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[Kaos]

7 peasants, I don't waste points on skills before embark, when I can assign the skills before unpausing and use the points for abundant raw materials to get them started.

I usually assign them like this:
1) Miner: starts digging on day 1 to provide new stone and carve the fortress.
2) Mason: builds his workshop and starts making stone blocks with the stones I brought.
3) Woodcutter: starts cutting trees on day 1 to provide new wood.
4) Carpenter: builds his workshop and starts making wooden spiked balls on day 1 with the wood I brought, also makes whatever furniture is needed. This is my main source of income, the spiked balls sell for a good price and by the time the first Dwarven caravan arrives I have enough to buy out the caravan.
5) Plant Gatherer: starts gathering plants on day 1.
6) Grower: builds the farms (3x1) and starts planting the seeds I brought from day 1.
7) Cook: builds his Kitchen and starts making roasts from day 1 with the cheap meats, eggs, etc. I brought. This is my second source of income, it serves to complement the carpenter's output in order to buy out the Dwarven caravan and serves to buy out the Elven caravan.

The Plant Gatherer also serves as Miscellaneous, like Mechanic or/and Brewer or for processing the plants I get, after the Gatherer has picked up all the above ground plants, he becomes less useful since most plants can be more reliably grown by the Grower, so only the "speciality" seedless plants are needed.

As for supplies I bring:
1 seed of each plant (free bags and to set-up my Grower, after a while I'll be swimming in seeds anyway so why bring more?)
1 of each cheap sand (free bags)
1 unit of gypsum plaster (free bag and emergency cast)
1 of each cheap meat, fish, milk and egg (free barrels and to keep my Cook busy)
1 unit of each booze (free barrels and to have a supply for the first drink wave)
1 unit of lye (free barrel and emergency soap)
LOTS of stones to make blocks to make my above ground facilities.
Enough wood to keep my carpenter busy until I secure an infinite local source.
A couple of each cheap animal: poultry, sheep, goats, dogs, cats, rodents, etc. (milk, wool, eggs, meat and bones for later use)
Some threads specially silks for moods.

Everything else is optional.

[Deathworks]

Hello!

Actually, I don't have a fixed standard set, but there are a few rules I follow:

1. Each skill I give to a dwarf only gets the initial raise (Novice, I think).
2. I always mark broker, bookkeeper, expedition leader, chief medical and manager by giving them appropriate skills (leader heavily on the social ones, broker on judgement and appraisal). Eligible are female dwarves with appropriate preferences (like enjoying helping others for chief medical).
3. Each dwarf gets either novice miner or novice woodcutter, again depending on their personalities with an eye to having roughly an equal number (which is of course impossible with 7 dwarves, I know).
4. Artistically inclined dwarves will get some of the art/craft skills
5. There is at least one dwarf for each of the production/non-military and non-social skills (except for craft skills, which are simply too numerous at this stage).
6. Skills are generally given based on personality:
- Dwarves who can handle stress, like thrills and are not moved to pity are likely to get butchery, fish cleaning and animal training
- Liking company and desire for stability lead to farming, brewing, cooking, but also a tendency towards mining
- Thrill seekers get woodcutter and plant collecting
- Interest in new ideas leads to mechanisms, bowmaking, glassmaking (provided the dwarf is not anti-art) and soapmaking
and so on.

Once on site, all dwarves get masonry and carpentry activated, and all artistically inclined dwarves get all art labors activated.

Actually, it is always an ideal starting 9 for me, as I always take a male and a female kitten with me :) :) :) :)

Yours,
Deathworks

[Lich180]

I usually start by checking each dwarf and their attributes and emotions. Then I take the top 2-4 dwarves in strength, endurance, and agility and give them proficient teacher, competent in dodger, shield user or armor user according to their stats and adequate in a weapon skill, preferably ending up with squads of 2. Then I take someone with a liking for a quality metal like bronze or steel and give them proficient in both weapon smithing and armor smithing. Next I pick someone for carpentry and another for masonry. The mason gets proficient mechanic and novice building designer, and skilled masonry. Carpenter gets proficient carpentry. If I only had 2 or 3 militia, I have the remainder be a grower/appraiser, or I just set someone to take care of that until migrants arrive.

Then I take as much bituminous coal (or lignite if I don't have access to coal) as I can manage,  enough cassiterite and malachite to get the militia members equipped and training with some left over for new recruits. Then I take a bunch of drinks, enough for 3 seasons and prepared brains, one of each that costs 2 apiece. Then whatever is left over goes to some logs for beds, stone for blocks, and sand for glass and cheap bags.

This is all non-evil, of course.

[Ianflow]

2 Miners
1 Mason/Building Designer
1 Lumberjack/Carpenter
1 Farmer
1 Brewer/Cook/Herbalist
1 Mechanic/Expedition Leader

The dudes with non-moodable main skills (Farmer, Brewer) get single Weaponsmith and Armorsmith levels, too.

I usually do something like this, except I forget to do the smithing bit for them in that respect

[Button]

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?

...

I have a feeling I'm about to feel extremely silly.

[pisskop]

...

I have a feeling I'm about to feel extremely silly.

don't,  all those awesome levers with their awesome hookups and those awesome bridges keep people happy.

[Big Bear]

Recently I've been experimenting with bringing appropriate tools and not assigning points to mining, growing, wood-cutting, etc.

I used to bring:

1 miner/stone crafter
1 miner/mechanic
1 carpenter/wood crafter
1 grower/brewer/cook
1 hunter/trapper
1 animal trainer/leader/appraiser
1 mason/stone crafter

Now I bring:

2 stone crafter/masons
1 stone crafter/mechanic
1 brewer/cook
1 carpenter/wood crafter/trapper
1 hunter/trapper
1 animal trainer/something useful

I bring 3 picks and 2 or 3 axes. When I start the game, the three stone workers are assigned only mining duty (no hauling).  Anyone else who isn't doing anything at the start gets an axe and does wood chopping, or does plant gathering.

The miners dig slowly, the wood cutters chop slowly, the grower farms slowly, but by the time I've cut down a lot of trees around my entrance, made a couple small farms, and dug out my first forward base, most of them have a skill level of at least 5. This doesn't take long.

Of course, I only do this in a relatively safe embark.