I generally have two full-time miners when I play. My question is whether or not I should bother to give them any secondary skills? Maybe armor-use because they are the most likely (with my outside dwarf) to be relatively strong if I need emergency defenders early on? Are picks in any weapon category? Should I give them some sort of attack skill?
Picks are weapons, used with Mining skill. A legendary miner, in armor, is a dangerous thing to anything that can be harmed by puncture wounds (eg, that bleeds). They're not as good as axes, but they're far better than wooden weapons or fists.
Is your suggestion then (because I do plan on having more leather stuff than metal), that I double-up on butchers/leatherworkers at embark? It's probably doable, but I just figured it would be a little bit before I had much to butcher/leatherwork. Suggestions?
I normally do not bother with butchers/tanners/etc. at embark. These skills will get plenty of work if you have hunters or butcher livestock.
I 'll try not to be over-anal about my skill picking (The power of positive thinking), because I am told via the wiki that you can technically start with nothing and be ok, but I DO enjoy this aspect of the game too.
So do I. My typical skillset looks like this:
2 Miners (5 mining, 5 mechanic)
1 Woodcutter (Male, 5 woodcutting, 5 glassmaking, 0 herbalism)
1 Carpenter (5 Carpenter, 5 Mason)
1 Farmer (4 Grower, 5 Brewer, 1 Armorsmith, 0 herbalism, 0 woodcutting)
1 "Metal Dwarf" (5 Armorsmith, 3 Weaponsmith, 2 Metalsmith, 0 herbalism, 0 woodcutting)
1 "Social Dwarf" (1 in all "social skills" except Liar, 1 in Appraiser, 0 herbalism, 0 woodcutting).
Reasoning:
1. Miners can be spelled a few times early on, and a skilled mechanic can really rip out the mechanisms for trade and traps. Note that if you go too heavy on mining new areas, you don't get any traps. Mine, then consolidate.
2. Woodcutter will retire to make glass once migrants show up to replace him. I used to take one with Axeman to go along with it, but later woodcutting is in vast underground 'tree farms' and does not require any special weapon skill. Early woodcutting is either safe (in which case you don't need weapon skill) or dangerous (in which case my wood-axe using woodcutter is toast). Woodcutter is male to avoid early issues with women holding babies outdoors. Note that if you have an excess of wood, the glassmaker can be set to burn wood to make charcoal and power a glass furnace, which can produce hugely valuable goods from a bag of sand. Glass Discs are frequent "first caravan" trade goods.
3. Carpenter will specialize in carpentry, but if you don't get a decent mason for stone furniture early, you can spell this guy and crank some out for a noble or dining room. If you get a good carpenter, send him to masonry finishing school. If not, keep him around for beds and barrels.
4. Grower is essential. Brewer is essential. I don't leave home without these. this guy will start out picking herbs and cutting wood, but irrigated farms go up quickly, and he's first on the scene.
5. Metal Dwarf is often an early herbalist/woodcutter, but branches out to metalworking as soon as the forges go up. Useful if you don't get a highly skilled metalworker early, and can shift to weapons/armor as needed if you get one but not the other. Keep in mind: I go straight for the red hot goodness at the bottom of the world, so I ramp up metal production (and glass production) relatively early.
6. Social dwarf is your first pseudo-noble. He'll be your manager, broker, recordkeeper, chief medical dwarf and militia commander. This requires a chair, easily produced by your carpenter/mason, and gives you access to the advanced functionality for controlling the fort. Early on, this guy will cut wood, run smelters, and pick herbs, but he'll spend most of the first one-two years struggling just to keep up with his 'noble' jobs. Be wary of caravans arriving with huge backlogs of jobs to be validated or records to be tallied...
Manager. Check. But I have NO idea how to make one. Shouldn't that probably be whomever is MAYBE my expedition leader with all the social/organization abilities? It doesn't have to be, but I see that dwarf probably being best suited to it.
Depends on what you choose, actually. Manager is primarily about the organizer skill. I don't take any dwarves with that skill (all 0), but my manager expands quickly to handle the role, if you're setting ALL non-construction, non-designation jobs through the job manager interface.