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[doublestrafe]

Just a quick note on early cooking: if you use the one-kind-of-every-meat trick to get free barrels, it won't do you any good unless you start cooking right away. Otherwise, the meat just sits in the barrels. And don't forget to hit z > Kitchen and turn off cooking of plump helmets and any aboveground crops you may have gathered!

[greycat]

Also disable cooking booze!  Unless that's part of your overall strategy, of course.

[Dampe]

Depends on where you embark, of course... but a Noob should pick a "Calm" biome rather than "Terrifying" anyway.

Where's the fun in that?

[ancistrus]

Depends on where you embark, of course... but a Noob should pick a "Calm" biome rather than "Terrifying" anyway.

Where's the fun in that?

Oh, but terrifying is not fun. Endlessly reanimating corpses of things you killed a million times already,the constant need to destroy corpses before they animate again...

[Melting Sky]

There is no single "right" way to embark. It depends on how you play and where you embark etc.

Unless you are embarking in an evil reanimating biome I recommend a breeding pair of a few species of useful animals. They are nice self replicating resource that requires little or no work. Consider one or more of the species I mention below.

Dogs: Man and Dwarf's best friend. They are cheap, breed fast and can serve well as lookouts or as disposable military units. They can also serve as a source of food, bone and leather. If paired up with a hunter they make for a good starting emergency military unit and food source. A hunter by themselves can get into trouble with some of the stronger animals in even a relatively tame embark but a couple of hunting dogs makes them far more formidable and safe. Train the dogs after you get them rather than buying expensive already trained ones with embark points.

Turkeys: What's to say other than the fact that a few female turkeys with nest boxes can keep pretty much your entire early fort fed with eggs alone. If you add a gobbler to the mix and lock the door to the nesting box room you can create a turkey explosion that can feed even the most massive fort indefinitely.

Cats: Be careful with these fuzzy little devils. As useful as they are for killing vermin, they can bewitch even the grumpiest of dwarves into adopting them as pets. Slaughter them as needed to keep the population down. They also provide butchering products when you do so.

Sheep/Alpaca: They are the kings of the grazers. You must pasture them where there is vegetation such as grass to eat. They both can be put in relatively small pastures and provide milk and wool. They can also be butchered for the usual meat etc. If you are going to bother with grazing animals at all then these are likely your best bet.

[Dampe]

Depends on where you embark, of course... but a Noob should pick a "Calm" biome rather than "Terrifying" anyway.

Where's the fun in that?

Oh, but terrifying is not fun. Endlessly reanimating corpses of things you killed a million times already,the constant need to destroy corpses before they animate again...

Burn the bodies?

[ancistrus]

Depends on where you embark, of course... but a Noob should pick a "Calm" biome rather than "Terrifying" anyway.

Where's the fun in that?

Oh, but terrifying is not fun. Endlessly reanimating corpses of things you killed a million times already,the constant need to destroy corpses before they animate again...

Burn the bodies?

Sure you can destroy bodies, but some of them will get animated before you dump magma on them or whatever, an now you have zombies that are on fire, which is not as convenient as it sounds, since undead can not be destroyed by heat.

The point is, no matter how you handle it, it will require a lot of tedious micromanagement that gets old fast.

[Urist McWangchuck]

So, what is the purpose of bringing those two soldiers?

Yeah I usually find that there's not too much reason for bringing soldiers early on, as I've never needed that until the third migrant wave when I can make a full squad.

I thought the point to having two military on embark was so that they could spar and teach each other Armor Use and Dodger.  I am now starting by assigning one to wood cutting and one to plant gathering and don't militarize them until they are at least Novice (in case I need to civilian them later on).

[m-logik]

Something i wish i had been told when i was new: disable bins in any stockpile that allows clothing, armor, or ammunition. I personally only use them for leather and cloth piles.

[PDF urist master]

don't start a fortress when you're drunk. Humans don't have the [ALCOHOL DEPENDENT] tag and decreased lucidity when operating a fortress can quickly bring its end.

[Dampe]

don't start a fortress when you're drunk. Humans don't have the [ALCOHOL DEPENDENT] tag and decreased lucidity when operating a fortress can quickly bring its end.

No sleep and two hundred milligrams of medication, however...
Wait, no.
Shit.

[Melting Sky]

Something i wish i had been told when i was new: disable bins in any stockpile that allows clothing, armor, or ammunition. I personally only use them for leather and cloth piles.

Listen to this guy. I wish I had known this sooner. My current fort has a bin induced nightmare involving well over 200 stock piles.

[Dampe]

I'm picturing your fortress like it's that one episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.
You know, the one where Frank and Marie don't stop getting the fruit baskets, and they're just like, "Oh, God!"

[Dampe]

Ooh, it's Thursday!
Tomorrow...it begins.

[My Urist Eternal]

I've only been playing for a few weeks, but I can't imagine playing without Dwarf Therapist. I would suggest using it from the start (when you only have seven dwarfs) because it's easier to figure out what the utility is doing when you've only got a few dwarves. The first time I tried DT, I already had 50 or so dwarves, and it was super confusing.

Oh, and the other thing that confused me big-time at first: there is a difference between Profession and Labor. You cannot set a Profession. And Profession is not really what you want to be looking at. Labor is the important thing. Don't worry too much about the Profession at first.