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[smjjames]

Although, after reading this thread, I did try swapping out my axes and picks for bronze ore and coal.

Bronze ore?

May have meant metal bars?

[Schilcote]

Although, after reading this thread, I did try swapping out my axes and picks for bronze ore and coal.

Bronze ore?

May have meant metal bars?

Or copper ore.

[GlyphGryph]

All you need for an embark is a barrel of 10 turtles, 10 cave lobsters, and anvil, and a whole pile of wood and ore.

If you're embarking in a very dangerous area, maybe bring a pick.

Step 1: Build walls (you can reclaim the wood later).
Step 2: Send out expendable gatherer to get booze plants.
Step 3: Build workshops, start forging!

[GRead]

Although, after reading this thread, I did try swapping out my axes and picks for bronze ore and coal.

Bronze ore?

May have meant metal bars?

Or copper ore.

Yeah, you know. Bronze Ore. Bronzium. More valuable is Black Bronzium, or Bismuth Bronzium, though the former is less useful for weapons and armor. Other awesome ores I most certainly did not make up to try and save face include Brassium, Pewterium, Billonium, and the most valuable, Electrumium.

I most certainly did not forget to put an s onto the back of ore, to make 'ores' and thus imply copper and tin. That would cause me unending embarrassment and would therefore not be what I did.

Can't believe you guys have never heard of 'Bronzium'.

[Lancensis]

In all fairness, you can sometimes find a few of them as natural alloys. And Ironium, Bronzium, Silverium etc. can be found on Mars, I believe...

[bombcar]

I'm interested in the mod that makes layer stone worthless without polishing.

[Noble Digger]

Usually, I take an anvil and about ten chunks of hematite, (plus flux etc.) and have a Proficient Weaponsmith to get some high-quality weapons in case of "incident". Most of my early profit comes from weapons instead of trinkets, since I've modded layer stones to be worthless unless reacted into a polished version.
This time 'round however, I embarked on a freezing terrifying wasteland with a couple of picks and an axe, and I dug in as rapidly as possible. Definately something you have to adapt to your environment.

Ten chunks, an anvil, flux, Proficient weaponsmith, this stuff is extremely expensive. Did you bring zero food and pets and unskilled dwarves or what?

[smokingwreckage]

For weapons: Stonecrafter and obsidian. If you have an obsidian layer you have effectively infinite shortswords, and the idea of having someone step into a trap loaded with ten blades sharper than surgical steel is the kind of thing that turns me on. Goblins make me angry. They must pay.

[Lancensis]

Ten chunks, an anvil, flux, Proficient weaponsmith, this stuff is extremely expensive. Did you bring zero food and pets and unskilled dwarves or what?

No, no. According to the .txt file, I embark with...
Fully skilled dwarves
60 barrels of dwarvern pruno
10 plump helmet spawn (which aren't really necassary when I think about it)
10 Bluegills - whatever they are
60 plump helmets (these are modded to be value 0, in a semi-successful attempt to reduce the value of prepared meals)
a big ol' Iron Anvil,
10 hematite ore (these are value three in my raws, apparantly - that's probably why I can afford it)
20 "albino pine"-wtf?
30 Sandstone (Worthless see. I usually end up dumping it anyway)
17 Snapping turtle (an unusually specific number)
7 Sweet Pod seeds
4 Dwarvern Badgers (way better than dogs)
1 Dwarvern Owl (does not vomit on your bed, like a cat)

I guess I must forge a pick first and then mine some flux...hmm. On the other hand, the only reason why I need so much hematite is because I have to make it into bloom iron first.

So, I guess now that I think about it, my advice is a little irrelevant here. Still, I feel the principle stands. I like getting decent weapons, and the easiest way to do that is to embark with a proficient metalsmith and train them up from there. It's also nice to have a woodcutter (who I make a proficient axedwarf) with a superior steel axe, and a couple of proficent miners with decent iron/steel picks. Comes in handy if the mountain I pick has an undead problem.

I'm interested in the mod that makes layer stone worthless without polishing.

PM me about it and I'll put it together tommorrow (it's half past midnight here).

