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[tornado81]

What are the most essential skills i need to give my dwarves when preparing for the journey?

[Mushroo]

I choose the default "play now" which covers all the basics (miner, wood cutter, carpenter, etc.).

[i2amroy]

In my opinion a grower and a craftsdwarf are really the only things that are absolutely necessary (technically I use 3-4 growers, but that's because my farming is modded to take much longer so I need to plant more). As you get better at the game less and less becomes needed though, and I've seen people who are willing to not embark with any skills at all just for the challenge.

[Broken]

Well, you can choose between inmedialy useful skills and lomg-term, hard to train skills.

Useful starting skills: Mining, masonry, grower, brewer,stonecrafters,carpenter, butcher.

Hard to train skills: All medical skills, Metalworking, Military skills(unless you use Danger rooms).

[edgefigaro]

2 miners. A point in teacher somewhere. A unit who's highest skill is ambusher. A cook. Everything else is whimsical, but generally includes a unit with military skills and a few scattered points in weaponsmith, glassmaker, and armorsmith.

[Scorch]

My standard fortress "starter pack" minimum proficiencies are
2 miners
2 growers (brewing on one of them)
1 mason
1 Carpenter
1 Mechanic (who serves mostly as a treecutter when he's not needed for his mechanical skills)
Scattered among these dorfs I'll include proficiency in armorsmithing and weaponsmithing, because migrants are random and moods uncommon.

This are all the skills I never like to start a fortress without. My goals are thus: Carve out basic fort, start farming/brewing ASAP, chop up some trees into beds, some rocks into blocks for walls/building material. Mechanisms and cages for cage traps, build a depot somewhere along the line and put an idle dorf to work making stone mugs or crafts.

A lot of players will tell you that the miners aren't necessary, and they're right. I generally designate a large part of my eventual fortress's levels from the get go though, and proficient miners are much faster through stone than dabblers. Especially if you've embarked in a savage and/or evil area and need to get inside quickly.

[EvilBob22]

Interesting, my usual skills are pretty different from most people.  I like to have three miners, but it skills up so fast I don't start anyone with any points in it in the beginning.  There are also some other skills that I don't set but enable, either because they also skill up quickly or they do not see a whole lot of use, so I don't care if they are 0.

Mechanic: 5 mechanic, 1 siege operator, 1 siege engineer, 3 pump operator, 0 mining (but enabled)
Stone: 5 Engraving, 5 something else -- usually backup mechanic, 0 mining
Smith: 5 armorsmith, 4 weapon smith, 1 furnace operator, 0 mining (highest moodable skill is armorsmith)
Axe: 5 axeman, 5 in other military skills (usually 2 shield, 3 armor), 0 carpentry, 0 crossbow maker, 0 wood cutter
Farmer: 4 Grower, 1 plant gatherer, 1 cook, 1 brewer, 1 butcher, 1 tanner, 1 leather worker (most of these jobs are taken over by migrants)
Trader/Doctor: 5 Diagnostician, 1 each in 5 various trade/organization skills
Crafts: 5 Stone crafter, 4 bone crafter, 1 glassmaker, (0 wood burner to make 1 charcoal if I'm making my own picks)

By the way, I started playing in the days that "play now" gave you a random set of skills, so I "trained myself" to never use it.

[jwest23]

I'm trying to rely less on traps lately and more heavily on the militia.  To that end, I'm experimenting with a military-oriented load out.

I start with four dwarves with the following: Miner (1) / Fighter (4) / Wrestler (1) / Dodger (4).  Since Miner goes up quickly in soil and in the general process of delving, they become a good fallback squad with little effort.

The other three are:

Carpenter (3) / Bowyer (3) / Crossbowman (1) / Shield User (3)
Stone Crafter (3) / Mechanic (3) / Crossbowman (1) / Dodger (3)
Bone Carver (3) / Leatherworker (3) / Crossbowman (1) / Armor User (3)

It's intended to be a setup that will let me defer a metal industry and do decently with low-end armor and weapons early.

[crazyjake56]

2 miners and for the most part farmers.

