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[Qwernt]

I tend to keep the anvil and drop the axes.  It is enough for me to get all the stuff I usually "need" and still use the anvil to make a few metal crafts (so I don't have to sell food or deal with the scale of a rock based economy). 

[Blargityblarg]

I keep the anvil because I often have trouble using enough points.

Yes, that's right, I can't spend enough points. I have no idea where everyone else puts theirs, especially if they drop the anvil. What? Another five hundred turtles?

Please, someone explain where all your points go.

[Puzzlemaker]

I buy one of each type of meat and alcohol, as to get the most amount of barrels.  I also put points into dwarf skills.

[NecroRebel]

I keep the anvil because I often have trouble using enough points.

Yes, that's right, I can't spend enough points. I have no idea where everyone else puts theirs, especially if they drop the anvil. What? Another five hundred turtles?

Please, someone explain where all your points go.

When I'm playing dwarves? I think my usual loadout is:

Full skills for all 7 dwarves, and nothing below Proficient for each skill covered (35x7x2=490 pts). 31 of each of the 4 drinks (31x4x2=248 pts), 31 plump helmets (31x4=124 pts), 31 cave lobster (31x4=124), 6 copper picks (6x20=120 pts), 1 steel battle axe (300 pts), 100 wood (3x100=300 pts), 10 5-pt leather hides (10x5=50 pts), 6 of each of the 6 underground seeds (6x6=36 pts), 10 bauxite (3x10=30 pts), 4 hunting dogs (4x31=124 pts), 2 ropes (2x20=40 pts)... That's all I remember at the moment, but that still leaves me with 74 left. I don't remember what I spend those last points on, and I don't have my dwarven loadout saved anymore since I've not played dwarves in a while (I've been doing Cats instead), but 74 points isn't really that much when you think of it.

Mostly, I just like to embark with a lot and a variety of food and drink so I don't have to worry about it for the first year or so, a lot of picks so everyone can be occupied immediately and get my initial stronghold dug quickly, many building resources so I can build quickly, 4 hunting dogs so I get 2 males for early guard dogs, the ropes to restrain them... It's just more useful to my playstyle to have all of it. I've tried the anvil-build-tools-on-site method, but that always takes way too long to get anything going IMO, and I don't get enough provisions for the first year if I try bringing the anvil and tools.

[SenorOcho]

One fun challenge is to start with TWO anvils. Really forces you to ration out the rest of your points to try to have a strong start.

[Martin]

One issue I am finding with quite a few players is they immediately find a snag later on with obtaining an anvil. Either because the traders don't have one, it is too expensive, or they made the traders angry.

I am seriously considering that the "Embark without an anvil" suggestion isn't really a good idea.

I understand that the anvil is expensive but it presents a convenience that won't backfire in the near future. It also isn't so expensive that you don't have everything you need from the getgo.
-Exceptions exist

What do you think?

I never embark with an anvil and the first dwarven caravan ALWAYS has an anvil. All you need to do is make enough food to buy it. I've found I'm better off taking a few dogs, 30 logs and making 6 wood crossbows and a decent stack of bolts for starting defense.  For low-skilled, slow dwarves the crossbows are usually better as the dogs will soak up melee time while everyone takes pot-shots at the baddies.

[Lord Shonus]

