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[jesternario]

I want to do a fortress where the majority of the starting group is made up of farmers. I'm looking for suggestions on starting build to make it get done correctly less lethal less likely to get me killed straight off due to a tantrum spiral.

[Halceon]

Well, your two options for a starting build are either the pro-carpenter or the miner. Which means that either you make your only non-farmer dwarf a basic woodcutter + as skilled a carpenter as possible, who'll make you overground houses and stuff, while you make expansive fields with your other dorfs. Or you make him a miner and can start on underground farms immediately.

For bonus points divide your fort along plant categories. Have a burrow for each plant or group of plants + a nonburrow for maintenance. Upon immigration or adulthood, sort all dwarves into burrows. Each plant burrow produces and processes that one (set of) plant(s), loads it into a minecart and is done. The maintenance caste digs, irrigates, lays down tracks and operates inter-burrow hauling. Have all the burrows overlap in the dining room/main food storage and have that be the only area where different burrowed dwarfs ever meet.

[Bigheaded]

First off, what do YOU mean by farming?

just "field" farming? any labour of the "farming" skills? any labour which produces food? (i.e fishing/hunting can also be added)

Seeing we're after farmers, you probably want to be able to use the surface, otherwise bee keeping, "easy" wood cutting, surface plants, surface fishing and surface farming are mostly ruled out.
To use the surface for any elongated period of time, you'll usually want a wall. Could make it out of wood, as wood cutting is "sort of" farming.


Personally, i think avoiding a miner is going to make this more interesting, with something like the following dwarves:
1. Woodcutter
2. Carpenter+Architect
3. Grower
4. Herbologist
5,6,7. A second of any of the above/any farming skills you wish to also use.

Using bee's could be interesting, i would suggest having DFHack ready to change the wrong type of mounds into honey bee hives.

The general idea is:
1. Get a small "house" uptogether, i.e walls of all 4 sides and a roof, this will let your dwarves sleep.
2. Get Farming started, build plots, get the herbologist grabbing plants, just make sure all your dwarves are doing something
Next stage:
3. Build a wall around your house
4. Build traps near entrance (not "really" farming, but helps to keep your military numbers down)
5.
6. Profit
Last stage:
Die

That's how i would do it anyway. Good luck!


So basically the same as the ninja halceon above.

[jesternario]

Don't have DF Hack (my computer has issues with most add-on programs for some reason. I can't even use LNP)

I was honestly thinking of starting with one wood-worker/cutter (I know this is a bad idea), a grower, a bee keeper, and a herder of some sort. The herbologist would be necessary too.

[GiglameshDespair]

Make it a surface farm fort, with large fields outside the walls of a surface settlement. Have all dwarves living above ground, though they can have cellars to store things in. Grow longland grass as wheat and only get stone from a quarry - if at all.

A fun little challenge. You'll want a good few patrolling militay dwarves protecting a large amount of farmers.

[Necromunger]

Rock seeds.

Rock seeds for soap.

Rock seeds for oil.

Rock seeds for paste.

Rock seeds for stack and stacks of food (cooked keaves).

Rock seeds.

[warwizard]

Take no skills on the dwarves, none of them know how to do anything. enable farming group skills on all of them. Bring nothing except the wagon and the draft animal. You will need to enable other skills as needed. (suguestion: give everybody the skill initially, then turn off the skill for the dwarves that have not gained skill in it after 1 year)

1st year goal provide food, drink and security, and something to trade to the dwarf caravan, purchase a pick and an anvil.
 Bonus points for making soap before the turn of the year.
 ( you need to have above ground crops and trees, and NOT evil area)
2nd year goal start underground farming, get your metal working started (charcoal allowed)
3rd year get magma metal working started.

[Mushroo]

If you trade lavish meals then this exercise is almost trivially easy. To make it somewhat challenging, forbid trade of prepared meals, and try to survive just on trading HUGE amounts of unprocessed plants. I also recommend the "seasonal crops" mod for extra challenge, good luck!

[Drazinononda]

To use the surface for any elongated period of time, you'll usually want a wall. Could make it out of wood, as wood cutting is "sort of" farming.

1. Breed (trainable) animals = animal husbandry, which would be a subset of skill required for ranching = farming (in the broad sense)

2. Train them as war animals = adaption of shepherding practice (dogs to help drive off wolves) = farming (again, broad)

3. Grow fibrous plants and spin thread, shear woolly livestock and spin thread = farming

4. Create wall of rope-restrained war animals

And there is your Farmer Fortress Challenge Wall of Gibs (when the axegoblins show up, at least)