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[Peewee]

Perfect starting 7? That's easy:
1. 5 wrestling 5 shield
2. 5 wrestling 5 shield
3. 5 wrestling 5 shield
4. 5 wrestling 5 shield
5. 5 wrestling 5 shield
6. 5 wrestling 5 shield
7. 5 intimidate 5 crossbow

[FunkyT]

That's brilliant Peewee.

I'd give one of them maybe slightly fewer ranks of wrestling and shield, and a few points in liar instead?

[StealthArcher]

^^  Am I missing a joke here?  I don't see how that helps. Other than bringing a c-bow from start.

Unless you're going for zombie carp maybe...

[pushy]

What is with the rush to get an anvil before the first caravan? I can always buy an anvil at that point and, prior to that, I am too damn busy excavating/hauling to even think about crafting so much as a -copper pick-.

Whats the deal? If I'm having to fend off skeletal whales, I'm not going to have time to do anything else and, if I'm not having to fend off skeletal whales, my metal industry can damn well wait.

God help you if you're having to fend off skeletal whales, but bringing an anvil and a handful of copper nuggets or whatever can be FAR cheaper than bringing lots of ready-made tools. The wagon can give you enough wood to provide fuel to turn nuggets into a bar, then the bar into an axe, and then you can cut down trees for more fuel for whatever else you may want/need (picks, more axes, other weapons, armour, proper bolts)

It's the way I've been playing for quite a while - I'm usually starting my digging by mid/late "Early Spring", but there are other things that can keep my dwarves occupied while tools are being made by my blacksmith (cooking and brewing, and the hauling involved for that, for instance) so the very start of the game isn't that bad for me.

Aside from 7 beds at the very beginning how much carpentry do you really need?  Especially once I start trading wood cutting is not a high as a priority.

If it's not a high priority then why spend points in it? While I don't like to have dedicated carpenters (any dwarf can do carpentry in my forts), having lots of bins and barrels can be very handy; both disappear very quickly as your industries build up, so it's better to get a good supply of them early on...and maybe getting a few spare beds made up in advance for when immigrants come in, too

[Dwarfu]

I always go with seven peasents without skills, and use their points for bring large amounts of food and and anvil. It works much better, I find. Anything they need to learn they can learn easily anyway

I can't believe you're the only other person to post for only bringing 7 peasants.  I do the same.  Minus the anvil.

I generally need lots of blocks to build an entrance, so a mason gets trained up quickly before the nobles that need it come in to play.

On the same note, I find I need lots of cheap beds to keep rent values down, so I just cycle through a couple of the starters and set the carpentry shop to only allow dabbling so I can churn out enough low cost beds to cover all the future residents.  Once I get an immigrant carpenter, i give him a shop of his own to train up with.

For engraving, I generally have the starter 7 all begin engraving after embark, but only the specific tiles I need (under workshops, etc)...then when immigrants come, I find one or two to be permanent engravers.  This way, the starter 7 get skillups quickly before they branch out to their specific tasks (I always make the starter 7 into all the nobles, with a stonecrafter and a mason).

Likewise for mining, all 7 start mining right when the wagon arrives.

The only one that gets dedicated pretty much off the bat is the stonecrafter, who clears stone and makes trade goods.

Any other job that needs doing, I make the manager do it - he's the manager after all, he should know a bit about everything he's commanding others to do.

Note, the skills are only assigned after embark.  I never buy skills.  Peasants ftw!

[azrael4h]

You have no idea what a manager does do you. Managers never work, and rarely know more the a general outline of what their underlings do. What they do do is yell at the little people; siphon off their self respect, and keep it in little vials, and act randomly. The higher up the chain of command, the less intelligent, less skilled, and more clueless (but higher paid).

I find DF to be a near perfect representation of real world management. At least, as long as I don't force my managers to be useful. I had one that was my entire military for several years, until she drowned after walking on a frozen pond, that unfroze while she was on it. It was just as well; I had a well trained real military at that point.

My bare essentials are this:

2 miners
2 masons
1 Mechanic, farmer, brewer, cook, stone crafts, bone carving, architect, carpenter, appraiser

I usually don't bother with engraving, as I can easily have it built up quickly. Woodcutting is dependent on the map; I almost always carry an axe though. I like having two masons because early on I have a need for a lot of furniture like doors.

I have played with all starting 7 as miners, which really helps dig out my initial antechamber quickly (which serves well as an interim stockpile until I get the fortress proper started). I don't bother with smiths because I never know if I'll have ore to start a metal industry. I'll relay on worked leather and cloth (imported, because I'm too lazy to start a farm for that stuff and process it all) and stone to trade for needed stuff like weapons.

[sneakey pete]

In my latest fort i've gone with a different approach: trying to get every dwarf to have a single profession, and starting from the begging.

So, i had every single dwarf a Armour user/shield user/novice weapon user and as well as those:
1 proficient mechanic
1 proficient Building designer
1 proficient grower
1 proficient cook
1 proficient brewer
1 proficient stonecrafter
1 proficient carpenter

Mad the carpenter chop wood and the building designer do masonry until a replacement migrant came.

I never start without a proficient mechanic, because i find that they are slow to train, and it is really really useful having a dedicated one, since i always find myself doing a lot of water projects.

