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[csebal]

Actually, thats 2308 revealed tiles. A mined out tile reveals the 8 tiles around it and the tile below if its a down stair. So a maximum of 10 tiles can be revealed for every dug out tile.

Digging stairs would mean 9 tiles revealed for every square of digging, so to trigger your first artifact, you merely need 256 tiles, which is a 8x4 grid of stairs to 8 z levels deepth. Thinking about it, its not that much to begin with.

[Grocer]

I don't understand the need for more than one pick on embark.

I like to have all my guys mine a bit for the stat gain. SO having six or seven picks starting off makes sure I can always have a nice little Dwarf Training Squad going, whether it's my originals or my immigrants. I don't like starting with a trained "miner" because it's so easy to train up.

I do the same thing.  I'm honestly kind of surprised that so many people seem to start a dwarf with points in Miner.  It trains so quickly that it doesn't make sense to me.  I'd rather start with a couple of dwarves with proficient armor use some swimming and shield use and set them to be the main miners till the first immigrant wave.

I never take an anvil either, but I tend to be into the second year before I start to look into a metal industry.

[Grocer]

I believe that if you don't have any dwarves with smithing skills you don't have to worry about moods requiring anvils, yes?  I personally don't put smithing high on my todo list - I kind of like the whole obsidian swords, bone armor and wooden bolts thing - but that's just me.

[The Architect]

It certainly adds a level of challenge to avoid all iron or steel equipment. It's not as if vanilla or any reasonable mod can present a real challenge to well outfitted dwarves in the current version. If you use primitive armor, on the other hand, things could get interesting.

Obsidian swords (and any other swords) are ridiculously overpowered currently. Enjoy your chopshop massacres to the fullest

[SenorOcho]

I do the same thing.  I'm honestly kind of surprised that so many people seem to start a dwarf with points in Miner.  It trains so quickly that it doesn't make sense to me.

If I'm embarking with metalsmiths to a magma pipe and am expecting lots of metal, I want to put it all to use right away, not in the four months it would take untrained miners to do the same task (and end up with less than half the metal)

[random51]

I do the same thing.  I'm honestly kind of surprised that so many people seem to start a dwarf with points in Miner.  It trains so quickly that it doesn't make sense to me.

If I'm embarking with metalsmiths to a magma pipe and am expecting lots of metal, I want to put it all to use right away, not in the four months it would take untrained miners to do the same task (and end up with less than half the metal)

I don't understand what the hurry is. The magma isn't going anywhere, the metal isn't going anywhere and with only 7 dwarfs it isn't like you're drowning in porters to cover both food production and another major industry in the first year.

If you lose metal with miners it means you're not managing them. It tells you when you hit a seam and if your miners aren't maxed yet you can just undesignate the seam until they are. 

It isn't like anybody needs metal for defense. Dig a hole, seal it up behind you, voila, 100% effective defense while you build up your industrial base. Sounds like this will not be as true in the next major release, though.

I spend points on mining for my first two miners too, but not because I'm worried about metal. I do it to speed up my initial dig/defense.

[Grocer]

I spend points on mining for my first two miners too, but not because I'm worried about metal. I do it to speed up my initial dig/defense.

I just dig a channel out in soil and hope nothing flies.  The big advantage of this strategy is that it'll still work with the new underground.  

[Gertack]

For those with Down-Enter carpal tunnel syndrome, try this macro:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[BIND:MACRO0]
[SYM:`]
[MACRO:SELECT:1]
[MACRO:STANDARDSCROLL_DOWN:1]
[MACRO:SELECT:1]
[MACRO:STANDARDSCROLL_DOWN:1]
[MACRO:SELECT:1]
[MACRO:STANDARDSCROLL_DOWN:1]
[MACRO:SELECT:1]
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[MACRO:SELECT:1]
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[MACRO:SELECT:1]
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[MACRO:SELECT:1]
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[MACRO:SELECT:1]
[MACRO:STANDARDSCROLL_DOWN:1]
[MACRO:SELECT:1]
[MACRO:STANDARDSCROLL_DOWN:1]
[MACRO:SELECT:1]
[MACRO:STANDARDSCROLL_DOWN:1]
[MACRO:SELECT:1]
[MACRO:STANDARDSCROLL_DOWN:1]
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[MACRO:SELECT:1]
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[MACRO:SELECT:1]
[MACRO:STANDARDSCROLL_DOWN:1]

Then I just hit ` to mark/unmark exactly 1 page in the "Move Goods to/from Depot" screen, or a little over a page while trading.

