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[sunshaker]

One Day I thought about this and realized that the skills that were easy to gain were the ones I didn't need to assign points for just enable them via labors and let them gain experience as they worked.

I used this list, but it might need some refining (I want to switch it to one mood skill, 1 non-mood skill if possible)

Foreman*/Bowyer (gets herbalist and any random job I need done enabled)
Mason/Architect (gets mining enabled)
Carpenter/Axedwarf (gets wood cutting enabled)
Hunter/Marksdwarf (gets butcher/tanner/leather worker enabled, but usually too busy hunting)
Farmer/Armorer (gets herbalist and cook enabled)
Brewer/Weaponsmith (gets farming and herbalist enabled)
Mechanic/Stonecrafter (gets mining enabled)

* gets 1 or 2 points in Judge of Intent, Appraisal, and other leader type skills.

[Grendus]

7 dwarves:
1 weaponsmith/siege engineer
1 armorsmith/leatherworker
1 jewelcrafter/trader
1 metalcrafter/bonecrafter(/stonecrafter if you're into obscene amounts of low value trade goods)
1 farmer/brewer/cook
1 metalsmith/carpenter/mason
1 clothsmaker/weaver/dyer

And that's with a lot of doubling up and taking only a few points in some skills. How do you have extra dwarves?

Uh, where are your miners/wood cutters? This embark is extremely different than mine, which has generally three miners (one mason, another a architect, and another an engraver), a wood cutter/axedwarf, a planter/butcher/tanner, bone/stone crafter and a brewer/cook.

Leadership positions are spread out randomly. Idk why, but I can't stand to see my leader double as a record keeper, trader or manager or any combination of them.

It's been said before, but it's cheaper to bring along 7 picks than 3 miners and 3 picks. Usually I don't do much crafting until at least the fall. That's a lot of time on their beards. Do you realize how much digging 7 dwarves can do in two seasons, even if they start with no mining skill? My current fort dug out two 31x31 storage floors, two 31x31 workfloors, magma tunnels for the workshops, a tunnel up to the wagon (later sealed), a drowning trap+flooding and draining tunnels so it's functional, plus they managed to haul all their supplies down 6 z-levels into storage, clear away the excess stone, and set up a system of pumps and drawbridges to secure the entrance. You just can't do that with 3 proficient miners. 3 miners basically lets you make hundreds of little basalt trinkets for the caravans while you wait for your 3 vital dwarves to nap/eat/drink/goof off.

I used to do the 2 miners thing following TinyPirate's example build in the walkthrough. After reading a little Boatmurdered and some Ironblood though I realized it wasn't worth the points for a skill that would hit legendary on it's own anyways. As for woodcutting, I assign all my haulers woodcutting labor and let them pick up the extra axes "donated" by the goblins, orcs, and dark elves. It's not like logs have quality, and it helps them when they run into kobolds.

7 dwarves:
1 weaponsmith/siege engineer
1 armorsmith/leatherworker
1 jewelcrafter/trader
1 metalcrafter/bonecrafter(/stonecrafter if you're into obscene amounts of low value trade goods)
1 farmer/brewer/cook
1 metalsmith/carpenter/mason
1 clothsmaker/weaver/dyer

And that's with a lot of doubling up and taking only a few points in some skills. How do you have extra dwarves?

I don't think of some things as very important lol

For me its:

1 Miner/trader/gemsetter
1 armor/weaponsmith
1 grower/brewer
1 grower/cook
1 carpenter/woodcutter
1 mason/gemcutter/gemsetter

So you see, things like weaver who I don't really think are NEEDED for survival just train up when I get imagrents. I'd rather dwarves specialised for one or two jobs then jack of all trades.

It's just a matter of prefrence I guess.

