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[Splint]

I'm a bit of a wimp but I prefer to embark on savage forests/swamps on a river/brook with a cave if possible. Swamps and forests have wood aplenty and the savagery and caves provide ample chances for things big and mean to decided to use my dwarves as house paint.

Evil biomes and being near necromancer towers (the latter thanks to Spearbreakers) just scare the crap out of em too much. Getting wiped out the first year is all well and good, but I don't like it when my dwarves all die in the first week because it rained.

[Russell.s]

While I've managed a few terrifying, reanimating, aquifer glacier embarks, I get tired of dealing with constant zombies. I play with no traps, no atom-smashing bridges, and no danger rooms, so defending these forts is a job for a handful of legendary military dwarves. The dwarves usually have no problem killing everything- the problem lies in trying to endlessly clean up the dead and dump them into a pit before they can reanimate! Endless job cancellations, the slowest wall-building missions in the history of dwarf fortress, constantly trudging the military from one zombie-infested tunnel to the next, waiting for a break in the weather.

My ideal biome is a flat, sandy desert with a mountain in the middle of it (as in, one continuous flat plain surrounding a mountain), ideally savage. Necromancer towers are fine, but I'd prefer no foul weather because it spoils the look of the sand . I'm yet to find anything appropriate.

[Pink Photon]

This isn't biome exactly, but there's great fun to be had embarking within range of 2+ necromancer towers. Necromancer invasions/ambushes can pop up at any time, so it's a real race to get all your stuff secured. Especially if it also has an aquifer.

Honestly though I usually embark on mountains. I try to center my development around a peak, and remove all ramps up the peak, for a natural defense. My current fortress is carved into a mountain of obsidian and native gold. Super dwarfy.

Caves are fun too.

Is it vanilla df? 34.11? Care to post a save? I would love to see how others build their fortresses - it doesn't have to look like something designed by Leonardo Da Vinci, my curiosity will be satisfied just the same.

Alternatively, could you post the worldgen file and directions to said mountain? I've a love for A) mountains and B) obsidian.

[Thuellai]

My favorites tend to combine sand and magma for glass shenanigans.  Lately my challenge has been (in an LFR fort, so lots of FUN comes to visit) creating a fort entirely out of wood.  So many logs, so little time.  I've got a couple areas decently sealed off and a nice little greenhouse (no plump helmets for MY dwarves) but the attacks have already started and my militia isn't exactly up to snuff...  I might have to conscript a good chunk of my population.

[Urist McVoyager]

I've got two main forts right now: Soundmoisten the human longhouse made of wood, and a new Masterwork Mod fort in a terrifying reanimating biome raining orc blood . . .

Already on my first reclaim of the terror, but I have it locked up for now. Quite a few surface zombies already.  This is my first time actually getting a total fortress kill. It was awesome!

[Urist MacNoob]

I ultimately prefer cold biomes for their strategic assets. However, I kind of suck.

It'll take a while before I'm skilled enough to make a fortress of solitude in the southern glaciers.

I've also got a tundra/volcano island quite isolated in the south sea. It's really cool looking, has a lot of potential and I'm excited to get started on it.

Once I'm certain that I won't immediately die, that is. I want to get a fortress started that isn't irreparably damaged in these areas within the first year.

[PaleBlueHammer]

Anything that is

a. Not outwardly evil (any savagery will do, in fact I kind of like growing whip vines)
2. HAS IRON.  Good googly moogly it's hard for me to gen worlds that have some frikken magnetite once in a while.  I don't even really care much about flux stone, I can work some steel out here and there when I get my fort established, I just need some iron up front.

Also I'm happy to see there are some fellow glass junkies in here.  Green glass for everyone!  Here's to building 3/4ths of your fort from a 1x1 urist tile of sand.

[Naryar]

I'm a big fan of volcano desert biomes.

Obsidian deserts are the best. You get nothing but oranges, reds, and blacks all across the surface. No wood, little to no water.

^^ Pretty much.

Then you paint the desert red with the blood of your enemies and build a fort out of obsidian and iron ! and it menaces with spikes of iron and magmafalls !

