Now that's brilliant. Pity I literally don't have any animals other than horses and cavies.
Those tricks are nice, I'll try them on my next embark.
You don't need to take the things they give you at the start.
Dwarven skills are cheap, relatively speaking, so I tend to take them. A little herbalist in this new version can go a long way.
Personally, I'd sell the axes and picks unless you expect to have to fight right at the start of the game (evil biome), and take along some copper nuggets, so you can forge your own when you get there, instead. (Bring at least a half-dozen stone blocks, and a half-dozen copper nuggets.) You also can craft a wheelbarrow, stepladder, buckets, splints, and crutches all on the spot from cheap logs, rather than buying the expensive finished products. (Once you have your axe, if you're embarking in a forest, you probably don't need the logs, either.) There's also no reason for bringing finished bags when you can bring cheaper thread, no reason to bring pig tail thread with sheep wool yarn is cheaper, or quivers when you don't have bolts or crossbows, and leather will be plentiful, later. Get rid of all but one or two of each type of alcohol, which you bring with you for the free barrels, instead. You'll be able to make infinite alcohol by the end of your first spring, (farms are priority #2, right after "get basic supplies squared away",) so there's no reason to worry about that. Sell your plump helmets, as well, but keep all the seeds.
Or basically, start off by selling back everything but the anvil, seeds, a couple alcohol,
If you need leather, you can just butcher one of your horses or yaks or whatever comes with the wagon. They're random and almost never a breeding pair, anyway. On the other hand, common animal leather purchased at embark is only 5, anyway.
Again, take 2 male, 2 female normal dogs, and train them there to become war dogs. I only take 1 cat, since it's easy to import more, later. Take 4 turkeys, half male, half female. Keep in mind, in this version of the game, some animals are gay, so you should take some redundant animals to up your odds. If you have excess points, you might also want to bring some sheep (ewe and ram), because they provide wool in a trickle, as well as milk, and can be butchered for leather, meat, fat, and bones. Just bringing thread is slightly cheaper, but kick-starting larger butchering is useful in its own right.
Also, cavvies are guinea pigs. They're tiny, have no meat, and are utterly useless.
Take with you any "garden plant" that produces seeds when eaten or brewed, like strawberries or blueberries.
All of this generally applies to trading with caravans as a whole: buy raw materials, and sell finished goods. If it's something you need, crank up the demand to paying 200% normal price for it, because you sell finished goods for 10 to 120 times the price of the raw material, and will be swimming in so much ☼ you'll be struggling to keep it down. (No really, try to keep it down, it ups the power of attackers in sieges and megabeast raids.)
I'd suggest also bringing candlenut (or featherwood if you can) logs in a large quantity, and then using them to build some early buildings so that they can't be used up by your carpenter. (Or just forbid them.) Candlenut wood is useful for making "padding" since its light weight makes it deal very little damage when dwarves fall upon it. (Make barracks walls out of this!)
After all those cost-saving measures, I generally have several hundred points left to spend on random other things I might want, such as starting out with some raw ore. You can take a half-dozen hematite and flux with you for about 180, and have 6 steel bars very early in the game. Or just bring some extra cassiterite with extra copper nuggets, and make some bronze, which is all you need early on.
For dwarf jobs, I suggest having one perma-miner who needs no other skill. I'd give them a couple skill points to make early soil digging a little faster.
I have a skilled farmer. That skill is useful, yo.
I have one skilled herbalist, so I can get more seeds (unless embarking on an all-glacier embark or something). Give both of those farmer dwarves one rank of skill in either weaponsmithing or armorsmithing for moods.
I have one trained weapon- and armorsmith.
I have one general crafter who I put a couple skill points into brewing (no quality, only speed) and several into masonry, so I can get quality chairs and tables early, and maybe also leatherworking. This dwarf does a lot of random other jobs like wood burning, spinning, weaving, and leatherwork, as well.
I have one dwarf with a combination of marksdwarf, a little hammerdwarf, some armor user, discipline, and a bit of teacher. This is my ranger. Make him a copper or bronze crossbow and some metal bolts early, along with leather armor. This guy can also train animals and do other animal-related work. This dwarf should have high physical stats plus spatial sense.
Finally, my embark leader. I usually give them carpentry (masterwork beds!) along with several social skills to ensure they become leader, and eventually mayor. Look at your dwarves' personalities carefully, and select the best leader among them for this role. (Use dwarf therapist! It works even at the embark screen.) You want a dwarf who has low (or not described) hate, envy, anger, depression, anxiety, and stress propensity, as well as low cruelty, closemindedness, self-consciousness, and straightforwardness. You want high assertiveness, friendliness, politeness, cooperation, humor, altruism, and gregariousness.
Also, look at their preferences, especially their material preferences. If they become mayor, they will start demanding things made from this stuff. Make sure they like easy things like granite doors, and that whatever stone, metal, gem, and wood they like are all available for purchase from the mountainhomes.
If you don't have good dwarves, abort and embark again until you do.
Author
Topic: Um... help? (Read 3651 times)