(I stole the idea from someone else on the forum.)

And as for why it is especially handy: I modded pack animals/wagons to have 10x the normal capacity so doing a 1 million dwarfbuck trade is not unusual.

[LegoLord]

You can also hold down both keys.  You have to be quick, though, and hit one before the other.

I like to have two good miners as quickly as possibly because:
1)I normally don't have a good military up by the time enemies start coming.  Metal weapons and armor help with that.
2)I like to have an open fort most of the time, and with ambushes that means I need diggers to set up passive defense.
3)I like to be able to expand underground quickly.  You never know when you need to or when it will help deal with impatience.  Two legendaries can dig much faster than several miners of lesser skill, in my experience.

Just my two cents about the anvil thing; experience players might not have a problem with it, but it's what's recommended in the start up guide on the wiki - for new players that definitely have more problems with trading.

[nenjin]

Yeah, that first time playing before you realize how it easy it is to create wealth, you'll boggle at the cost of a steel anvil. As soon as I started trading looted clothing, that problem went away though.

And, on starting with competent miners, like people have said, sans having a military, a dwarf wielding a pick at legendary mining skill, with ~5 to 6 attribute points, is nothing to sneeze at, and can easily provide defense in the early game. It's no coincidence that my Cpt. of the Guard, General and Lieutenants of my starting military all come out of the mining core.

[Loyal]

Except if you do that, the trader will just tell you to go and drink water, as he will not take this pile of junk as it is. Whereas if you keep the items in the bins, he will happily trade it.

...this isn't true at all.

[The Architect]

There is nothing on the wiki about how to traid properly afaik. The proper way to trade is to view the value of items as compared to the trader's asking/offering price. If you give them things they value much more than they're actually worth, you'll come out with an actual profit of your own and a happy trader who will accept very little profit on their end (usually giving you much more than the actual value of the items you trade them, and being happy about a perceived profit of 1% or less). Doing as many small trades as possible, you can have a legendary trader after one round of trading who can achieve these deals.

It's also easily possible to use your embark-given Proficient cook to turn 1000 dwarf bucks of trading goods over for enough cheese to make a 32,000 roast stack and trade that back for the entire caravan (and still give the caravan a huge profit!)

[Ze Spy]

i always have the anvil on embark as i usally get every industry set up and made before even the first year(one job after another)

[csebal]

Except if you do that, the trader will just tell you to go and drink water, as he will not take this pile of junk as it is. Whereas if you keep the items in the bins, he will happily trade it.

...this isn't true at all.

this is what i noticed: offered them bunch of rock junk for trade without the bins the rock junk was packed in, and they refused. Added the same rock junk with the bins (and the bins themselves were hardly expensive enough to justify a change in attitude) and they accepted with ecstatic response.

So it might not be true from where you look at it, but - as i said - its pretty much what i saw.

On a different note: today i had the first initial caravan out of many games that didnt have an anvil. Well, maybe there have been others in the past i just didnt notice, but i definitely cant remember a case where the initial caravan came without an anvil. Today they did Suffice to say, next spring my weaponsmith got a mood. Luckily tho the human caravan who came early summer had a few anvils so i managed to build a forge for the poor smith before he went insane

Made me a menacing lay pewter spike. Not that i needed one, but hey.. got my legendary weaponsmith. yay me.

I still stand by my opinion, that anvil on embark is overrated. The above example shows that even under extreme circumstances the situation can be salvaged.

[LegoLord]

But what if neither caravan brings an anvil?  Or if he went into a mood sooner?

I've had close situations to that before, only difference being an anvil at the start.