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[Jamuk]

7 Miners and picks for each, I like to dig out some of the fortress before I start doing anything else.

[Pexxithan]

My last game I started with 0 skills and 0 items.  Took a while to get going but got there eventually.

I tried that once. After a zombie werewolf came and ate all but two of my dwarves not some 5 minutes into the fort, I decided that maybe I should give them a tiny bit of help.

Maybe next time I will look up the wiki on how to make cheese and pick starting skills to support a great cheese making industry.

Heh, that actually sounds amusing. Extra points awarded if you give the nobles custom names like "Cheesebaron", "Cheeseking" or "Goudamaster".

I've noticed you guys don't bring mechanics. Is there a trick to training them? I've recently lost my only 2 and the peasants are training rather slowly. Should I just spam mechanisms?

I don't bring them because by the time I need them, I usually have had around two migrant waves and can assign some random peasant to just pump out mechanisms. The trick to get the skill up fairly quickly is to have them make two dozen or so mechanisms and then install them in stuff. The fastest I've had a Legendary Mechanic was over the period of 4 in-game fort years having the same mechanic load up about 50 blade traps and 50 cage traps. Your mileage may vary.

I like to imagine they're some sort of breakaway 'communist' group tired of being downtrodden miners or a group of mining apprentices chosen at random to build a fortress by the mad royalty.

Comrade miners. I like it.

You'll probably also notice the distinct lack of a dwarf skilled in common things like masonry, carpentry or mechanics...I set ALL dwarves to do these tasks (and several others as well). Lack of speed by an individual doesn't bother me in the slightest when the collective unit can be so damn fast (especially once some migrants have come in to help with larger projects) and item quality is of little/no concern for the most part...

I'll do that if I have particularly large projects that need doing almost immediately or I need to get rid of a huge amount of stone with a really pointless setup. I don't think I could have them all do it all the time. I think my fort would probably shut down every time, since when I assign masonry tasks, it usually involves huge tasks.



I guess I'm also glad to notice that I'm not the only underground farmer. I never liked above-ground farming, since it leaves my entire food and booze industry open to not be a part of my ingenius execution methods attack by random forces. I've tried it a few times, however.

[Teldin]

I don't understand why anyone bothers to put any points into mining. Just bring along 7 picks and enable all their mining labors and they all get very high mining level in a short while. Granted there are a few problems with this, like them all becoming miners, and the fact that if they get a strange mood they'll just get legendary mining level, but I much prefer putting the points into other things instead.

My usual group:

1 trader: 3 appraising, 3 judge of intent, 1 liar 1 negotiator 1 intimidator
2 farmers: 5 growing, 1 butcher, 1 tanner, 3 leathermaking (one with 3 fishing instead of leathermaking)
1 mason: 5 masonry, 1 engraving, 1 architecture, 1 gem cutting, 1 gem setting, 1 mechanics
1 crafter: 5 stonecrafting, 5 bonecarving
1 lumberjack: 3 woodcutting, 5 carpentry, 2 bowyer
1 metalsmith: 2 armorer, 2 weaponsmith, 2 metalcrafting, 2 furnace operating, 2 fishing (so he has something to do before the metal industry is up)

[Glacies]

1 miner/engraver/mason/mechanic
1 woodcutter/carpenter
1 weaponsmith/armoursmith/furnace operator/metalcrafter/wood burner
1 stonecrafter/woodcrafter/gemcutter/gem setter
1 grower/brewer/herbalist/cook
1 butcher/fisher/fish cleaner/leatherworker/tanner
1 organizer/appraiser

30 pig tail seeds
30 plump helmet seeds
50 turtles
50 assortred booze
3 moonstones
3 sunstones
1 pick
1 axe
1 anvil
2 dogs
2 cats

[ChairmanPoo]

It varies, depending on whether I want animals along or not, and the biome resources. But in general, I usually ditch both axes, and bring instead one piece of copper bars, and one piece of charcoal (compare, 20 points versus 300. Itīs a bit of a slower start but I dont use that much wood at the beggining; I turn one of the logs into a bed for the barracks and thatīs it).

[SirPenguin]

Miner/Admin
Miner/Stonescraftsdwarf
Miner/Engraver
Woodcutter/Carpenter
Cook/Butcher/Brewer/Tanner
Ambusher/Hammerdwarf
Mason/Mechanic

Always. I never stray from it. Works the best. 3 Miners to begin with makes sure I have a lot carved out. Then one of them goes to smooth a bit, another makes crafts for the Fall caravan. Everyone else has their jobs. Only thing I switch up is the food gatherer. Sometimes I fish, sometimes I farm.

As for items, only one axe, three picks, 125 things of wood, 2 ropes, a bunch of food, a bunch of barrels, 2 hunting dogs and a kitty.

[Ashery]

Just started my first evil area/aquifer, so I took the following:

Miner/Judge(1)/Appraiser(1)/Bone Crafting(3)
Farmer/Cook
Farmer/Brewer
Carpenter/Mechanic
Mason/Architect
Weapon/Armor
Woodcutter/Axedwarf (Wasn't sure what to expect, and Axe is a hell of a lot more dangerous to train than Wrestling).

I'm curious as to why people so often put a single skill point into various trades. For Appraiser and Judge, the first point is the most important, but for all of the other skills? I'd actually go back and change the setup if I could, swap the Bone Crafting and Mining levels...

2 steel axes, both were used once the early mining was completed.
4 picks, one spare, two of the less immediately useful dwarves were put on mining duty.
120ish total food, getting the maximum number of barrels and some shells.
120ish total booze.
31 plump seeds.
21 rock nuts, pig tails, sweet pods.
2 ropes, chained up two wardogs near my entrance to keep theives out early, seems to be working.
2 cats.
2 dogs.
3 wardogs.
16ish bauxite.

