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[Khyron]

I always recommend NOT taking any anvils with you when you embark, and instead using the points to take extra booze (More barrels), extra food, wood (Only 3 points).

My typical setup includes :

2x Proficient (lv5) miners w/ copper picks
1x Proficient carpenter/Novice Woodcuttera steel battleaxe
1x Proficient Mason/Novice Mechanic/Novice Architect
1x Proficient Stonemason/Novice Judge of Intent
1x Proficient Grower/Novice Brewer
1x Proficient Grower/Novice Cook

200ish Booze
200ish Food (At least 1/4 of which is turtles, rest is assorted meats)
25 of each seed except Dimple Dye
110+ tower cap logs

The key is to use your Proficient Stonecrafter to make a ton of crafts or mugs, something valuable, and trade for an anvil with one of the caravans. If your first fall caravan doesn't have an anvil, set iron anvils to lowest priority (Dark blue) with your liason and they should show up with at least one next year, but 99% of the time the caravan will come with one during the fall. I like to use the manager to queue up 15 rock mug tasks and 15 rock crafts. This should be more than enough for two anvils and all the food, wood, and booze the caravan holds.

Make about 10 bins (For ease of trading), 50 barrels and 50 beds. Hopefully by the time your population exceeds 50, you'll have a tower cap farm or be getting lots of wood from caravans. Human caravans are your best friends for wood.

[Albedo]

I always recommend NOT taking any anvils with you when you embark

I'm sure I speak for a number of players when I say that I could not imagine not having any metalworks for more than 6 months.  Weapons, armour, chains, grates, silver practice weapons, better crossbows and ammo, DIY axes and picks.   Armour is how I make the majority of my early Created Wealth for immigrants.

Worse, something like 1 in 5 (or so?) first-caravans bring no anvils - which means another 12 months SOL.   I'm sure it works for you, but it's a dealbreaker for my playstyle.

The key is to use your Proficient Stonecrafter to make a ton of crafts or mugs

I've been bringing Proficient Stonecrafters, but I think next time I'll see if my Cook can't cover the trade items, and I can't find some "better" skill(s) for that dwarf.  It'll be different, but ... well, we'll see.

[Rowanas]

Given how many dwarves go fey and make craft items, any starting build with craftdwarves in it is a waste of precious points. Metal is the foundation of my dwarves existence, but if I bring no metalcrafters and no anvils I know a blacksmith will show up PDQ, and all my dwarven caravans show up with 4 or 5 anvils in the first year. It forces me to concentrate on my wood and stone industries so that my infrastructure is set up and stable.

[Albedo]

all my dwarven caravans show up with 4 or 5 anvils in the first year.

(lies) 

[Rowanas]

all my dwarven caravans show up with 4 or 5 anvils in the first year.

(lies) 

(not lies)

[Albedo]

 

Okay - all your caravans have - so far.

Which says nothing about first caravans in general.  They do show up with no anvils, all too regularly.  (And "4 or 5" is excessive as well for the average expectation. 1-3 might be a far more realistic estimate.)

[Rowanas]

then why are my dwarves always showing up with so many, so regularly?

I'm playing vanilla 40d. Any ideas, or is it just crazy odds?

[Albedo]

I'd bet on crazy odds, for one or both of us.

Maybe it's just harsh and it's more like 1 in 10 - but I've sure seen it.

Altho', there's no saying there is not some unknown factor that influences the 1st caravan, and our diff playstyles just generate in those directions.   Too much is unknown about how the game "decides" these things (for lack of a better term).

[Rowanas]

hmm. could be. My playstyle dictates a fairly standard setup, which could explain why it always happens to me.

[assimilateur]

next time I'll see if my Cook can't cover the trade items, and I can't find some "better" skill(s) for that dwarf

You bet your ass your cook will be able to handle it. Prepared meals are probably your main trade good in the long run as well, so why not start a little earlier?

Not to mention that stonecrafting has to be one of the shittiest skills there is. All they do is churn out useless and cheap trade goods which will either be a pain in the ass to trade or require wood for bins.

And before you tell me about macuahuitl broadswords: those are good, I'll give you that, but hardly reason to waste those precious embark skill points on an otherwise subpar skill.

[Rowanas]

True.. bonecrafters are definitely the best. You can actually make useful things, but the other craft skills are just there to piss you off and use up all of your moods.

[assimilateur]

use up all of your moods

They're also a good way to piss away your embark skill points.

[Albedo]

next time I'll see if my Cook can't cover the trade items, and I can't find some "better" skill(s) for that dwarf

You bet your ass your cook will be able to handle it.

Well, to be clear, we're talking about my cook - not yours - that's why I'm not sure yet. 

Right now, I toss the stonecrafter in the shop for a month or two, they've got the first caravan covered (and get rid of some rocks.)  With a cook, it'll change the entire balance of work - I might need dwarfs to hunt, more foraging, more hauling, probably a second kitchen to avoid clutter - it's all tied together, and more complex than just switching stonecraft to bonecraft.  I may also need to buy more food at embark - as is, my food stocks are usually low when the 1st caravan comes, and my farmplots just hitting stride with Autumn harvest.

It will also reduce the amount of Trade experience, since I doubt I'll have scores of 20 db meals that I can trade for 1 cheap item at a time for more experience.

But, like I said - we'll see!

[assimilateur]

Right, if you're starting with a dabbling, as opposed to a proficient, cook, then it might be hard.

Also, trade experience? I thought you only got experience once per every caravan, and here you're talking (if I understood you right) about trading several times, only selling single items? You're blowing my mind.

[Albedo]

I could be wrong, but that's for "negotiation", which I believe~ (?) works per trade.  Some others, like Intimidator and Pesuader, get experience if/when they don't accept your trades.  At least, that's my understanding.

For "Appraisal", it's once/caravan, the first to take a look at the goods.  That's how I understood it.