Hey cool I've kinda already did this. I leave no man, woman, or child behind.
I kinda treat my fort like a military outpost; The civilians are there to support the military and nothing else. Of the ~200 dwarves, 75 are soldiers, while the remaining are broken into miners and masons, woodworkers, metalworkers, a few engineers, and planters. The only craftsdwarves are either new to the fort or mooded into a legendary skill
The queen watches the battle from the battlements of the watchtower but is occasionally known to descend into combat with her husband as well as her honor guard fighting beside her, while the Count leads the charge against our enemies. He is also our most badass soldier, with 110 kills in 8 years of being militia commander.
We have only lost a few in our many years of fighting, not counting the Great Rot that accounted for 40 dwarves, mostly children. New migrants with fighting skills are required to prove themselves in arena combat against captured goblins and cave dwelling creatures using only equipment scrounged from the hundreds of dead foes strewn across the mountain, before they are recruited into the true army and issued their steel armor. Anyone with archery and hunting experience is recruited into the Rangers, an elite group of marksdwarves who keep the number of wild animals low, as well as maintain positions in the guard tower to protect the innocent workers out in the field.
One thing I don't like about this setup is my men cut through EVERYTHING; goblins, FBs, Titans (although I have yet to get a dragon of bronze colossus). What I really want are some steel equipped gobbos. Is there any way to do that without having to regen the world? I heard that letting thieves steal valuable stuff will lead to them upgrading their equipment. I want my doctors to treat some wounds that aren't a result of my arena or accidents.
Yes I've breached HFS, but the FPS got too bad for me to work with properly so I reloaded the save. I won, in case you were wondering. With only 3 casualties too. Granted, that was before Toady made the game more FPS-friendly, so I think I'll give it another shot