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[pushy]

- Four Proficient Masons/Proficient Engravers. These dwarves begin mining immediately, and become all-purpose dwarven construction workers.

Utter waste of points. There is absolutely no need for quality masonry stuff until nobles come in (and even then there are alternatives), there'll be PLENTY of rock to use for training masons, and as pointless as it is, even if you want to train engraving it's one of the quickest skills in the game to level up. 280 points pissed away, right there.

Tried making these Mechanics instead of Engravers, and letting them learn engraving from scratch

Not much better - the only things increased Mechanics skill will do is increase the speed at which mechanisms are produced and the quality of mechanisms (which is only useful if you plan on selling your mechanisms)

Experimented briefly with training them as building designers as well (to let them build pretty much everything on their own, without help), but it took prohibitively long to train them up high enough to build quality stuff. Strange moods on these dwarves are a total waste, but that's all right.

300 columns a piece for legendary building designers from scratch, no? Could be a lot worse

One Novice Weaponsmith/Novice Axedwarf/Competent Shield User/Proficient Armor User. This dwarf spends some time as a woodcutter early on, building up respectable stats and fueling dwarven industry. Early on, she doubles as security, since she gains no unhappy thoughts from being drafted/undrafted and carries an axe all the time. Later, she functions as Sheriff and leads the military.

This one's better, though I don't see much point in giving points in weaponsmithing as by the time most people would have a decent smithing industry running, they'd also have an active military, and this dwarf's betwixt and between. Give 'em a point of woodcutting rather than weaponsmithing and I think you'd be better off.

- One Novice Appraiser/Novice Judge of Intent/Competent Stonecrafter/Proficient Brewer. This dwarf occupies all the starting noble jobs, and works as a trader even after eventually getting replaced as mayor. Early on, this dwarf makes stone goods for trading; later, he functions as the expert brewmaster for the fortress.

That one's fair enough. Stonecrafting's very useful early on (for trade goods) but becomes less so after you have other industries running, so giving the guy skill in brewing is a nice touch as it'll keep him active after the stonecrafting business is obsolete.

- One Proficient Armorsmith/Novice Siege Engineer/Skilled Building Designer. A dwarven scientist and all-around expert, this dwarf quickly gets to work at various carpentry, mechanics, furnace operating, and other assorted jobs. This dwarf gets trained towards being a multi-legendary dwarf, in the long run. He's meant to get an Armorsmithing fey mood, so I keep an eye on his skills and stop him from training any moodable skills higher than Armorsmithing.

Again, a mish-mash of skills that are rather pointless together, and giving a guy a skill in the hope of getting a fey mood is daft, as there's absolutely no guarantee that he'll ever get a mood (even if he does, it could be a possession, then you're still fucked).
My advice is to keep Armorsmith and Siege Engineer as separate careers and not have them on the same starting dwarf. Once you get goblins knocking at your door your smiths will be very busy with all the excess iron and will level up then, and if you want to use siege weapons as well you'll want someone dedicated on them rather than having someone jumping between the forges and the siege workshop.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Just concerning the suggestion about the Wiki: I am not really sure whether such a "standard" embark setup would be that useful. The choice of skills is probably based a) on your playing style b) what kind of biome you wish to go to (having proficient woodcutters on a glacier seems countrintuitive).

In other words, I think there is no one or two perfect embark solutions as there is simple too much variance, and what may be ideal for some players may be actually quite inefficient with others.

For instance, there is the question about rock crafts - do you use them to get rid of rock/get cheap trade goods or not? Do you head for a quick discovery of metal (needing an anvil right away), or do you go for a slow development (allows for the anvil to be cheaply bought from the caravans)? Do you do trade? And if, with whom? Do you want to have a military or a trap fortress? Do you hunt and fish or do you go for farming - or do you get all your food through trade?

I am sure that list can be expanded a lot.

Deathworks

[kaypy]

One trick I like is to select the dwarf with the most appropriate personality, load them up with 9 pts in social skills/negotiating/appraising to make them the leader, trader and most likely mayor. Setting their last point to Ambushing then makes them technically a hunter and causes them to bring along $1000 worth of bolts.

[Glacies]

Miner/Mason/Engraver
Carpenter/Wood cutter/Bowyer
Stonecrafter/Woodcrafter/Glassmaker/Gemcutter/Gemsetter
Grower/Brewer/Cook/Herbalist
Weaponsmith/Armorsmith/Metalcrafter/Blacksmith/Wood burner
Appraiser/Record keeper
Crossbow dwarf

[Mohreb el Yasim]

One trick I like is to select the dwarf with the most appropriate personality, load them up with 9 pts in social skills/negotiating/appraising to make them the leader, trader and most likely mayor. Setting their last point to Ambushing then makes them technically a hunter and causes them to bring along $1000 worth of bolts.

most appropriate personality == Likes Lead, Granit, Pulp Helmets and Dogs for their their fidelity. He absolutly detest mandating creepy unavailebel things ...

[Porpoisepower]

1 Miner
1 Carpentry/wood cutting
1 Mason/engraver
1 farmer/brewer
1 appraiser/buiding designer
1 mechanic
1 stone crafter/trainer

I generall put my mason on mining as soon as we arrive on site to help with initial digging efforts. I take him off once I have the my initial mining done.

