This last go around, I started with mindcrack 8. I wanted to play with bees, as I haven't done much along this line previously. I settled among 3 oil spawns in a meadows biome. I found a villager trading for melons, so I traded those right away. I stole some apiaries from a couple villages I found, and got started. I have gone spelunking and branch mining, but have so far only found 3 diamonds. one went to a beealyzer, another somewhere else important. can't remember. I can't get very far with rp2, as I need to make a diamond saw, so i went down the thaumcraft route, as you only need the aspects, and there are multiple sources for most items.
Since i have thaumcraft and melons, I have decided to run my base off of seed oil, as melons grow abundantly, a straw and wood golem will harvest everything nicely. (sengir nerfed milk in the biogas engine.) If I find more diamonds along the line, i will probably set up a refinery, but until then, it's melons for me.
p.s. I am using TE for ore processing and sand production as needed. I used the igneous extruder for making obsidian, as i have no easy way of harvesting it currently.