one goes into military training and squad two gets sent to hollow out underground tree farm areas until they are legendary.

Squad one stays military. Squad two gets used for ore and gem mining.

Sometimes I set miner squad one to gather plants and designate everything topside, or in a cavern to be gathered. One candy and steel encased legendary miner seems to be enough to deal with most ambushes. Three will break a siege.

[Psieye]

Start with 3~4 then retire them so they can get on with their real jobs (armourer, weaponsmith, etc) while a fresh batch of miners are trained from scratch to legendary on soil or somewhere expendable. So I end up with maybe 6~8 legendary miners at the end but half of them won't have mining turned on unless I'm suddenly short of work for the metal workers.