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[RAKninja]

Relying on the caravans for your metal never goes well. They just don't bring enough to matter (Seriously, 4 bars of iron. Really!?) I know that caravans are supposed to be improved sometime in the future, but that doesn't matter now, does it? Probably best to use cage traps on goblins and strip them for metal unless you feel like abandoning that site. Or you can somehow bring magma up to the surface and use that as an effective, if somewhat crude, weapon. Or if you're in a somewhat adventurous mood, go find the adamantine spires and try your luck at those. You can bet that there are at least two or three of those on any embark.

it takes time.  my last caravan from the mountainhome brought me 5-6 pages worth of bars, not counting smeltable crafts.  just keep increasing priority of metal bars from the trade agreement with the liaison, and buying all their stock in those items every year.  eventually, they will bring useful shipments.

also, do not neglect the human caravan.  i buy all of thier too-big armor and immediately smelt it down.

also, if you do not mind exploiting a little bit, a single bolt melts down to a bar of metal, the same as a stack of bolts.  so, if you use one bar to make a stack of bolts, eventually to can make 25 bars from the separated bolts.

on the subject of embarks:  remember pretty much everywhere will have at least "deep metal", as there is spoilerite on most every map.  deep metals can mean at little as one actual "deep metal", and the spoilerite.

what i did was i went to a different corner of the map, away from my main construction, and built an exploratory shaft down. (you dont want it too near your actual settlement, in case something unwanted comes up).  i hit caverns, then walled off the opening i created and mined down through a section of solid cavern wall.  eventually, i hit warm stone.  i also found my first spoilerite spire (which really accelerated what was going on... went from 2 years without migrants, to a wave every season it seems, till pop 150+, and the local gobbos came sieging with their stinking demon, all mounted on various nasty things... at least i dont have to worry about that particular demon again)

[Werdna]

Anvils are another good source for melting down, they are worth a bar each.  Put them on max-priority from your liaison and you'll get a bunch. 

BTW, a military based on marksdwarves has much more relaxed metal needs.  Bones can be used effectively for bolts and crossbows, and good fort design that keeps your archers completely out of melee where they can plunk down lazily at raiders will eliminate the need for armor until you get enemy archers.  Melt down silver and copper golblinite/caravan goods to increase bolt supply/deadliness.

[K7avenger]

Relying on the caravans for your metal never goes well. They just don't bring enough to matter (Seriously, 4 bars of iron. Really!?) I know that caravans are supposed to be improved sometime in the future, but that doesn't matter now, does it? Probably best to use cage traps on goblins and strip them for metal unless you feel like abandoning that site. Or you can somehow bring magma up to the surface and use that as an effective, if somewhat crude, weapon. Or if you're in a somewhat adventurous mood, go find the adamantine spires and try your luck at those. You can bet that there are at least two or three of those on any embark.

it takes time.  my last caravan from the mountainhome brought me 5-6 pages worth of bars, not counting smeltable crafts.  just keep increasing priority of metal bars from the trade agreement with the liaison, and buying all their stock in those items every year.  eventually, they will bring useful shipments.

also, do not neglect the human caravan.  i buy all of thier too-big armor and immediately smelt it down.

But by the time they start sending enough, you're up to your eyeballs in...imported goblinware that you possibly won't need any from the caravans. Its not that they won't send any, it's just that when year 2/3 rolls around and the caravans have given you a total of 10 iron bars from ores/bars/melting, with the sieges probably already on their way assuming you haven't had one already...eh...what's the point then? You don't get what you need before you need it, and you can't exactly get it the moment you need it either, but oh boy, you can get some AFTER you need it....whoopie?

I guess what I'm saying is yes, I agree that it takes time. However in the long term the caravan is worthless for metal imports because your enemies will take care of that. They'll give you all you will ever need (unless you want something like platinum or aluminum). The only time the caravan REALLY shows its worth in importing metal is in the beginning, especially if you are in a metal poor region, but they don't really bring enough to be useful even then. Then the ambushes/sieges start and you just lol at the caravan.

[lanceleoghauni]

I'm with werdna, just use marksdwarves, they train fast and easy, without the need for danger rooms, assuming you're not on an evil biome, and you don't need to micro manage them as badly as a real military. significantly reduce needs for metal (Virtually nonexistent, but for Silver Bolts), ease of replacement, AND fast training cycle? I'll take 20 thanks.

[Insert my usual rant about how iron isn't necessary, and further exposition as to my confusion as to why this metal even matters here.]

