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[CABL]

Hello, fellow DF players. Since i'm tired to wait for 43.05 Starter Pack, i've decided to do what i never did before: Tropical Savage embark. But since i never embarked in Savage biomes, i want some tips for embark and survival in this harsh, tropical land.

Here's my test embark:
Broker/Miner/Mason
2nd Miner/Mason
Mechanic/Doctor
Carpenter/Woodcutter/Wood Crafter
Armorsmith/Weaponsmith
Carpenter/Mechanic
Grower/Brewer/Cook

As for items, I have 6 types of different animal meat, 15 sand bags (free bags!), 5 gypsum stone,  20 bituminous coal, and some cheap cloth and silk threads for early hospital.

[Zuglarkun]

Your starting seven is fine, as are the tools you're bringing, except the lack of an anvil?

But honestly, this should be roughly the same as any other fairly tame embark. The only things you might want to be wary of are the wildlife e.g. alligators, giant dingos, giant tigers and the like. Temperature is ok right? Not scorching hot enough to melt dwarves and set them on fire upon exposure to the surface? Well I reckon you are good to go.

You don't really need any special preparations unless you are embarking on a glacier, aquifer, undead infested area or megabeast cave. Strike the earth!

[scourge728]

I remember when I first tried that and thought alligators wouldn't climb up a mountain from a river, boy was I wrong, like 3 of my dwarves got mauled by a giant alligator, good times, good times

[StarWars1981]

The only biomes you need to worry about are Terrifying ones (where the entire map is covered in TERRIFYING biome) where evil clouds and rains require you to duck-and-cover. On this sort of embark, take the livestock underground with you - so take only, for example, dogs. Other than that ... just be ready to quick-build a door and take cover underground if your biome spawns nasty creatures. Or if it contains undead. That may also require you to take cover, unless you bring a Legendary soldier with steel gear. Then you can take 6 dwarves under cover, and watch the last one get eventually killed.

[CABL]

Your starting seven is fine, as are the tools you're bringing, except the lack of an anvil?

I thought anvil is kinda no-brainer, at least for me. Anyway, first year of my fort was successful, although there was Giant Honey Badger, which was running circles near my fortress entrace. I did everything what i usually do (creating food production level, creating workshop level, and making dormatory.), along with setting basic defense elements (making moat for now, i'm also planning to start creating roof and barracks). Hot climat, tons of minerals, no iron ores and/or coal, but i have casseterite (tin) and copper ores, so i can live without iron (steel will be neat tho).

I remember when I first tried that and thought alligators wouldn't climb up a mountain from a river, boy was I wrong, like 3 of my dwarves got mauled by a giant alligator, good times, good times

Well, one of my goals is to capture Giant Saltwater Crocs, so i can breed them and get army of elephant-sized, limb-tearing reptiles.

Also, funny note: I use my very own tweak pack, which removed skill and attribute rust. It also removes wear of clothing, due to [ARMORLEVEL:1] tag, but it also has hilarious effect. My dwarves didn't bring their clothes, and they are competely naked!

[Dunamisdeos]

My favorite !!fun!! embark involved alligators.

Upon embark, an alligator rushed out of the nearby river to maul some dwarves, grab the expedition leader, and wrestle him back into the water whereupon the river froze and they all died.

Everyone else went insane.

[Fleeting Frames]

- As said above, fauna is pretty much like a calm embark. Perhaps more annoying than alligators might be giant thieves, guaranteed to path to your fort. That Macaque or Kea is not so cute anymore when it is the size of three dwarves.

Thus, random migrant axedwarves with almost-useless 3/1/1 spread can become woodcutters/herbalists/fishers/log haulers or what have you. Having a metal axe or even punches instead of a wooden one goes a long way towards surviving an encounter, as by the time your military arrives it might be too late (to get killing experience, probably) even with civilian alert burrow.

- Flora is more dangerous, though. Tropical forests have lot of trees, to kill your FPS, to break holes into your ceiling, and to dehydrate your dwarves. Tip: If you're hauling the logs back, a single minecart can hold 12 minecarts full of 10 logs each (will weight over 2k urists so may want to use a wheelbarrow to haul back.)

Thus, consider a small embark, or one that only shears the forest(though this may make tropical aboveground farming difficult).

[Melting Sky]

My only real suggestion is be wary of large predators. They aren't generally nearly as aggressive or dangerous as you might imagine but if your dwarves wander strait into a pit full of gators or a pack of giant dingos they are likely to end up in a world of hurt. So long as you dig your dwarves a place to live and throw a door over the entrance you should be well on your way to being safe from the majority of the animal threats, even pesky things like keas. Wild life will mostly be dangerous to dwarves that work up top like wood cutters etc. so you might want to wall in an above ground safe area for these dwarves to work if large predators are common or just keep an eye on them and call the dwarves back if you see them blundering towards a giant tiger or something.

Now for the fun part. Put up cage traps in natural or dwarven made pinch points on the map and see if you can capture some cool critters to work with. Who doesn't want giant war jaguars?

As others have mentioned the biomes you REALLY need to be careful with are the evil ones, particularly terrifying. Nothing is worse than arriving on your new embark only to find their are giant skeletal eagles within eye shot of your wagon.