Lesson Four - Preparing For The Journey

Lesson Four - Preparing For The Journey

By now you have created a new map and located a suitable site to embark on your epic journey. The next step is to pick the skills and items that you wish to start with. 

• You will now be at the screen that allows you to prepare for your journey!

•  Select the LAZY NEWB PACK option and press ENTER. 
• NOTE: This screen is basically allowing you to select from some pre determined embark options (what skills your swarves have, what items you will start with and what animals you take with you). You can set this all up manually in the following screens but this is much easier. 
• Sometimes you will receive an error stating that certain items could not be created at your new embark site and therefore you cannot start with those items. Its usually a good idea to check the list and make sure it doesn't list your picks. You don't want to start without picks!
• You can see here there's now willow where I have embarked so any items made out of willow are not available. If you were unable to start with a pick you should go back and select a new site. 
• Press 'ESC' to confirm and move to the next screen if you get one of these errors. 

• This next screen shows you the Dwarves you are taking with you and their relevant skills. 
• The list in the Red square is your dwarves. You can press the UP and DOWN arrow keys to move between the individual dwarves. 
• The list in the Orange square is the skills selected for the highlighted dwarf. These will be pre selected using the pre determined options that you selected above. 
• All options selected here use up points as a form of currency. Each embark is limited to a pre determined number of points. The points are highlighted in Purple. 

• From this screen press Tab to access the items menu. 
• This screen displays all of the items and animals that you are embarking with. 
• The LEFT menu is what ITEMS you have selected to embark with. 
• The RIGHT menu is what ANIMALS you have selected to embark with. 

• LEFT and RIGHT arrow moves from left menu to right menu. 
• UP and DOWN arrows move up and down each menu.
• + increases your selection by 1. 
• - decreases your selection by 1.
• n is used to open the new item menu. This allows you to select an items to add to the right hand list. 
• This is where you want to make a few modifications. I always take the following:
• Dogs (1x Male and 1x Female) - Can be trained as pets, war dogs and hunting dogs.
• Cats (1x Male and 1x Female) - Will kill vermin from your fortress and help keeps the dwarves happy. 
• Chickens (1x Hen and 1x Rooster) - Unlimited supply of eggs!
• Picks - take at least 2! These are required to dig!
• Battle Axe - take at least 1! There are required to chop down trees!
• Anvil - this is required for later in the game but its handy to have from embark. You use these to make metal objects such as weapons and armour. 
• Seeds - Plump Helmets can be eaten and brewed!
• Alcohol - Dwarves are alcoholic!
• Food - Enough to stop you starving!
• Note: Your pre embark selection will usually have already picked up everything you need except some animals.

• You are now ready to Embark! Press 'e' to begin!