Dwarf Fortress: The Initial Party
Here is some thoughtful and detailed information on creating your initial party in Dwarf Fortress, sent in by Kent Peterson.What I've decided, after playing a few games, is that food is overrated in terms of your initial skill/supply loadout. Dwarves with high skill levels will make up for the smaller amount of food you take in the wagons. I think taking plenty of dwarven wine, a little food, and some highly, highly skilled dwarves is the best way to start. Like I've said previously, there are almost infinite strategic and tactical choices in the game, but the one common thread to all of the successful ones is that thinking is always rewarded.
[Of course, I wrote the preceeding paragraph before four dwarves STARVED TO DEATH yesterday in the first winter, but the initial supply loadout didn't cause that--my inattention did.]
Kent, in a much more eloquent and thorough way than I did, explains the "high skill" rationale below.
Anyway, here are Kent's thoughts:
One other comment I would make, after reading your earlier post on forming the party in more detail - I have found that specialization is really, really important. Higher skills mean the dwarves do jobs much faster, and those that produce things produce higher-quality materials, which (if sold) is worth more, and (if used by dwarves) makes them happier the higher quality it is.
I start at skill 10 ("proficient") for every single dwarf. My standard party (which is not necessarily the "best", but I have good reasons for it, which I'll explain) is:
miner 10
woodcutter 10
carpenter 10
mason 10
mechanic 10
stonecrafter 10
engraver 10
No other skills. I get the money for it all by selling the spare pick and axe. The engraver is optional; you could replace him with a second miner or a fisher or something (if a miner, you'd have to skip maxing skills on a few of them to pay for his pick).
The main thing I look for is ways to get dwarves to work their way up to legendary ASAP. Dwarves who are at legendary don't get taken by the various moods, which means, as long as you don't do anything stupid with them, they're around whenever you need them. (Dwarves who get to legendary via moods then carry their artifact around all the time, which may make them good at crafting but prevents them from using a hand while fighting, so I tend to leave them as crafters.) Dwarves who are at legendary also have SUPERB stats. Dwarves with good stats are what you want in your military, they're far more effective than raw recruits - and if you need their craft skills, you can always demobilize them temporarily. Usually though I have plenty of others who can fill in. Anyway, miners, woodchoppers, and engravers can get up to legendary by midwinter of the first year, if you turn off all their hauling jobs and focus them just on the work. (A miner starting at 10 can excavate all the space you need in that first year, particularly once he hits legendary, and you're very likely to get more the following spring).
Carpenters and masons are a bit harder to get up there - they depend on having raw materials, which may or may not be readily available that first year - but still doable. I do make a point of always splitting woodcutting off from carpentry; a dwarf can do one or the other but not both; I don't want either one trekking back and forth from the work area all the time. Crafters have an extra reason for wanting high stats; a stonecrafter with high stats will just churn through your stone stockpiles (I have them mainly make light/dark stone items, as that's worth more than plain rock) and the higher-quality items will let you buy a LOT more from the traders. Once you start getting big human caravans coming in via the road, with large (and expensive) cargos of whatever you asked for last time, this is a major factor.
Mechanics are probably the most important of all to start at high stats. A novice mechanic takes FOR FREAKING EVER to build or arm a trap, or connect mechanisms. You want at least one guy who can do it in decent time. And having them on "craft mechanism" set to repeat is also a good way to use up spare rock while training them up (both high-skill and novices).
If there's a job I need a dwarf to do outside of these, during the first year, I'll turn on the job for whoever's free, get it done, then turn it off again. Some (like building design) get left on, because they're only intermittently used. Once I get more immigrants, I start specializing further, trying to have at least one dwarf specialized in doing each particular major type of job (except for farming, where all the extras end up) and the guys who are good at things don't ever get assigned to anything else.
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