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[pisskop]

A note on farms.  I know some don't like them but I use the aquifers to make one.  I like to prepare a cork, dig out a farm connected to the cork, then let the displaced aquifer water irrigate the farm.

 And then (eventually) make said farm outside for above ground crops.  its only a little extra work and I can still pump my way through additional layers, or even collaspe the cork again if need be.

[Ninjamestari]

1 Miner
1 Miner / Mason
1 Woodcutter
1 Carpenter
1 Farmer
1 Doctor / Brewer
1 Record keeper / manager

[Xinael]

I find it really weird that people are taking record keeper and manager. Is there a particular reason for that that I'm not understanding? I start my record keeper at 0 skill and they still do fine getting everything recorded, and I've never even noticed a change in the speed managing takes when it's trained - and if I did, you can farm points just my making dozens of orders and cancelling them straight away.

[Hurkyl]

You don't have to assign the points to decide that's how you're going to use your starting dwarf.

But depending on what you're doing, embark points and skill slots are rather plentiful anyways. Even if it doesn't make the dwarf do things faster, marking the dwarf by giving him the points as you're selecting skills saves a bit of trouble remembering your plans and in picking the dwarf in the noble assignment screen.

[Nostril actor]

2 Speardwarves
5 peasants
-3 peasants become miners
-other 2 fill any other job I need until the first or second migration wave

[Button]

This is my standard not-evil, not-a-reclaim crew:

5 Miner/5 Teacher (This guy will be my first militia captain)
5 Miner/5 Building Designer
5 Miner/2 Appraiser/3 Judge of Intent
5 Woodcutter/5 Herbalist (assuming the embark has plants)
5 Mechanic/5 Diagnoser
5 Grower/5 Brewer
5 Mason/5 Carpenter (assuming the embark has trees)

Unless I'm in an evil area, I leave the anvil behind on embark and trade for it at the first Dwarven caravan. Gives more points for skills, and when I did bring it, I wasn't making metal yet anyway when the caravan arrived.

I bring a mechanic from the very beginning because I want masterwork gears ASAP, to make a fast-responding entry bridge. I keep the masterworks for linkages, exceptionals for cage traps, and trade off the rest.

I bring a maxed Building Designer and Teacher because those skills are so hard/take so long to train in-game, migrants with them are rare, and they're so useful.

[Matoro]

-3 miners
-mason
-carpenter/woodcutter (if woodless embark i'll take another mason)
-planter/gatherer/cook/brewer/butcherer
-stonecrafter/mechanic/trader

While those three miners dig out the fortress, others build beds, tables, chairs, mechanisms, workshops, entry bridge, stone crafts for trading.

[MightyPaladin]

Changes all the time depending on mood and available resources.  Dwarf starter stats play a role as well ...

Currently:

Carpenter/Bower - since there's surface trees, I started with a carpenter.  I typically have all my dwarves in a militia squad of some sort, and they carry crossbows.  Crossbows are also the trade good for the first caravan.

weaponsmith/armorsmith - there's metal and deep metal.  also, I like to start with an anvil, some blocks, bars, wood, and make my starting tools on site.

Weaver/dyer  Dyer is a pain to train and I like the clothing industry for how many dwarves it keeps employed.  this dwarf typically becomes the shepard, in charge of managing the animals, and shearing, milking, etc.

Mechanic/Siege Engineer/1 pt conversationalist.  Making useful traps sooner rather than later.  The map is flat, so ballista are nice and useful on the surface - I tend to build little ballista huts all over that are only accessible from underground.  1 pt of conversationalist so one of my military dwarves doesn't end up the expedition leader.

2 Military dwarves - here's were dwarf starting stats come into play.  this particular group of dwarves had 2 males that were mighty and didn't have any red physical stats, so 5 teaching/5 wrestling (a pain to train, and throwing goblins so hard they explode is funny)

1 doctor - those dwarves will hurt each other sparring with wrestling.  Medical skills are also kinda tedious to train


in the first few months ALL of them get a mining pick after the picks get made.  the first few rooms get carved out and then more permanent miners get picked up from the migrant waves. 

[kingubu]

6 soldiers with various weapon skills
1 metalsmith.

Ore/coal for full bronze kits for all 6
Enough food and drink to survive until migrants arrive.
Sheep for their wool and their tendency to flock.

J/k about the sheep.

[Remuthra]

You don't have to assign the points to decide that's how you're going to use your starting dwarf.

