i find myself taking just what i need usually, a pair of pickaxes , a regular axe. 7 of each type of seed i plan on using (pig tails, black truffles for dye, maybe a cave wheat) some 10 meat and 20 drinks. and a vermin catcher and just roll from there. adding too it is bloat. taking away from it is itemless embark.
sometimes i take 7 pickaxes and carve the hell out of my fortress before summer,
sometimes i bring enough iron ore to make full sets of steel platemail on site
the only skills i pre assign are apprasier and armor user, sometimes grower, and i don't bother looking at who'd be best at it they eventually like it =)
usually when i start a fort i dig down under the soil and make a small shelter, enoughto survive but not thrive. digging down to magma relatively straight down and build the real fort there, never really a fan of making a lava pump to the surface.. thats something you only wanna do once lol.
i am guilty of using reveal and planning a shaft to magma without opening caverns, in turn i don't use adamantite unless my site is only copper (which happens 9 times out of 10 for some reason iron hates me). but even then i try to use bronze or alchemy to make steel or mithril before abusing candy.
Embark profile : Cavern Start, 1 axe. little food and drink. 3 armor user 1 grower/herbalist, iron ores and stones to make at least 3 suits of steel plate and weapons, pair of breeding vermin catchers. idea is : set up on the surface make the chain to produce steel, chop trees for fuel, everyone does everything until you can set up the real fort in the caves should be able to and move down before summer.