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[GC1CEO]

With my most successful fort to date I tried one new strategy and that was developing a smaller temporary fort and then eventually after about 1-2 years of developing industries and getting the community up and running I started work on the real fortress and didn't move in my dwarves until the basics were complete. Anybody else tried this successfully?

Mind you, a few things..

I'm not in the most dangerous of areas, I have lived through about 4-5 ambushes (4-12 goblins), 1 siege and 1 giant (in the span of about 4 years now).

[wuphonsreach]

My temporary fort is that 30x30 or 40x40 section of the surface that I've surrounded with ditches / walls to protect as I start to dig downward.

[ahonek]

Anybody else tried this successfully?

I do this almost every time.

[TigerPlushie]

I did that only once when my delightfully smart dwarves decided the best place to park the wagon was a BIG DAMN FROZEN RIVER!

Other than that, I just embark with three miners and get crackin right away. Them dwarves can sleep by the wagon in the dirt for 18 months for all I care -3-

[j0nas]

I do this, but I tend to go all RP and set up a temporary above-ground built stone barracks for my dwarves to live at..which inevitably evolves into a taller and taller tower as more and more immigrants arrive and I need more and more facilities.  The fact that my 'real fortress' tends to involve a megaproject akin to a full obsidian cast from the magma layer to and above the surface before I can even start digging out the rooms, plus the fact that I don't want any abandoned tunnels or rooms in the dirt/rock around the finished megaproject usually means that my dwarves live in these barracks until a new version is released/a band of invaders slaughter everyone/I find some bug that causes me to stop playing again.

[Psieye]

Yes, except 'temporary' means 4 tables&chairs and 7 beds in a hastily dug out soil hole for me with the first workshops built on the surface (2 seconds after embark as I bring exotic stone). I move into my main fort around first autumn.

[Lord Vetinari]

Never done that way (I mean, abandon the first settlement). However, I usually start in the same location where I want the fort with rather plain and small barracks, storage areas and dining room right at the entrance, and then redevelop the area later. The initial "fort" becomes a single large entrance hallway to the actual final fort as soon as the proper rooms for every activity are finished.

[Nameless Archon]

I dig out a large layer in the soil that will eventually become farms. Stockpiles can be moved into this area, and temporary arrangements could be set up if need be. However, I usually just keep excavating, and build stockpiles further down, then seal over the stairs down and use a second entrance that incorporates a spiral ramp and walkway of death for entry/exit purposes once the embark equipment is stocked away.

[Ze Spy]

My Temp forts are mostly for disposing of the Immigrants that just had to arrive so goddamn early, but yeah, it does work, just watch out for wildlife

[GotIt_00]

Instead of setting up a temporary site on the surface, I dig a central stair down until I hit a rock layer I wanna carve out. I dig a great big square (maybe 30x30), and everyone lives, works, and farms in that square. It's all jumbled up and cramped full of stuff, but it allows my miners to dig big projects like individual rooms and magma-level workshops.

[Mushroo]

Yup, I do this too. "Base camp" the first year with a communal bunk room, plump helmet farm, and a few necessary workshops. Once I've dug separate areas for proper industry, individual bedrooms, legendary dining hall, etc. the original base camp becomes a "welcome center" for new immigrants.

[bucket]

I tend to do this lately.
Basically I hollow out two rooms and an office. These become my dorm, dining/meeting hall and bookkeeping office. Then I start to work on my main structure, which may be above or below ground or both. When I have workshops, stockpiles, bedrooms and a grand dining hall put together, my beginning rooms then become barracks for the military.

I also designate a space behind the barracks for deep digging - so if anything undesirable comes up from the caverns, they'll have to go through my military first.

[Mushroo]

Lately I've been experimenting with some volcano embarks. Usually the volcano opening is far above other useful resources like trees, water, soil, etc. So I build a base camp at the base of the volcano near the river, and use that for the first several seasons. Once skilled armorers/metalcrafters/etc. begin to arrive through immigration, then I start to construct a 2nd, main fort on the volcano.

[Sutremaine]

I either dig rooms out of a hill and collapse it later (no sign it was ever there!), or dig a main corridor down and have dwarves live in that for a while. I don't like having the temporary fortress still hanging around, but building above ground is too much trouble for something temporary and you have to get the materials from somewhere anyway.

[gtmattz]

I like to build my forts on completely flat embarks, with 99% of the fort mined out of rock.  The first 'fort' is invariably a 31x31 room dug out of the bottommost soil layer, centered on my 3x3 central staircase.  I set up temporary stockpiles around the room with workshops toward the middle, and once I have built some defensive walls up top I start expanding my fort from there.