[RAKninja]

Relying on the caravans for your metal never goes well. They just don't bring enough to matter (Seriously, 4 bars of iron. Really!?) I know that caravans are supposed to be improved sometime in the future, but that doesn't matter now, does it? Probably best to use cage traps on goblins and strip them for metal unless you feel like abandoning that site. Or you can somehow bring magma up to the surface and use that as an effective, if somewhat crude, weapon. Or if you're in a somewhat adventurous mood, go find the adamantine spires and try your luck at those. You can bet that there are at least two or three of those on any embark.

it takes time.  my last caravan from the mountainhome brought me 5-6 pages worth of bars, not counting smeltable crafts.  just keep increasing priority of metal bars from the trade agreement with the liaison, and buying all their stock in those items every year.  eventually, they will bring useful shipments.

also, do not neglect the human caravan.  i buy all of thier too-big armor and immediately smelt it down.

But by the time they start sending enough, you're up to your eyeballs in...imported goblinware that you possibly won't need any from the caravans. Its not that they won't send any, it's just that when year 2/3 rolls around and the caravans have given you a total of 10 iron bars from ores/bars/melting, with the sieges probably already on their way assuming you haven't had one already...eh...what's the point then? You don't get what you need before you need it, and you can't exactly get it the moment you need it either, but oh boy, you can get some AFTER you need it....whoopie?

I guess what I'm saying is yes, I agree that it takes time. However in the long term the caravan is worthless for metal imports because your enemies will take care of that. They'll give you all you will ever need (unless you want something like platinum or aluminum). The only time the caravan REALLY shows its worth in importing metal is in the beginning, especially if you are in a metal poor region, but they don't really bring enough to be useful even then. Then the ambushes/sieges start and you just lol at the caravan.

my luck is such that goblins dont even seem to use bronze, much less iron.  humans have bronze, but no iron.  goblins have supplied me with much copper, but copper is not quite useful for armor or most weapons.  that, and before i set my whole dog system up, and had the manpower to wear what copper and silver i had for weapons, it was better for me to just hole up till siegers got bored and went home.

on the other hand, trading with the dwarves has gotten me to 2 full squads decked out in steel, and most of the rest have at least bronze.  sure, it takes a little while, but if you are in the situation i am in, where only dwarves can supply my metal needs, it pays.

typically, i use my cloth industry to boost the value of the clothes and leather the gobbos bring me, selling these for metal.  the copper and silver the goblins bring is negligible, as i have both of those in relative abundance.  their main value is saving a few of my bars for bolts, and giving me foreign weapons, like whips.

it was year 2 or so my first siege, year 6 or so before i had the manpower, training, and equipment to beat back a siege.  now at year 8-9, the dwarven caravan only brings useful items (was sliding to this tendency since year 5), and even the humans mainly bring what i need, nowadays.

i suppose that you're right, goblins provide more metal than caravans, but sometimes worldgen is quirky, and it's not always useful metals the goblins bring.

[Theifofdreams]

  Okay, so I've dug deep enough to hit the second metal aside from spoilerite.
It's Tetrahedrite.
So yeah. I'm effectively stuck with gold, silver, and copper. After facepalming I figured that that will work.
After that, I dug deeper and hit a cavern. No sign of molten fun yet, and I'm already 50 Z-levels down, so I'm going to keep the drawbridge up except for caravans, and work on setting up a lumber-farming plot down there. That way, I don't get any more pesky immigrants... I already have more idlers then I know what to do with.

As to the iron, I'm sure it doesn't matter. It was just the first metal I thought of, not counting spoilerite.

[Keltiknight]

Okay, so I've dug deep enough to hit the second metal aside from spoilerite.
It's Tetrahedrite.
So yeah. I'm effectively stuck with gold, silver, and copper. After facepalming I figured that that will work.
After that, I dug deeper and hit a cavern. No sign of molten fun yet, and I'm already 50 Z-levels down, so I'm going to keep the drawbridge up except for caravans, and work on setting up a lumber-farming plot down there. That way, I don't get any more pesky immigrants... I already have more idlers then I know what to do with.

As to the iron, I'm sure it doesn't matter. It was just the first metal I thought of, not counting spoilerite.

Go, find the holy adamantine, it is calling, don't worry about anything. Nothing can go wrong.

[Theifofdreams]

Well, hey, why not? It's not like HFS can do much to add more fun, and the way my game is going, they're likely to ignore me and wander off to savage the goblins.
On the other hand, I could abuse the Tetrahedrite's dual nature just like everything else.
Incidentally: It turns out my earlier estimate for gold was wrong.
The floor I attempted to mine out turned out to be closer to, optimistically, 2/5ths gold and 1 1/10th opals. Then I went down one level and found the tetrahedrite.
So I figure I found where I'm going to be quartering the nobles and building the barracks. Lots of shiny to keep everyone happy.