01: Generally Speaking

I was going to put up my lists of skills and starting equipment here, but I think an explanation for why I would choose which should fall in another page.

Often when I play, I get afraid of goblins killing my soldiers and not having any more for the next siege. There's also the question of having dwarves doing various things and really, when one has over 150 dwarves, what is one supposed to do?

Well, here's my idea: cross-train as few dwarves as possible to do the most important jobs, efficiently. I aim for around 20 dwarves total, with allowance for another five. I call these dwarves "Citizens", and label their job as such using Dwarf Therapist. Everyone else will be drafted into the military, creating a huge stock of soldiers, and a few dwarves making high-quality goods.

What are the important jobs? Well, put simply, anything that must be done in a timely manner with highest quality, UNLESS in dangerous areas. Everything else, including dangerous area work, is done by soldiers. Working in a mason's workshop is important, but building walls is not; to reflect this, we allow only skilled laborers to work in the shops (any shop), but allow the soldiers to have the job of mason, so that walls may be built as quickly as we can define them, but only our Citizens get to make chairs and cabinets and such. The same goes for the mechanic skill: only specific dwarves are allowed to use the workshop.

This becomes a small problem when dealing with burrows, but it's completely worth it.

Animal handling, masonry, woodcutting, hunting/trapping, lye- and soap- and potash making, or any other jobs that needs to be done en masse and the quality or speed with which it is finished is irrelevant are done by the soldiers. But, really, all of that comes later, at Wave 3, when we go through The Sorting. Until then, just follow my guide as I unveil my strategy. Enjoy!