[Garrie]

For weapons: Stonecrafter and obsidian. If you have an obsidian layer you have effectively infinite shortswords, and the idea of having someone step into a trap loaded with ten blades sharper than surgical steel is the kind of thing that turns me on. Goblins make me angry. They must pay.

You forgot one important ingredient.
You can have all the obsidian you want on a mountain and you won't be able to make shortswords: you need wood "for the handles" (ie: game balance).
(the fact that it's really game balance is amplified when you are talking about putting them in a trap... what, you're worried about the sharpened obsidian damaging the stone block (mechanism) you mount them on?)

[GRead]

You can have all the obsidian you want on a mountain and you won't be able to make shortswords: you need wood "for the handles" (ie: game balance).
(the fact that it's really game balance is amplified when you are talking about putting them in a trap... what, you're worried about the sharpened obsidian damaging the stone block (mechanism) you mount them on?)

The wood is far more about realism than game balance. For reference, This is the weapon we call an obsidian short sword. I'm pretty sure (though not 100%) that it's downright impossible to make an entire sword blade out of a single shard of obsidian, and even if you could the entire thing would be prone to shattering. You're essentially trying to attack people with a giant shard of hyper-sharp glass.

Game balance for obsidian weaponry will come in when Toady does item damage. They will remain incredibly powerful against leather or less, but will wear down insanely fast and be easily destroyed when used against hard substances, like metal armor.

[random51]

I never bring an anvil.  Other than trying to make the game more difficult I have yet to see a valid reason other than personal preference for bringing one.

When the most effective weapon in the game is a crossbow, which can made without an anvil, the "I need weapons early on, just in case" argument falls to pieces. When you can stick the dwarf with the crossbow behind a fortification 1 z-level higher than your entrance, the "I need metal armor" argument falls to pieces.

When you can 100% avoid fey moods that require an anvil until you procure one, the fey mood argument falls to pieces.

Those 1000 points can be spent so much better elsewhere, bringing items you can't easily get from trading your first year. Some things to spend those 1000 points on:

Muskox - a herd of muskox will produce a lot of meat, leather, and bone(ammunition!). Dump the first pair into a 1 cell pit and forget about them for awhile until the herd builds up.  Has anybody ever found a breeding pair of muskox at the trade depot? I never have.

Wood - Lots and lots of wood. Being able to make barrels, beds, and bins whenever you need them early on makes fortress management much easier. 1000 points will buy 333 logs. How many seasons would it take you to get 333 logs from trading?

Leather -  20+ leather gives you enough bags for initial seed, dye, and leaf production until you can you get your pig tail cloth bag production line rolling.

Training - More points for training is always nice.

Dogs - Being able to bring 4 or more dogs instead of just 2 helps you get your invisible enemy detection force up to speed that much quicker.

Stone - Bring enough stone along for your initial surface buildings, including trade depot, walls, bridges, mechanisms, etc. This saves a lot of time and allows you to get an easily defended trade depot operational in the first season---before any invaders arrive. A rectangular curtain wall containing your wagon and a trade depot with a drawbridge controlling access to one side of it is pretty good early defense. Put a dogleg in it to prevent enemy missile fire from coming in.

So yeah, I find it impossible to make a case for bringing an anvil along that doesn't hinge entirely upon personal preference.

[Lancensis]

What isn't personal preference in DF?
I like metalworking, mining and watching goblins get kicked across the map. If we're talking about trying to get the quickest start to our goals, that's what makes sense for me, personally. Embarking with a load of stuff I'd rather forget about and just trade for is not a particularly good decision from my perspective, is it?

On the other hand, if you want a wider range of industries sooner, you can ditch the anvil and bring more food and leather and so on. Perhaps you will experience faster growth, perhaps not. I suppose the most rapid way of gaining wealth would be to mine out a load of valuable ore and use it for mechanisms, but I think that's something of an exploit, myself.

[Sutremaine]

I'm interested in the mod that makes layer stone worthless without polishing.

I'm more interested in why you'd polish something that you're going to carve up anyway. 

[kotekzot]

I'm too tight to buy a steel axe, so I just take some copper and an anvil. Wagon wood burns surprisingly well. I suppose another unit of copper would get me a pick as well, but those are cheap enough anyway. Bringing more food just means more things to haul, so the anvil is an obvious choice for me, unless I know food is going to be scarce.