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[Glowcat]

Tell yours.

So far I'd say my worst starting location was where 3 rivers met each other... in the middle of an evil swamp.

The game went like this:

*Designate my entrance*
Digger cancels carve downward staircase: Interrupted by Skeletal Lungfish
Me: "Huh? Well I'll just draft a few... oh my god are those skeletal hippos?!!"
*Watches no less than 11 undead critters immediately swarm to my location and my people are scattering all over the place, bringing even MORE undead*

Despite mass recruitment, my expedition ended up mostly mauled, devoured, or drowned. I took out less than 20% of the local "wildlife" and the rest were slowly encroaching on my few remaining, mostly wounded, dwarves. Sadly, the miner took my only pickaxe deep into the swamp immediately when I started.

I started buying extra pick axes since then. Just in case.

[Vester]

This is like the intro to a horror movie, where careless diggers unearth an Elder Evil.

The poorest start I've ever had involved an embark next to a river, combined with my making the mistake of giving three dwarves fisherdwarf skill (it was my first fort, I think. ) Game starts, they all go off to fish.

I promptly get a message about them getting struck down.

Three of my dwarves were murdered by a fragging sturgeon.

(Of course, real life sturgeons are HUGE, but still.)

This isn't anywhere near as bad as yours, but it was my personal worst 

[Ieb]

Kobold's.

Embarked in a site where a major river cut the map in half.

Digging is done, room's and all, then some guy gets a leg torn off by a sturgeon. River-bed was forbidden area from that point on.

Then the winter came, and in one second, the entire river froze, killed all the fish and immediately unfroze.

It's like the gods smiled upon the kobolds. So it seemed.

Then the elf siege arrived.
There were no survivors.

[Sensei]

I embarked IN a magma pipe was. As in, 'strike the earth' and then everyone's on a 20 Z-level trip to Magma Flow.

[DJ]

I embarked about five tiles from a river. There were a dozen pages of skeletal carp and skeletal hippos on the creature list. I tried that map a dozen times, and while I did manage to dig in a couple of times, I never could get the supplies underground.

[Wolfius]

I embarked about five tiles from a river. There were a dozen pages of skeletal carp and skeletal hippos on the creature list. I tried that map a dozen times, and while I did manage to dig in a couple of times, I never could get the supplies underground.

Dig a ditch around the wagon.

[skrymir]

Several versions ago I embarked on a map that bordered a lake. I appeared on top of the water, which was frozen at the time. I had just enough time to realize what was about to happen when the water thawed and everyone drowned except for one peasent who was stuck on an island with no pick. needless to say, he starved to death...

[Vester]

I settled on a glacier with a magma pipe with no supplies but the ones provided with the Play Now! settings.

The booze ran dry.

The booze ran dry.

You have discovered the phrase that, in Dwarven, is synonymous to "Death". Congratulations.

[Lord Dakoth]

Terrifying volcano.

ZOMBIE FIRE IMPS

[Glowcat]

I embarked IN a magma pipe was. As in, 'strike the earth' and then everyone's on a 20 Z-level trip to Magma Flow.

Not over, but IN a pipe?

Maybe hitting embark caused them to remember magma burns in a Wile. E. Coyote fashion (but replace gravity with fiery death).

[forsaken1111]

Embarked on a survival challenge. 7 dwarves, no skills, no equipment, terrifying/freezing biome.

1. Strike the Earth
2. Hey this isn't so bad.
3. Are those skeletal harpies?
4. Oh god my eyes!
5. Your fortress has crumbled to its end.

It wasn't actually that fast, but it may as well have been. Skeletal harpies, no less than 9, swarmed my poor dwarves. The 3 surviving dwarves all had spinal/nerve injuries and at least one eye gone (one poor guy missing both eyes). They slowly starved to death.

[Elvang]

Maybe hitting embark caused them to remember magma burns in a Wile. E. Coyote fashion (but replace gravity with fiery death).

To be honest, sometimes I wonder if dwarves ever go through that phase as kids where they learn not to play with hot stuff.

[forsaken1111]

Maybe hitting embark caused them to remember magma burns in a Wile. E. Coyote fashion (but replace gravity with fiery death).

To be honest, sometimes I wonder if dwarves ever go through that phase as kids where they learn not to play with hot stuff.

Nah, the ones who survive childhood just remember how cool it was.

[thunderclan]

Embarked and moments later lost all my booze to Mountain Gnomes. Went to start digging and the miner discovered the Giant Cave Spider.

Drafted the remaining 6 and watched them run off to fight some chasm creatures. They didn't survive long between the Spider and the other creatures.

[Hectonkhyres]

I'm assuming you don't mean worst as in 'this sucks'. This thread is much more interesting if you mean 'the worst starting conditions in terms of dwarven mortality rates excluding those instafreeze/instacombust maps everyone gets at least once'.

Skeletal Whales and other oceanic beasities from a haunted ocean, fire imps from an exposed magma tube coming out to start a grassfire (which thankfully could not get to the entire map due to a z-level change), and all the trees were undead. A pity that I didn't have any skeletal elephants: Undead hoary marmots just aren't the same. The temperature tended to make things combust for part of the year.

I ended up revealing the map and having my last remaining dwarf burrow down into the HFS before his end. Once pierced, I had to reclaim and (with the HFS's fortress value boost) I came back with a framerate-crippling number of soldiers who cut a swath through undead and SoF alike. Precisely one survived the beasties and the resulting tantrum spiral. Ended up founding a new kingdom down in the HFS itself. Nothing beats an adamantine dining room.

Only way for it to be better would be if it had access to bauxite, a river, seasonal flooding, and a chasm. Or preferably seasonal flooding from a river into a chasm.