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[thegoatgod_pan]

You do NOT need stone or wood for an above ground fort.  Clay does it all--fire clay will let you run a goblinite industry--you will need herds and bone carvers for ammunition and trade, get into beekeeping, get into eggs and cooking.

[Kaleb702 Games]

In my experience, digging is 80% faster than building.
And this is with an untrained digger, and a trained carpenter.
And they both slept during most of the work. Still, it took an entire season for one tiny building, but the larger storage area was dug out in a matter of minutes.

* For aboveground farming, you can't go wrong with animal husbandry: bring breeding pairs of sheep, goats, llamas and alpacas with extras for eating in the short-term, and you will have PLENTY of meat.  Then you just need plants for booze.  (Remember to pasture properly!)

Bring egg-layers too. They're all fairly inexpensive, and the (large-ish number of) eggs can be cooked for a renewable food supply. They're probably more cost-efficient for food than larger animals, although bone carvers will probably be wanting for work.

Let the eggs hatch, then butcher the chicks!

[Urist Imiknorris]

That just makes for a skullfest. No useful stuff at all.

[Kaleb702 Games]

Eh, at least you get totem poles, and they get to be kept busy instead of just sitting there, making friends, the first step of a tantrum spiral.

[Buttery_Mess]

Carnivores and birds are the best cattle animals since they don't require feeding. Birds are ridiculously simple to breed. My main 'cattle' animal in my current fort is... dogs.

[MarcAFK]

In my experience, digging is 80% faster than building.

I'm sure you mean 4 times faster or something, but anyway, building is MUCH slower than digging since for one useable square aboveground you need to build several times, walls, floors, ceiling , it's more efficient when you build more but it's still pretty bad, also you need to dig the stone up as well....
But aboveground is generally more impressive with visualisers, but i've been meaning to try a system where i dig out an aboveground fort.Basically dig out the rooms then channel down spaces between them as the fort grows, making a aboveground city.... only below ground level, Maybe leaving a roof over the top to keep out pesky elves and shit....

[kenpoaj]

I know some people will disapprove of shameless cheating, but it works sometimes.

DISCLAIMER: Cheating can make the game boring. Attempt at your own risk!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You can use df hack's dfliquids to assist an above ground fort. Use it to cast obsidian (clear the trees in the area, then lay down a 1 deep magma with a 1 deep water on the z level above. sometimes you need to explore the sky level to cause dfliquids to recognize it, which can be done by building a staircase up to that level with the wood you just cut down)

Cast obsidian makes for quick walls/buildings and can be smoothed and engraved, and if you build a constructed wall on top of it then remove the constructed wall, it becomes soil which can be used for safe farming on the top of your wall/village/whatever.

[MarcAFK]

I used a macro utility to DFhack walls in large rows, basically i would hit capslock to activate the macro, then hold an arrow key followed by a number, the macro would plop down magma then water in the direction i wanted for the desired number of spaces, unpause, run the game till it casts, then pause again.
I had another one that just painted using dfhacks obsidian spawner, but there's something funky with it, it lacks the same floors/cealings or something that real stone has.
Then i had one that painted a square of desired size, returned to the start position and jumped up a level, just hit the trigger key once per desired zlevel....... I tweaked it slightly so it would paint what i wanted while i was away doing stuff, one tower ran by itself for 20 mins while being made..... I eventually abandoned the fort because or boredom, and sicne it was somewhat cheaty i never did it again.

[Neyvn]

Tip ONE - Take with you around 50 or more Wood (or Stone) - This will be your First wall...
Tip TWO - Bring 3 Stone - This will be your Gate switch, Three Mechanisms...
Tip THREE - Turn two of your folks into Plant Gatherers, collect around the wagon first and foremost. Woodcutters too.
Tip FOUR - Anyone that isn't Gathering plants or wood should be Building your safety wall...
Tip FIVE - Always build a basic Shelter, build a couple of beds and make sure you have at least 1/2pop/bed number...
Tip SIX - When building your Farm, channel at some open ground to give yourself some empty Soil, this will prevent Shrubs/Boulder/Pebbles from getting in the way...

[NRDL]

I must really sound like a huge newb ( which I am ) but how do you make walls.  Through designations, as buildings, what? 

[alesia]

Try b-C-w.

[ETA] You are quite correct, my bad! Eggs are the most efficient source of food in the beginning (once cooked), but I have a peculiar fondness for byproduct industries, and birds just don't have that much on them beyond leather and a skull.  Besides, the first time you get a moody dwarf wanting yarn, you'll be glad you brought that sheep/llama/alpaca.

[Neyvn]

Last I checked Eggs can also be eaten raw, plus its a great Trade source for the first year...

[Nil Eyeglazed]

Try b-C-w.

[ETA] You are quite correct, my bad! Eggs are the most efficient source of food in the beginning (once cooked), but I have a peculiar fondness for byproduct industries, and birds just don't have that much on them beyond leather and a skull.  Besides, the first time you get a moody dwarf wanting yarn, you'll be glad you brought that sheep/llama/alpaca.

You know, I just brought along geese on a whim, because bags cost, what, 6, and meat costs 2, and a goose costs 10?  I was always in the habit of bringing dogs instead of meat for exactly that reason.  So I figure for the cost of a butcher shop, tanner, and leatherworker (ie for 3 pieces of stone), I can have like 18 food for the cost of 2, and free bones to boot.  Not sure what else there is on an animal besides meat, leather, and bones.

Never did bother slaughtering them.  Built a nest box, because, hey, let's play with this, and I got a hell of a lot more than 18 food out of them.  Good value on the meals, too.

[Drawde]

A wall is good, but you can always dig out a ditch with a drawbridge.  Just remove all the ramps on the inside and with the bridge raised nothing can reach you.  Unless you're playing a mod it usually takes time for archers to show up.

[Crazy Cow]

Actually, carving your fort out of the ground is pretty cool. Channel out everything, leaving large blocks. Dig into these blocks to create buildings. It's also a lot less resource-intensive then the traditional build it from wood approach.