I usually add the folowing

1 cat
1 dog
1 rope(for a well, i generally don't bother with textiles until i get 1-2 migrant waves)
1 silk thread/cloth
1 plant thread/cloth (incase I get an early mood)
and spend the rest on booze and seeds and food

[pushy]

1 Carpentry/wood cutting

This is another pet hate of mine that a load of people always use. It blatantly slows down production of wooden items because while your carpenter is in the workshop, there's nobody out getting wood for him to use, and similarly while he's out chopping down trees, there's nobody in the workshop making barrels, bins and stuff. These two skills should ALWAYS be on two different dwarves.

[TheDarkJay]

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

[Hectonkhyres]

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.

[TheDarkJay]

Personally I use it because once I stablilise things somewhat so that I can sacrifice my craftsdwarf, smith and a random dwarf (typically leaving my miner, farmer/cook, mason and carpenter) I start the orders for

Bone Bolts /R
[Avilaible Weapon Metal] Bolts /R

And leave my other random dwarf (who was little more than a hauler) working on his marksdwarf skills. Since I use the orc mod and a customised race known as the "Ravagers" (who only siege during the spring but are even worse than the orcs) I can get sieged when I only have 7 dwarves, and needs me marksdwarf patrolling the fortifications when the siege starts. A champion marksdwarf can break any siege so long as he's behind a bridge and an elite sniper isn't there (bastards always get a lucky pot shot straight through the fortifcation and into the marksdwarfs eye...or arm. Once dwarf lost both his left arm and left leg because of one of those )

[icarus_redux]

 for a long time it was miner,miner,woodcutter/carpenter/bowyer,architech/mason,stonecrafter,mechanic,farmer/brewer.

but lately i have just been living on trade and went with miner,miner,woodcutter/carpenter/bowyer,2*architech/mason,2*stonecrafters
 
 you can and and take away miners masons stonecrafters for say three our four miners our masons
 as long as you have at least one stonecrafter and enough food and drink to last till the caravan
 arrives.

 usually 200 food 200 drink 50 wood 7 war dogs and whatever else i want.i can trade for all my  food.

[tsen]

Just so you know, it's actually possible to legendary Architecture relatively easily. All you need to do is build a crapton of 1 square roads and leave the dwarf alone for a season or two.

[beorn080]

Just so you know, it's actually possible to legendary Architecture relatively easily. All you need to do is build a crapton of 1 square roads and leave the dwarf alone for a season or two.

Or bridges, supports, or trade depots. Its also a good way to train say a carpenter in a desert, since every time a person finishes a building like that, they get some experience, and the materials can be reused. So with 10 logs, you can train a legendary carpenter and get 10 very high quality beds out of those logs.

[Porpoisepower]

This is another pet hate of mine that a load of people always use. It blatantly slows down production of wooden items because while your carpenter is in the workshop, there's nobody out getting wood for him to use, and similarly while he's out chopping down trees, there's nobody in the workshop making barrels, bins and stuff. These two skills should ALWAYS be on two different dwarves.

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. Once I have a spare dwarf I tend to have dedicated carpenters / wood cutters.

[Fedor]

When I choose skills for starting dwarves, there are a few things I always keep in mind:

1.  Providing food and drink
2.  Mining
3.  Defence
4.  Constructing and furnishing a fort
5.  Taking advantage of local resources
6.  Focusing on particularly interesting crafts and angling for strange moods.

My load-out usually has:

- 2 Miners.  They also get at least 1 point in a military skill (usually Wrestling or Archery) and often eventually become extremely powerful warriors.  In most of my groups of starting seven, they're the only ones on which a strange mood is a waste.

- A Farmer/Brewer.  This dwarf may also gather or (rarely) fish, but growing food and making booze are his core responsibilities.  He also gets one point in a valuable craft skill for potential strange moods.  If he never gets that strange mood, he'll be the chief brewer later on, as well-made drinks make a lot of dwarves very happy.

- A Farmer/Cook.  Having a second dwarf who plants (when needed) means a great head start on food, drink, and (if I so desire) thread and even dye production.  He also gets a interesting strange mood skill, but if the mood doesn't happen, he provides ridiculously valuable meals of Dwarven Syrup for export and local consumption.

The other three dwarves vary tremendously. 

I like to have a leader.  The most sociable dwarf gets this job and gets one point in Appraiser, one in Organizer, some points in social skills, one point in an interesting strange mood skill (preferably one that needs only part-time labor), and usually one point in Wrestling (for survivability).  If I do have a leader, he spends a lot of time socializing at the gathering place after the first migrant wave arrives to make sure he gets and keeps more friends than anyone else.

If I want to construct a lot of stuff, then a couple of dedicated Masons are in order.  If not, then one is sufficient, and that dwarf may also be a mechanic or (more rarely) a building designer.  In wooded locals, a Carpenter is nice to have, but certainly not essential.  Any Carpenter will also become a wood chopper, but there's no need to spend any points on Woodcutting.

Any remaining members of my original seven are usually specialized craftsdwarves hoping for strange moods and making themselves useful as fishers, gatherers, haulers, sorters, dumpers, millers, threshers, pumpers, soldiers, builders, etc. while they wait.  The trade skills I focus on depend on their preferences (especially for steel, crossbows, and clear glass), on expected local resources, and on my plans for the fort.