Here's my starting embark profile. (Spoilered for length)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[PROFILE]
   [TITLE:Profile 1]
   [SKILL:1:MINING:5]
   [SKILL:1:DETAILSTONE:5]
   [SKILL:2:CARPENTRY:5]
   [SKILL:2:SMELT:5]
   [SKILL:3:FORGE_WEAPON:5]
   [SKILL:3:FORGE_ARMOR:5]
   [SKILL:4:SMELT:5]
   [SKILL:4:METALCRAFT:5]
   [SKILL:5:BREWING:5]
   [SKILL:5:PLANT:5]
   [SKILL:6:BUTCHER:5]
   [SKILL:6:TANNER:5]
   [SKILL:7:MASONRY:5]
   [SKILL:7:DESIGNBUILDING:1]
   [SKILL:7:NEGOTIATION:1]
   [SKILL:7:JUDGING_INTENT:1]
   [SKILL:7:APPRAISAL:1]
   [SKILL:7:INTIMIDATION:1]
   [ITEM:1:WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_MATTOCK:METAL:COPPER]
   [ITEM:1:ANVIL:NONE:METAL:IRON]
   [ITEM:20:DRINK:NONE:PLANT_ALCOHOL:GRASS_WHEAT_CAVE]
   [ITEM:20:DRINK:NONE:PLANT_ALCOHOL:BULB_CAVE]
   [ITEM:10:SEEDS:NONE:GRASS_TAIL_PIG:NONE]
   [ITEM:20:DRINK:NONE:PLANT_ALCOHOL:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP]
   [ITEM:32:STONE:NONE:STONE:TETRAHEDRITE]
   [ITEM:40:SEEDS:NONE:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP:NONE]
   [ITEM:66:FISH:NONE:TURTLE:NONE]

For those who have trouble understanding the embark code:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dwarf 1: Mining 5/Engraving 5
Dwarf 2: Carpentry 5/Furnace Operating 5
Dwarf 4: Weaponsmith 5/Armorsmith 5
Dwarf 4: Metal Crafting 5/Blacksithing 5 (Embark profile says smelt, but it should be blacksmith)
Dwarf 5: Brewer 5/Grower 5
Dwarf 6: Butcher 5/Tanner 5
Dwarf 7: Masonry 5/Architect 1/Judge of Intent 1/Appraisal 1/Intimidation 1   

   
        1 Copper Mattock
   1 Iron Anvil
   20 Dwarven Beer
   20 Dwarven Rum
   10 Pig Tail Seeds
   20 Dwarven Wine
   32 TETRAHEDRITE
   40 Plump Helmet spawn
   66 Turtles

[assimilateur]

My thinking is that if you're pissing off the traders to the point that they won't trade, or if you can't scrape the 1000 or so dwarfbucks together one costs by the time you need it, then you have problems beyond not having an anvil.

This is what I was going to say after reading the OP. Glad I'm not the only one who thinks that.

I mean, how the hell can producing a bunch of crafts or one or two prepared meals for an anvil be a problem? If a new player can't manage that, they should read the fucking manual (aka tutorials), as they probably don't know what's going on in this game in general.

It is only to say that the "No Anvil" suggestion is over-rated and should be treated as preference rather then "The way to play". The Walkthroughs I've read treat "No Anvil" as the way to play as well.

It might as well be the way to play in normal circumstances, because spending so many embark points on something most people have no use for during their first year, or even couple of years, is so obscene a waste of embark points that it's not even funny. Now, if you made rules for yourself, like no trading, that would be a different story.

Also, I don't mean to condescend, but I have to point out what I hinted at above, namely that your argument that a new player might not be able to trade for one easily is laughable for reasons already mentioned.

So far most people are arguing that starting without an anvil is a viable strategy when in order for it not to be over-rated they would need to prove that the money you spend with an anvil is absolutely vital and should be used somewhere else.
-Edit addition: Hmm too far... Proving THAT much would change the nature of this topic. Which I already realise I am betraying.

Correction: all we need to demonstrate that embarking with an anvil is, for most players, useless. The fact that most of us here seem to wait a year, or perhaps even a couple of years, before starting a metal industry, is evidence enough of that. I guess your edit suggests that you realized as much yourself, eventually, but I just wanted to point that out.

and this way I don't have to make upteen jillon worthless rock crafts to buy from the caravan, just to have someone else hit a craft mood right as the guy making the crafts hits legendary, leaving me with two dwarves legendary in a skill I would be just as happy to never use.

There's another way of avoiding churning out stone crafts for trade: producing food and cooking it. That's something a player should be doing anyway (unless they have some weird-ass house rules forbidding it), so I don't see what the problem is with doing it right after embark.

