40d:Make your own weapons

Cheaper axes and/or picks, with a bit of work (and any other weapons you want)

Steel axes normally cost 300 points each. Instead of spending that much on them, you can make yourself iron or copper axes by bringing the resources needed instead, and having one dwarf make them for you. For comparison, you could bring 1 anvil and 2 steel axes for 1600 points. You could bring no anvil and 5 steel axes for 1500 points. Or, you could bring enough resources to make 18 iron axes for 1489 points, or 55 copper axes for 1498 points.

Replace the axes and anvil with:

• 1 Anvil (1000 points) (I'm only mentioning it here because you CANNOT do this without it, unless you're willing to not have axes until traders sell you an anvil)
• You need to bring three fire-safe stones in order to construct the necessary buildings. (9 points)
• 2 tower-cap logs (3 points each, total 6 points)
• N magnetite/limonite/hematite stones (for iron, 24 points each)
• For additional amounts of jewelry, bring 1 cassiterite and 1 copper ore, which combine to make 2 bronze bars. This is better than copper and takes no additional time. (6 points each)
• To save even more points you can skip the ores altogether if you are travelling to an area likely to have exposed magnetite veins.
• N-1 bituminous coal (3 points each)

To make your axes/picks/whatever: You'll want to build a wood burner, a smelter, and a metalsmith's forge. Burn both logs in the wood burner to get two charcoal. Smelt the coke in the smelter. Each will produce a net gain of 2 fuel (that is, coke/charcoal). Then smelt the magnetite/hematite/limonite, which will use one fuel per piece of ore. Finally you can make iron axes in the metalsmith's forge, using one iron bar and one fuel each. (See http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=11&t=001191 for more detail)