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[Grump]

I find that I tend to spread myself out too thin when I am managing a fortress and eventually just restart the world.  One of the things I did to counter this was buy a notebook that'll help me keep track of things (my memory is literally 25x better simply if I write something down), but I'd also like to specialize more in what my dwarfs do.  To this end, I'm thinking of developing a strong military and focusing on mining to the exclusion of raising animals, having a farm, etc.  I'd like to fill in the edges of surviving (such as soap, food, leather, booze, etc) with bartering - my only question is, will the caravans bring supplies each year to sustain me (assuming I have the goods to trade for them)?  I understand I'll have to carefully moderate my population.

Any recommendations for tackling this idea?

Edit: Eep, I wasn't clarifying enough.  I would like to specialize in mining and making crafts from that rock (smelting, crafting, masonry, etc).  Just don't want to have to worry about all the different industries

[AutomataKittay]

I can recommend turning off hauling for miners, so they can focus on digging, and having some dwarves only haul stones, while someone else does all the other hauling, so you don't accidentally get your whole hauling force stuck not being able to bring food and drink around.

You'd need to import lye and butcher an animal for it's tallow to get the soap, I think rest of everything are importable for hospital supply.

You can live off caravan, though it'll be difficult to sell enough stones because they're so heavy, unless you're turning them into crafts? Wagons and beasts have limit of how much weight they can shoulder.

And yes, you'll have to set your pop cap and birth rate fairly low to be able to live off caravan imports. I recommend overstocking everything that you need to live with, because sieges can block off fortress for a few seasons if it's particularly bad. Aim for a year or two of blockading endurance, if you're not farming

Of course the above assumes fortress-wide specialization to mining.

[AmpsterMan]

 I had a similar problem and I decided specializing was the way to go as well. Persornally, I like to have either pottery or glassmaking as my main main exports. I import raw materials and animals for food. I am able to run 50% of my fortress in the military this way

[AutomataKittay]

Edit: Eep, I wasn't clarifying enough.  I would like to specialize in mining and making crafts from that rock (smelting, crafting, masonry, etc).  Just don't want to have to worry about all the different industries

With that specification, I can say have a few craftdwarf workshop and around 3 stonecrafter to 2 workshop ratio to keep them constantly working ( I think around 2 to 4 workshops should be able to keep up with half-dozen legendary miners and a lot of stone haulers ).

Doesn't really need many smelteries since you're likely to want to process ore over longer time with 4 metal bars to 1 ore. Though studding the craft would improve the value, and don't need fuel for it, so you could run as many forges as there craftdwarf workshop, or maybe more since experienced stonecrafters can crack out 3 crafts to 1 stone.

That'd cut down the variety that you'd have to deal with since it'll be fancy stonecraft in end! Might have to buy more anvils to keep up, though.

Workshop recommendation would be forges right next to the trade depot, with craftshops for stones further back, and no stockpile for anything other than metal bars and stones to keep them close to the workshops. That'll allow you to quickly grab up the studded stuffs if you organize your trading menu by distance!

Have a stockpile for everything else further off from those workshops, though, since studding will try to take nearest thing that can be fancied up ( which can be yet another thing within the shop, if you're rotating through different metals to stud with ). Linked stockpile could help here, but you'd need bins to store as much craft as you're churning out.

[Tally]

If you're going to have a mining-heavy industry, maybe some gemcutting would be beneficial as well.

You could create value-high metal crafts such as statues, set gems into them (you'd have to do some simple stockpile manipulation), then trade them off at the next caravan. Alternatively, gem-encrusted furniture could improve the value of your fortress and give happy thoughts.