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[Centigrade]

Hello friends,

I had an idea for a thread whose purpose is to provide discussion and theorycraft about optimizing embark profiles for specific purposes. There are several embark profiles available on the Wiki and through various mod packs, but most of them have very little if any discussion surrounding why they have been chosen and what they are designed to do best. In this thread we will present scenarios and attempt to tailor embark profiles to meet them. Scenarios might include anything from "newbie's first fortress in a calm biome," to "minmaxing a sinister glacier," and anything in between. Do you want to fiddle with the theorycraft on how to get a squad of steel equipped military as fast as possible? Maximize your trade wealth for the first or second dwarven caravan? Start up a domestication facility? For each of these potential scenarios, there are considerations beyond basic survival; i.e., time-efficient labour distribution, build order and goals, etc. As this is a discussion about embark profiles, please limit any considerations of labours and the like to the starting seven dwarves; or, assume that migrants bring no useful skills.

I'll get this thread started by presenting a couple of scenarios for people to theorycraft.

Scenario 1: On a savage embark site in a temperate forest that has ample supplies of clay, coal, copper, flux, gems, iron, kaolinite, precious metals, sand, and wood, what is the optimal embark profile for getting a magma-powered glass and steel industry up as soon as possible while also surviving and establishing a self-sustaining fortress?

Scenario 2: On a haunted embark site on a glacier that has meager supplies of copper and silver, what is the optimal embark profile for maximizing trade value for the first dwarven caravan while also surviving and establishing a self-sustaining fortress?

[Orange Wizard]

"Optimising" DF is kind of a tricky subject. Different people have different play styles, and different play styles must be optimised differently.

Anyway, let's see what people come up with.

[Goblins]

Well, for any scenario, to get the best experience, I always bring a minecart.  Quantum stockpiles have allowed me to dig deeper than I would have ever imagined.  I absolutely love them! A minecart quantum stockpile is small, easy to create once you learn, and speeds up a base start.  So really all embarks should have a minecart!

[origamiscienceguy]

Scenario 1: Make sure you bring more than a few bags. Bags are difficult to make at first, and your glass industry is severely hampered by the amount of bags you bring.

Scenario 2: Bring more picks to quickly dig in. (both to avoid the nasties outside, and to get lots of bouldes from which you can make crafts.

[Moonshadow101]

I tend to avoid bringing anything wood, since it takes all of four seconds to down a tree and another six to make the splint/crutch/bucket/minecart or whatever you need. Spending a hundred points on various wooden implements is a waste, unless you're on a treeless embark, in which case the situation totally reverses and you desperately need to bring as much wood as you can carry.

[C27]

I almost never bother with bringing picks - since I always have trained smiths along, I bring an anvil and piles of ore and fuel instead. A rock or two, anvil, a coke, a piece of bituminous coal and one each of copper nuggets and cassiterite is enough to get all 7 dwarves mining (though 4 unskilled miners is usually enough). Typically I like to have about 20 pieces of bituminous coal and iron/bronze ore each to start with, plus perhaps some flux stones.

[origamiscienceguy]

I don;t bother bringing flux because in the later game-after I have magma smelters/forges, I just buy one steel item from the caravan, then do the melting exploit. Just melt that item, make a giant axe, melt that down, make 2 giant axes, and so on. This may be cheating, but that's what I do.

[catten]

Scenario 1: On a savage embark site in a temperate forest that has ample supplies of clay, coal, copper, flux, gems, iron, kaolinite, precious metals, sand, and wood, what is the optimal embark profile for getting a magma-powered glass and steel industry up as soon as possible while also surviving and establishing a self-sustaining fortress?

Lots of bags of sand... for the bags. Coal for initial burst of fuel, and 1 coke to kick-start it. Garnierite for nickel (= cheap magma-safe minecarts). Glass pump components. Two miners (one to dig the fort, the other to dig deep for magma--the second guy will probably find the flux and interesting ores on the way down). Bronze ore to equip a couple military dorfs with, for when the giant animals show up. Peafowl (w/ glass nest boxes) and the usual underground crops for ridiculous amounts of food.

Done right, you can have magma forges running before the first dwarven caravan, with enough food to buy them out with prepared meals.

[Skullsploder]

On embark site 2, you should bring tin. As much cassiterite as you can get in with the other stuff, 1 to 3 picks, loads of different types of meat for the barrels, some underground plant spawn, an anvil, and enough wood for 40 beds - you may have this many dwarves before the first caravan. Dwarf skills should be minimal in order to fit in more cassiterite, but make sure you have a proficient armoursmith and weaponsmith.
On embark, get digging. Dig a large storeroom out first (quantum stockpiles are icky), then just head straight down to the caverns. While your miners dig, the others should set up an internal trade depot and build a bridge to seal the entrance. Once you hit the caverns, find a low spot only 1z high, wall it off, and start farming. Then get digging again, all the way down to the magma sea. At the magma sea, set up some basic magma smelters/forges and start smelting bronze with your cassiterite and the copper you've mined along the way. Congrats, you now have a functioning fort with secure trade depot, secure farms, and a magma-powered bronze industry.

[puke]

The pickless folks always impress me.  I usually dont setup a metal industry until the fort is fairly mature.

I bring 2-4 picks, and 1-2 axes.  The rest is food and booze, often times poultry.  Then I dig.

And dig.  And dig.

Someone cranks out some crafts so we can buy out all the food in the first caravan.  Someone cranks out mechanisms and installs them so we can repel ambushes.

I don't actually start producing food at least until the second year, and metallurgy comes a bit after that.