Man I am having a rough time, around 900 population with mostly dwarves and 100 or so humans for my lab, finding the tech system a bit all over the place but so far invested in some new services and tools for the important industries I have.

My idea was to go all in on metal production and I am getting the hang of that (Throw manpower at mines, research better refining and use tools on smithies) to make swords and tools to use for my army, industries and exports.
Food is an issue, I have two huge fisheries and that's it. I was buying in bread/meat/veggies/fruit to cover my needs but meat is too expensive so I cut that out, people are sad but I need to make money for my next big problem:

My city seems to be within in another region and I could only trade with that one city there so I assumed I was locked in, so I conquered him and gave him autonomy and that suddenly let me see the huge empire to my right but they won't trade agreement me until I have 1 million denarri
Further to the west there's more factions with a rebel faction between us, all are marked too distant for trade so I conquered the rebel faction and granted them autonomy, I can trade with them now which is good but I can't trade with people further afield.

Is my map generation just fucking bugged? I can't reliably sell anything without flooding the market instantly
Did I make a mistake by not trying to be self-sufficient? I can keep going the way things are but without increasing revenue I can't get more food stockpiled so I don't see how I will grow much passed 1k.
Thinking of just hitting 1k and restarting for the title bonuses I unlocked.

Very fun game, my favourite bit of Gaelic song is in there too