What I need to be happy with an embark:

-Volcano. Or magma sea 20 z under. Preferably volcano.
-Iron ore, the more the merrier
-One or 2 tiles of mountain, Savage if possible but I can live with it.
-4 tiles of a very flat terrain. Savage desert, savage rocky wasteland, but savage tundra or savage freshwater swamp IS pretty cool as well.
-Warm climate. I sometimes go and embark on freezing climates though, for extra yeti/polar bear antics and being safe from the unreasonable amount of useless critters DF2012 brought.
-Water that is rather close to my fort, aka a bit of aquifer who DOESN'T span the whole damn map. River ? What river ?
-a few evil tiles if possible (read that as "very rarely")
-a bit of metamorphic layer, aka coal and magnetite, if possible (same)

[Niccolo]

I'm pretty fond of heavily forested areas, especially if said forest is on the slopes of a mountain. I hate aquifers with a passion; I've never successfully pierced an aquifer, mostly because I pierce one or two layers and then get utterly bored and go find a map with no goddamn aquifers on it.

I've never found a volcano map that I like, sadly. For some reason every volcano I find is on top of a crazy-high, crazy-steep mountain or is a giant pillar of obsidian stretching out of a flat plain. Which is weird.

[Minnakht]

I like having features, but I am also inexperienced, and some could use ruder words to say that.

So, generally, give me taiga. With sand, with many trees, with shrubbery to collect, with water that freezes in winter - I don't insist on iron, since I rarely get as far as metalworking, but I do like flux stone. And without an aquifer, or at least, not an aquifer everywhere. Multi-biome where one or more of the biomes lacks an aquifer is just fine.

[Pink Photon]

I'd call my favorite type of start "High risk, high reward".

I want there to be plenty of trees and shrubs, fish and game, unlimited water (in order of preference: aquifer; river; ocean), coal or shallow magma, iron, flux, gold/platinum/aluminum, sand and clay (preferably fire clay), subsurface soil I can dig out for a large underground pasture/tree farm, and humans and elves close enough to send caravans. The more different biomes I can fit in an embark the better, to maximize variety in plants and animals.

I also want high savagery, with something dangerous (I just learned about giant kea in my current fortress: "Why is my expedition leader dead?", I asked myself midway through the first summer), part (but not all of) my embark to be evil (bonus points for reanimation, zombifying clouds, or rain with particularly horrifying effects), one or more necromancer towers, and goblins close enough to send raiding parties.

[BlackMuffin]

I'm a big fan of volcano desert biomes.

Obsidian deserts are the best. You get nothing but oranges, reds, and blacks all across the surface. No wood, little to no water.

^^ Pretty much.

Then you paint the desert red with the blood of your enemies and build a fort out of obsidian and iron ! and it menaces with spikes of iron and magmafalls !

Oh God I need to do this

[mirrizin]

I'm pretty fond of heavily forested areas, especially if said forest is on the slopes of a mountain. I hate aquifers with a passion; I've never successfully pierced an aquifer, mostly because I pierce one or two layers and then get utterly bored and go find a map with no goddamn aquifers on it.

I've never found a volcano map that I like, sadly. For some reason every volcano I find is on top of a crazy-high, crazy-steep mountain or is a giant pillar of obsidian stretching out of a flat plain. Which is weird.

Funny, the one thing I really like about my current embark is the way the volcano forms a crazy multi-z level tower that looms over the landscape. All you need is one reasonably large plateau to wall off and the hills don't drive you as crazy since they're technically "outside" the fortress.

[Icefire2314]

Below -80 for an embark temperature is fun.  You get no wild animals, no trade, no liaisons, etc.

It forces you down to the caverns for wood and water, at least, and frame rates are typically quite high.

I second this. It really makes the game unique and more cabin-fever oriented. Of course you're not going to find wood, so -80 and a volcano might be ideal for some people.

I also like embarking on oceans that permanently freeze, then building a fortress out of the ice. If you smooth all the walls, then it will remain even if it does thaw, which is pretty cool. A smoothed ice fortress can look really badass without the hassle of increasing the value of your fort so much you get invaded all the time. Plus there are things like penguins and walruses to capture.

I also like deserts, but only if the sand looks good on the minimap. Some of the sand colors are really jarring. Though I've had the most fun with frozen fortresses built into the ocean.

That awkward moment when you just start a fort, your dorfs are 6 z levels under the frozen sea when suddenly nature decides "lolwhynot" and it thaws

[agambadi]

Below -80 for an embark temperature is fun.  You get no wild animals, no trade, no liaisons, etc.

It forces you down to the caverns for wood and water, at least, and frame rates are typically quite high.

My current evil glacier site is -110 C and I still get caravans and diplomats. Granted, they're from my own civ so it may not be what you're talking about.

It's still the most challenging embark so far. It has mist that makes a dwarf bleed out in 6 frames and it's cold enough to destroy any non-metal item on the surface in a minute and make even the blizzard men die from frostbite in two minutes.