[Martin]

I mean, how the hell can producing a bunch of crafts or one or two prepared meals for an anvil be a problem? If a new player can't manage that, they should read the fucking manual (aka tutorials), as they probably don't know what's going on in this game in general.

I should make a small point here. There's no guarantee the first caravan will bring an iron anvil. I'm pretty sure I've faced a caravan with only steel ones. And with a low negotiator skill, that anvil would run you >4500 bucks. Pulling together >4500 by the first autumn does require a certain diligence. But by the 2nd caravan, you could certainly secure an iron one.

[assimilateur]

Pulling together >4500 by the first autumn does require a certain diligence. But by the 2nd caravan, you could certainly secure an iron one.

Perhaps I'm playing in easy conditions, because cooking up a couple more roasts, or even making some stone crafts if you have to, never struck me as hard. And even if, what you said about that second caravan holds true. Unless you're playing a modded game where you're being besieged right off the bat, or really want to do some smithing early on, just for fun, starting with an anvil is a luxury.

When recommending strategies to a new player, you don't focus on luxuries, you focus on important things. Now, for someone who already knows what they're doing, most strategies will be viable (unless playing under unusual conditions or house rules), probably even extreme stuff like embarking without food or a pick.

I have no idea where everyone else puts theirs, especially if they drop the anvil. What? Another five hundred turtles?

I buy livestock. Camels or muskoxen if available, cows otherwise (in which case I'm liable to opt for more than one breeding pair, for lack of other things to buy). The reasoning for camels and muskoxen should be obvious, namely the inability of ordering them. Buying cows might be more controversial, but it's still more useful to me than an anvil or axe. Also, if you embark in a freezing environment, most, if not all, livestock brought by traders might end up dead.

[Khym Chanur]

Personally, I don't trading with cooked meals (the prices are ridiculously high) or with stone crafts (I find it difficult to believe that the traders are so willing to take hundreds of stone mugs/earrings/scepters/toys/etc for their valuable goods).  So I take the anvil and a dwarf with proficient metalcrafting, drop both axes, bring some wood for the initial beds, barrels and bins, and some bituminous coal in case it takes me a while for exploratory mining to find any coal or lignite.  I then set up temporary magma smelters and a forge right next to the magma vent (or volcano) to make an axe to clear a path to the edge for the caravan wagons, and to make some metal crafts for trading. When the magma has finished crawling its way to to location of my permanent metal-works I relocate.

Plus, on treeless maps, a metalsmith can be used to quickly make low value metal into bins and barrels to conserve wood (or to make a high value gold statue to quickly make a legendary communal dining hall in order to keep all your dwarves ecstatic).

[Lord Shonus]

There's another way of avoiding churning out stone crafts for trade: producing food and cooking it. That's something a player should be doing anyway (unless they have some weird-ass house rules forbidding it), so I don't see what the problem is with doing it right after embark.

Yeah, you can do that, but I prefer to keep food for eating, in case of orc-related farming failure.

[assimilateur]

Yeah, you can do that, but I prefer to keep food for eating, in case of orc-related farming failure.

How are orcs going to keep you from farming?

Also, you're doing something wrong if you're unable to produce a food surplus large enough to last you several years (that might not be the case right after embarking, but I'm talking long-term here).

[Danjen]

I buy livestock. Camels or muskoxen if available, cows otherwise (in which case I'm liable to opt for more than one breeding pair, for lack of other things to buy).

If you bought only two, are you guaranteed a breeding pair, or is it better to stick with 3?

[zwei]

I buy livestock. Camels or muskoxen if available, cows otherwise (in which case I'm liable to opt for more than one breeding pair, for lack of other things to buy).

If you bought only two, are you guaranteed a breeding pair, or is it better to stick with 3?

Yes, 2 is guaranteed to be breeding pair.

Your beeding pair will produce another female offspring early enough to make cost of 3rd animal too much and better off spend on pretty much anything else.