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[Rufflikerex]

I suggest getting some Turkey Hens and 1 Turkey Gobbler for those scrumptious eggs and bird meat. Also bring dogs and cats if you can.

[Saiko Kila]

Eh, lakes happen if you force rivers to meet in basin, especially near corners made by mountains and map edges. Depending on your preferred worldgen parameters, it is entirely possible to avoid them (for instance, 100-103 elevation worlds - no real rivers, and thus no lakes).

I don't use advanced parameters. Using world generated with standard settings it's hard to find lakes for sure, though I don't know why. I looked through my recently generated world, and it seems there's only one lake - although it's a big one, I've got to admit.

[Dragula]

The charm is to just pick a random location and adapt and overcome it's specific challenges.

[OmahaMH]

The charm is to just pick a random location and adapt and overcome it's specific challenges.

I hope to be able to do this someday, because it's exactly what appeals to me about DF.

My current embark strategy is pretty much what was described first:  shallow/deep metals, flux yes, aquifer no, river yes, soil some.  That way there's some metal to play with, the chance for steel, no infinite water, fishing plus power, and easy farming.

In terms of what to take along, I usually ditch all the crutches and splints (I'll build 'em when I need 'em!) grab a few pigs and dogs (bred for food and protection, respectively) and add a bunch of barrels of milk (which are dirt cheap and come with a free barrel!)

[CaptainArchmage]

I'm planning on starting a new fortress and I have no idea what I should actually be looking for in an embark location. Anyone have some good advice?

Absolutely ideal fortress embark location:

Firstly, make sure the minerals setting is cranked to "everywhere" on worldgen.

No ocean.
Area fits inside a 3-5 tile square.
Contains surface Flux (Dolomite, Limestone, Chalk) and deep Flux (Marble).
Contains a stream, river, or brook.
Has Sand, Fire Clay, and Clay with all four layers of soil present in at least one area.
Aquifer contained in one corner of map (one map tile), or no aquifers whatsoever.
Majority of area containing sedimentary rock, volcano included on embark. Note iron in igneous extrusive areas can be found deeper down, but you do not have the huge deposits just veins.
Entire area is a variant of untamed wilds, either neutral or good aligned (Untamed Wilds or Joyous Wilds)
Crosses boundary between tropical rainforest region and temperate grassland or shrubland or forest region.
No salt water.
Has access to all civilization-building species.

I believe that is it. You almost certainly will not find such an embark unless you are really lucky or do some work with the custom world generation system. I've listed each of the features from left to right based on preferable to less preferable, and top to bottom, if you have to "pick one". I suspect the "civ access" thing might be dated now we have the ability to send expeditions out into the world (the range was once continent-wide, then reduced to 30 tiles or so for civilizations, not sure about now).

The reason I put "no ocean" at the top is the waves used to kill FPS. Those top two measures are life-extending measures for the fortress.

Supplies: The main ones you need on embark are a pick (22 points), an axe (34 points), and an anvil (100 points). If you have just these, and your fortress is not in a totally lifeless area or an area filled with aquifers, you should be fine. The total points cost is therefore 156.

Absolute minimum: You can reduce this minimum points requirement further to an anvil (100 embark points), a piece of fire-safe stone (3 points), and ore that can be made into a weapon (6-24 points usually). That minimum becomes 109 points. You'd have to dismantle the wagon, and use the wood to make a mason's shop to cut the stone into blocks. You'll get four stone of them. Dismantle the shop to get the wood back, build a wood furnace, and burn the three pieces of wood into charcoal. You'd then have to build a smelter, and smelt the ore (producing 4 bars of metal or so). Build a forge, and forge a pick and then an axe. This uses up the three units of charcoal from burning the wagon. That allows you cut down all the wood you need, and mine all the stone. If you really wanted to min/max, you could get a pile of bituminous coal, flux, and actual iron-bearing ore (which is 24 points/unit last time I checked), and make all the equipment from steel from the get-go.

Alternatives: Rather than spend 156 points on the copper equipment, you could get yourself an anvil (100), non-flammable stone (3 points), two pieces of flux (12 points), one piece of bituminous coal (3 points), one piece of iron ore (24 points). That's worth 142 points. You'd net yourself a steel pick, a steel axe, 4 pieces of coke or so, two stone blocks, and 2 pieces of wood left over from the wagon. Bringing along more coal, iron, and flux allows you to up your production further.

Just about everything else can be manufactured on site.

Bringing food: if you bring all types of milk, each one gets stored in a different barrel. In fact, I believe most foods individually come in their own barrels or bags, so the more variaties of food and seeds you bring the more barrels and bags you get left over.

Animals: Alpacas and sheep are cheap and provide both wool and milk. Pigs, however, produce milk and don't need pastures.