Also apart from the woodcutter they ALL start off mining

Are two gemsetters NEEDED for survival? Is a weaponsmith needed (honestly, in vanilla just enable mechanic labor and make a few dozen stonefall traps, you can cut down entire sieges like that). Do you honestly need 2 growers to start? You bring them because you see a need for them based on your play style. I don't trade stone crafts, so a metal/bonecrafter and a clothier are vital to making trade goods. Another player I did a succession game with based his economy on mechanisms (which confused the crap out of me at first). Some players skip the weaponsmith and use a bowyer and stonecrafter. Others skip the leatherworker and deck their dwarves out in platemail. It's all based on what problems you foresee and how you plan to deal with them.

[Anticipation]

Actually the dual gemmys was a typo lol

And I like the weaponsmith because just using traps feels like cheating to me.

I have two growers because I just trade food instead of crafts.

Like I said before, all a matter of style.

[Deimos56]

Hm.

1 Miner *
1 Woodcutter *
1 Carpenter-with-woodcrafting-tendencies
1 Mason who makes the mechanisms for anything I need 1st year
2 Generic Farmers who do most of the grunt work at first
1 Brewmaster: the dwarf who does the brewing, obviously, but also the broker

*: One of these guys is promoted to leader, selected by personality.

First immigrant wave fills in everything else, then beyond that the dwarves gradually become (gasp) specialized in what they do, to the point where I actually have some haulers who aren't the farmers.

[Karranir]

This list is probably going to get some funny looks.

1. Miner, no points spent on skills for him though. He'll still be legendary in like, a season, the way I set up a fortress. I build the stockpiles (in soil if available) before anything else, and experience soars. If it's all rock... well, I still think it's worth it not to spend the points.

2. Prof axedwarf, shield user, competent armor user. Woodcutter, emergency military bad-ass.

3. Prof mason.

4. Prof carpenter.

5. Prof cook.

6. Prof brewer.

7. Prof metalsmith/armorsmith.

[RantingRodent]

1. Broker/Mayor (social skills + Masonry) - There's always a ton of masonry work available, so having a relief mason is handy
2. Brewer/Farmer
3. Cook/Farmer
4. Stonecrafter / Mason
5. Carpenter / Bonecrafter
6. Mason / Nothing
7. Ambusher / Marksdwarf

I'm going to be switching it around soon, I think. The Stonecrafter should probably have no secondary skill since he never stops churning out crafts. Also considering giving Bonecrafter to a different dwarf, not sure which.

[Anticipation]

2. Brewer/Farmer
3. Cook/Farmer

Ah ha! Same as me =)

I think that setup first came from the wiki...

[nil]

-Miner/Building designer
-4Ambusher/2Axedwarf/(Woodcutter)/3Herbalist/1Weaponsmith
-Mason/Carpenter
-Brewer/Weaponsmith
-Cook/Armorsmith
-Mechanic/Trader skills
-Craftdwarf (varies, e.g. glassdwarf/jeweler, could be a grower if needed)

One miner with maxed skills is easily enough to dig the starting fortress.  The ambusher gets a free crossbow and set of armor, but is immediately switched to using an axe so he can cut wood (no points in that needed) and using his axedwarf skills if needed.  Some say this isn't worth it, but in my experience ambush is actually a pretty useful skill (makes it easy to take down small game in with a melee weapon, quickly) and I like being able to use both a lightly armored melee fighter and civilian crossbow dwarf right out of the wagon.  But the real goal here is to get the best moods.  Something like Brewer/Farmer is a bit of a waste, imo, because if the dwarf catches a mood it's probably be in woodcrafting or something.  Better to give your mood ignoring food/trader skills to dwarves with smithing and other hard to train skills.  Even my soldier/herbalist/woodcutter gets a point in something like weaponsmith.

[Anticipation]

Yeah that happened to me yesterday, I had an adapt cook/master brewer who got a mood...

On the plus side I now have ANOUTHER ledgandary miner...

That's one of the downsides of the six pick stratagy, it's less likley that a rarer skill that you WANT to level up will get a mood.

