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[Bodkin]

It's not easy absorbing a wave of 28 migrants when your population was only 19. What do you do to take these in stride without losing a couple of hours on administrative work?

- Most immigrants have useless trades, so you can't just ignore them.
- If I just conscript them, I don't develop new industries and then I'll be ironically unprepared for invasion.
- Allocating them carefully to new industries for a balanced and productive economy is boring and tedious.

Is there an easier way? Do I just need more experience? Thanks for any suggestions!

[ancistrus]

28? I often get 50+
I rename their profession to Peasant and only assign jobs when the need arises. What do you mean "you can't just ignore them"?

[acetech09]

28? I often get 50+
I rename their profession to Peasant and only assign jobs when the need arises. What do you mean "you can't just ignore them"?

Same here. Everyone without useful skills is drafted into peasantry unless their stats look appealing enough for the militia. Then, when I need a new staffmember, I have plenty to choose from.

[Bodkin]

Thanks! What I meant by "you can't just ignore them" is that they'll end up idling a lot, and then I'll go nuts thinking of the lost potential. That "idlers" number is likely to turn me into an OCD basket case sooner or later.

[Grimmash]

Start specializing.  Just pick a few for each major profession group and disable everything else.  Easy way to get good careerists for a year or two down the road.  If you have Therapist this is trivially easy.  The chaff then become full time haulers.  Also, military never starts too soon.

[ImagoDeo]

An easy way to fill out your work potential is to put every single non-specialized dwarf to work in masonry, constructing walls and a fortress aboveground. You'll be surprised how fast you can have a major aboveground defensive system. At any rate, masonry is a much better moodable skill compared to the defaults you'll be getting. (Mostly stone, bone, and woodcrafting.) Artifact furniture, doors, hatches, and the like are very useful.

[Uggh]

I have a custom profession including all peasant labors (e.g. hauling, wood burning, cheese making, etc.) that I assign to all newcomers via therapist. As soon as I need one of them as a specialist, he gets a new assignment and a nickname.

[Loud Whispers]

It's not easy absorbing a wave of 28 migrants when your population was only 19. What do you do to take these in stride without losing a couple of hours on administrative work?

You need to have a dump labour alongside military recruiting. Whether it be masonry, farming, forging or some other job - have a career path you can slap onto migrants as soon as they come, I recommend doing this as soon as the migrants appear individually so you don't have to take on the mass.

- If I just conscript them, I don't develop new industries and then I'll be ironically unprepared for invasion.

Trained soldiers are the first step you need, and massed soldiers will have their own quality - the quality of quantity. You need only develop a few industries fully to pursue your Fortress goals, preparing for an invasion is more a matter of Fortress design and military preparation than industry.

- Allocating them carefully to new industries for a balanced and productive economy is boring and tedious.

All I do is assign everyone as farmers/masons/textiles workers as well as recruiting them all as soldiers. When more specialized workers are needed, those labourers who arrived with unique skills are put to work as metalworkers, carpenters and mechanics e.t.c.

[Linkxsc]

On the front of housing and food supply. Usually after digging a little in the ground, first thing is dedicated farming efforts, meanwhile carving out a living quarters. Usually if I can get that done and start filling it with beds, usually my 3rd migrant wave will be pushing 40 dorfs. I've had my own record of a 63 strong 3rd wave (the first time I did wonder wth do I do now)

Usually if I get hit with huge waves early on, and I've hit a supply of metal. I'll take whoever's got the best weaponsmithing gets me up to 10 axes and 10 picks.
Easy jobs to tide your dorfs over for a bit.
Mass mining (helps strength trains, mining, militia picks use mining as their skill, and picks are dope weapons)
Mass woodcutting (fck elves, trains strength and other good skills for fighting, and I'ma be needing a ton of wood here soon to make weapons and armor for my armies.)  - Biome permitting
Mass plant gathering (F00d 4nD B33R?) - Biome permitting
Mass clay gathering (if you have clay, its basically free, and can be gathered quickly by massed dorfs, and easily used to build huge surface structures. Low quality ones, but nonetheless, you can hastily build huge forts in mere weeks)

Large scale farming is often a good way to eat up the time of a lot of dorfs too. Once you have about 4 trained fulltime growers. Start turning out F00d 4nD B33r, and querns (pretty sure this helps strength) and making clothes. Cloth bins and bags are always in great need in your forts (and wooden bins are a waste of firewood for smelters) If really so inclined, you might even step into the dying to make a couple more peoples busywork, and it does help happythoughts.

