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[Garath]

what do you consider ideal on embark and on getting there? i do not ask skills, but what kind of items do you take that are strange (maybe), what is your ideal layer (no dont say magnetite and marble), and more like this

for me, its when i can bring 1 cat, some breeding dogs and sheep and have about 3 layers of soil before striking rock (underground tree farms)

one time i had 4 whole layers of loam to grow underground trees on

and you? prefer to sink into stone asap? rather strike sedimetary or igneous first?

are there animals you ALWAYS try to get?

[Nameless Archon]

for me, its when i can bring 1 cat, some breeding dogs and sheep and have about 3 layers of soil before striking rock (underground tree farms)

I'd consider that ideal, but I'm willing to work with fewer.

are there animals you ALWAYS try to get?

Since I recently started using a raw goods setup for embark, I've made sure to have at least a breeding pair of sheep. The points saved by taking ore, stone and wood instead of picks and axes make this entirely feasible. I also try to bring enough food and booze to survive until autumn without a trade. I haven't yet started trying anvil-less embarks, though, as I prefer to not be reliant on a caravan for my survival for any length of time.

[Garath]

good idea, set up your own forge to make those axes and picks saves a lot

consider taking chickens or turkey or something instead of more food. You'll be swimming in either turkeys, eggs, or both, and at 6 pts for 9 meat turkeys are cheaper than taking extra meat, you just need to set up a butchery (and food storage)

[Talvieno]

I honestly prefer shallow metals, regardless of whatever else is there. I don't really care overmuch about whether there are trees and shrubs - actually, I've been having more fun without the trees. I usually go with the normal embark, but for the fortress I'm currently in, I started with 7 hunters. This is mainly because I wanted the free crossbows to help defend my fortress - I've failed on reclaim four times on this map (unusually large and frequent waves of skeletal yak bulls), and this finally got it done. Hunters easily double as archers.

I like to sink into stone right away, just because I also start building aboveground right away and I need the rocks for what I build. I've never hollowed out a tree farm - it's just not my play style, really. I get a cat, but after that I don't really need much animal-wise. I'm not hardcore enough yet to start with nothing but an ax and a pick, but I'm getting there.

[Mickey Blue]

I usually like lots of trees (I don't use magma for fuel so I need them to burn) and various animals for different production (milk, wool, protection and of course meat).  I usually bring a cat too, now that we can keep them pastured I keep it in my food stores to take out pests.

[i2amroy]

Two cats (I have a good enough computer to handle a catsplosion, and butchery/goblin purges every once in a while tend to keep the numbers down), two dogs (1 of each gender), enough food/booze to last me until winter, and a ton of either 1 or two seeds. I usually don't embark with an anvil since I tend to rely on traps more then military to defend my forts and the extra 100-300 embark points can fully skill all of my dwarves. Other than that I just bring all of the default embark things (crutches and bags and whatnot). Later on I try to get my hands on some bears, since they make great butchery/defense animals.

[Grumbledwarfskin]

I like to have an aquifer, so I can get fresh water without the FPS drain of a river, all you need to bring is one fire-safe rock.

Use it to build a kiln, and collect blobs of clay.

Deconstruct the wagon, build a carpenter's out of a blob of clay, and make the three logs into a screw, tube, and block, turn that into a screw pump and use the two-slit method to breach the aquifer, building the walls you need to stop the water flow out of clay.

[evillevi]

Whats the 2 slit method. I kinda just channel my aquifer into a man made river if I have to deal with aquifer though the potential for !!FUN!! is tremendous

[Iton Ibrukrithzam]

Other than the obvious flux and magnetite, I also love to see Fire Clay for glaze-free pots, Bauxite for good colored stuff, and I prefer Savage areas for the whip vines and giant creatures.

Sometimes I also take a bunch of tower-cap logs and refuse to ever make a bed out of anything else.

[King DZA]

If I am able to survive, and the entire embark area isn't blocked by an aquifer two z-levels below, it's perfect. I enjoy the survival aspect of having to use whatever I get, so I don't really have any hard set preferences.

As for embark supplies, I usually bring a pair of egg laying animals, some dogs, maybe a cat, a weapon if one of my starting seven is the militia commander, and the rest is mostly the default stuff.

[NonconsensualSurgery]

I *hate* trees. I hate them, I hate them, I hate them.

I refuse to settle in areas that have neither coal nor a volcano, because that means I have to deal with trees and constant logging. Now, I'd be all for just cutting them all down but the stupid things keep growing back. The only solution is to embark in a wasteland and make all your furniture out of metal and rocks.

The only exception is beds. I grudgingly accept that I need them, and the skinny drug dealers come by every once in a while so I can get my fix of wood.

[Grumbledwarfskin]

Whats the 2 slit method. I kinda just channel my aquifer into a man made river if I have to deal with aquifer though the potential for !!FUN!! is tremendous

Here's a link to Quantum Menace's two-slit method for getting through an aquifer of any depth.

I think it's also the best method for getting through an aquifer of only one z-level, though I'll admit I haven't actually tried anything else.

[evillevi]

I do it the strip mining way. Make a channel to drain the water and  remove one whole layer at a time. A hassle after the 2nd z

[Iton Ibrukrithzam]

Oh, I'm also coming to enjoy having brooks or a lake on embark.  For the water.  Badlands and desert also have a certain appeal that isn't really mechanical, but rather thematical.

And I've pretty much stopped embarking on non-savage areas.