I got lucky with this fort though, migrant armoursmith and weaponsmith both went fey during the second year.

[Faces of Mu]

Wow, I'm pretty vanilla and basic compared to you guys:

2 x miners
1 x mason
1 x carpenter/woodcutter
1 x brewer/cook
2 x growers

And LOTS of rock nuts, just so I don't have to scavenge for them and so I don't have idle growers any time.

[0x517A5D]

Building designer is another that is useful at proficient. Build a high quality bridge in the middle of your meeting area and the dwarves are almost guaranteed to get decent thoughts from it. Easy way to ensure happiness before you get the dining room set up. Note that you can train your masons and your architects at the same time by building bridges all over the place. Just be careful getting rid of them because the dwarves may tantrum.

I powerlevel architecture by turning off carpentry on all dwarves and then designating a bunch of wooden supports.  If they are not actually constructed, you can destroy the designed support without consequences.  You can do the same thing with stone (turn off masonry) and metal (turn off all metalworking).

The most efficient way I've found to do the (boring) designation is to place a wood stockpile, wait until it's full, then use a macro which "walks" across rows of the laid out wood, constructing pillars.

In my current fort I have a legendary architect, which gives me warm fuzzies.

[Mephansteras]

I have a pretty standard set up I use for most forts. Who gets what position depends a lot on personality traits, especially for the Smith and Trader (eventual Mayor).

1 Competent Miner
1 Miner/Mason/Stoneworker
1 Competent Weaponsmith/Armorsmith/Blacksmith/Competent Metalcrafter
1 Novice Appraiser/Novice Negotiator/Novice Judge of Intent/Novice Broker
1 Novice Fisher/Novice Swimmer
1 Woodcutter/Carpenter
1 Novice Planter/Novice Herbalist/Novice Brewer/Novice Cook

Extra points may be added to bring skills up, depending on my starting setup and what resources I'll need.

The fisher is often traded out for a hunter or marksdwarf. The carpenter often gets other duties on a treeless map.

So far, this has worked very well for me. I have few/no problems getting my fort up and running before the first caravan and things are usually in very good shape by the time migrants show up.

[ZeroGravitas]

I base my entire starting skills around moods:

Proficient Miner + Proficient Mason
Proficient Miner + Proficient Mason
Proficient Armorsmith + Novice Carpenter + Novice Mechanic + Novice Furnace Operator (don't let any of these rise to proficient)
Proficient Cook + Novice Armorsmith
Proficient Brewer + Thresher + Novice Armorsmith
Proficient Planter + Novice Weaponsmith
Trader/Noble/etc + Novice Weaponsmith

For my first trade caravans, I trade lots of prepared food. As immigrants arrive, those without Moodable skills (fishing, woodcutting, etc) are immediately set 1 armorsmith or weaponsmith task, depending on likes and dislikes.

This way, over time, I end up with the highest possible proportion of artifact weapons and armor as compared to other crafts.

[Metalax]

A relatively typical group that I will take on an expedition will be:

• Proficient Miner/Proficient Wrestler
• Novice Woodcutter/Competent Axedwarf/Competent Shield User/Competent Armor User

These two will also form my early militia if kobolds or annoying animals are lurking around the area.

• Proficient Stone Crafter/Proficient Wrestler
• Proficient Mason/Skilled Building Designer/Novice Wrestler

Between the two of them they usually manage to keep the fort from becoming choked in stone. Stone crafter can also serve as an additional body in the militia.

• Novice Wrestler/Novice Persuader/Judge of Intent/Appraiser/Consoler/Pacifier

My trader/bookkeeper/mayor candidate. He will usually also be the one given any odd jobs that may crop up until migrants arrive.

• Brewer/Proficient Cook/Novice Butcher/Novice Tanner/Novice Wrestler
• Skilled Grower/Proficient Herbalist/Novice Wrestler

This pair will keep the fort supplied with food and beer.

[Fikes]

Interesting topic. My setup revolves around "Bandwidth". Each dwarf only gets two jobs so I try and make sure the Jobs that need done 80% of the time are paired with jobs that need to be done 20% of the time. The jobs that only need to be done 50% of the time are paired with jobs that need to be done 50% of the time.

Jobs that skill only changes the amount of time to make aren't taken at all, such as Gem Cutting. I never have enough gems to keep that going 24/7 anyway.

My setup goes like this:

Leader (all starting noble related skills)/miner
Miner/Fish Cleaner
Mason/Mechanic
Grower/Armor maker (by the time I have my forge setup, I have a replacement grower
Fisher/Brewer
Wood Cutter/Cook/1 point in Minning
Carpenter/Building designer.

Butchers, tanners, threshers, leather workers, clothers, dyers, stone/bone crafters, ect all are perfect immigrant skills and always end up being more busy work than anything in my fort.

Eventually someone ends up being an engraver but never has enough work to do anyway, so I don't see a reason for 2.

As for earily military/hunters, I can never get a map with enough wildlife to make them worth taking straight off.

[FearfulJesuit]

NECRO

I am experimenting in my new fort Thundermountains with taking a proficient engraver for the rooms. We'll see how it goes.

[Schmlok]

No skills unless it's dangerous territory.  Those points are needed for stone(aquifer insurance), sandbags and dogs.