What starting skills do you use?

[Strifeboy]

I tend to go 3 miners with 1 being of some social mayor skills, 1 wood/carp, farmer/herb and brewer/cook. Honestly thinking about ditching the brewer cook for something else as i always get migrants before he is useful and can force them into those rolls.

[gemstone gynoid]

i make sure to separate the broker from the manager-bookkeeper. its convenient having all 3 noble jobs on one dwarf, but then when the caravans come around your broker is 100 layers down making sure the rocks are counted.
2 miners absolutely at the minimum. if youre somewhere dangerous having one of the dwarves be skilled in some military skills is definitely helpful.
ditch the brewer and herbologist skills. brewing doesnt get affected by higher skills. farmer is good because it does scale with skill, more plants per harvest. but plant gathering doesnt affect much.
carpentry is good because your starter beds and tables will be a bit nicer. but woodcutting you can just enable easily on anyone.

[Rose]

I always do "Play Now".
Always.

[Thumb]

Depends on where you start. If you go to a place without trees, there are obvious repercussions for how your starting line up will play out.

[UntrustedLife]

2 miners who are also stonecutters and masons, 1 butcher with various other skills, two woodcutters who also have skills in craftsdwarfness and carpentry, and two pure farmers with various misc skills (at least 1 needs archtictecture)

[Strifeboy]

Whats the best mayor skills?

[UntrustedLife]

Originally posted by Strifeboy:

Whats the best mayor skills?

With mayors i honestly dont think it matters much. Social skills i guess.

[Professional Elephant Fister]

I always embark with one military dwarf that knows tactics and discipline, as discipline reduces panic and general disgust over death, and tactics are essential for raids. A miner and a mechanic are also musts. Everything else is a wildcard for me.

[Admiral Obvious]

Miners are pretty much all I go for. Maybe a good cook and brewer for long term better quality food and drink for better mood, but other than that, that's about all I do, usually.

After that I try to get the basic craft skills dispersed around my starting seven, like woodcutting, and any other pertinent skill for the locality, like glazing if I've got clay.

[UntrustedLife]

Originally posted by PANTHERK:

I always embark with one military dwarf that knows tactics and discipline, as discipline reduces panic and general disgust over death, and tactics are essential for raids. A miner and a mechanic are also musts. Everything else is a wildcard for me.

I never thought of embarking with someone who is purely a millitary dwarf.

[Professional Elephant Fister]

Originally posted by UntrustedLife:

Originally posted by PANTHERK:

I always embark with one military dwarf that knows tactics and discipline, as discipline reduces panic and general disgust over death, and tactics are essential for raids. A miner and a mechanic are also musts. Everything else is a wildcard for me.

I never thought of embarking with someone who is purely a millitary dwarf.

It's a new tactic for me. I like raiding to create !!FUN!! for myself, and discipline helps slow the impending doom of the presently glitchy psychology system.

[UntrustedLife]

Originally posted by PANTHERK:

Originally posted by UntrustedLife:

I never thought of embarking with someone who is purely a millitary dwarf.

It's a new tactic for me. I like raiding to create !!FUN!! for myself, and discipline helps slow the impending doom of the presently glitchy psychology system.

I should try that.

[Proteus]

From my memory I had:
1 Recordkeeper
1 Dwarven Leader/Motivator
1 Smith (with all necessary skills for armor-/weaponsmithing and smelting)
1 Carpenter (Carpentry and felling trees)
1 Cook (Cooking at 4, Brewing at ~3 as well as 1-2 points in other cooking related skills
1 Farmer/Doc
1 Crafter (main skill stonecrafting, to produce precious stone trade goods, but also 1-2 points in bonecarving)

IIRC the Recordkeeper or leader would also get mining, but most of the miners would get their mining skill at work

I would also bring with me only 1 pickaxe, but also coal and raw copper (if available) and would then, as one of my first steps (after kitchen/brewery) built a furnace and smithy in order to produce pickaxes and an axe with the copper and coal I brought with me.
Is much cheaper than "buying" pickaxes/axes from the beginning on

[Admiral Obvious]

I suggest giving the expedition leader consoler or pacifier instead of motivator. Until your Fortress gets a mayor, they're the Dwarf that unhappy dwarves will complain to. Pacifier helps reduce the penalty of getting yelled at. Consoler helps against getting cried on.

[UntrustedLife]

Originally posted by Admiral Obvious:

I suggest giving the expedition leader consoler or pacifier instead of motivator. Until your Fortress gets a mayor, they're the Dwarf that unhappy dwarves will complain to. Pacifier helps reduce the penalty of getting yelled at. Consoler helps against getting cried on.

I didnt even realize that that actually had an effect. The more you know.

[Greenzx1x]

I hate to seem "not leet" enough, but the LAZY NEWB PACK has some pregenerated starts that will get you through most situations. Though you may have to adjust this. For instance, you don't want animals with you if you go to any evil biome. Some of those places reanimate body parts after you butcher them. I'm talking skins, claws, and heads all coming after you and being really hard to eliminate.