[El-Ravager]

for a regular embark into a not too threatening enviroment it looks somewhat like this:

1 all social skills
2 building designer 5, animal trainer 4, animal caretaker 1
3 mason 5, mechanic 5
4 woodcutter 5, carpenter 5
5 grower 5, cook 2, brewer 3
6 stonecrafter 5, bowyer 5
7 a mix of the smithing skills, usually armor 5, weapon 4, blacksmithing 1

I also take 7 picks and turn on mining for evryone in the beginning. that way you get mostly clean stockpile areas. Later the first two get pulled into full mining duty.

[Sutremaine]

Something like Brewer/Farmer is a bit of a waste, imo, because if the dwarf catches a mood it's probably be in woodcrafting or something.  Better to give your mood ignoring food/trader skills to dwarves with smithing and other hard to train skills.

You can also skip the points-giving and have them make a single item in your chosen moodable skill, but it's a bit of a gamble (no first fall anvil = no opportunity to gain that shred of XP) and requires more micromanaging. For a Brewer/Cook I'd take the risk due to the way full Proficiency results in at least -items-, but I don't know if Proficiency in Growing guarantees a certain number of harvestable plants, or if the speed boost for that level is particularly noticeable, or what. It doesn't matter much in vanilla anyway.

[Grendus]

Or you could embark with an anvil. It's worth it, if you can afford it, they're expensive but they save a lot of hassle if the first wagon doesn't have one.

[nil]

You can also skip the points-giving and have them make a single item in your chosen moodable skill, but it's a bit of a gamble (no first fall anvil = no opportunity to gain that shred of XP) and requires more micromanaging. For a Brewer/Cook I'd take the risk due to the way full Proficiency results in at least -items-, but I don't know if Proficiency in Growing guarantees a certain number of harvestable plants, or if the speed boost for that level is particularly noticeable, or what. It doesn't matter much in vanilla anyway.

But I still have a proficient brewer and cook, they're just not the same dwarf (if I didn't make it clear, every skill except the herbalist/hunter's and the trade skills are maxed at proficient).  Plus, I would prefer to have a proficient weaponsmith and armorsmith, because then even if you don't get a mood they can at least create decent weapons and armor.

I'm with you on growing, though.  A lot of people feel growing is an important skill to level up, but I usually just give it to dwarves with nothing better to do (it does increase food yields and save space, but if you have a halfway decent food setup the former doesn't really matter).

[Sutremaine]

But I still have a proficient brewer and cook, they're just not the same dwarf (if I didn't make it clear, every skill except the herbalist/hunter's and the trade skills are maxed at proficient).  Plus, I would prefer to have a proficient weaponsmith and armorsmith, because then even if you don't get a mood they can at least create decent weapons and armor.

Oops, got a little sidetracked and went off on a tangent, sorry. Yes, if all your double Proficient dwarves have a mixture of moodable and non-moodable skills then you're sorted for moods without messing around or losing out on starting points. Take what I said and apply it to the Herbalist/Woodcutter/soldier instead. I do prefer skill synergy though -- even if the Brewer/Cook and Weapon/Armoursmith skill distribution is a poor choice for mooding, the associated dwarves will stay in one working area.

Growing would be much more useful to train if planting were more time-critical. Space is cheap and right now you can plant through so much of the year that it doesn't matter if a dwarf takes a couple of days to seed a tile, and that's ignoring plump helmets. At least plants are almost entirely moddable.

Or you could embark with an anvil. It's worth it, if you can afford it, they're expensive but they save a lot of hassle if the first wagon doesn't have one.

That is a fairly rare occurance though, and I'd consider it an act of RNG. Being a slow starter also helps -- scratch out a farm plot and a bone pile and trade only enough to get meat, booze, and mood items, and you'll more than likely not be noticed until the anvil does appear. (By slow starter, I mean like '*6000 of accumulated wealth by the first caravan'.)