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[MAurelius]

So I have been reading about the two bugs where an elite military dwarf will lose elite status when they are off duty, and have to strike something (or shoot something) to get it back. I also heard about the bug where soldiers don't get good feelings from being on a break so if they say "are upset at long deployment" and you let them off for a year, when you reactivate them they will be "enraged", etc.

So dealing with the reality here, what's the best way to have a "stable" military? In older versions I would create squads of 10 and let three do whatever all the time, but now it seems best to keep them active all the time so they quickly become elite and then NEVER inactivate them so they don't lose the elite status. However, then it becomes a questions of can they reach elite before they become enraged (and murder some fools). It almost seems like a danger room is necessary to get them to elite fast enough.

Or are these two bugs fixed in the current version? I know for a fact my elite marksdwarves became un-elite when they took their break, and I had to have them shoot a bit to regain it, but I haven't myself tested the happiness bug (most of my guys are content, the yellow-whiteish one on Therapist), but this is early yet.

Just looking for ideas (really, they can come from anywhere, though I'm not yet good enough to create a waterfall in the middle of the barracks to give them that particular happy thought) on how to keep my boys happy while they become elite machines of death.

Thanks!

[Cool Guy]

I don't know if it's fixed, but I always add in waterfalls or mist generators into their barracks to keep them relatively happy

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Mist

[FuzzyZergling]

The "enraged by long patrol duty" thought isn't a particularly bad thought, if your dwarves are adequately happy it shouldn't have any noticable effect on their mood.

[Sutremaine]

It's really not a problem unless they're already on edge, and if they are then the rest of the fortress probably is too, in which case your problems are not strictly military ones. Give them waterskins, nice bedrooms near the barracks, and keep squads small. The bedrooms and waterskins mean less time spend walking around, and the small squads make it more likely that demonstrations will be attended by all dwarves in the squad. More equal levels means more sparring, which is both a good thought and the fastest way to reach Elite level. 'Small' depends on personal tastes and the exact efficiency of your military. I usually run three-dwarf squads. They train quickly, but they can still be sent out to different locations because it's very rare that only one dwarf in the squad is able to respond. You need two dwarves for a larger enemy; even uber-dwarves can be knocked over and forced on the defensive very easily.

The 'long patrol duty' thought is so minor that it would take a very specific level of unhappiness to make it significant.

[Tirion]

There is a binary patch for that 2 bugs.

[Mushroo]

I use squads of 2 or 3 dwarfs, set to train non-stop. I recruit the top soldier from each migrant wave (3 soldiers per year). My military is completely separate from civilian life. I've never had any happiness problems with this arrangement, and they train very quickly. Most of the complaints I've read on these forums about "military training is broken" involve squads larger than 3+. Hope that gets you in the right direction.

[MAurelius]

Thanks for all the info. I usually have 10 man squads. I didn't know it was so much more beneficial to have 3 man squads, as I thought when it came time to fight, you needed all 10 there to have you the best chance.

I'm not sure what a "binary patch" is, but I'll look it up.

Would it be recommended to spread out my three elite guys, one per squad, or put them all in the same squad? Does smaller squads normally leave you with like 10-15 squads? It may be preferable...I've just never tried it.

Thanks!

[Sutremaine]

The elites should all have some Teaching skill, which will help in training newbies. You could give them their own squads to get a batch of soldiers trained more quickly, or you could put two of them in one squad for combat effectiveness and leave one to do some one-on-one teaching without the new dwarf being allowed to fight at all until they're Proficient at most things (especially defence). There's nothing worse than spending time on a soldier just to have them die because they weren't quite good enough that last time. Dwarves don't get any morale bonuses for having the rest of their squad there, so in a fight 10 dwarves from the same squad have the same effectiveness as those 10 dwarves spread across five squads.

You do end up with more squads, or fewer soldiers. Controlling your environment so you have fewer places to guard means fewer soldiers required. I usually have one sealable point of entry into the caverns, and the traders are forced to spawn at a set location and are quickly funnelled underground. The barracks are located near this trade entrance (also the only entrance), so the always-active military is effectively permanently stationed at the entrance. That's two locations and as few as four tiles of entryway to guard, and if it weren't for liaisons and diplomats spawning wherever the heck they like then you could dispense with most orders except 'Train'.

I believe doors may help in catching necromancers (sneaky as thieves, but considerably more dangerous once inside a fortress), but haven't tried it. If only line of sight is what makes them dodge out of observation range, then a barracks in the middle of a long corridor filled with doors might persuade them to march boldly in to the refuse pile beyond only to find that one of those doors opens not to another door, but to a heavily-armed dwarf within arm's reach of them.

[Azated]

As long as your dwarves are fed, boozed and sleep on a bed out of the rain or snow, any negative thoughts from military related issues usually aren't that bad.

Until they die, that is. I've heard that dying causes a pretty bad thought for dwarves, for both the victim and their friends and family.

[Damiac]

Enraged by long patrol duty is a pretty bad one.  And a small difference in happiness can mean the difference between 1 dead dwarf and a tantrum spiral.
The binary patched exe fixes the long patrol duty bug, and the losing elite status bug.  I definately recommend it, I haven't seen any ill effects.

I recommend 10 dwarf squads, with 5 train orders, each set to 2 minimum. Seems to give the sparring you want, without the need to create a million squads.

Shameless self promotion:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I wrote an article on setting up a military here: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=118049.0