So, I just got back into DF, decided I wanted to do something new. And challenging. So I embarked on a Terrifying forest... Oooooh my...
It was like balancing on a tightrope above razorblades. One misstep and your fortress dies. Permenantly. Re-embarking is not an option, but I'll get to that in a bit.
I embarked like I normally do. Taking the usual mix of dwarves. I remembered evil biomes had a lot of vermin in non-frozen climates, so I took a couple cats to suppliment my usual stock of wardogs. Besides the dogs I had one designated axedwarf for defense.
I was not prepared... nope...
I was fine up until my woodcutter said hello to some giant boars. He led them back, but it was okay. We took only a few hits... just the dogs dieing... sad but not disastrous, right? Right?
Zombie dogs. Next... which then manage to rip apart a dwarf before dieing. Then... zombie dwarf... and multiple pieces of zombie dwarf... Each attack whittled down my force more and more as they got weaker and weaker... the zombies only getting stronger and stronger... until things rapidly go south.
Now for why re-embark is impossible. When you get onto the map, the game scatters a few corpses around. Of animals and previous victims. Inside your fort. Where they soon rise from the dead... see where I am getting? I even tried embarking with seven axedwarves... but I couldnt clear out the mess. Inevitably they would take down a dwarf... then that dwarf would rise as a zombie and take down one of the now wounded dwarves, which would... Yeah you get the picture.
In short, Evil areas are brutal, unforgiving, and very very challenging. Good luck.