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I second the recommendation for playing the steam version, mostly for the graphics, it makes the game easier to digest.

I like a few mods but there's really not any "necessary" mods. The biggest tool is DFHack, which can help you do some crazy cool things, but its by no means necessary, especially as a new player.

TIPS! spend some time in the first season getting a farm set up. Farms don't need to be too big, in fact if you make them huge you can run into a problem of every dwarf planting seeds constantly and nothing getting done. A couple plots with 9-10 tiles should be fine. A team of 7 dwarves drinks about 45 units of booze a season, to give you a rough idea of what you need.

Go into the labors menu, find the kitchen tab and designate all of your drinks as non-cookable. Dwarves can and will make roasts out of Just Wine if you let them ( ), this'll stop you from having an angry sober mob on your hands.

It's a good idea to have some sort of entrance that you can block off from the outside world. You can get some nasty visitors walking into your map unexpectedly, so you should be prepared. I like a bridge attached to a lever located somewhere well trafficked, like a panic button.

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My favorite color is purple