So many complain about big migrant waves. I personally love them, because it means that my agenda gets pushed up a couple seasons. Yeah you might get an early goblin siege, but I just design fort entrances to be easily defended, or just sealed until I am ready. Or theres always sending a large squad of poorly trained, poorly armored troops out to fight. Always lots of fun.

[Reelya]

It's not easy absorbing a wave of 28 migrants when your population was only 19. What do you do to take these in stride without losing a couple of hours on administrative work?

- Most immigrants have useless trades, so you can't just ignore them.
- If I just conscript them, I don't develop new industries and then I'll be ironically unprepared for invasion.
- Allocating them carefully to new industries for a balanced and productive economy is boring and tedious.

Is there an easier way? Do I just need more experience? Thanks for any suggestions!

I just bulk-declare them as my own custom profession "Hauler", on which I enable all hauling, masonry, engraving, carpentry, woodcutting, engineering, pump operator, architect. A general-purpose hauling and building crew.

I treat all haulers as a pool of raw talent. Any guys who have potentially useful skills I switch to a "furnace" group who stay below ground. When looking to expand industries, I look to the two pools to see who has relevant skills. Of course, all this uses Dwarf therapist.

[Sutremaine]

- If I just conscript them, I don't develop new industries and then I'll be ironically unprepared for invasion.

You only need one dwarf to make armour (two, if you want somebody available when the other armourer is sleeping, eating, etc.). In the meantime you can give the recruits a weapon and shield and let them at each other until you have some armour for them. Once you have armour, you can take away the weapons and shields of a few squads. Since they can't pour all their XP into weapon or shield usage, they'll learn the other skills instead. They will be vulnerable while in this bare-handed state, however.

[kiwiphoenix]

The current version of DFHack has a built-in Therapist UI.
Whenever a migrant wave arrives, all you have to do is hit 'U', 'L', and run down the list, mass-enabling all the labours whose products don't have quality levels.
This ensures that your specialised craftsmen (who should be marked with nicknames) don't get their precious time eaten by thankless chores.

Also, ditto on the clay gathering. I have a hard time embarking without clay nowadays, it's so incredibly useful.

[WanderingKid]

I love me some idle dwarves once my population gets over 30-40.  It means one of two things to me.

I'm either about to expand my industry, or all those peons are about to start hauling a lot of something, somewhere, for my next random mega-project.

They're also a semi-disposable resource. 

Overfiend: "Alright, Urist #2198, here's a pick.  You're a Miner."
Urist #2198: "Aye aye!  I'm happy to be part of the fabled mining squads of this 'ere fort, yer overfiendness!"
Overfiend: "um.. Right.  So, your first assignment.  Go to this area, and wait for the bridge to close behind you."
#2198: "Um, okay.  Aye sir!  This is some kind of hazing or something, right?  I need to prove my worth?"
Overfiend: "Hazing... YES!  Yes, it's a haze.  Don't worry.  Now, after the bridge closes, I want you to open up that path into the cavern right here."
#2198: "The cavern?  Aye!  The... that web producing hydra isn't down there anymore, is it?"
Overfiend: "We have precautions in place to make sure the fort is safe from the hydra, don't worry."
#2198: "Aye, and since I'm part of the fort, I'm safe!  I'll be right on my way, Mr. Overfiend Lord Sir!"
Overfiend: "Right.  Off you go then."
....
...

Overfiend: "Morul, we're about to open the outer shell on the Webbed FB trap we built.  #2198 is going to pop the doors for us.  When you hear him no longer screaming, get ready to trap that bugger in there."
Morul: "Aye sir."

[Porpoisepower]

Dwarf Therapist.

[fractalman]

It's not easy absorbing a wave of 28 migrants when your population was only 19. What do you do to take these in stride without losing a couple of hours on administrative work?

I like to jump from 18 dwarves to 70-100 dwarves.

If you exploit overlapping bedrooms, it's pretty easy.