How do I go about setting up a food fortress for export? Lots and lots of farmers? Where do the barrels come from? How do you get the dwarves to send you steel? Do you then melt it, or hope that you get complete armor sets?
I usually go straight for steel production (usually I have my first steel bars before I have my first bed or my first dining room), but arguably hundreds of pieces of (high quality) armor results in a lot of created wealth.
Barrels can usually be gotten by buying all the cheap and crappy food in the beginning, but you don't want barrels if you are exporting roasts. I only farm a little for helmets and later flour; roast ingredients are best gotten from butchery or importation. Some players might consider this playstyle a little exploitative though, for the flavor reason that the roasts should not keep long enough to be valuable.
I usually embark with some metal and turn that into armor, and then initially use home-forged bronze and imported steel. In my last game, I began forging my own steel equipment at 45 population. In the beginning, I try to focus on increasing the skills of my soldiers first; in all my tests, skill and weapon choice were very significant factors in determining the victor; dabbling swordsmen don't cut it against armored foes. Also, you need a ton of positioning skill to deal with archers, or else use your own. Good marksdwarves really even the odds, though the ammo is expensive.
However, I wouldn't say that my strategy is necessarily the best in the long run. I haven't played the latest version until giants yet.
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Version 0.03:
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=2863 (same link as in op)
The earlier enemies are now generally restricted from coming in the winter, and many also do not come at other times of the year. I made the progress trigger requirements for some later civs even higher. I've nerfed frogs a little in the latest version to use wooden weapons as well. I'm not sure if this was the best idea, since in theory if the early player can survive their assault it's easy to melt down their weapons into raw materials.
These changes only take effect on a world regen.