So I picked a terrifying/untamed wilds embark, and brought along a couple of teacher dwarfs to start my military. As soon as I unpause, a pair of harpies attack. 2 unarmed, unarmored dwarfs and 5 dogs made slow work of the harpies, and the non-commander got a vicious
red wound on the upper arm, with
sensory and motor nerve damage. Quickly built a hospital (a bed in the middle of the hall, and no medical skills), and Urist McWounded was nowhere to be found. Zoom to him, and he's chopping down trees while faint and unhappy (blood loss, no weapon skill, no civilian skill, so he's "complained about the draft", "complained about relieved from duty", and "suffered a serious injury" with no happy thoughts to balance it). His wound eventually healed, leaving a "large, jagged scar". He still has nerve damage, though, and his "ability to grasp is somewhat impaired". This hasn't stopped him from being the first to charge into a fight, and he hasn't had any trouble since that first battle.
When summer rolled around, Urist McOnlyAFleshWound had killed a total of 6 harpies and 2 ogres, with no additional wounds. Unfortunately he was a little slow chasing the badgers, so the militia commander got all eight of them. We've gone from no weapons/armor to a mix of bronze and bone armor, and +bronze battle axes+. As soon as the magma forges are online, we'll upgrade to steel, and mix in 6-8 migrants who have dabbling or better military skills. I think they'll go well with the Stray Giant Badgers guarding the entrances from thieves.
Looking forward to fighting goblins, whenever they get off their lazy butts and decide to start ambushing (currently Autumn of year 2).
JMZ