But depending on what you're doing, embark points and skill slots are rather plentiful anyways. Even if it doesn't make the dwarf do things faster, marking the dwarf by giving him the points as you're selecting skills saves a bit of trouble remembering your plans and in picking the dwarf in the noble assignment screen.

It also marks them as the expedition leader, so none of your other dwarves get bogged down with the position.

[Chimpanzee]

Depends on what I plan to do.

My current fortress, Eastmined, started from literally zero embark points used and now I have a King and over 7k drinks, after around 5 years.

My usual non-extreme setup:
2x miner
1x woodworker
1x mason, architect, mechanic
1x stonecrafter and wealthmaker
1x farmer
1x soldier with Proficient Teacher
I make one of the miners a manager, the other a doctor.
== 30x wood, around 80x booze, 50x food, 50x plump helmet and pig tail seeds, 2 picks, a wooden axe, a weapon for my soldier, an anvil (preferable iron), sometimes, according to need, stone and ore

My usual glacier setup:
3x miner. Smithing, stonecrafting, and admin/social skills distributed amongst them
1x woodworker (yes)
1x mason, mechanic, architect
1x farmer
1x soldier
== 3 picks, 80 drinks, 90 total seeds (of ♠ and τ), 60 food, 1 axe, 1 sword, 50 logs, 1 bucket 1 chain 1 block, 6 nest boxes, 6 peahen, 2 peacocks, and according to need, ore.
My latest glacier fortress with this setup actually died to a goblin ambush and not to natural/environmental causes.

[Slythe]

Lately it's been

2 axedwarves with some teaching
1 weaponsmith/armorsmith
1 farmer
1 appraiser/judge of intent/doctor
the rest have no starting skills and can do whatever is needed

minimum food and drink, seeds, iron ore, flux, and fuel to make 2 suits of steel armor and weapons, some copper ore for making picks and woodcutting axes(feels too 'exploity' using wooden training axes), various mating pairs of birds, dogs and cats, the rest of the points on lots of bituminous coal or lignite.

[DarkWolfXV]

5 Miners, two of them with masonry/engraving, one with appraisal/judge of intent and one with diagnosis and all the doctor stuff, one with furnance  operation and weaponsmithing,
1 armorsmith (Its good to have one from start with only armorsmithing as his best skill so you get chance of artifact armor)
1 farmer with brewing

Migrants come fast anyway. I play with 10k starting points mostly so i get 250 wood, flux, charcoal, 7 picks, 2 axes, 1 anvil, 90 training spears, 250 each drink, 250 of 4 types of food, 10 ropes, 2 splints, crutches, etc. and 10 seeds each, 20 war dogs 10 per gender, and then im left over with quite a bit of points so i spend them on something pointless or more drinks.

A bit cheaty setup but im happy with it.

[Remuthra]

A bit cheaty

Greatest understatement ever.

[gchristopher]

I bring a mechanic from the very beginning because I want masterwork gears ASAP, to make a fast-responding entry bridge. I keep the masterworks for linkages, exceptionals for cage traps, and trade off the rest.

I've never read that anywhere else. The wiki lists bridges as having 99 or 100 tick response time. Have you confirmed that?

On topic, I bring a mix that focuses on hard-to-train skills, especially architect. So each dwarf has 5 points in a slow skill, at least one point in a useful moodable skill, then points in something else.

Leader: 4 negotiator, 3 judge, 1 appraiser, consoler, pacifier (will be a starting miner for moodable skill)
Doctor: 5 Diagnoser, 5 Architect (Other medical skills apparently don't affect success chance, also starts as a miner)
5 Glassmaker / 5 Architect (Glassmaking for fast economy)
5 Mason / 5 Teacher
5 Carpenter / 5 Teacher
5 Architect / 1 cook / 1 grower / 3 wpn
5 Architect / 1 brewer / 1 grower / 3 armor

Evil embarks get the same mix, and everyone just gets walled off underground extra fast.

A bit cheaty

Greatest understatement ever.

I kinda disagree. Once you've played the 'survive the first year' game enough times, it's pretty trivial to do. If you want to do some other part of the game, the embark is just an hours-long speed bump to whatever else you're planning to do with the fortress. I don't think it's too crazy to bring a giant pile of wood so you can reduce the hassle of initial wood gathering and setting up underground tree farm. It just depends on what aspects of the game you want to spend your limited leisure time enjoying.