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[Martin]

I always bring 10 of every colored stone available, just for levers and such. I use them for early workshops and replace them later.

I bring leather, silk thread and cloth, regular thread and cloth, and some cheap gems just to help deal with early moods when I may not yet have adequate materials.

I bring a largish number of logs - usually at least 20, sometimes as many as 50. Usually just to turn into bins and beds.

I bring as wide an assortment of meat as possible only for the barrels, and usually at least 100 booze.

I'll bring as many as 100 turtles. They're cheap, they keep me in food for a while, and the shells and bones are always needed at some point.

I never bring an anvil. I often skip on easily acquired skills such as mining and woodcutting in favor of harder skills to get like siege engineer, if I'm planning on building such things.

[ChairmanPoo]

I take seven picks and a lot of logs. I also lug around an anvil. I might or might not bring raw materials to build axes. Since I tend to embark in dangerous areas, I buy anything from 10 to 20 war dogs.

This is not an issue, as I spend next to no points in skills anymore (I buy some bare minimal broker skills for my bookkeeper/broker, and that's it)

[PhilbertFlange]

My start always includes:
- 2 of the cheapest picks.
- 1 of the cheapest hatchets/axes (I play dig deeper).
- 2 dogs
- 2 cats
- 10 units of wood
- 10 units of each seed type
- about 100 units of booze.
- about 150-200 units of food.

If I think I'll need anything else, I'll cut down on food/booze (while still maximizing the variety) to add it in. If I think I'll have a caldera or semi open magma pipe, I'll take about 25-50 units of stone to wall it off as quickly as possible, while I work on bedrooms/forge areas, etc... so I don't end up with a bunch of fire imp spam.

[Demetrious]

I always take at least one copper crossbow, and give a single dwarf at least "marksdwarf" skill level with it. Now, what with two woodcutters running around, this might seem superfluous, but I always figured that crossbows being what they are (that is, horribly broken,) having one around might tip the scales in an early-game ambush. Especially against Kobold ambushes, since the thieving that triggers it is hard to stop early-game and they use bows themselves.

I just embarked on my second-ever magma map, and the magma pipe doesn't have a cap. As I sit here eying the many fire imps residing in the pipe, I am suddenly very, very glad I brought a crossbow.

[Danjen]

My initial dorfs usually look something like:
Miner/Mason
Miner/Mason
Miner/Engraver
Woodcutter/Carpenter
Brewer/Cook
Grower/Mechanic
Record Keeper/Appraiser

And for equipment, I usually bring (of note)
3 Picks
1 Axe
No anvil
~30 Plump helmet spawn
50-100 Wood
20 Bituminous Coal

Anything else varies per map. Obviously, this probably isn't a very efficient setup, but it lets me make a neat fort with little harassment (as I tend to play on calmer maps). Unfortunately, I find myself bored/aimless after establishing the basics (workshop, specialized storage areas, etc.). One thing I've found out is that a stack of cooked booze can sell for 2,400+ dorfbucks each! One particular stack sold for over 9,000; I think it had close to 70 units in it or so. In any case, I could buy out the merchants with food, no problem.

[Haspen]

I present thee: The Stranded Caravan!

20 of Plump seeds,
2 ropes
2 war dogs
1 pick and 1 axe
20 drinks and 10 food (meat/fish only).
2 leather bags.

6 peasant dwarves and 1 Appraiser/Judge of Intent.

For few months I'm playing only with above mentioned setting, no other.

[Jake]

Let's see...

21 each of all crop seeds.
31 each of each booze type.
31 each of plump helmet, cheap meat and turtle.
20-odd logs.
4 copper picks.
1 steel battle axe.
20 steel bolts.
2 hunting dogs.
2 war dogs.
1 cat.

My lineup always includes a full-time fisherdwarf and a fulltime hunter, a woodcutter/carpenter/bone carver, a miner/mason/stone crafter and miner/blacksmith/furnace operator and a farmer/cook/butcher/fish cleaner and farmer/brewer/herbalist. The fisherdwarf and the woodcutter get a war dog each for protection if they're ambushed, and the hunter gets the hunting dogs to back him up against the more dangerous prey. The other four spend most of their time in the fort digging, making furniture, preparing food and converting the unsightly rubble littering the fortress into furniture and trade goods.

