Embarked with 4 armor/shield users, an armor smith, a weapon smith, and a grower. I brought an anvil, a pittance of booze, just enough seeds to get started, no food, 2 dogs, 40 cassiterite, and copper nuggets.
Started by forging a bronze axe and a pick with the 3 wagon wood. Dug a farm, started the magma forge and smelter, and got the 4 recruits started with wrestling. I spent the next 2 seasons smelting bronze and making full suits of plate over chain armor. Then tragedy; before she finished an imp popped out of the magma channel, luckily the first fireball missed. The second fireball caused several injuries but then the wrestling squad showed up. Strangely, in about half a season she got up out of bed like nothing happened, all the injuries healed. Fastest I've ever seen a dwarf recover, ever. She was then able to finish the full suits of armor. The grower was struggling to keep us fed and inebriated during all this but got the job done. The elves came and I traded them a pittance of stone crafts for a little food, they didn't have much. When the recruits were legendary wrestlers I forged some bronze axes and they started training with those. Finally I mined out a nice stairway and narrow corridor bottleneck to ambush the orcs in the fortress and chained the 2 war dogs nearby.
Then at the start of winter the orcs came, right on schedule. There was a mauler, 7 carves, and 8 wrestlers. I ordered everyone inside and set the ambush. The poor bastards never saw it coming. The ambush room was covered in body parts and armor, the stairwell was soaked in blood. They never even made it to the dogs. There were no injuries. One dwarf had single-handedly massacred 10 of them without breaking a sweat and the other 3 killed the rest.
2 minutes later a training accident destroyed someones eye, ear, neck, and brain. He quickly suffocated to death in bed. Oh well.
I always wondered how you guys handled the first wave of orcs without secluding the fortress or stacking inaccessible crossbow dwarfs. Usually the sweep through my fortress like they're clearing it with mp5's. I feel like I've accomplished something. Next on my list is controlled forest fires - for science.