[TheDarkStar]

I usually do 2 miners with the max allowed skill, 1 farmer with assorted skills, 1 metalworker, 2 woodworkers/woodcutters, and 1 craftsman.

[Almagest]

5 Mechanic / 5 Building Designer (architecture's one of the hardest skill to level up)
5 Carpenter / 5 Leather worker (I like to have a high quality furniture and you can't depend on migrants having carpentry or masonry, so I think embarking with those those is necessary. Once everyone has a bed and I get leather from traders, this dwarf starts making leather armors for everyone so that I don't have to care about clothing ever again)
5 Mason / 5 Armorer or Weaponsmith (I prefer the armorer)
5 Grower / 5 Cook (a cook makes my whole population ecstatic and the meals are ridiculously valuable in trade)
5 Grower / 5 Brewer (this one's the most easily replaced since drinks don't have quality anyway so feel free to bring a doctor, potter or a glassmaker instead)
5 Teacher / 5 Military skill
5 Teacher / 5 Military skill
I bring a pair of cats, dogs, pigs and several turkeys, three picks, some seeds, enough plants and drinks to survive and a lot of milk, sand and meat to get free bags and barrels. Logs are also useful.
I start by enabling mining on teachers and the mechanic and designating digging, they'll dig fast enough even without any skill so it's no use wasting embark points on it. Simultaneously, I build a carpenter's workshop and order wooden training axes, I make one of the growers cut trees until the miners dig out space for farms. The carpenter uses the wood to churn out beds. The other grower builds a farmer's workshops and turns all milk into cheese to free barrels for booze. The mason also builds a workshop and starts making chars and tables with stone left by the miners. If I don't forget anything a dining room and bedrooms for everyone should be ready quickly, the food'll be abundant and the teachers'll start sparring immediately after digging out the fortress so after a year they and migrants they trained will be able to fight off ambushes.

[krenshala]

... and I've seen people who are willing to not embark with any skills at all just for the challenge.

I have actually done this on my current embark.  Seven peasants, one of which is selected by the game to be the Expedition Leader.  I then assign tasks as needed to them, based on their attributes (e.g., my smith is very slow to tire, very agile, and has very good creativity, while my miner/mason/architect is strong and incredibly tough).

Of course, I'm also doing a 'only bring raw materials' embark (2 fungi wood logs, 153 slate boulders and ore for bismuth bronze, but no tools/weapons, etc).  It makes for a very interesting challenge since you cannot dig in until after you've made at least some metal bars and forged a pick.

[Tevish Szat]

The basic subsistence fort needs to mine to create lodgings.  It needs to cut wood and have a carpenter to get beds.  It needs to be able to grow food and brew booze.  Having someone who can work with all that stone is also basically mission-critical.

As such, I usually bring...
A Miner
A woodcutter
A Carpenter
A Mason/Mechanic
A Farmer
A Brewer

That's 6 dwarves.  My 7th is usually a dedicated Expedition leader/future functional noble with organizer, record keeper, appraiser, and some social skills.  My brewer will have butchery and tanning enabled, but no skill in it.  Sometimes I combine the farmer and brewer to get a second miner, other times I skip both farmer and brewer entirely for a second miner and a second woodcutter, and re-purpose members of the first migrant wave to food production: my starting supplies will last until them.

Don't bring Fisherdwarves: you'll get PLENTY from migrant waves and fish is strictly finite (or was recently.  maybe that bug was fixed).  when you do, though, let them fish for a little while and give them a fishery so you have shells for moods.  you get them in "Play Now!" still, though 

[Mushroo]

For a challenge embark I like to bring:

7 peasants
some stone
a few plump helmets
1,000+ rock nuts

The only allowed trade good is biscuits consisting of 1 rock nut press cake and 1 jug of rock nut oil.
They live in a wooden house (the biscuit factory) on the surface until the caravan arrives (pick/anvil) or an immigrant miner arrives.

[tornado81]

This will be fun testing all of these out. It may take several years but WHO CARES? I'll have a good time testing these out.