I think I'm still a beginning DF'er. I am on my 6th attempt, some of which I put aside pretty darn quickly. In only one game have I even gotten to the point where I was forging metal. (That was #5.)
I put down DF for quite a while after #5, so rather than continue my as-yet most successful fortress I decided to start again. I decided to do something different(for me so far) even though I'm no expert, and I picked an embark location with ocean in my 3x3. I had to make sure I had a fresh water source as well, knowing the difficulties with salt water. The embark area is temperate marsh and broadleaf forest. (I think, this is based on checking fauna & flora cause I didn't think to note it down when I started.) It must be a very warm temperate because I never see snow nor freezing.
Anyways, I think I'm on my 3rd year now. Last night I got double-sieged by goblins, right by where a lot of citizens were hauling stone & gem out of a separate exploration mine system. (I'm having trouble finding the two ores for coal.) I think I lost 5 of my dwarves in that attack, which started some tantrums and made a lot of miserables. So as I'm setting up my happiness-triaging (alcohol, burials, and rest as suggested on wiki), I get sieged again. I lost a few more to that. The tantrum spiral is getting close. One of my soldiers went berserk, so I put him down, careful not to use his wife's squad to do it.
I'm only now learning that un-pastured animals won't graze. I probably read that somewhere but didn't remember it, being a ranch-boy myself and knowing animals will eat anywhere. Lost someone's baby horse foal in the dining room/meeting area.
Hopefully the mood will get better around the fortress, a lot of useless pets will get slaughtered(owners now being dead), and I'll find some coal-sources.