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[DryBones]

Yeah, not that I'm a sexist but I never put females in my military unless I have to due to danger room baby fatalities, let alone the whole bring your infant to war day scenarios.

[Lord_Alorand]

Thankfully I have Urist McMaledwarf who is Mighty, agile, and quite durable, likes short swords, mail, and quivers. AND He can handle stress.
That will definitely be my War Leader. 

[alcohol_dependent]

Yeah, not that I'm a sexist but I never put females in my military unless I have to due to danger room baby fatalities, let alone the whole bring your infant to war day scenarios.

Hahaha my best warrior ever was a dwarf with 5 babies. I watched her go from "getting used to tragedy" to "a hardened individual" to "doesn't really care about anything anymore." as each of her children got killed one by one. It pretty much made her into an ecstatic murder machine.

Grabed 12 lignite. 
Then looked through my recruits:
I got a lady that is strong, likes steel, and likes axes, and gauntlets. - clearly my best bet for a Weapon/Armorsmith.

That will be fun.

I think starting out, successful but boring might be a good start. And anyway the Terrifying Mountains might keep it fun.

That will be Fun.

[Lord_Alorand]

Strike the earth!
Ok finally took the plunge. 
Thank you all for your wonderful advice.
Saved for now, since I have to wake up at 5:30 am tomorrow to drive to the airport, but Friday or Saturday I might write on here how I did with my embark. 

[Sutremaine]

The downside to this is that means 44 trips to carry all those barrels to your initial stockpile. That can take a while, which might become an issue for someone starting his first ever fort in terrifying mountains.

Not necessarily. Deconstruct the wagon, channel down the 25 squares, get everyone and everything in those 25 squares, and channel them out again.

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You should now have seven dwarves, all your gear, and at least two animals in a 5x5 space. If anything flies in before you can move out and seal off the area the whole place will become a blender, but that might work out in your favour due to the number of hands and hooves available to beat on intruders. Probably not a good idea to do this if you're bringing a lot of animals.

[afterthought]

I guess I'm late, but I made a few changes thanks to 31.+ myself:

- Some birds, for eggs.
- I've been bringing some of each type of thread (silk, cloth, yarn) now that there are 3 types, and moods are still picky about which type (and of course, bring thread not cloth because its cheaper)
- Less wood, since stone pots can replace barrels for the most part. Of course, only applies if you were bringing wood (if you have lots of metal, you can also make metal buckets. wooden bins are the lightest though, right? So I'd prefer wooden bins.)
- I tend to slack on putting the 5 points into quality-oriented crafts that I don't need quality from right away (carpentry, clothesmaker, engraver) because nowadays you can get lucky on migrants and get anything up to a High Master out of the blue.

Not related to new versions, but sometimes I bring leather so I can make some bags or cloak/backpack/waterskin/quiver (supplemental military gear)

[Sir Crashalot]

Everyone has different preferences for starting Dwarf skills, but they are obviously all mad and completely wrong, I am the only one who is right.   

1) Leader/trader dwarf (after viewing them and picking the one with managable needs ie. Not mr Slade,frog bone and alligator skin lover)
Persuader(1), Negotiator(1), Lair(1), Intimidator(1), Judge of intent (1), Appraiser(1), Conversationalist(1), Flatterer(1), Consoler(1), Pacifier(1)
He will work as a carpenter/hauler/broker until he gets his position.

2) Chief Medic
Wound Dresser(1), Dignostician(5), Surgeon(1), Bone Doctor(1), Suturer(1)
One point free, I usually have her as a hauler/mason as well until a medical emergency.

3 & 4) Miners
Mining (5)
5 points free, not much point spending them as mining is pretty much all these two will be doing.

5) Trade goods
Stonecrafting (5)
5 points free, can be spent on what you wish or not. Big money maker which will guarentee enough goods to trade for pretty much whatever you want on the first and future caravans.

6) Military
 Axedwarf(5), Fighter(1), Armour(1), Shield (1), Dodging (1), Weaponsmith(1)

7) Military
Axedwarf(1), Fighter(5), Armour(1), Shield (1), Dodging(1), Armoursmith(1)

These are my two strongarms, they both have a smithy skill in case of a mood. At first they will be used as woodcutters and working on catering needs (farming, brewing etc.) Once formed into a unit and set to training they should start teaching eachother in their main military skill though it is still slow compared to a danger room (which I do not use).

8,9,10,11) 

As for the equipment loadout:
I generally get rid of splints, crutches, quivers and 2 of each of bags, cloth and thread.
I keep the 2 axes and picks.


1 War Dog
1 Cat
One of each sand (free bags)
A barrel of Lye
Booze
The rest will be spent on 2 point meats

[Nidokoenig]

+5 Stonecrafter
+5 Planter
+5 Brewer
+5 Cook
+5 Mechanic

Those are my definite ones, even if my ponies are the wrong castes for them(which is why I usually give myself 5000 embark points and 30 dorfs at embark). I usually bring a carpenter, too, and leave the last as a peasant and have him mine. The barrel trick is nice, but it's easy enough to get on top of supplying barrel or pots, especially they can be made of stone. One thing you can do, though, is buy plants instead of booze, since one plant gives five booze when brewed. If you cook the barrel-spam meat up into lavish meals, you can start putting booze into the barrels right away since the meals will be stored much more efficiently after they're cooked.