I'd definitely change the setup around a bit the next time I do a similar starting location, but it seems to be working well. Made a few mistakes and was unable to get enough exports ready by Autumn to get the anvil ;x

[Dwarfu]

7 peasants with bad attitudes,
7 copper picks,
125 ea dwarf booze,
26 plump helmets,
26 deer meat,
25 ea of assorted 2pt meats/turtle/fish for remainder of points,
18 cave lobster,
18 cave fish,
3 pig tail cloth,
3 cave spider silk cloth,
3 mountain goat leather,
3 rock crystals (or other 10pt gem)
3 copper bars
20 tower cap logs
1 wagon of win.

discuss.

[ChairmanPoo]

I have to ask, why do you pick miners or masons? Itīs not like untrained miners cant dig, or untrained masons build (granted, a trained mason will build better doors and stuff for expensive rooms, but by the time you have built all the walls you need, they ought to be trained already)

[Boatmurderer]

I prefer a Legendary miner as fast as possible because I don't like to waste ANY metal ores or coal.
As far as the startout, I have the 4 leadership skills on an Engraver, a Miner, a Woodcutter/mason/carpenter, a metalcrafter/furnace operator, and the remaining 3 I usually set to growers or craftsdwarves of various skills.

For gear, I tend towards the same layout: the anvil, 26 of each booze, at least 5 of each subterranean crop seed except dimple cups, 1 of each sub-10 meat, at least 10 turtles, at least 5 bauxite, and an even mix of bituminous coal and tetrahedrite. I smelt 2 tetrahedrite for a copper pick and copper axe, then proceed to turn the rest of the tetrahedrite into billon goblets.

[Haven]

Miner/Mason
Miner/Mechanic
Mason/Mechanic
Woodcutter/Carpenter
Grower/Brewer/Cook
Metalsmith/Armorsmith/Weaponsmith (with magma, or-)
Stonecrafter/Bonecrafter (without)
Leader/Engraver


I keep the anvil whenever there's magma. If there isn't, I spend it's points on livestock and extra everything.

Standard kit comes with 20 Helmet Spawn, a rope, two copper picks, a battle axe, a cat, and whatever the specific area demands, with the rest on dogs.

[grelphy]

Skilled miners make a good impromptu military. (In fact, given the ease of training, they are in some ways better than a non-impromptu military.) I generally buy other skills (i.e., mason, carpenter) so they work as quickly as possible and to give them attribute boosts when starting off.

I usually start with something like this:

1 miner/mason
1 miner/carpenter
1 miner/grower
1 miner/weaponsmith
1 miner/armorsmith
1 miner/craftsdwarf
1 trader (appraisal and whatever else looks good)

26 of each booze
56 plump helmet
26 turtle or cave lobster
assorted other meats, animals, tower-cap logs to taste.

Works out pretty well. It can take some work to get metalwork going what with the lack of an anvil, but the faster startup is well worth it.

[Anfold]

Mine is very basic, set up to overproduce as fast and as much as possible.
Miner
Miner
Woodcutter/Carpenter
Mason/Architect
Stonecrafter/Appraiser
Farmer/Brewer
and then either
Farmer/Cook
or
WeaponSmith/Armorer

All skills at max, drop a steel axe and bring the normal barrel maxing food/booze combinations.

I normally set the Blacksmith to herbalism as I set up the magma forges, and by the second year I normally have enough migrants to run a massive walled in surface/cave farming complex.

[Pexxithan]

I have to ask, why do you pick miners or masons? Itīs not like untrained miners cant dig, or untrained masons build (granted, a trained mason will build better doors and stuff for expensive rooms, but by the time you have built all the walls you need, they ought to be trained already)

I pick miners for three reasons. First is I like having the stone for use (and don't like losing gems and other nice bits). Second, they move a lot faster with more skill, and I don't like wasting too much time mining things out when I could be working on other aspects of production in the fort. Third... they really do make great last-ditch troops in case my marksman dwarf gets... say... blasted by a skeletal fire imp.


I think I'm really the only one who doesn't worry about more advance dwarves until later when I get migrants. Maybe because I don't like jumping that far ahead and not having a use for it all just yet...

[Paul]

I usually go

Miner with 5 mining, 5 mechanics.

Builder with 4 mason, 1 woodcutting, 4 carpenter, 1 building designer

Secondary miner/crafter with 1 mining 5 gem setting (I like importing gems and making super valuable crafts, heh) and the other 4 in some other trade skill, like glass making or stonecraft or clothier.

Weaponsmith with 5 weaponsmithing, 5 siege engineering (I like shooting goblins with masterwork siege weapons, what can I say.)

Armorsmith with 5 armorsmithing 5 metalsmithing (for high quality metal furniture)

Leader type with various social skills and a little bit of either weapon or armor smithing in case he gets a mood.

Cook with 5 growing, 5 brewing, I usually make him a legendary cook pretty quick by cooking up thousands of seed biscuits by buying all the seeds and plants from the caravans. I always get grower even though I rarely get around to setting up farms, since I get so much food from the caravans.

I activate engraving on the first three when its time to smooth everything, and I keep masonry turned on for every single person just to build walls/floors of my grand constructions. I keep the workshops where only the dedicated mason makes anything needing quality, but the two miners pitch in when im making blocks for a big construction project. I've gotten to where I build my forts as big 23x23 towers, with the bedrooms above ground (so dwarves don't cave adapt, although with the reduced sleeping times it has started happening a bit now) and the rest of the fort below it, and it requires a lot of building power to set up.