So you have your tools, your shelter, your torches and you have enough food that you have free time.
Naturally your mind will turn either to magic or technology.
The lower tiers of the magical mods have not been changed by this pack, but some of the lower tier technologies have been tweaked.

HOW DO I GET THE MOST OUT OF MY ORES?

So you have some ore, but with out tinkers construct how do you double it?
Make a Magneticraft 'crushing table' and a 'stone hammer'. Look at the table while holding the hammer and hold right click. Any items either on the table on in your inventory (that can be crushed on the table) will be crushed.
The advantage of this system is that it is cheap in terms of resources, the disadvantage of this system is that it takes time and is not automatable.
The ore chunk that you create on the table can then be cooked in a normal furnace and will return two of the associated ore per smelt.

WHAT NEXT?

Now you can double your ores, you might want to consider making better ores, like steel.
Steel is more durable the iron but not as enchantable. Steel is also a rather common metal in industry. So how do you make it?
The first method of steel making that you can access is the railcraft blast furnace.
You will need 34 'blast furnace bricks'. The multiblock is a hollow 3x4x3.
Note that you should not attempt to build two furnaces touching each other as the multiblock will not form.
PRO TIP: Do not form the multiblock while inside of the furnace, as it WILL kill you.
The blast furnace requires iron ingots and (default) charcoal or coke coal as fuel and will not accept other substances.

SO I HAVE STEEL. WHAT NOW?

You may have noticed that your steel is taking a rather long time to cook, so while we are waiting, lets set up a bloomery.
Wrought iron is kind of like a crappy steel, but its cheap and fast to make, and useful in construction of basic machines. It also looks rather nice.
A bloom cooks iron with sand, using (default) charcoal as fuel and make wrought iron.
Wrought iron can be uses as an iron substitute (and steel in some cases) and can be used to make an alloyer and the most basic machine frames.

THE NEXT STEP.

So you have a crushing table, a bloom, a blast furnace and an alloyer. Your tier one workshop only needs one more machine, the 'quartz grindstone'.
The quartz grindstone will allow you to grind ingots down in to dust, which you can then combine in an alloyer to make all kind of fancy metals. Specifically bronze.
Bronze has many uses in tools and armour making. It is needed for a number of machine components including the first 'sturdy casing'.

COKE-a-COAL-a?
Coke coal is like normal coal only better. When coal is starved of oxygen while cooking, it becomes a much more efficient fuel.
A lump of coke coal will last twice as long as a lump of normal coal and has the advantage of making creosote oil as a bi-product during production.
Creosote oil, is useful as a fuel in and of itself but it can also be used in the production of a durable (and pretty) treated timber and torches to help light up your world.

GEARING UP.
You may have noticed that some machines require gears and most of those gears can be made in a normal crafting grid.
You will have to build metal press from the 'immersive engineering' mod in order to manufacture gears.
I highly recommend making yourself a copy of the 'engineer's manual'. The manual contains all of the information that you need to construct a metal press and set it on its merry way producing gears for you and your friends. It will also provide insight in to the many amazing wonders that engineering has to offer you.
Memorise this book as quickly as you are able, there will be a test.