[Foehamster]

I bring an anvil on almost every embark. Especially after my weaponsmith got a strange mood 5 sec before the orcs siege early autumn of the first year *sigh*.

Forging my own axes and cutting down other stuff is more than enough to get max skills for all starting 7.

So:
Anvil
Iron bars
(usually 1-2 copper picks)
Seeds
Turtle
1 kitten
2 dogs

[AtomicPaperclip]

3 picks (two for proficient miners, 1 for the expedition leader)
7 logs
2 charcoal
2 copper bars, just in case
turtles
booze
anvil

[Grendus]

Always bring an anvil. I can get magmaworks set up in half a season, and if I dug through a good metal vein that means trade goods. If not, I still need it to forge an axe. No point in wasting 300 embark points on a base quality steel axe that you'll want to melt down later anyways.

Bring along a stone, a copper bar, and chunk of charcoal. Yea, it would be cheaper to bring along a copper ore and two logs, but it's only 8 embark points. That lets me start cutting wood fast, which saves a lot more embark points from tower caps.

Speaking of tower caps, I embark with maybe one log unless it's a harsh environment. No need to bring lumber in whens you're in a forest. If it's a desert, mountain, or glacier though I pile on the logs.

Always bring leather. Leather armor for training the first wave of recruits, lets them get those all important Armor User and Shield User skills. No point in wasting embark cash on the armor itself when donkey leather is only 5 and you can get quality levels from your leatherworker. If you don't need armor, it makes good bags for seeds, sand, and processing.

Bring one more than a multiple of five of each booze type I bring, just for the extra barrel. Same thing goes for the turtles. I don't exploit any more than that. I would just bring plants and barrels, but the embark booze comes five units to a barrel instead of 25 so it's cheaper.

[Strangething]

I'm surprised at how few people bring a ball of thread or bolt of cloth. You could get a strange mood as soon as the first wave of immigrants arrives.

[Atredies]

I skip the axes and bring magnetite. I also bring 20 or more pieces of flux, because steel is good, and it's hard to get flux anywhere I embark to.
steel axes plus two axdwarfs/woodcutters = army reserves.

I only bring 5-10 seeds for each crop, and not many logs so I can get lots of skills and dogs

I need to bring cave spider cloth/thread for moods, but haven't yet.

[Loyal]

Ten Tetrahedrite, thirty logs (mostly for screw pumps and windmills/waterwheels, since it usually takes me a while to get the forges running for more axes, especially when using magma), and either twenty bauxite or ten bituminous coal.

Anvil, three picks, and some leather and silk cloth, because you really cannot ever have enough bags lying around.

((x * 5) + 1) of each food/drink item I decide to bring, LOTS of turtles, two ropes, two dogs, a kitten, and at least one of every seed type (I've been developing a growing fondness for sweet pods lately and hate having to wait for the caravan).

I always embark with two miners (who always have 2 points in swimming, and 3 points in either wrasslin' or masonry/mechanics), one-and-a-half growers, and someone with ambusher ranks (even though I'll never permit him/her to use them till second or third year at best). My socialite is always the crafter, as I feel it is a point of some small pride to have him meet up with the liason and say "Yeah, see all those mugs? I made those."

[Chewykittens]

Lately I've taken a liking to the empty wagon. It gives a nice fun early challenge, forces the issue on above-ground farming, and forces me to get used to the land before I dig.  I've never done it with orcs though...

[SirHoneyBadger]

I always like to bring along 4 camels. Costs a lot, but they've got plenty of meat, and are pretty good at surviving. They don't hurt Fortress survival, either, since I like to set up in cursed lands. Skeletal goats and the like are no match for an adult camel, one-on-one.

With four of them, I don't have to worry about losing one, and with it my breeding population.