By the way, if you want a legendary+5 miner quickly, mark out a 171x171 patch of soil to be mined out. It'll be great for underground grazing(enough for 5 water buffalo indefinitely if you use checkered pastures) and you'll go through rock like butter. Only problem is you'll have every single rock you could possibly get, but learning to deal with rocks is all part of learning dorf fort.

[Lytha]

This is so weird, all this stuff bought on embark. I personally only have fun with DF when I bring as few things as possible. Try to embark with nothing but anvil+copper nugget+wagon on a tundra or a glacier - it feels awesome if you manage to keep your dorfs alive. Much more awesomeness in that than a "perfect starting loadout" could ever provide.

[Nidokoenig]

I find that minimalist starting builds just kick my inner munchkin into overdrive. Dorf Fort is hard, but you can still break it over your knee and make it boring if you're motivated, and a challenge build does exactly that to me. I bring a whole bunch of guys just to get the ball rolling, really, 30 dorfs is roughly where the fun begins for me. I have enough dorfs that I can be a bit cavalier with them, whereas if I lose one of my starting seven, I'm not going to take any risks whatsoever for the next migration wave or so and everything will go by the book.

[golden joe]

Don't forget to bring a towel bucket!

[Sir Crashalot]

This is so weird, all this stuff bought on embark. I personally only have fun with DF when I bring as few things as possible. Try to embark with nothing but anvil+copper nugget+wagon on a tundra or a glacier - it feels awesome if you manage to keep your dorfs alive. Much more awesomeness in that than a "perfect starting loadout" could ever provide.

You set yourself little challenges because you are an experienced player. Expecting inexperienced players to do the same thing would be pretty silly if you ask me, after all the hardest thing about this game is learning how to play it in the first place.

[alcohol_dependent]

I find that minimalist starting builds just kick my inner munchkin into overdrive. Dorf Fort is hard, but you can still break it over your knee and make it boring if you're motivated, and a challenge build does exactly that to me. I bring a whole bunch of guys just to get the ball rolling, really, 30 dorfs is roughly where the fun begins for me. I have enough dorfs that I can be a bit cavalier with them, whereas if I lose one of my starting seven, I'm not going to take any risks whatsoever for the next migration wave or so and everything will go by the book.

I'm sure, being a perfectionist, the OP will one day decide to do that as well.

I don't see why you would enjoy the challenge of a minimalist build and not the challenge of irking out a living after 5 of your starting seven die off though. Or even if 25 of 30 of your dwarves die off.

For instance, I start any and all megaconstructions with invasions turned on. You'll quickly find the deaths from invasions, arenas, unsafe working conditions and tantrum spirals keeping you busy if there are 3 dwarves or 300, especially as the fort matures more and more and you have to provide for more and more different dwarves needs. All part of the exquisite charm of this game. All in the name of (X Megaproject)!

By the way, speaking of arenas. Arenas are the only legitimate way to train militiadwarves. Fuck danger rooms. The logistics of keeping an arena stocked and sanitary are amazingly fun. It is also SO satisfying to see your draftsdwarves getting their hands dirty for the first time in the name of dwarven entertainment. Hopefully arenas are actually implemented into the game one day just so I can read thoughts like "He took joy in witnessing a battle to the death recently."

[blue emu]

Not sure why people seem to spend so many points on skills. I bring low-skill Dwarves (except for my skill-5 Grower and skill-3 Brewer/Cook), and spend the rest of the points on outfitting them.

My Dwarves:

Miner (1)
Miner (1)
Miner (1) / Mason (1) / Engraver (1) / Architect (1)
Lumberjack (1) / Carpenter (1) / Ambusher (3) / Axedwarf (1)
Grower (5) / Weaponsmith (1)
Brewer (3) / Cook (3) / Armorer (1)
Mechanic (1) / Architect (1) / Diagnostician (1) / Negotiator (1) / Judge of Intent (1) / Appraiser (1) / Organizer (1) / Leader (1)

Equipment:

3 Picks
1 Axe
9 (or 12) stone of some Magma-safe material like Gabbro in case I need to breach an Aquifer to reach stone layers
1 of each 2-value Meat (for the free barrels), but only one type of meat from each animal
21 of each Booze
16 Plump Helmet Spawn
21 Plump Helmets
6 (or 9) of each other type of seeds except Dimple Cups (zero)
12 Sand (for the free bags)
9 cheap leather
15 or so assorted thread
1 or 2 rope (for tethered watch-dogs)
... assorted other junk that I can't recall at the moment

Animals:

My two free draft animals (to be slaughtered for bones and meat)
one male and three to five female dogs
one male and three to five female chickens
one cat of each sex