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[Mushroo]

Strongly disagree; "Play Now" is fine in most situations. I would advise a first-time player to skip "Prepare for your journey carefully" until they have played a few forts.

The default embark vs a specialist embark, the specialist embark'll win on account of being suited to the environment more.

What do you mean by "win?" LOL I've been playing DF for years and have yet  to see the message "congratulations! you won!"

Embark labor is irrelevant/insignificant after a couple of migrant waves, and embarking goods are irrelevant after the first caravan. "Play Now" is sufficient to survive to the first caravan in all but the most inhospitable/evil biomes.

Plus how would a first-time player know what to embark with? What if he forgets something important like an axe, anvil, or pick? Play Now covers all the basic necessities.

[Kogut]

Just wanna say that fishing is "fixed".  Vermin now reproduce on their own, and fishing is renewable.

Are you sure? Bug 2780 is still open.

[dree12]

Strongly disagree; "Play Now" is fine in most situations. I would advise a first-time player to skip "Prepare for your journey carefully" until they have played a few forts.

The default embark vs a specialist embark, the specialist embark'll win on account of being suited to the environment more.

What do you mean by "win?" LOL I've been playing DF for years and have yet  to see the message "congratulations! you won!"

Embark labor is irrelevant/insignificant after a couple of migrant waves, and embarking goods are irrelevant after the first caravan. "Play Now" is sufficient to survive to the first caravan in all but the most inhospitable/evil biomes.

Plus how would a first-time player know what to embark with? What if he forgets something important like an axe, anvil, or pick? Play Now covers all the basic necessities.

I never embark with axes anymore, since the initial wagon can fabricate three (3) training axes. The extra money can buy some extra picks, metal, and skills.

Just wanna say that fishing is "fixed".  Vermin now reproduce on their own, and fishing is renewable.

Are you sure? Bug 2780 is still open.

Fishing for >5 years, no extinction yet. I hadn't known that bug existed...

[Mushroo]

I never embark with axes anymore, since the initial wagon can fabricate three (3) training axes. The extra money can buy some extra picks, metal, and skills.

How would a first-time player know that he should deconstruct the wagon, and that a wooden axe can chop down trees? The default, beginner, Play Now option should always include a metal axe IMHO (and in fact it currently includes 2).

Play Now has the skills maxed out (so no reason to free up skill points by not bringing axes), two picks (and only 1 miner), and no smiths (therefore no need to embark with metal).

[Loud Whispers]

Strongly disagree; "Play Now" is fine in most situations. I would advise a first-time player to skip "Prepare for your journey carefully" until they have played a few forts.

The default embark vs a specialist embark, the specialist embark'll win on account of being suited to the environment more.

What do you mean by "win?" LOL I've been playing DF for years and have yet  to see the message "congratulations! you won!"

....As opposed to "your fortress has crumbled," in the first few seconds.

[KodKod]

Just wanna say that fishing is "fixed".  Vermin now reproduce on their own, and fishing is renewable.

Are you sure? Bug 2780 is still open.

After I got all excited about it I sure hope that it has been fixed or I'll be tantruming all up in here.

[nenjin]

It's still very easy for a medium skilled dwarf to overfish an embark. So, it's a decent source of quick food, but how much you're going to stockpile is pretty limited once you hit the respawn rate.

[dree12]

I never embark with axes anymore, since the initial wagon can fabricate three (3) training axes. The extra money can buy some extra picks, metal, and skills.

How would a first-time player know that he should deconstruct the wagon, and that a wooden axe can chop down trees? The default, beginner, Play Now option should always include a metal axe IMHO (and in fact it currently includes 2).

Play Now has the skills maxed out (so no reason to free up skill points by not bringing axes), two picks (and only 1 miner), and no smiths (therefore no need to embark with metal).

I was responding the the apparent necessity of axe-bringing.

On a semi-related note, what I find many people don't notice is the ease of embarking without a single item (and obviously also applies to embarking without items or skills). Last time I tried that, this is the setup I used:

• Begin gathering plants
• Deconstruct wagon
• Build still with Log #1
• Begin brewing drinks
• Build carpenter with Log #2
• Create a training axe
• Clear-cut the area
• Build farm plot (outdoors)
• Plant wild strawberries
• Build butchers (outdoors)
• (if necessary) Slaughter wagon-pullers if food is slow
• Build basic roofed above-ground lodging
• Build wood furnace
• Create charcoal
• Build mason and craftdwarf (use logs)
• Build kiln, collect clay
• Crafts!
• Trade depot

A while later, the caravan arrives and an anvil can be bought with the crafts. Then a metalsmiths and mining are now enabled.

The point of this rambling is to illustrate how fortress planning is so much more important than initial embark items; it's fairly easy to play human without any preparation at all (the food and drink is a bit of a squeeze, but the horse meat definitely helps).

[Mushroo]

Last time I tried that, I lost a High Master Armorsmith to a strange mood because I had no anvil...

[dree12]

Last time I tried that, I lost a High Master Armorsmith to a strange mood because I had no anvil...

How are you getting a population of twenty before your first caravan?

[Mushroo]

Last time I tried that, I lost a High Master Armorsmith to a strange mood because I had no anvil...

How are you getting a population of twenty before your first caravan?

You've never had a mood before the caravan before? 
Huh.

I think number of migrants is affected by wealth, so try making more stuff. (Or not, since with your embark profile, you probably don't want moods before the embark.)

My current embark strategy when I am looking for a change of pace from Play Now is 1,000 rock nuts, some plump helmets, and a few stones; no skills. They level up in Miller and Presser pretty quickly.

(edit) I did some wiki research. The first 2 migrant waves are unaffected by wealth and randomly vary from 2 to 10 dwarfs. So if you get  above-average-sized waves (6 plus 7 for example) plus the starting 7 you will have 20+.

[Thecard]

Thanks for all the input, the only messing about with the raws I did was removing the aquifers and siegers.  I embarked where a forest and sa small bit of a desert meet, they're untamed wilds, and have a brook running through them.  No easily defensible positions, it's mostly a plain, but I've established a secure dorm and storerooms.  I'm trying the "Play Now" option, and it's going quite well. I have one fisher, and a small military for hunting, since I am on a large deposit of obsidian for short swords.  I do have a farm up, but the plot hasn't change at all, I'm not really sure if I'm not being patient enough or if I need to assign something else, I do have farmers though.

[Frogwarrior]

As far as starting food, turkeys are CHEATING. They cost 6 embark points each and can supply you with almost 20 units of food each.  That's 3 food per embark point. Buying turkey meat directly would cost 2 embark points PER unit of meat.....

[Tharwen]

Don't dig into rivers from below the surface.

Make sure you have an emergency stop feature whenever moving water or lava.

[MarcAFK]

I haven't read this thread, just the topic and merely skimmed the contents but anyway, starting a 'real' fortress? I'm in, I can swing a pick with the best of them and aren't bad at making -hematite mechanism-s
Just keep the crundles away from me, i can't stand the fluffy buggers. *shudders*