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[overlordFT]

Hey, I'm looking for some advice for defending my fortress and building an army.
Usually, I pick through the new settlers and draft them as axeman(I used to try getting them to train as wrestlers to build up pre-axe skills, but I couldn't switch to axe training when the time came.), after this, they are sent to Wacky Willy's training camp for dwarves. Upon where they recklessly hack each other with axe without any supervision or safety measures. Now, I also keep an emergency marksman division, should they move towards the fortress. I had a main entrance with a moat. Between the mote and the door(This is all inside a mountain) there is a long hallway. The walls of the hallway are fortification which i planned so that there would be an ammo room every few forts. The plan in the event of an attack is to leave some poor patsy in clear range, let the goblins in, lock the door, ad let loose. I had marksman and a small hit squad of axemen. We seemed perfectly capable of defending ourselves.

Then, an ambush occurred, one of our marksman was gunned down mercilessly by goblin bowmen. He fought bravely and was given a tomb worthy of the great dwarves of old! After this, we readied our defenses. And this is when things really got bad. Only 3 marksmen showed up at the gates. The rest where asleep, training, eating, drinking or just being lazy bastards. Half of the fortress suddenly decided it would be good for an ol' larf to walk into a goblin ambush to pick up clothes. So my attention was divided in getting the marksmen ready, moving the axemen out, and keep the civilians in. meanwhile the goblins were gunning down some of the civilians that made it to the dead dwarf. Our axemen attacked and cut down some goblins, but 4 PROFICIENT axemen died in the battle before the goblins were chased away. This was a disaster. The whole situation of trying to organise the civilians while getting the lazy markmen up off their arses and to battle stations really pissed me off. We lost quite a few valuable members of the fortress including a founder who was our main smith.

Do you guys have any advice and making better military and defense? Our whole trade plan was just thrown into jeopardy after the death of some of our main craftsmen and i quit the fortress. I've just started a new one, which can be found here:

[Foxbyte]

Put your main barracks right beside the front gate, with -everything- the soldiers need. Ammunition, food, booze, a water source. Everything.

Also, crossbows are best behind fortifications.

There's no way to stop them from drinking or eating, but they won't train if the squad they're in is currently On Duty. You can change this from the (M)ilitary window. You can also make squads with leaders (But be warned! For if the leader is drinking, his entire squad will follow close behind) for easier management.

[loopoo]

I don't know if you're playing 2D or what, but your setup is bad...First of all, you should train em to at least Proficient (more if you have the time) Wrestlers, then kit em out in Armor, Copper is adequate, but Iron is better. Then, give em their weapons and let em train. Give em Shields as soon as you draft em. This makes em damn good shield users by the time they get their weapons. Same goes for armor, if you can, cause it'll make em good armor users too.

Why don't you use orders? You could have pressed o, then i, to make only soldiers allowed outside. Also, when a siege arrives, make it so in the orders menu that dwarves don't pick up death items...

Lastly, build walls OUTSIDE of the fort. This way you can make em bigger, higher and better. So that means you can have a 4-5 z level marksdwarf tower which provides a great defense boost for stationed marksdwarves in it, just channel a 1 tile wide ditch for every z level you go up, so they can shoot fine.

Also, handy tip, don't make moats, they suck in my opinion. Moats are basically the same as ditches (dry channels, nothing in em). Moats < Channels. Channels allow you to loot items, such as iron, which can then be melted to make more iron.

Good luck Train your guys up in Wrestling, it gives good attribute bonuses. Try and kit out ALL your guys in armor, even Marksdwarves. Its better than having em dead. For hunter squads, who chase down retreaters, give them light leather, but either way, a guy in iron still runs damn fast

[Stargrasper]

First, if you're going to use images(especially large numbers of large images), put them in spoiler tags.  I assure you somebody around here is still using a 56k modem.  That and it looks cluttered and just makes users inclined not to bother reading the post in the first place...kindof like I did until I saw you edited the post, indicating you might actually be paying attention.

Second, actually train your guys as wrestlers.  The wrestler skills are nice and it tends to train attributes as well.  You want tough dwarves.  Read the wiki on cross training, also.

Another thought is switching from axedwarves to hammerdwarves.  They're seemingly more destructive and tend to knock enemies away from them, helpful when one is being assaulted by five goblins at once.  Also handy in that if your marksdwarves run out of ammo or get to close to the enemy, they switch to melee.  In melee, markdwarves use the hammer skill as they thwack enemies with their xbows.

As to design and tactics, I'm not the best at explaining these, so I think it's just better if you read the wiki and wait for further posts from others.

[loopoo]

Another thought is switching from axedwarves to hammerdwarves.  They're seemingly more destructive and tend to knock enemies away from them, helpful when one is being assaulted by five goblins at once.  Also handy in that if your marksdwarves run out of ammo or get to close to the enemy, they switch to melee.  In melee, markdwarves use the hammer skill as they thwack enemies with their xbows.

Good advice. Train Marksdwarves in the Hammer skill AFTER they're Proficient (or higher) in Crossbows. Also, most of the questions you are asking only come from experience. I kid you not when I say that I have had about 30 Forts, from start to finish, and only 3-4 of those have been ones that have lasted more than 2-3 years...

DF is all about losing, and you don't learn as much until you go and try yourself. If you mess up, don't worry, revert to an old save and try again. You'll get the hang of it sooner or later...More sooner than later actually.

[LegacyCWAL]

I don't think this has been mentioned yet:  if a squad leader is off doing something when his squad is needed, you can promote somebody else in his place if you have somebody who's the same rank as the leader.  Make sure nobody is left directly under the old squad leader.

[Xinael]

I train my military as pumpers first for at least a few attributes, and then have them wrestle with armour and a shield until at least legendary wrestling. Then hammers at least a bit, then split off the marksdwarves and train them up in that.

Also, I have a pre- and post-siege checklist I borrowed from another user on the wiki that you might get some use out of.

[LegacyCWAL]

That list works, but there's a lot of redundancy.  I would modify that list to:

Pre-siege:

*Mass-forbid all traps
---This takes care of three or four of his steps
*Mass-forbid everything outside
*Turn on all Forbid orders
---This takes care of three of his steps
*Mass-cancel outdoor designations (e.g. tree cutting)
*Suspend outdoor construction
---There shouldn't be that much of either of these going on in vulnerable areas anyways, and between this and the previous set, the only civilians that will be going outside are hunters and maybe fishers
*If you have a lever room, lock somebody in there
---Self-explanitory


Post-siege:

*Ensure that enemies have left the map.
---Duh
*Unlock the lever room
---Unless you want your lever-puller to starve
*Bring some or all squads off-duty.
---Self-explanitory
*Reset forbid orders
---Also self-explanatory
*Mass-reclaim traps
---This takes care of at least three of his steps, since it will also reclaim all the trap-cages
*Mass-mark gear for melting
*Unmark-for-melting your gear and trap components
*Reclaim anything you want to bring inside (e.g. bodies, gear, wood, etc.)
---This step brings together several of his steps, making it easier to remember


These two lists cuts a good nine or ten steps out while having the exact same end effect.