Hey all! I'm new to DF 2010 and watched captn ducks videos and looked at the 2010 wiki. I've seen advice on starting in the 40d version but with the new features of 2010, what starting builds do you all use? I tried doing a search for starting builds 2010 but didn't come up with much.
So what skills did u assign to each dwarf and what gear and how much of it did u take on embark?
Thanks!
The wiki has a pretty good page on 2010 starting builds:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Starting_build Everyone is different, with their own play styles, so "it depends". Here's my last starting build, for a terrifying glacier/untamed tundra biome, where I wanted to hunker down and survive by trading bone and gems. If you're just starting out, stone crafts are easier, but seem a bit
too easy after a while
- Carpenter-5 / Leader-1 / Appraiser-1 / Judge of Intent-1 / Consoler-1 / Architect-1. Not many wooden goods get made, so the leader is available for building design and meeting caravans.
- Miner-5 / Armorsmith-5. By the time I need to start cranking out armor, this guy is near-legendary and I can recruit new migrants as miners.
- Miner-5 / Weaponsmith-5. Ditto.
- Mason-5 / Diagnostician-1 / Wound Dresser-1 / Suturer-1 / Bone Setter-1 / Butcher-1. Generally very busy making stone stuff, but on call for injuries early in the fort's existence. I threw in "Butcher" just to scare the other dwarves about his skills
- Grower-5 / Bone Carver-5. Gets lots of crops per seed, and carves skeletal elk bone in his spare time.
- Brewer-2 / Woodcutter-1 / Axeman-1 / Fighter-1 / Gem Cutter-5. Early militia captain, then transfers to brewing (slowly) and cutting gems (high skill gets you better quality). He's also cut a few trees that grow underground.
- Cook-3 / Axeman-1 / Fighter-1 / Metalsmith-4 / Mechanic-1. Backup militia, then gradually builds up to a master chef. I didn't need many mechanisms, but he may be useful for metal goods later.
The rather odd skill arrangement gives everyone a moodable skill, and stops any one dwarf from being overloaded at the start. Later you won't care so much with more migrants coming in. If you're just starting, then cage traps may be the easiest defense, so you'd want to put more skill levels into the mechanic. Ditto for the woodcutter if you're anywhere with lots of trees. Try to keep the armorsmith and weaponsmith, since you rarely get those skills in new migrants, and it's a pain to have to train them up. You can sacrifice brew skills since that only affects speed, and the cook if you don't care about making amazing meals.
I took 21 of each booze, one of every unique 2-point meat, a cat, four dogs (1 male + 3 females), three ropes (for two dogs + well), ~20 logs, a little thread and cloth for early injuries (you can save a lot of money by ditching the expensive pig-tail fiber thread/rope/cloth and replace with cheap cave-silk stuff), 10 of every seed, and a bunch of plump helmets (maybe 20? I forget what the math works out to). As soon as I set up I got a water source as my first priority and irrigated a farm. Meanwhile my cook converted all the meat into lavish meals to free up barrels. Then I brewed the plump helmets into more booze before the dwarves could eat them all.
This mix worked well for me. In particular, the dogs were useful distractions for skeletal wildlife while I was struggling to get underground, and having two fighters was crucial for killing anything that got through (if one dwarf goes down the other one can often save it). And the doctor knew just enough to treat their injuries. Everyone survived and is now thriving two years in.